Peter Williams: The New Zealand myth in Kenya

A taxi driver’s strange tale and what farming in East Africa is really like.

One of life’s oldest adages used to be that you could believe everything a taxi driver told you.

To be fair this was from the days when taxi drivers were crusty old white men, often WW II veterans, who had their finger on the pulse of the community and country because they ferried politicians and business leaders and media types around town, gossiped with some and eavesdropped on others.

That scene no longer exists of course, but I was reminded of that adage when a taxi driver in Nairobi told me a story about New Zealand.

Lindsay Mitchell: Christians electioneering

A report from the Chief Executive of the NZ Council of Christian Social Services has made some headlines this morning. It's called Kua Mahue/ Left Behind: Poverty in Aotearoa in 2026

Vance Ginn: The Poverty of the UN’s Degrowth Agenda

The latest attack on economic growth comes wrapped in moral language. Its advocates promise less poverty, greater equality, and a safer climate. Their policies would deliver less production, less investment, and fewer opportunities. That is managed decline, not prosperity.

The UN-backed Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth proposes 80 policies meant to reduce society’s dependence on growth. A separate Global Justice Report, led by Thomas Piketty and researchers at the World Inequality Lab, puts numbers behind this vision.

Colinxy: Is There a “Cost of Greed” Crisis?

Chlöe Swarbrick recently declared that New Zealand is facing a “Cost of Greed Crisis.” It’s a catchy line; the sort of slogan that fits neatly into a press release and even more neatly into a worldview where every social problem is caused by someone else having too much.

But let’s take the claim seriously for a moment. Is there a “Cost of Greed Crisis”?

Surprisingly, yes. But not in the way Swarbrick imagines.