Paved with good intentions by Trevor Plumbly
Crime and nourishment Administering justice has been a disaster since the days of Cain and Abel. After God failed to sort it, we’ve been struggling with it ever since. These days, the threat of the fiery furnace or more earthly punishment doesn’t seem to work that well; every time someone rattles out the latest crime statistics, an army of apologists strike up a salvo of mitigation ranging from poverty to post colonisation trauma. Quite frankly I’m getting a bit sick of it: poverty of some sort or other, has always been… Read More
John Key and Xi by Susan Grimsdell
Xi Jinping is the paramount leader of China and has been since 2012. That means he is the power behind whatever actions China takes on the world scene and no doubt at home. Over that time period China has crushed democracy in Hong Kong, and now threatens Taiwan with extreme violence. China has also imprisoned about a million Uyghurs. Prisons in China are unlikely to be pleasant places to serve out sentences, if indeed the victims have had the formality of a trial and a finite sentence. It’s hard to imagine so… Read More
Making the Roe v Wade decision clear by Susan Grimsdell
The poverty factor It should be a constitutional requirement that all decisions coming out of the Supreme court should be phrased in specific and honest terms. For example, the recent Supreme Court decision on abortion does not apply to all women and the wording should make that clear. It will only affect women who are poor. Well-off women will simply take a trip to a place where they can get an abortion. The ruling should read “abortion will be considered unconstitutional for women who are poor”. I wonder how that would go… Read More
Ram raiders by Susan Grimsdell
Auckland is enduring ram raids, where stolen cars are driven into the front of shops by kids, some as young as 7. This causes terrible damage to the shops, as well as terror to the shopkeepers. Let’s blame the parents There was a column in the media recently saying, “Where are the parents, what’s wrong with the parents?” Research into the circumstances of the offenders shows that they are usually school dropouts at the age of 11 or 12, with a family background of violence, drug abuse and gang life. Role models… Read More
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