Let’s have a real Labour government by Susan Grimsdell
Faults of the free market Although most so-called conspiracies are fake, some are actually true. One of these concerns a group of wealthy and influential people (as it was 1947, I’m probably safe to say “men”) who met after the war and formed the Mont Pelerin Society. They conspired to promote the idea that the free market should dominate all aspects of society with individual liberty being the main and only guiding principle. They wanted to transform every aspect of life into an unrestrained marketplace where everything had a price, private enterprise… Read More
Young people on the streets by Susan Grimsdell
I’ve come across two crowds of young people in the past couple of weeks. On 24 May hundreds and hundreds of students marched down Queen Street in Auckland blocking the entire street. They were angry at us – oldies – who have used and abused the planet: the damaged, degraded planet they will be obliged to cope with in the coming years. They carried handmade placards with messages from the heart. These were not mass-produced as is the case in some protests. “I’d be in School if the Planet were Cool”, “I’ll… Read More
Child poverty by Susan Grimsdell
I find myself puzzled by something or other every single day. Today I’ve been giving attention to our NZ government’s declaration that it’s going to reduce child poverty, preferably get rid of it altogether. Children in poverty Now, I’ve never seen a child living in poverty in a well-off household. Has anyone? If a child’s living in poverty, surely the parents are too? I mean, I know people can be horrible to their kids, but this seems to be truly beyond the pale – the parents OK, the child hungry and in… Read More
Flagging Spirits by Trevor Plumbly
Glory Me! ‘We’re a small country.’ For those of you out there who haven’t heard it, this New Zealand catch cry is usually delivered by sports commentators after a victory of some sort to airbrush the sacrifices our sportspeople undergo to stand on the world’s stage. I’m all for a bit of national pride, but I honestly feel it would be much healthier if it were born out of internal well-being rather than success in the international sports arena. The reason for my taking this tack arises from three announcements this week…. Read More
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