liberation

Inequality in NZ - the stats keep getting worse

The Ministry of Social Development has just released a major report detailing inequality and hardship in New Zealand, and it shows that things have got worse. Some key points are:

• Inequality has worsened between 1982 and 2004
• There has been a significant improvement in the incomes of the top of half of society
• The percentage of children living in poverty has doubled from 12% to 23%
• The value of benefits in relation to average income continues to decline
• NZ has the fastest growing inequality in the OECD

[Read more below]

[political finance] Horse-trading electoral reform nearly complete

The public is finally about to get to see what party finance reforms are to implemented by Labour as a result of its horse-trading with the Greens, NZ First, and United Future. The Government has continued its backroom dealings - against popular and political opposition - to try and sew up a majority in order to push through changes to electoral rules that will advantage the Labour Party and disadvantage its opposition.

Newsroom reports that the smaller parties have been brought off with concessions relating to the process of allocating election broadcast funding. Unsurprisingly, the minor parties have never been happy that the Electoral Commision coopts National and Labour representatives into the decision-making process when it divides up the cash for parties at election time. This is of course incredibly unfair and undemocratic. But it's not the only unfair and undemocratic part of the process - the funds are divided up in a very inequitable way that rewards the big parties and reinforces the status quo. So even if the membership of Commission changes, it'd be interesting to see if the minor parties are willing to go along with the generally unjust method they use. They minor parties have certainly been willing to go along with Labour's generally very poor approach to this highly important area, so I don't have much hope for them showing much independence or principle on the bigger issues.

Desperation and disorientation: the slow death of the Act party

Lately there’s been a lot of media recognition of the Act party’s ideological disorientation and shift towards both the centre and irrelevance. But this isn’t a recent trend resulting just Rodney Hide’s takeover of leadership. The party effectively set itself upon an increasingly moderate and pragmatic trajectory from its very beginnings - Hide is merely taking Act's intrinsic politics to their logical conclusion. This blog post details the long, slow death of the Act party, concentrating on its first ten years of desperation and ideological disorientation. [Read more below]

Liberal heroes #3: The Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama and the plight of Tibet has become very fashionable amongst many liberals – especially the Hollywood elite, which has meant there’s been a spate of films such as Kundun, Seven years in Tibet, and Red Corner. A better film, of course, can be seen on youtube: Penn and Teller’s 5-minute ‘Bullshit’ deconstruction of the Dalai Lama and his liberal western supporters. We learn that In struggling to restore the Dalai Lama these Hollywood humanitarians and their liberal counterparts are hoping to reinstall a feudal mode of production and a religious oligarchy that served only to exploit and oppress the people of Tibet. [Read more below]

Parliament's bible-basher

Which political figure reads a chapter of the Bible every day, opens all his speeches by blessing people with the word of his god, supports a feudal tyrant and voted for hard labour and longer sentences for offenders? Sound like Graham Capill, leader of the Christian Heritage? Actually it’s the politician described in the Listener as “Graham Capill with dreadlocks” – the Green Party’s Rasta MP, Nandor Tanczos. [Below is a article I wrote about Nandor Tanczos in early 2000 – I’ll try and update sometime in the future]

Liberal heroes #2: Mother Teresa

Far from being a true benefactor to the poor, Mother Teresa was a reactionary old troll who wanted to drag all of us back to the middle ages. Never has anyone profited so much from the suffering of the world's poor, while nobnobbing with the rich and famous, and enjoying a global reputation as the saintly virgin. With friends such as Ronald Regan, and Robert Maxwell, it's not surprising that Mother Teresa was never actually interested in eliminating poverty and suffering. In fact, the existence of poverty was Mother Teresa's raison d'être, and she profited from it like the real-life vampire she was. In typical church fashion, it was more important to raise chapels for the worship of her deity instead of using her money to equip clinics and hospices. Her conception of the poor and unfortunate was summed up when she said, 'I think it is very beautiful for the poor to accept their lot... I think the world is being much helped by the suffering of the poor people'. Which is why of course her advice to the victims of the Bhopal disaster was 'forgive, forgive, forgive' rather than sue for millions. Furthermore, her reactionary views on women's rights made her a 'saint' with the blessings of elites around the world, as they represented a significant attack on the rights of women all over the world. MT's cult of suffering is dealt with in the 5 minute Penn and Teller 'Bullshit' deconstruction of her on Youtube. In this, Christopher Hitchens suggests that millions died because of Mother Teresa and millions more suffered due to her - see also this and this about Hitchens' criticisms. (With thanks to Grant Cronin and Andy Warren).

TV Review: Gallipoli - an antidote to the liberal-nationalist reworking of the ANZAC story

Last night Maori TV screened the Gallipoli film that did the cinema rounds here last year. This epic reconstruction was produced and directed by award-winning Turkish director Tolga Ornek, and narrated by Jeremy Irons and Sam Neill. Guest blogger Philip Ferguson says that this powerful film, although not terribly political, is a good antidote to the new liberal-imperialist nationalism and its reworking of the Gallipoli story. [Read more below]