Wednesday 6 March 2019
1) NZ politicians have given their views on the upcoming student strike
The facts:
A world-wide student strike to highlight inaction on climate change will take place on March 15. And some New Zealand politicians are throwing a tantrum over students skipping school to attend the climate change protests.
Deputy PM Winston Peters was particularly pissed-off with the up and coming strike. Peters sternly stated that attending school is compulsory. And Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was also unsupportive of the strike, saying that the Government was already doing its bit about climate change.
National senior MP Judith “the crusher” Collins was scathing of the strike, and indicated she thought it was a waste of time. And National leader Simon Bridges felt the strike was just an excuse for students to muck around.
Green MPs were very supportive of the student protest. As surprisingly was Labour MP Damien O’Connor, an MP usually known for his conservative political stance on most matters.
Analysis:
The worldwide protest against inaction on climate change is incredibly significant. Although concerns about climate change are widespread, it is almost unheard of to have mass political actions targeting this issue. The politics of climate change tend to be elitist, in the sense that political discussions and decisions on the environment usually take place at conferences and forums involving elite politicians, corporate representatives, and bureaucrats.
Striking students are therefore making history, in the sense that they are transforming the issue of climate change from a problem to be managed by elites to an issue of mass participatory action. That NZ politicians of both the left and right find such a mass participatory event concerning, is therefore not surprising.
Both Jacinda and Simon Bridges have refused to come out in support of the student strike. Perhaps their impotency on dealing with climate change is being exposed here.
The fact that students are acting to politicise the central issue of our time, and are acting to expose the inaction of politicians on climate change, should be welcomed.
2) Hillary Clinton is not running for president.
The facts:
Hillary Clinton’s dream of becoming President of the United States is all but over. The former First Lady and senator has ruled out running for President in 2020.
Analysis:
Hillary Clinton has made a wise decision to opt out of the Presidential race 2020. She represents the politics of the past, and her mantle has been usurped by a new layer of zeitgeist Democrat politicians. Clinton is very much a Third Way politician, who accepts the prevailing economic coordinates and what was the prevailing liberal capitalist political consensus.
However, politics has taken a radical turn, with a new demand for bold and non-orthodox politicians. Hillary Clinton just doesn’t fit that mould, and so she has been relegated to the dustbin of history.
3) And finally, Hip Hop mega star Eminem is still at war with New Zealand’s National Party.
The facts:
Representatives of the rap star Eminem are going to the NZ Supreme Court to demand more dollars from the Nats. The National Party was previously found guilty of ripping off one of Eminem’s songs in a party commercial.
Analysis:
It is all rather ironic of course that the party of law and order is once again in court for breaking copy right laws.
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This political roundup by John Moore is an extension on the five-minute breakfast political roundup that John gives on Radio One Dunedin, Monday to Thursday at 9am.
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