Rants ‘n’ Raves
A Book is just a Book
Book burning is something that sticks in our craw a bit.
Most of us are taught that the burning of books is a bad thing. Ditto for flags. And world history during the last century has been littered with ominous events of hatred and intolerance, in which the burning of books or flags has played a central symbolic role.
+33Redefining Indigenous
I’ve only been back in New Zealand for a few weeks and already I’m sick of hearing about “the principles of the treaty“.
A typical example is today’s visit by a UN representative on indigenous peoples James Anaya, who said from what he has observed during his visit to New Zealand, treaty principles are too vulnerable to political discretion. Mr Anaya used the example of Te Reo Māori being made an official language, yet not made compulsory in schools.
What the…?
+50Flip Grater: Poetry in Music
Television in New Zealand can be largely summed up in 4 words: seven channels of shite.
It’s full to the brim with loud, brash, unfunny American and Australian crap, interspersed with even louder and brasher ads for half-price sales at Harvey the Rabbit or some such, about every 10 minutes. It’s basically a noise factory that in a very short period of time leaves the viewer numbed to the seemingly endless flow of static it spouts.
+32Ten reasons why we should ALL boycott BP
Most people probably don’t need further reasons…
… but for the undecided among you here is a list of ten compelling reasons why all of us should step up to the plate and boycott BP:-
+47Advance Australia Fair
I’m expecting to get quite a lot of flak from fellow Kiwi’s for what I’m about to say, but I’ll say it anyway…
Australia is awesome!
I haven’t been to Sydney since I was 6 or 7 and I’ve never visited Melbourne at all. So when a rather serendipitous set of circumstances set me on a Qantas flight bound for the other Great Southern land, I jumped at the chance.
Stunning Sydney
Even arriving in the middle of a fairly massive thunderstorm did little to dampen my spirits and within an hour we were checked into the conveniently located, mid-range Park Regis hotel.
+27Meet the new boss…
Well the UK 2010 election is now over…and at least it’s been an entertaining one.
As usual, the British version of “organisation” (known everywhere else as a “cluster-f*ck”) swung into play, with scores of people prevented from voting for a range of reasons including lost or insufficient ballot papers, lack of staff, resources etc.
+32Rant: Crappy new year
What a shite few months we’ve had!
A seemingly endless list of personal problems, work issues and general winter maladies left everyone pretty tired and depressed by the time Christmas rolled around and we were looking forward to some quiet time to recharge the batteries and get ourselves back on a more even keel.
Unfortunately it wasn’t to be.
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