It has been a long and difficult year since the first nationwide lockdown to take Covid-19 out of the community and keep the deadly virus… Read More »A virus is not deterred by bishops or anybody else
The many laws, rules and regulations which govern our lives can be seen as a measure of our uncertainty. In effect, if we are certain about what we should or should not do, we do not need laws to direct us. It is only when we are unsure that we need laws to direct us. It is only the dishonest or the stupid who defy certainty or the law.
In a world of angry and sometimes fearful people shouting past each other over all manner of real and imagined problems it is refreshing to… Read More »Citizenship Ructions and a Rabbit
A couple of weeks ago, following an unseemly bout of infantile intolerance over the use of te reo Maori at a Grey Power meeting, I… Read More »When traditions prevent common sense
These tough times will include the most dramatic changes in farming systems since we put the last of the working horses out to pasture and began using electricity to replace steam engines. There will be fewer and smaller dairy and beef cattle herds, improved breeding technology for cattle and sheep. There will also no doubt be a requirement for a much-reduced reliance on artificial fertilisers.
We have proven to ourselves, and to the world, that we are very good at handling emergencies when we all pull together for a common cause. We now have two new closely linked emergencies for many people simply because one section of the community is taking advantage of the situation to make obscene profits from the unavoidable hardship of others.
In spite of some recent inaccurate rhetoric from both sides of the political debate racism has always been here, as it has in most other nations and communities. It is as difficult to define as it will be to eradicate and screaming racism at everything we don’t like or understand doesn’t help. But, if anyone can succeed we can and we will be the first nation in the world to do so.
In spite of more than 200 years of European settlement of, and presence in, New Zealand can we still hear the faint echoes of the… Read More »Te Reo Maori need not be translated
Many past generations of parents have watched in helpless distress as their children changed from healthy, ambitious youngsters to unemployable zombies, visited them in jail or buried them as a result of illegal drug use. Too many young people today don’t even have parents who worry about them at all due to their own drug habits.
The recent announcement from newly appointed Tourism Minister Stuart Nash that he will ban freedom camping in vehicles that are not self-contained has come like… Read More »Freedom Campers not invited