Category: imported_weekly

Islam Awareness Week, a government sponsored initiative that is designed to “promote greater unity among the diverse peoples who call New Zealand home”, has just passed. Orchestrated through the Office of Ethnic Affairs and the Human Rights Commission, one of the key activities has been school visits by secondary school students to mosques so that they can learn about Islam.

It is the trait of governments that don’t know what to do about a difficult problem to simply pass a law. They do this knowing that the law will not work, but at least they will be seen to be doing something. The difficulty is that not only does such knee-jerk legislation rarely solve the problem it invariably creates serious unintended consequences.

Another Maori baby has died at the hands of family members. Yesterday, three year old Nia Glassie, the little girl who was tortured by family members, lost her battle with life.

In a week when lies in Parliament led to the unceremonious departure of Labour’s 10th Government Minister, another statement made during Question Time deserves closer scrutiny.

Early last year a little boy was brutally beaten to death by his mother and her partner:

Dr Gordon said, “While this is not a new or emerging problem, for too long silence has surrounded the prevalence of abuse and neglect that Indigenous children are subjected to, often under the false assumption that violence is culturally ingrained in our Indigenous heritage. In order to protect our children, it is vital that we bring this issue into the open and ask the hard questions”.

While we were away in Europe for two weeks, we did see New Zealand featuring in the news – but no, it wasn’t about the America’s Cup. It was about the Reserve Bank’s unprecedented foray into the currency markets! But more on that later…

It was Dr Thomas Sowell, author and senior fellow at the Hoover Institute who said about government, “It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong”.

Throughout history scientists have stood firm in their search for the truth. Many, like Galileo, were persecuted for doing so. But their courage and determination to uncover facts and ignore the political interests of the day has played a role in the march of human progress.

A year ago I reviewed a Labour Party communication strategy paper: “This paper is about Labour taking greater charge of the language of debate and discussion in New Zealand. It is called re-framing and it means gaining (or regaining) the use of concepts and phrases that spark public and media interest” (to read the review click here)