Opinion

I watched Jack Tame on TV One (Sunday 9 November 2025)  interview Stephen Rowe, from The US CATO Institute,  a visiting  American PR non-stop talker who threw the word “freedom” around as if it was prepared and given free with every big Mac hamburger and a fizzy drink.  I was angry and shocked at this Trump like figure who got much more airtime than his thin content deserved. But we are a country of “free speech”. So will I shut up? NO!!!!!! He made think of George Orwell. This PR man is not responsible for promoting any war, but his style of talking could alsoRead More →

As a small child I lived in Scotland between Aberdeen  and Inverness and not far from Forres. This is Macbeth country. After school, we  would fight  each other  in  fatal battles with branches from trees and bellow at our opponents  “Lay on Macduff, and dammed be him who first cries,  Hold. Enough ”  We screamed  “How far to Forres?”  without knowing why!  I learned  about a King being  murdered in Inverness Castle. My Mum took me there, but I never saw the blood from King Duncan’s  assassination. But from my friends blabber  I still recall that strong rhythm. “The Thane of Fife had a wife.”  HowRead More →

VICTIMS OF VICTIMS… ..is not from me.  Edward Said, a  Palestinian-American  Scholar, who died in 2003 was writing  about Zionism, the Jews and the Palestinians.   It needs to be noted that Edward Said acknowledged that millions of Jews were persecuted, killed and butchered in Nazi Germany. This phrase captures the core irony Said identified: a people who suffered profound persecution in Europe (Jews) established a nation through the dispossession of another people (Palestinians). Zionism thinking worked for many years to establish a permanent home for Jews. The British helped with their Balfour Declaration and  in 1947, the United Nations proposed partitioning Palestine into separate JewishRead More →

If you rearrange the letters in the word  “silent” you can form “listen”. It would be good if the present three-headed coalition  government had listened more to the nation and followed past principles on our record for caring for Human Rights. Palestine  did exist before 1948, and even the Gorgon, Netanyahu, cannot deny that.  Israel did not exist before 1948.  And what about  the promised equality from the long gone Balfour Declaration? Israel is silent on that part of the promise. So is New Zealand Recently my country  shamed itself by sitting and wetting its pants  on the political fence which is dripping with theRead More →

For a long time I have supported Palestinians, who ask for no more than Israelis ask for themselves.   A country and a dignified way of life. I re-circulate cartoons and articles about Gaza. I recently received hate mail and death threats. All anonymous. I don’t even know if the threats  come from NZ, the US or anywhere else. I have deleted them. Blocked the names. I have always wanted to know  “threat” people more. I want to know names, addresses, occupations and family backgrounds. But, alas,  conscience does make many cowards especially when your name is anonymous.  Years ago I worked in a PacificRead More →

Netanyahu, Hitler and Herod have something in common. Murder  of the Innocents.  Herod wanted Jesus killed and according to  Boccaccio, 144,000 babies were murdered. Hitler wanted Jews exterminated and murdered millions of men, women and children. Netanyahu continued the brutal tradition and banned journalists from Gaza.  But journalists risked their lives, talked  and they were also murdered with the innocents.  Netanyahu continues to starve those who remain. He is attempting extermination. He might not say the words himself, but his Minister of Finance Bezalei Smotrich does not mince his belief  on what should be done. His words would do credit  to the Nazi propaganda leader. ItRead More →

I do not think this French film could have been made in NZ. I am sure the idea or a completed film script would have been kicked out of the sponsor room with no more free lunches for either the writer or director.  Why?  The audience are asked to laugh for around two hours at the mental and physical mishaps and bizarre behaviour of a group of permanent  disabled young people at a  summer holiday camp. The  group disabilities are wide ranging and include needing toilet care, help with showering, going to bed  and dressing.  People get hit in the face, one person gets lostRead More →

Being away from the hurly burly of the classroom, I still believe the government’s decision to remove the Maori learn-to-read book from classroom circulation shows a lack of understanding of the need for diversity in learning and how learning occurs.   The book, for five-year-olds, includes six Māori words – marae, karanga, wharenui, koro, hongi and karakia – which some officials argue sit uneasily within structured literacy . Professor Gail Gillon, who developed the wider Best Start Literacy Programme, told RNZ’s John Gerritsen there was “absolutely no evidence” that children found the reader confusing,  “And in fact, our data would suggest the opposite.” Even withRead More →

Much of my life has been in teaching. It started with Primary  Schools  in NZ, moved to Secondary then to Non-Formal Education  followed  by Radio Broadcast Journalism at a University and later still with  NGOs in Africa using media as a tool. These are the wisest words I have seen written on  education. “Ideally, what should be said to every child, repeatedly, throughout his or her school life is something like this: ‘You are in the process of being indoctrinated. We have not yet evolved a system of education that is not a system of indoctrination. We are sorry, but it is the best weRead More →

The land of Palestine was not empty when the first Zionist settlers arrived there in 1882. This fact was known to the Zionist leaders even before the first Jewish settlers arrived. A delegation sent to Palestine by the early Zionist organizations reported back to their colleagues: “the bride is beautiful but married to another man.”1 Nevertheless, when they first arrived, the early settlers were surprised to encounter the locals whom they regarded as invaders and strangers. In their view, the native Palestinians had usurped their homeland. They were told by their leaders that the locals were not natives, that they had no rights to theRead More →