Public Address: Speaker

We shouldn’t have to look back on those moments and think: I was lucky

Amberleigh Jack — Thu, 13 Dec 2018 13:23:00 +1300

“It’s not a gender issue.”
If you’ve read any online comments since Grace Millane’s horrific murder, you’ve no doubt seen that one.
“And don’t meet Tinder dates alone.”
“But it’s not a gender issue.”
Only, it is.
It’s tragic and it’s horrifying and every person I know has been hit incredibly hard by the unnecessary and awful death of a young woman that none of us knew.
Every woman I know has been hit, it seems, even harder.
Are we experiencing some kind of collective survivor guilt? Maybe. Because I’m sure I don’t know a single female who hasn’t, at…

Cannabis: make it legal but don’t let anyone make money from it

Nic Beets — Wed, 12 Dec 2018 08:16:00 +1300

I don’t want big business marketing marijuana to my kids. This is what will happen in Canada with the recent purchase of a market-leading marijuana business by a major tobacco company. In Aotearoa, right now, we have a chance to do something different.
I’m very much in favour of legalizing pot; like the majority of kiwis, I think the hypocrisy of criminalising people who use a drug that is less harmful than alcohol or tobacco must end. The need is made more urgent by the fact that it is young people and Maori and Pasifika whose lives are blighted by…

What almost everyone is missing about KiwiBuild

Barnaby Bennett — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 09:35:00 +1300

Many people are ripping into KiwiBuild at the moment. A lot of these criticisms have a strong whiff of partisan heckling – this is politics after all – some of them are fair and others are just looking for trouble.
One complaint, largely coming from the left, is that the houses are not affordable in any meaningful sense (ie, they are too expensive) and a second is that the market should just be left to supply housing and government shouldn’t subsidise this (ie, they are too cheap). But almost all of them, so far, are missing the real and important medium and…

Russian Underground part 2

Clinton Logan — Wed, 29 Aug 2018 08:44:00 +1200

"Photography is not allowed" barked a policeman.
Da, foto v poryadke! I respond in clunky Russian.
"Nyet!"

Da!
I'd spent three days in Moscow's metro system and this was the tenth time I'd been told off. Arguing with Russian officials isn't something I'd recommend but I'd researched the rules and was becoming increasingly belligerent about my rights as a photographer. When I get fixated on a goal I can get a bit freakish about it.
Capturing these images took a bit of perseverance as the Moscow police were fairly militant about the use of camera gear in the metro. Most…

Russian Underground part 1

Clinton Logan — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 09:54:00 +1200

Sankt-Peterburg: opulent chandeliers, ornate ceilings, mosaics and artworks are everywhere. Sculptures of poets and revolutionaries flank marble lined corridors while deco stained glass provides subtle illumination to highly polished floors.
And that's just the subway.
When you purchase your pass and descend the 90 metre long escalator into one of the deepest metros on the planet, a completely different world opens up. Spotlessly clean and efficient, it's no exaggeration to say the Sankt-Peterburg metro system rivals many five-star hotel lobbies.
That's not by accident. Primarily built in the Soviet era the metro was considered to be more just a transitionary…

Belfast, where the walls stand yet

Clinton Logan — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 14:08:00 +1200

What's your darkest secret?
She leaned toward me, locked her blue eyes with mine, and whispered in the most intoxicating Irish accent...
"Clinton, I ran guns for the IRA."
With those six words I was hooked. What followed has circulated in my head for years.
Like many, I'd followed the violence and unrest in Northern Ireland on TV. Locals refer to this period as "the troubles," an understated way of describing what amounted to a civil war that still simmers to this day. On one side, the predominately Catholic nationalists believe the North should join a united, independent Ireland. Opposing…

The crisis is all around us, and so are the solutions

Nicky Hager — Tue, 03 Apr 2018 14:06:00 +1200

Three years after first publishing this essay in Don't Dream It's Over: Reimagining Journalism in Aotearoa New Zealand, the problems with news media are just as worrying.
The gap between media and journalism widens. But there is some very good news. The new Labour-led government has committed to doing the single most positive thing that can be done for media in New Zealand: building up Radio New Zealand as a centre of public-interest news.
The essay that follows is about how to do this in a way that really makes a difference ...
Nicky Hager, 2018
–––
The years 2015 and…

Unknown Places: Armageddon (Greenlane)

Nicole Magolan — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 20:38:00 +1300

We’re stopped at an intersection. I’m peering into the car next to us, seeing a featureless face of blue.
‘There’s a blue man,’ I say.
Jasmine leans over the passenger seat, eyes wide. ‘What do you mean blue? How is he blue?’
A car horn blares and we both yelp. The traffic light has flashed green. I slam the accelerator, and the blue man is lost behind us.
‘Don’t worry, it was just a guy in a skin suit. There’ll be plenty more where that comes from.’ A goofy grin inches over my face. My quiet anticipation has begun to…

Unknown Places: The Bach (Awhitu Peninsula)

Anna Matheson — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 20:33:00 +1300

There’s an old yellow bach at Hudson’s beach with a rusty green roof and blue window frames. Aloe vera, flax, and pink flowers grow under the deck. There are feijoas, mandarins, and lemons growing in the backyard and two Norfolk pines tower over the roof. A bookcase is full of picture books like Peter Pan and Robert the Rose Horse. Guess Who, Monopoly, and five decks of cards sit in a pile. Splotches of blue paint stain the golden carpet, names in pencil mark the wooden door frame by the kitchen and mismatched crockery fills the kitchen cupboards.
If you…

Heroes of the Recovery

Greg Jackson — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 00:11:00 +1300

They can be heroes, day after day …
There’s another story in the ruins and rebirth of post-quakes Christchurch for me at seven years on from February 22, 2011.
Heroes.
The villains have had a good workout. We all have our own list. The crooks, the cons, the shysters high and low – all in their own slimy way “here to help with the rebuild”.
Then there are the people who have inspired and sustained us through to the other side where you are settled in insurance terms and deeply, profoundly unsettled in yourself.
I’ll kick off with on the day in…