Hard News: Occupy: Don't call it a protest
311 Responses
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Sacha, in reply to
it shows where you are coming from, yes.
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DCBCauchi, in reply to
It’s a fucking crime.
Which part of 'disinterested seeker of the truth' is compatible with 'being an ideologue'?
Oh wait, that's right, they redefined the 'truth' to mean that black was white, ridiculed passion, and promoted 'irony' in its place. There are no things, only dynamic processes, and the rest of that evil bullshit.
Shall I tell you what I really think?
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
OTOH, we are agreed on the matter of Alan Gibbs. He is appalling.
And sadly the Alan Gibbses of this world, if things come truly unstuck, are more likely to put razor wire fences between them and their mistakes, than own up to them. Not unlike insane survivalists who think of themselves at the expense of everyone else.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
Bibliolatry...
And now, as a result, the only real value of universities lies in their libraries, pretty much. And anyone can get into those.
Oh, that it were so... Once upon a time I could swan into University of Canterbury library and sit and read for hours, now it seems ya need student pass cards and other security devices to open gates, etc. - Bah! Humbug!
Edgy caseation...
This was, once upon a time, the alleged point of universities. They served no masters, neither church nor king, and pursued knowledge for its own sake, because knowledge pursued for its own sake benefits everyone. Or so wise people thought.
and then came the submissive yoke of Tenure - the other cheek...
erudite or just er, rude?
Then pray explain what you think a “knowledge economy” is.
is it just me?
Or has someone left the sanctimony tap open lately...
isn't the aim here discourse not discord?
just sayin'...
:- ) -
merc,
Being happy these days is a subversive act ;-)
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We hear very wealthy people moaning about and avoiding taxes
That works both ways, Euan. Folks like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates have become the fat cats it’s OK for the OccupyEkatahuna set to like, but I think it’s fair to point out that any income from a so-called “millionaire tax” would pale into insignificance beside outfits like Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway just paying their fucking taxes. But don’t ask Saint Bill about Microsoft’s aggressive (and spectacularly successful) tax avoidance on his watch or Buffet when Berkshire Hathaway will get around paying it’s outstanding debt to the IRS.
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My take is that the Occupy phenomena is essentially one of bearing witness. Pretty apt although I suspect there'll be no forgetting happening soon.
I'm so so so willing it to swell and succeed and to accomplish something historic and I've decided to take my first foray into Civic Square for a chat this week. If I had to take a sign?
I see what you did there.
I see how you're getting away with it.
I can't make you stop on my own.
So I will encourage others to join and act.
And hopefully we will overcome.
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Sacha, in reply to
I see what you did there
Great on its own.
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3410,
That works both ways, Euan.
How is that "both ways", Craig? You've responded to "very wealthy people avoiding taxes" with some more very wealthy people avoiding taxes.
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DCBCauchi, in reply to
Oh, that it were so… Once upon a time I could swan into University of Canterbury library and sit and read for hours, now it seems ya need student pass cards and other security devices to open gates, etc. – Bah! Humbug!
I didn’t say it was easy! Ways and means...
Unlike back in the goode olde days, when I were a lad. Arrrr.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
Her airy declaration that South Africans like it here because it’s like apartheid just made it worse.
Ah, yes. Dismiss this as anecdata, but I know one elderly white South African woman whose membership in the Black Sash routinely attracted threats of rape, physical assault and harm to her children.
So, big ups Margaret – you’ve managed to demean a woman whose flaxroots non-violent opposition to apartheid should have your respect not your sneering, privileged condescension.
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Sacha, in reply to
or perhaps some taxes avoiding wealthy people?
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BenWilson, in reply to
with some more very wealthy people avoiding taxes.
Or, to be more specific, the two wealthiest people in the world avoiding tax.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
How is that “both ways”, Craig? You’ve responded to “very wealthy people avoiding taxes” with some more very wealthy people avoiding taxes.
Nope, I just think folks of whatever political complexion should be very careful about canonizing hypocrites – and that’s exactly what Bill Gates is, in my opinion – because I find it hard to believe that anything Gates would pay in a “millionaire tax” wouldn't be far exceeded by his profits from corporate tax cheating.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
Ah, yes. Dismiss this as anecdata, but I know one elderly white South African woman whose membership in the Black Sash routinely attracted threats of rape, physical assault and harm to her children.
And let’s not forget Pieter-Dirk Uys, who was prepared to risk jail time for dressing like Dame Edna and poking fun at the apartheid regime.
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Oh, that it were so… Once upon a time I could swan into University of Canterbury library and sit and read for hours, now it seems ya need student pass cards and other security devices to open gates, etc. – Bah! Humbug!
Erm, you can just walk into the James Hight Building at the moment, ditto for Law and Macmillan Brown, though not the EPS 'cause that's still earthquaked. Just so you all know.
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Merging Occupy with the above mention of libraries reminded me to mention this:
Occupy Libraries: Keeping free public libraries on the agenda
Owners of Wellington Libraries (OWL) will hold a special event on Saturday 29 October to keep the pressure on for free public libraries.
The group of local library lobbyists is inviting Wellington library users to a stall near the central library between 11 am and 2 pm on Saturday, and offering a chance to send a message to MPs and election candidates, about the importance of free public libraries.
‘Central government does not run public libraries – they are the responsibility of local Councils’, said Marie Russell of OWL. ‘But we are asking central government to enshrine the free public library in legislation, as happens in other countries, to ensure citizens continue to have free access to the world of information and quality leisure materials that public libraries contain.’
‘Sadly, during recessions, Councils often try to reduce library services and opening hours or to charge for borrowing – at the very time people need high-quality free public libraries more than ever. For people on low incomes, or those trying to learn new skills, free public libraries are extremely important as a resource. And being free civic spaces, public libraries bring all kinds of people together as equals.’
The purpose of Saturday’s event is to give library users a chance to write a letter to their current MP and local candidates - to tell them how important free public libraries are in our communities.
OWL supports the ‘Keep Public Libraries Free’ campaign of LIANZA, the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa; see
http://www.lianza.org.nz/news-events/keep-public-libraries-free -
Russell Brown, in reply to
Ah, yes. Dismiss this as anecdata, but I know one elderly white South African woman whose membership in the Black Sash routinely attracted threats of rape, physical assault and harm to her children.
So, big ups Margaret – you’ve managed to demean a woman whose flaxroots non-violent opposition to apartheid should have your respect not your sneering, privileged condescension.
I know another South African woman who has her own politics and doesn't deserve that sort of casual smear either. It annoys me.
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Ah, yes. Dismiss this as anecdata, but I know one elderly white South African woman whose membership in the Black Sash routinely attracted threats of rape, physical assault and harm to her children.
So, big ups Margaret – you’ve managed to demean a woman whose flaxroots non-violent opposition to apartheid should have your respect not your sneering, privileged condescension.
You did listen to the clip? Not just the soundbite 'south africans come here' (which, to me, didn't sound like she meant all south africans, anyway- charitable interpretation perhaps) but the rest of it? Cos really, y'know, you are dumping on her by making a point she made herself in the interview, rather more eloquently.
The points she makes are uncomfortable, and hyperbolic, to a degree, but read with even a modicum of charity don't amount to accusing NZ of apartheid. At least as far as I heard :) -
The points she makes are uncomfortable, and hyperbolic, to a degree, but read with even a modicum of charity don’t amount to accusing NZ of apartheid. At least as far as I heard :)
Like Russell, I don't think any degree of charity should be extended to what Mutu said on Close Up. And if nothing else, I really think a senior academic should have some ability to discuss inflammatory issues in the public square with some discrimination and nuance. Her colleague Professor Manying Ip has the knack, and IMO is much under-rated as a true public intellectual who has brought some sobriety to discussion of the so-called "Asian invasion" and ethnic crime waves that don't actually exist outside Deborah Coddington's fervid imagination.
And I make no apologies for saying this: No amount of weasel-word qualifiers excuses anyone from slapping a reductive and untruthful generalization on any minority or immigrant community in this country. She certainly doesn't like it being done to Maori and Pasifika. Nor should she: It's not only intellectually dishonest, but divisive and socially destructive.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
Prof Mutu comes across as the mirror flip of Michael Lhaws, David Round and Greg Clydesdale. They're all basically cut from the same macro-nationalist cloth.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
They’re all basically cut from the same macro-nationalist cloth.
Quite, and what people like Ip and Anne Salmond do - as academics and public intellectuals - is remind us how very dangerous it is to grind away the jagged, ambiguous and exquisitely human edges of history to serve present ideological needs. It's become a cliche to say that those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. What also needs to be said loudly, and often, is those who fail to respect the past - however inconvenient and uncomfortable it is - have diminished those who came before us, said their lives are meaningless.
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Lucy Stewart, in reply to
Erm, you can just walk into the James Hight Building at the moment, ditto for Law and Macmillan Brown, though not the EPS 'cause that's still earthquaked. Just so you all know.
It'd be a pretty fundamental shift in the function of a university library if it was closed to the public. Plus, good luck getting most students to card-swipe in and out of places like the library.
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BenWilson, in reply to
The Auckland University Library is chock full of books that are interesting to me. It is a bit limiting, though, that I have to read them in the library. I wouldn't even be going to such a library if I was looking for books that I could get much out of in a sitting.
I have, in the past, paid to have the right to take books out. But the need has been that infrequent that I've ended up just taking a camera and photoing the pages I needed to pore over. And recently, it's been rare not to be able to find the information I'm after on the internet.
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Response to no -one in particular - but to emphasise that one cannot actually major in History at AUT. Paul Moon teaches in Te Ara Poutama, which is the Faculty of Maori (not sure how to macronise here - feel free to teach me learned peeps) Development.
It's a bugbear of mine.
Suffice to say that he's no more qualified that Dame Anne Salmond to comment on economics - except that Dame Anne didn't claim, in her orginal article, expert status of any kind, apart from maybe, wisdom gleaned from years of observation of society. I'd love to be at the show Russell, but have left it a) too late and b) have to feed children at that hour. Will watch with interest. I'm always proud of my academics when they participate in the public discourse on issues that they are both expert on or passionate about - and I always appreciate particularly when they distinguish between the two - expertise and passion.
I romantically love the words of both the Universities Act - "critic and conscience of society" and Chomsky - "it is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies."
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