Author Archives: otaihangasecondopinion

On 12 July many New Zealanders were stunned by Prime Minister Chris Hipkins’ unexpected announcement (called a ‘Captain’s Call’) that there would not be a capital gains or wealth tax on his watch: Prime Minister Hipkins rules out wealth and capital gain tax; end of story.  Prime Minister Chris Hipkins makes ‘Captain’s Call’ to support continuedContinue reading “The real philanthropists”

If someone had said that I should write on transgender rights when I began my Political Bytes blog in January 2021, I would have said nonsense. Partly this was because I didn’t appreciate the level of intense bigotry and hatred of those opposed to their rights that subsequently emerged. And partly it was because IContinue reading “Let’s call transphobia by its real name – sickening bigotry”

When interviewed in the Boston Review by Scott Casleton (4 June 2019), Choosing hope, acclaimed American linguist and political intellectual Noam Chomsky made the following challenging observation: We have two choices: to abandon hope and ensure that the worst will happen; or to make use of the opportunities that exist and contribute to a better world.Continue reading “Fetishism: the pimp between need and object, between life and humanity’s means of life”

One of the things I get a buzz out of is trying to place a practical issue within a theoretical construct. I was prompted to give this a go after reading an article in the New York Review of Books published on 8 December 2022. The practical issue is the living wage initiative in Aotearoa NewContinue reading “Affectional empathy and the living wage”

Sometimes I read or see something that tempts me to consider writing about. Then preoccupation with other matters and topics leads, after the passage of time, to its significance diminishing. However, ongoing references to it, albeit not on as big a scale (mainly social rather than mainstream media) encouraged me to revisit. The temptation wasContinue reading “The bullying of Marama Davidson”

Wellington based academic political commentator Bryce Edwards is an asset for good political discourse in Aotearoa New Zealand. This is largely through his Democracy Project hosted by Victoria University. His NZ Politics Today providing links to published items, including but beyond the mainstream media, is an invaluable resource for all those interested in politics, regardlessContinue reading “What does being left-wing really mean?”

What has Cuban doctors in Italy got directly to do with Aotearoa New Zealand’s foreign policy and military relationship with the United States? In a direct sense, the answer is absolutely nothing. But remove the word ‘directly’ and the absolutely nothing response quickly dissipates. While there is no direct or even indirect causal connection, itContinue reading “What has Cuban doctors in Italy got to do with the New Zealand-United States relationship?”

Sometimes when thinking about an opening line for writing something controversial, inspiration can come from an unexpected source. The controversy is the response of the transgender and wider rainbow communities (and heterosexual supporters) to a transphobic event. This event was the public meeting at Albert Park in Auckland last Saturday (25 March) where British anti-transgender leaderContinue reading “Class, transphobia and ‘street democracy’”

The New Zealand government has firmly come in behind the United States position of supporting Ukraine in the war arising out of Russia’s unjustified invasion. At one level this appears the right position to take. But when one drills deeper a more nuanced position should be considered. When one goes beyond Europe, North America, andContinue reading “Ukraine – time for geopolitics and diplomacy”

On 14 December 2022 German police arrested 25 people over what was called the “Reichsburger plot”. Two days later the Guardian Weekly published an article by Philip Oltermann posing the question of whether this was a “…sinister plan to overthrow the German state or just a rag-tag revolution?”: Attempted far-right coup in Germany. Although a longContinue reading “Sociopaths, psychopaths, the far-right and Jacinda Ardern”