Conformity is not a curse until it becomes inhibiting, writes Chris Horan in this edition. No arguments there for those who survived the collective suffocation of the 1950s, when blokes were blokes and women knew their place; when dissent and difference were enemies of the status quo. Today diversity is dominant and we hear different viewpoints from liberated women, from Asians, Pacific peoples and of course Maori, who have virtually reinvented Kiwi culture over the past 30 years. But for every action there is a reaction and this time it’s PC thinking within in these new ideologies. It’s inhibiting. It’s aka – conformity.
A bus strike in Auckland – how strange that was when media reported little in the way of carpooling, the tactic which served locals well in the oil shocks of the 1970s. Another hint of the collapse of community? Aucklanders were warned about the obvious traffic jams ahead – as if there aren’t any most other days. The city’s woeful dependence on cars is its major failure and in Wellington that hasn’t been helped by a lack of vision.
(With apologies to that old song ‘a Gordon for me, a Gordon for me’ etc., here’s a Waitangi Day rendering about the flying pink phallus which hit Economic Development Minister Stephen Joyce):
A Dildo for thee
Was not meant to be,
A Dildo for Key
Was where it should be…
Every year, the Pew Research Centre in the United States reviews its research, selecting the most memorable facts which illustrate important trends shaping our world.
Topics range from the specific subjects of video gaming and family caregivers to broader areas like political attitudes, global climate change and religious affiliation. Here are some of the 15 most striking trends the Centre discovered in 2015:
Islam will grow faster than any other major religion in the world over the next four decades, according to he Centre’s religious projections.
In the light of December’s news, of the third death in 2015 in Mt Aspiring National Park within a two to three day walk of Makarora, it’s natural to ask why the Department of Conservation has closed its Makarora Information Centre this summer season. (DOC uses the words, unmanned decommissioned.)
You could miss Makarora on State Highway 6 between Haast Pass and the head of Lake Wanaka: a sprinkling of accommodation, the once ‘manned’ DOC information centre, a café and fuel pumps, a base for Siberia Experience trips and Wilkin River Jets and Southern Alps Air’s bright yellow Cessna.
Success is something most human beings desire and gravitate towards. The word itself has a rich, positive connotation.
A lot of products and services get sold based on the promise of success. Buy this or do that and will find yourself in the winner’s camp.
But what does success mean to you?
by Panni Palasti
reviewed by Paul Smith
Anybody wandering back in time to write a memoir faces the challenge of what to reveal, what to leave out. It’s the way they confront this issue which defines the work as true to character, authentic.
Impossible to get it all right, of course, but films based on historical incidents and political movements can’t help being superficial. I have not seen Suffragettes but from reports I have heard and read this film is no exception. At least it focuses on a fictional working class women instead of perpetuating the idea that the Pankhursts carrying the entire burden.
We can talk all we like about the founding of the nation and the bi-cultural partnership and the rest but all most people want from Waitangi day is a holiday, preferably sans politics. Most of us will never get to Waitangi anyway. I mean, it’s not Mecca is it?
I’m sure the sight of massed wakas and all the other cultural activities are wonderful to behold but the truth is, most people think Waitangi is a pain, at least the TV version, and that’s all we will ever see.
It is that time of the year! If you are like many of my clients, you may be feeling low energy, tired, even exhausted after the considerable output of the past year. And you won’t be alone in needing time to just stop, re-charge and refresh with the Christmas New Year break.