#nz stuff

[setnet]

this transmission tower over here with its feet in the air all casual knocking out power to a decent chunk of the country. you'd think a fuckup on this scale would at least concertina

[paxbe]

elementary is on tvnz!! this is not a drill!! every season for free!!!!!

[setnet]

apart from a couple things now out of date this is a pretty accurate summary of the crap that's been happening. and it's not just that labour was voted out, it's that a lot of people who would normally be labour supporters didn't turn out to vote.

however, comma, the coalition govt is not doing fascism. a great stew of right wing nastiness for certain - including elements of conservatism, economic liberalism and neoliberalism, libertarianism, populism, nationalism, and deeply reactionary in many ways - but fascism is a specific ideology and this ain't it.

USA please listen to me: the price of “teaching them a lesson” is too high. take it from New Zealand, who voted our Labour government out in the last election because they weren’t doing exactly what we wanted and got facism instead.

Trans rights are being attacked, public transport has been defunded, tax cuts issued for the wealthy, they've mass-defunded public services, cut and attacked the disability funding model, cut benefits, diverted transport funding to roads, cut all recent public transport subsidies, cancelled massive important infrastructure projects like damns and ferries (we are three ISLANDS), fast tracked mining, oil, and other massive environmentally detrimental projects and gave the power the to approve these projects singularly to three ministers who have been wined and dined by lobbyists of the companies that have put the bids in to approve them while one of the main minister infers he will not prioritise the protection of endangered species like the archeys frog over mining projects that do massive environmental harm. They have attacked indigenous rights in an attempt to negate the Treaty of Waitangi by ��redefining it”; as a backup, they are also trying to remove all mentions of the treaty from legislation starting with our Child Protection laws no longer requiring social workers to consider the importance of Maori children’s culture when placing those children; when the Waitangi Tribunal who oversees indigenous matters sought to enquire about this, the Minister for Children blocked their enquiry in a breach of comity that was condemned in a ruling — too late to do anything — by our Supreme Court. They have repealed labour protections around pay and 90 day trials, reversed our smoking ban, cancelled our EV subsidy, cancelled our water infrastructure scheme that would have given Maori iwi a say in water asset management, cancelled our biggest city’s fuel tax, made our treasury and inland revenue departments less accountable, dispensed of our Productivity Commission, begun work on charter schools and military boot camps in an obvious push towards privatisation, cancelled grants for first home buyers, reduced access to emergency housing, allowed no cause evictions, cancelled our Maori health system that would have given Maori control over their own public medical care and funding, cut funding of services like budgeting advice and food banks, cancelled the consumer advocacy council, cancelled our medicine regulations, repealed free prescriptions, deferred multiple hospital builds, failed to deliver on pre-election medical promises, reversed a gun ban created in response to the mosque shootings, brought back three strikes = life sentence policy, increased minimum wage by half the recommended amount, cancelled fair pay for disabled workers, reduced wheelchair services, reversed our oil and gas exploration ban, cancelled our climate emergency fund, cut science research funding including climate research, removed limits on killing sea lions, cut funding for the climate change commission, weakened our methane targets, cancelled Significant National Areas protections, have begun reversing our ban on live exports. Much of this was passed under urgency.

It’s been six months.

[transmechanicus]

This is the first time i’ve seen a pro-trans poster in a long time and i hope whoever put it up is having a good day, it made me feel a little less alone.

Hamilton, New Zealand

[suburbanlegendstv]

yes another artist coming to Australia but skipping NZ 🥲🥲🥲

[setnet]

Detailed rebuttals of the claim by Wehi et al that Polynesians discovered Antarctica from scholars associated with Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu are at the links below:

http://abeltasman.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Anderson-et-al-Antarctic-Wehi-response.pdf (I'm not sure why this isn't linking properly but it's the most easily accessible summary.)

In summary, their view is that the claim Polynesians visited Antarctica arises from dubious sources: an 1860s inference (that a journey 'beyond Rapa' was a journey to the south not for eg the east) based on a probable mistranslation (in which bare rocks growing out of foaming seas were interpreted as icebergs in frozen seas) of a legendary history (the boat, in the same story, was said to be constructed of men's bones).

The voyager, Hui te Rangiora, was a Rarotongan who lived about seven centuries before Polynesian settlement began in New Zealand. That places the story in the realm of what Te Maire Tau calls mytho-history - stories based on actual people, but so distant in time that their stories are encoded in mythic templates and often overlaid with symbols.

A story about Tamarēreti, who is also said to have reached Antarctica, may be entirely legendary - the Ngāi Tahu scholars note no whakapapa (genealogy) connects to him, and 'te waka o Tamarēreti' (Tamarēreti's canoe) is a name for the constellation Scorpio.

The authors also note the implausibility of boats fashioned for tropical sailing, with sails that are fragile in wet weather, being able to survive the circumpolar westerlies.

They conclude that 'Southern Māori interests have extended into the Subantarctic Islands for 800 years but there is no reference to Antarctica in our historical traditions. Our archaeology and history document a southern boundary to Māori occupation at Port Ross (Auckland Islands), despite habitable islands existing further south. We think it is very unlikely that Māori or other Polynesian voyaging reached the Antarctic.'

i literally think of that "polynesians first to discover antarctica, not news to maori" headline so much it's so fucking funny

[mihotose]

[mucking-faori]

Venting here but it's been deeply frustrating since the treaty principles bill came out to see just how wilfully misinformed a lot of people are. I mean, I expected it of the right, have all my life, and I /know/ a lot wasn't taught in schools, but you know what? Most NZ schools don't teach you deep leninism or about the electoral college, and yet I keep running into kiwi commies who can explain roe v Wade back to front but not who Hone Heke was.

This one time, it's become a social media trend, and I certainly appreciate it right now, but will it stick around when this is no longer a hot button issue? Will people examine the racism running deeply through this country beyond tiktok history rundowns and taking selfies with their meme signs?

Kiwis are so proud of our history of resistance and how good "we" have been to our indigenous people. "We" ensured the language stayed alive. "We" ensured Maori had land rights. But Te Piringa at the office never /complained/ about how we say her name, so we don't /really/ need to learn. And oh, this brown boy is so well /spoken/, using big words like "egregious"!

This refusal to confront uncomfortable truths is partly what allowed David Seymour and the rest of the coalition to stir up so much misinformation and hate. Too many new Zealanders don't know enough basic national history to immediately refute what Seymour is saying because they've spent their lives comfortable not knowing, and now they're playing catch up.

I'm praying people catch up and /keep learning after that/. After Maori politics, and the whole Maori /world/ stops being a trend. Even if something else happens in america that makes pakeha feel less uncomfortable to learn about because NZ looks great by comparison.

Anyway. Peace and love peace and love. Thanks for reading my rant. Check out Te Ara dot com.

[setnet]

sex work was decriminalised in NZ in 2003. Afaik NZPC/nz sex workers collective is not formally a union but it provides similar services in terms of advocacy legal and practical advice and representation and its made up almost entirely of current or former sex workers.

The NZPC were big advocates for the decriminalisation and have a lot of research about its effects - their website is well worth a look:

if sex work was legal the workers could unionize

[setnet]

greenpeace cold caller referred to the coalition government's policies as a 'banquet of inedibles'

[paxbe]

one benefit of being on the other side of the world is that when date-specific posts start coming through (e.g. anniversaries or xyz tuesday etc.) it's actually still that day for me

[turnaboutstar]

autistic people when there's collectable things with tv shows with multiple generations of them:

[were-my-demons-hide]

Right wingers are doing right wingers things again. I went to a protest and took my self painted sign which says "Marzipan statt Naziwahn" [Marzipan instead of nazi mania].

I already knew from previous protests that people love my sign. And so it was today. Many smiles, laughes and bright eyes in awe as they were staring at the painted cardboard. But there was this old man who really struck a chord with me. He clearly was very moved by my sign. I could feel his emotions being all too much in his heart. He came up to me and told me how fantastic he found my sign. I thanked him happily. A little later he came back in a hurry, as if he was afraid I would fade. Or get lost in the crowd of people at the protest. And what happened next melted my heart. He reached inside his pocket and handed me a "Marzipanbrot", which is basically a bar of marzipan coated with dark chocolate. I didn't believe him at first but he meant it. Suddenly, his eyes were kinda red and watery. And that was the moment when I understood how moved he was by my sign and the power of its words. His kindness made my day. The hope in his eyes made my day.

There are good people here. They exist. Don't let the cruelness blind you <3

[transmechanicus]

These are the most beautiful stars i’ve seen in a decade, please forgive the quality but know that every bright point in this is a miracle im trying to share🖤

[setnet]

an interesting exercise would be to examine NZ coverage of Anzac Day and see how many articles use the word "invasion" to describe what the Anzacs were doing at Gallipoli

[paxbe]

needless to say, pretty disappointed in the majority of my country today