Ahh, April – the days are getting darker, the air is growing colder, and the fog is starting to penetrate every part of our mind, body and soul until we, too, are a grey mass of dampness. Don’t you love Autumn? Anyway, here’s some news I guess:
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From next year, a new, more accurate Aotearoa history curriculum will be taught in schools. The new programme, titled Te Takanga o Te Wā (Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories), will be compulsory for students up to Year 10, and will more accurately cover the last 200 years of colonization in Aotearoa. The Right Honorable Jacinda Ardern described the curriculum launch as one of her ‘proudest’ moments as Prime Minister, and Rawiri Wright, co-chair of the organisation overseeing Māori language immersion schools in Aotearoa, told Newshub “mō ngā tamariki kei ngā kura aunoa ko te tumanako ia he nui ngā akoranga, he nui ngā painga, ka rerekē anō te tirohanga ki te hītori tūturu o te whenua nei.”
Predictably, not all welcome the changes – in conversation with Newstalk ZB’s Andrew Dickens, ACT leader David Seymour described the new curriculum as “far too focused on a narrow, ideological view of history,” and that it would “divide people in to victims and villains.” Some teachers have also expressed concern that some of their peers may not be equipped to actually teach the curriculum, or that their own ideologies would mean they wouldn’t take it seriously. In my opinion, it’s unfortunate that something as fundamental as the truth is being used like this in the political realm – just because you don’t like the fact that the Crown violently seized this country a few short centuries ago and made a real and concerted effort to suppress and ultimately destroy Māori culture doesn’t make it untrue. Sometimes I get disarmed by Seymour’s goonish, unthreatening charm, and then he says shit like that and I remember that he can be a fuckwit.
Just because you use a lot of line breaks doesn’t mean you are writing a poem.
By the time you’re reading this, many of the Government’s vaccine mandates have been removed, including some of the more contentious requirements around compulsory vaccinations for those who want to eat in a restaurant or work in the public sector. You will no longer have to scan in via QR codes or have your vaccine pass checked, and various limits on sizes of gatherings have either been lifted or increased. Even though the Labour Government claim the mandates were always temporary, various anti-vax groups have either claimed victory, or pivoted in to more unhinged conspiracies. Predictably, the buffoons at Voices For Freedom have started laying the foundations for entering politics (by asking for money lmao), and have also strangely started blasting out ‘poems’ to their email subscribers – I use the term ‘poem’ loosely, as
just because you use
a lot of line breaks
doesn’t
mean you are writing a poem.
further protest against mandates was planned last weekend in Wellington, which was hindered by literally no one turning up.
Speaking of politics: this is kind of becoming a weekly feature at this point, but the National Party seriously, seriously needs to hire a decent PR agency. Thanks to an investigation by Councillor Sara Templeton, information gathered using the Harmful Digital Communications Act revealed that two members of Young Nats (the youth wing of Aotearoa’s right-leaning National Party) were behind a sustained harassment campaign of several female MPs. Using fake profiles, the Young Nat member sent abusive and hateful messages online, including calling an MP a ‘cunt,’ and compared another to a pig. As far as politics go, perhaps the Young Nats need a crash course refresher, as one of the first things you learn is to attack the policy, not the person. Waikato Uni has an excellent intro to political science paper if they’re interested. National leader and bald king Christopher Luxon told 1News that “National does not tolerate any bullying,” which will be an interesting standard to hold them to over the next year, considering their track record of bullying.
Speaking to Nexus, Councillor Sara Templeton offered some advice to any other wāhine that may be experiencing abuse online:
“Firstly – take screenshots of everything, no matter how minor it seems at the time. Individual comments may seem minor and not meet a threshold, but showing a pattern of behaviour is important. Secondly – know that you’re not alone, that it’s okay to admit that it hurts and to call it out. One of the hardest things for me about this process was to admit the harm, first to Netsafe, then the Court (and even harder on national TV), but it is the harm caused that will trigger any actions. It’s not easy and many will not have the capacity to act while abuse is happening – so enlist help, from friends etc. Acting together is powerful.”
After 33 years, the controversial Waihopai ‘spy base satellites’ near Blenhiem are finally being dismantled. Although few ‘official’ details about these satellites exist, it is generally understood that they intercept various public and private communications that are then fed to other international intelligence agencies as part of the ‘Five Eyes’ network agreement. Protests against these spy domes have been ongoing since their inception, with a high profile case seeing the Government suing three protestors for over $1,000,000 for intentionally deflating one of the domes with a sickle. The Government Communications Security Bureau has repeatedly denied protesters claims that the information gathered was being used to enable ‘torture, war, and the use of weapons of mass destruction.’ The truth, as always, is probably somewhere in the middle.
Lastly, a bombshell piece from Aotearoa journalist David Farrier has raised some serious allegations about ARISE Church. In the article, former members of ARISE claim they were, among other things, pressured to contribute financially to the church well beyond their means, and literally pay for the privilege of being an intern (read: providing ‘excessive’ unpaid labour), which I’m pretty sure is illegal and borders on child labour. I can’t really do the article justice in one paragraph, but I would encourage you to read it. I did think about adding my opinion on ARISE to this piece, but my mama always told me if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. ARISE Church made around $13 million dollars last year. I am reminded of something a very nice middle-eastern Jewish man said 200 years ago: “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
