New data out of the US shows that the gap between rich and poor has grown wider: the gaps in after-tax income between the richest 1 percent of Americans and the middle and poorest parts of the population in 2007 was the highest it’s been in 80 years, while the share of income going to the middle one-fifth of Americans shrank to its lowest level ever (source: Huffpo). This comes just after data from the [...]

I don’t like the word democracy. It is one of those words that is used to mean all kinds of things, and it is interpreted in all kinds of ways. Democracy is not the world’s saviour… and neither is the blind belief in human progress. Here we are in 2010 and despite our progress, governments still kill their own citizens. A few interesting things happened in Wellington recently, mostly unnoticed by media outlets. A small [...]

“Damn Israel”. That’s what Turkish protesters have been yelling outside the Israeli consulate in Istanbul. Israel is accused of attacking a flotilla of vessels bringing aid to Gaza. Apparently 10,000 tonnes of aid was aboard. About 9 “activists” were killed in the incident. Like most other news emanating from any Israeli-Palestinian conflict – truth is the first casualty. Even a brief perusal of a number of news sources shows contradictory and confusing information. The Telegraph [...]

Burma (also known as the Union of Myanmar) is a country we hear little about. Under military rule since 1962, the country is dominated by an oppressive regime resulting in a State of fear. Democratic elections have been planned for 2010, but they are a farce, or – as described by the US government – a mockery.  The leader of the democratic movement Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for many years, [...]