In the lead up to the general election on November 26, the Labour Party of New Zealand has released its Overseas Development Assistance Policy. Most notable in the policy is the re-establishment of NZAID, a semi autonomous aid and development agency accountable to the government through the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Overseas Development Assistance, with a direct line of advice from the Executive Director for NZAID who will be appointed by the State [...]

Another HC Repeat for the weekend. This article was originally published in November 2008, not long after the last general election in Aotearoa (NZ). It touched on the social welfare system and how beneficiaries are used as a political football – it compared this with the activities of those in the corporate world in the face of the recession, which towards the end of 2008 had well and truly become part of the news landscape. [...]

After missing a week of the Podcast because I made  last minute judgment call and then missing it last week because of a technical hitch, I am more than happy to bring you the latest Podcast… even if a little late. On this episode I discuss Iran and the latest happenings there.

A couple of days ago, I mentioned that Israel’s election was drawing near. With the election now concluded, how has it played out? Kadima (Israel’s centrist party) narrowly got the most votes with the right wing Likud party just behind. The win doesn’t mean much for Kadima though as the whole thing is about coalitions and it looks like the right wing block got more seats in the Knesset (parliament). Now both Tzipi Livni (Kadima [...]

Israelis are set to go to the polls in what is a hotly contested election race that sees the party leading the current coalition, Kadima, and the opposition Likud party running very closely to each other in the polls. Kadima is lead by Tzipi Livni, the current Foreign Minister. Likud is lead by Benjamin Netanyahu. Both people have very interesting backgrounds and family history. The Israeli government is about coalitions. To quote Al Jazeera:

The following was sent to the Humanitarian Chronicle by someone who shall use the pseudonym, Jon Shannow. When they vote tomorrow, far too many Christians in Aotearoa/NZ will allow their choices to be influenced by a single issue – the so called “anti smacking” bill. Voting on the basis of a single issue is always blinkered and unbalanced but voting on one issue that isn’t fully understood is downright stupid. There has been too much [...]