ICYMI: Some advice for Simon Bridges on being responsible in a health emergency
2 March - 9 March
The Side Eye: Missing Teeth. We've all got teeth, so why can only some of us afford to look after them? While most of our bodily parts are covered by the public health system, it’s a completely different story when it comes to our teeth. Infected gums, wisdom teeth, root canals – these we need to pay for, often thousands of dollars. So why are teeth treated differently from the rest of our bodies? Toby Morris investigates.
‘If this is not racism, what is?’ NZ Indian community leaders on Shane Jones. When NZ First leader Winston Peters was challenged over Shane Jones’s comments about Indian students, Peters insisted that Jones had been “expressing the views of some in the local Indian community”. But as Sandeep Singh from the Indian Weekender finds out, those from the Indian community beg to disagree, condemning Jones’s comments as outright racist.
Some advice for Simon Bridges on being responsible in a health emergency. “Now I know all our favourite disaster books, movies, and shows might tell us that the way to deal with a situation like this is to grab some weapons, batten down the hatches, and protect our resources from everyone around us,” writes Dr Siouxsie Wiles in an open letter to the Leader of the Opposition. “But, in fact, as most people recognise, in the real world the opposite is true. The communities that survive disasters the best are those that work together to share their resources and make sure no one is left out in the cold.”
‘The first salvo in a war’: Senior Herald and Stuff editors hit back at RNZ attack ad campaign. Senior news executives reacted with disappointment and anger last week to a taxpayer-funded RNZ ad campaign attacking their work and business models. The campaign is notably more aggressive and direct than prior work, and as Duncan Greive points out: “part of the reason the new campaign caused such widespread disappointment is because it disparages not just the private sector media’s business models, but also its work".
“Reading, listening and watching The Spinoff feels like being part of a community. It feels like the town square that media was meant to be.”
- D. Imlach, Spinoff Member
People are trying to make crazy money off Covid-19. Covid-19 related price gouging? Yep, it’s happening. While e-commerce platforms like Amazon and eBay attempt to reign in on those taking advantage of a public health crisis, Trade Me insists that it won’t intervene as these prices are “simply market forces at work”. As a result, there’s some wild stuff out there right now, including $139 survival kits, $58 hands-free door openers, and even a domain name with an asking price of $1,000.
Bottled water has reached its tipping point. The time for a moratorium is now. As New Zealand suffers from drought and the effects of climate change become more severe, why is New Zealand shipping its water offshore? Communities all over New Zealand have been battling over consents for companies to take water over the last few years, and with the addition of issues over Māori water rights and pollution, Cat Mclennan argues that the time to suspend water bottling consents is now.
‘An iron commitment to fighting her corner’: Remembering Jeanette Fitzsimons. For the decade Sue Bradford spent in parliament as a Green MP, party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons led by example. “Jeanette brought a quiet but steely determination to everything she did,” she writes. “Her public persona was often of a kindly maternal intelligence, but underneath lay an iron commitment to fighting her corner and achieving what she thought best for the caucus and the party.”
Hold me close to your heart: On loving A-ha for 35 years. Though it’s been more than three decades since Norwegian band A-ha released of their timeless debut single ‘Take on Me’ – a “giddy three-minute-45-second rush of youthfulness and joy” – sometimes it seems like it was only yesterday, writes Catherine McGregor.
Politics in Pubs, a new series of live events for election year presented by Spinoff Members and Verb Wellington, kicks off with a discussion on politics and the media. It’s on March 25, 6pm at Meow on Edward Street in Wellington.
Tickets are $10 each and you can get them here. For more info, click on the banner below:
