February 2022
Why Russia's outrageous aggression in Ukraine matters to us all
25/02/22
Josie's Stuff column about Russia's invasion of Ukraine is here.
Russia’s outrageous aggression matters to us. It matters because of our values. Ukraine is a democracy, and we should take the side of liberal democracies everywhere, especially when they are threatened by outside violent authoritarians.
It matters because we need the rules-based international order and system of laws for resolving disputes between nations. Without it, the world reverts to the 19th-century rule of wars and nationalism that produced industrial-scale carnage.
Russia’s outrageous aggression matters to us. It matters because of our values. Ukraine is a democracy, and we should take the side of liberal democracies everywhere, especially when they are threatened by outside violent authoritarians.
It matters because we need the rules-based international order and system of laws for resolving disputes between nations. Without it, the world reverts to the 19th-century rule of wars and nationalism that produced industrial-scale carnage.
Tribal othering doesn't help
18/02/22
After cracking down on protests at Parliament, they would logically have to move on to Ihumātao, Shelly Bay and Greenpeace activists supergluing themselves to ships.
Democracy means the potential for change when we make mistakes, and to change, we must accept that, sometimes, people we disagree with have a point. None of us is consistently good at detecting when someone we disagree with is right (I call this phenomenon "marriage").
Most of us believe things that science says are not true. Pollsters have found that majorities were sceptical of climate change until recently, many believe arnica cream cures bruising, vitamin C or antibiotics cure colds, or the number of wars and people living in poverty around the world are much higher today than 50 years ago.
We can all be dangerously wrong about something important.
Josie's column in the Dominion Post.
Democracy means the potential for change when we make mistakes, and to change, we must accept that, sometimes, people we disagree with have a point. None of us is consistently good at detecting when someone we disagree with is right (I call this phenomenon "marriage").
Most of us believe things that science says are not true. Pollsters have found that majorities were sceptical of climate change until recently, many believe arnica cream cures bruising, vitamin C or antibiotics cure colds, or the number of wars and people living in poverty around the world are much higher today than 50 years ago.
We can all be dangerously wrong about something important.
Josie's column in the Dominion Post.
Protest at parliament, Joe Rogan
14/02/22
Josie joined Jim Mora and Chris Wikaira on RNZ's Sunday morning to discuss the protests in parliament grounds, contact tracing and cancelling Joe Rogan.
Inequality has never increased as fast
02/02/22
The definition of lockdown is working-class people delivering stuff to middle-class people.
Omicron's "Red" setting means optional lockdowns for those who can work from home. If you don't have the choice then you continue to deliver stuff, sell stuff, wipe the brows of the sick, keep places running.
We are living in a time of the greatest increase in inequality in my working life. Bigger than the 80s, when the Lange-Douglas Government made changes the current Cabinet swore they would never abide.
If your wages didn't increase by 6 per cent last year then you are worse off than you were a year ago because that's how much prices rose.
An average Auckland house worth a million dollars a year ago is worth $200,000 more now. Most houses earned more than the people living in them.
Josie's column in the Herald is here.
Omicron's "Red" setting means optional lockdowns for those who can work from home. If you don't have the choice then you continue to deliver stuff, sell stuff, wipe the brows of the sick, keep places running.
We are living in a time of the greatest increase in inequality in my working life. Bigger than the 80s, when the Lange-Douglas Government made changes the current Cabinet swore they would never abide.
If your wages didn't increase by 6 per cent last year then you are worse off than you were a year ago because that's how much prices rose.
An average Auckland house worth a million dollars a year ago is worth $200,000 more now. Most houses earned more than the people living in them.
Josie's column in the Herald is here.
