There’s a storm brewing
What the local elections foretell I am one of the large majority who did not vote in the recent mayoral and local elections in New Zealand – not because I […]
Category Archives: health care
Police, professions and the Kaikohe ‘tooth fairy’ – a stark illustration of the decay of dental care
In April last year, police and Ministry of Health officials raided the home and workshop of Claire Wihongi-Matene, and charged her with claiming to be a health practitioner and six […]
The economic crisis that caused the pandemic
The virus and capitalist society, Part 4: a note on the dialectic of cause and effect The cause of the economic slump that has brought the world economy crashing down […]
The devil’s trade-off: public health or ‘the economy’
The virus and capitalist society, Part 3 As the capitalist rulers around the world move towards lifting the lockdown conditions imposed to halt the spread of Covid-19 disease, they are […]
Essential workers
The virus and capitalist society – Part 2 Of all the capitalist governments attempting to emulate the Wuhan model of lockdown to combat the Covid-19 virus, New Zealand has fared […]
The virus and capitalist society
Is anything good likely to come of this pandemic? I have seen reports of reduction in air pollution over China, and less-than-truthful pictures of clear water and dolphins in the […]
Scientific medicine, the weight of history, and the measles epidemics in Samoa and New Zealand
It appears that the measles epidemic in Samoa is finally waning. It is now a week since the government of Samoa implemented emergency measures to combat the disease, centred on […]
Land, labour, and epidemic diseases – two articles on capitalist penetration of the Pacific
When the deadly epidemic of influenza swept the world in the months following the end of the Great War of 1914-18, the toll it took in the Pacific Islands was […]
Supporters and enemies of abortion rights measure their strength (and weakness)
The abortion law in New Zealand is an anomaly. In the actual wording of the law, it was, when passed in 1977, one of the most restrictive such laws in […]
“Trans women are women” – Identity politics takes aim at women’s emancipation
It’s worth reminding ourselves that once, not so long ago, there was a mass movement for women’s rights – a social and political movement, led by women, that mobilised people […]
A worker at large 