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Gordon Campbell - Latest News [Page 29]
On the moral and scientific case against Covid booster shots
Wednesday, 15 September 2021, 3:03 pm | Gordon Campbell
A year ago, a Covid vaccine was still on humanity’s wish list. Now, we’re basing our economic planning - and the safety of opening our borders – on the ability of the new Covid vaccines to reduce infection, hospitalisation and death. Given this ... More >>
On the moral and scientific case against Covid booster shots
Wednesday, 15 September 2021, 3:01 pm | Gordon Campbell
A year ago, a Covid vaccine was still on humanity’s wish list. Now, we’re basing our economic planning - and the safety of opening our borders – on the ability of the new Covid vaccines to reduce infection, hospitalisation and death. Given this ... More >>
On the Covid exit plan, and 9/11 media memories
Tuesday, 14 September 2021, 11:50 am | Gordon Campbell
Is it OK to feel nostalgic for the period only a couple of months ago, when the government seemed to have a plan for exiting from the elimination strategy? Ah, the good old days. That plan included inviting firms to nominate a few hundred of their ... More >>
On Taliban hardliners, and a lockdown playlist
Thursday, 9 September 2021, 11:16 am | Gordon Campbell
Well, so much for early hopes that the new Taliban “caretaker” government would be more inclusive, and moderate. Instead, we’ve got a Cabinet that is (a) all men and (b) all Taliban, with no attempt to reach across the country’s political divides. ... More >>
On why terrorism law changes can't be rushed
Monday, 6 September 2021, 12:18 pm | Gordon Campbell
Given the horrifying actions of the New Lynn supermarket terrorist, it is easy to see why the public and the government seem to have agreed on the need to change the relevant laws, all the better to protect the public. Presumably, this would involve ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on the messaging to the vaccine hesitants
Friday, 3 September 2021, 10:29 am | Gordon Campbell
While the recent surge in vaccinations has been welcome, we’re still in the low hanging fruit phase of the journey towards 80-90% rates of protection. Previous polling suggested that the hardcore anti-vaxxers and vaccine “hesitants” used to comprise ... More >>
On how New Zealand can get itself a safe, purpose-built Covid isolation facility
Wednesday, 1 September 2021, 11:17 am | Gordon Campbell
Over the past few months, one of the few things that the “Covid elimination” strategists and the “we have to live with Covid” advocates have agreed on is that New Zealand sorely needs a purpose-built managed isolation facility. Using hotels ... More >>
On Why Judith Collins Should Consider The Canada Model
Monday, 30 August 2021, 2:52 pm | Gordon Campbell
For months now, Judith Collins has been doubling down on National as the party of angry talkback radio. If you’ve got a beef about Jacinda Ardern telling you what to do, Collins is right on side. If you’re ticked off about all this Treaty malarkey ... More >>
On how Delta has changed the endgame for the pandemic
Thursday, 26 August 2021, 2:39 pm | Gordon Campbell
Lockdown vs Delta. Day by day, New Zealand is learning whether a Level Four lockdown can confine and eventually defeat the Delta variant. Yes, the number of cases keep on increasing – but the increase (so far, cross fingers) is linear, and not exponential. ... More >>
On “the old weird” music of America, with a playlist
Tuesday, 24 August 2021, 10:12 am | Gordon Campbell
Here’s some weird old music for the weird realities of lockdown. Like other key phases in popular music – jazz, country, rock’n’roll, punk, hip hop – the period between 1927 and 1932 marked a revolutionary leap forward. The writer Greil ... More >>
On our polarised attitudes to the Covid response
Friday, 20 August 2021, 2:23 pm | Gordon Campbell
Thesis meets antithesis again, this time in the pages of the New Zealand Herald. A week ago, Liam Dann wrote a column pondering how in contrast to the death and suffering Covid is wreaking all around the world, New Zealanders “are living in an open and ... More >>
On The Media’s Handling Of (A) The Afghan Crisis, And (B) The Hacked DHB Material
Tuesday, 17 August 2021, 1:54 pm | Gordon Campbell
Reportedly, there has been “chaos “in downtown Kabul and “chaos“ out at the Kabul airport. “Chaos” has become one of the go-to terms of modern journalism. By definition, ‘chaos” removes the need to, or even the/possibility of, rational ... More >>
On The Fall Of Kabul
Monday, 16 August 2021, 12:12 pm | Gordon Campbell
Like a giant Ponzi scheme, the 20 year experiment in nation-building in Afghanistan has come crashing down, in pieces. Since the US and its allies invaded the country in late 2001, hundreds of thousands of Afghan people have been killed. (The official ... More >>
On Labour’s Cave-in To The Business Lobbies
Friday, 13 August 2021, 9:47 am | Gordon Campbell
At a time when New South Wales is in crisis over the Delta variant, it seems bizarre that our government is willing to risk heading down the same track. Yesterday though, Labour appeared willing to jeopardise the gains made by the Team ... More >>
On How New Zealand Is Punching Below Its Weight In Afghanistan
Wednesday, 11 August 2021, 10:17 am | Gordon Campbell
First Vietnam, now Afghanistan. For the second time in living memory, the West has been defeated by the guerrilla forces of a small Third World country, while leaving its local allies in mortal danger for their sins of collaboration. Since the pull-out ... More >>
On Whether We’re Punching Above Our Weight, And Should We Care?
Wednesday, 4 August 2021, 1:39 pm | Gordon Campbell
According to Pierre De Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games, the Olympic ideal was not about “winning, but fighting well. Life is not conquering, but fighting well.” True to that ideal, young people from all over the world do still congregate ... More >>
On Populism’s Changing Of The Guard, Plus A Soul Music Playlist
Monday, 2 August 2021, 12:34 pm | Gordon Campbell
The weekend’s Newshub/Reid Research poll results - Act up to 11.1%, National up 1% but still sitting at only 28.7%, Labour down to 43%, the Greens up to 8.5% - shows that the combined centre right vote is still languishing nearly 12 points behind ... More >>
On The Supermarket Scam, And On Tunisia’s Scrapping Of Democracy
Thursday, 29 July 2021, 1:31 pm | Gordon Campbell
Are we paying too much for our groceries? Hmm. Is the Pope a Catholic? Given that the two Australian supermarket chains that dominate our grocery industry routinely rack up profits in the order of $22 billion annually, that’s a no-brainer. Yet ... More >>
On The Uncanny Valley Of Tokyo 2020
Tuesday, 27 July 2021, 11:11 am | Gordon Campbell
For all involved, this year’s Olympic Games have called for a willing suspension of anxiety. For now at least, the displays of skill and agility have been compelling enough to muffle some of the previous misgivings about the wisdom of asking athletes More >>
On The Geo-political Posturing Over China’s Cyber Hacks, Plus The Weekly Playlist
Thursday, 22 July 2021, 12:19 pm | Gordon Campbell
The timing was one of the weirder aspects of this week’s cyber condemnation of China by the West. Why was this piece of political theatre being staged now? China (and Russia’s) sponsoring and/or condoning of semi-state and criminal hacker groups More >>
