Diatribe | Issue 17

Posted 11:08am Sunday 22nd July 2012

The signs on doors and the casual “kia ora” all point to te wiki o Te Reo Māori. The weather will tell us we live in Otepoti, and news presenters will wish us a nice “ka kite” after the bulletin, but we should all wonder why we are doing this. Is one week of a few Māori terms really Read more...

Red and Starry Eyed | Issue 14

Posted 8:39pm Sunday 3rd June 2012

We all need a holiday, exams are approaching, and the cold is permeating our unheated flats. Maybe we should take heed of Bill English’s advice (he recommended we take a leaf out of the Greek protesters’ book) and occupy the library until our flats get warm. Just saying. Onto the real issue: the Read more...

Red and Starry Eyed | Issue 13

Posted 7:40pm Sunday 27th May 2012

Queen’s Birthday Weekend is arriving soon, although we students may not get to enjoy our expensive holiday. Why do we celebrate it anyhow? Red and Starry Eyed gets no holiday when it’s his birthday. Who is this old dinosaur the Queen? I have certainly never met her, so it boggles my mind that we Read more...

Red and Starry Eyed | Issue 12

Posted 7:58pm Sunday 20th May 2012

Dunedin’s stadium, far from being “world-class”, may be overshadowed by a stadium in Christchurch that will also be covered. Shame. It seems future Dunedinites will look at Forsyth Barr from afar and see it as a relic of a council that did not listen to its voters, and spent well out of its budget, Read more...

Red and Starry Eyed | Issue 11

Posted 7:08pm Sunday 13th May 2012

Despite the ACT Party receiving almost no support in the last elections, it got an MP and four portfolios paid for by a cup of tea. The famous tea tapes that Key didn’t want to talk about are now online under “Two Johns one cup”. Listen to them; the two politicians show utter contempt for their own Read more...

Red and Starry Eyed | Issue 10

Posted 12:51am Monday 7th May 2012

Have you noticed John Key looking more tired by the minute? How about the recent National scandals: From ACC to paid parental leave? About time, though his party hasn’t dropped in recent polls. It is about time to brush the dust off the covers of one of the first scandals in this government’s second Read more...

Red and Starry Eyed | Issue 9

Posted 4:56pm Sunday 29th April 2012

What do we celebrate in Anzac Day? Anzac Day is celebrated with pride every year. Like zombies, the old and young wake up before the sun has even set its alarm; we congregate around cenotaphs under artillery siege. There are the trumpets we have come to associate with war and the smell of Read more...

Red and Starry Eyed | Issue 8

Posted 5:04pm Sunday 22nd April 2012

Bill English’s announcement that National will veto the new parental leave bill that has yet to be debated in Parliament shows National’s priorities more clearly than ever. It does not care for the mothers and children of New Zealand, and it does not care what we think. The National government has Read more...

Red and Starry Eyed | Issue 7

Posted 3:53pm Sunday 15th April 2012

For more than a year now Syria has spiralled into an Arab-Spring massacre. The UN reports that over 9000 people have died in the conflict. These deaths are not all the consequence of President Assad’s hard-hand though. Despite the spin we are receiving, Syria is bound up in an increasingly bloody Read more...

Red and Starry Eyed | Issue 6

Posted 7:07pm Sunday 1st April 2012

At the beginning of the 20th century, many New Zealanders hoped Maori would die out. Their numbers were declining quickly, but a hundred years later we claim to be Aotearoa – a multicultural, bilingual society. We may be multicultural, but our society has very little Maori left in it. And our Read more...