The Daily Blog
I'm excited to be part of the Daily Blog - a congregation of "weak, stupid, effeminate, erectile dysfunctional, naïve, apologist, namby-pamby, thumb-sucking, lefty pinko fantasy-land moron [sic]". Note that that's meant as a compliment and a sign of affection.
In Bomber's words
TheDailyBlog.co.nz will bring together 30 of the best left-wing bloggers and progressive opinion shapers in NZ all onto one site to critique the news, the media, and politics to provide the other side of the story.
The first challenge is to build a community. The first step in that challenge is easy - bring together a community of bloggers and their readers. The second step is harder - build a community of readers and commenters from outside of the leftwing blogosphere. I'm optimistic about that.
Native Affairs
I'm sure most of you know, but for those that don't Julian Wilcox (the country's best news and current affairs presenter) is the new head of news and current affairs at Maori TV. His replacement on Native is Mihingarangi Forbes. She's a great addition to the strongest line-up in current affairs. Julian had a hypnotic voice and manner. He could lull guests into a false sense of security and hit them. Mihi is more combative - witness her demolition of Alasdair Thompson. I'm looking forward to it. The show returns March 11 at 8.30pm.
Winston has a go at Rongoa Maori
Winston's back up to his old tricks:
Rongoa Māori is under attack from New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, who says the Health Ministry is shelling out almost $2 million a year supporting traditional healers without any monitoring or accountability.$2m is peanuts in the context of Vote Health's $14b appropriation. In other words, Rongoa Maori funding accounts for about 0.01% of the Health budget. The Silver Fox isn't really concerned about an unaccountable $2m, it's the idea of unaccountable Maori money. Although, there should be accountability for any and all taxpayer money, but that isn't to diminish the place of Rongoa Maori - even if it were only operating as a placebo.
Tena koe Morgan. My clinical psychologist and Maori health researcher tells me that what Winston claims is a problem with Maori health funding is in fact a problem across the whole health sector. This is particularly so in the area of mental health. If the patients don't return or if they don't kill themselves or someone else it is assumed that the treatment has worked. Apparently the MOH doesn't carry out much evaluative research and doesn't providers to evaluate the efficacy of their programmes. Winston pandering to the kaki whero again
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