Back in the pre-European times, the local inhabitants of our fair land were fond of telling stories about, among other things, where and whence they came from. This of course is nothing new as all countries have oral traditions. Most of course had written traditions as well but in
Australian celebrity criminal, Mark “Chopper” Read famously said, “Never let the truth get in the way of a good yarn”. Read was referring to the string of “memoirs” (ten in all) he wrote. Read notoriously mixed the astonishing truth, such as his almost comical effort to abduct a Victorian County
Garden of Eden Cheesecake From childhood memories, Mum’s baked cheesecake used to be for my siblings and me a fanciful dream, a cake dream that only came a few times a year. Our mother Hinda used to make the same baked cheesecake for the family four times a year
Ardern’s view of Maori independence, or separate government, is not new at all. The ink was scarcely dry on the Treaty when Maori chiefs challenged British sovereignty. Little good it did them because they were captured in the first article of the treaty. “The chiefs of the Confederation and
Rachel Boddy Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Rachel is a PhD student at Victoria University of Wellington – Te Herenga Waka looking at social and political life in the eighteenth century. Singer Billie Eilish’s new look for British Vogue, in which she trades her baggy clothes for lingerie
Michael Cook mercatornet.com Michael Cook is the editor of MercatorNet Pining for the good old days, a golden era of social and moral certainties, is at best a mistake, at worst, folly. As proof, at least on the topics of sexual morality, autonomy and women’s rights, it’s
JW Rich fee.org JW Rich is a economics student in Charlotte, NC. His interests are economics, history of economic thought, and philosophy. You can read his work here. Imagine an economy where there is no money. All currencies, mediums of exchange, and other intermediaries of trade no longer exist.
Let us just imagine for one moment, if the Vikings, who left Scandinavia during the Dark Ages and travelled to a number of countries, pillaging and conquering wherever they went, had never integrated into the societies that they conquered. Where would we be, 1,400 years on, if they had
Viv Forbes The UK has seen many waves of invaders and colonisers – Neanderthals, Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes, Norsemen, Normans and more recently Indians and Pakistanis. Only Irish, Welsh and Scottish inhabitants have had the strength to get special recognition today. No human race evolved in Australia – several races
Macca Things are really starting to heat up over in the US regarding the stolen election. President Trump is becoming more vocal each day as more and more diamond-hard evidence comes to the fore that the Democrats tried to pull off the biggest scam in the history of the
Over the past decade, gay marriage moved from a fringe issue that not even most gays took seriously to supposedly being the great Civil Rights crusade of our times. More recently, transgenderism went from a marginal fetish for men in dresses to being the biggest fad for teenage girls since
You have to admire Geoffrey Blainey’s courage. His academic career was practically ended when he dared to stick his head ever so slightly above the parapet in the 1980s and murmur that perhaps unending mass immigration might be a strain on social cohesion. Perhaps appropriately for a historian, Blainey
As part of our drive to keep our comment section the best in New Zealand we showcase each week an example of a top-notch comment that adds value to The BFD. Today’s comment was written by George Thank you George for taking the time to craft such an
Richard Treadgold climateconversation.org.nz Richard has studied climate change for over 17 years and operated the Climate Conversation Group* since 2004. He remains what he calls ‘a staunch climate amateur’ with much to learn. This article makes a rare foray away from climate change due to important local moves
It’s not coincidental that Karl Popper titled the first volume of his The Open Society and Its Enemies, “The Spell of Plato”. While indisputably one of the greatest of Western philosophers, Plato’s politics left a lot to be desired. Not least his loathing of democracy and urging of
