Ross Baker Unless you can answer the following questions, you have no idea of New Zealand’s true history. I wonder how the framers of the government’s soon-to-emerge New Zealand Histories Curriculum for school children would score in this one? Part One: Questions 1. Who smuggled 800
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 idbkiwi Thank you idbkiwi for taking the time to craft such an
The vicious ignorance of the identity politics-obsessed left was rarely better displayed than when it was announced that Israeli actor Gal Gadot had been picked to play Cleopatra in a new film. The tiny, cerebrally-challenged leftist puddle that is Twitter immediately erupted with its trademark brainless yapping. “Whitewashing!
Hal Snarr mises.org Hal W. Snarr is an assistant professor of economics at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah. Utopia is described as a society void of pain and poverty. It was sought well before Sir Thomas More coined the word in 1516 from the Greek words ou
It’s that Passover / Pessach / Spring Cleaning / Bondage and Freedom / Bad Food time of year. Threatened? I am. Its two weeks before Passover, everyone up here in this frenetic slice of paradise has launched into their manic cleaning and cooking of unusually tasteless foods for one of the two biggies
We are running another yet fantastic book giveaway for our subscribers. The prizes are copies of Keith Mexsom’s latest book Gas Pedal to Back-Pedal – The Second Century of Auckland Transport which is Part Two of a planned trilogy that builds on the founding and development of Auckland’s
Keith Mexsom keithmexsom.pubsitepro.com Keith Mexsom has magazine and newspaper experience in both New Zealand and Australia as a publisher, editor, sub-editor, journalist, feature writer, and copywriter. He has a Graduate Diploma in Journalism Studies from Massey University. The recent call by The BFD for more “View from
Cultural Norm Remember when Maori Affairs Minister Peter Sharples flew secretly to New York to give a speech to the United Nations and sign New Zealand up to a declaration on indigenous rights? It was April 19, 2010, just over a decade ago. Little did the New Zealand people then
There are no prizes for guessing what would be top of mind on this 17th day of March 2021 for this native Pakeha of proud Irish ancestry. Since I was a small child in Hamilton, St Patrick’s Day has always been one to celebrate, if only to remind myself
As Field Marshal Montgomery noted, all the greatest threats to freedom in the 20th century – Communism, Fascism, Nazism – originated in Europe and were defeated from outside Europe. But, Europe’s track record of embracing authoritarianism didn’t end there. The great European project, the EU, is riding roughshod over its
Breaking Away (1979) was one of those great movies that never really made it beyond Sunday television, only grossing a miserable $17,000 on its opening night. Nevertheless it left the world a better place with a wider, sympathetic and humorous view of Italian culture at a time when the
In a sleepy little town here in Northern Tasmania, tucked away in a quiet corner of a local park, is a grim reminder of a not-so-distant past: the village stocks. They’re now something for tourists to pose for happy snaps in, but once upon a time they
This week, apologies for me opening with an attempt at satire, for which my nature as an inveterate stirrer adversely affects my abilities as a satirist, but this latest piece by Chris Trotter about the banning of Dr Michael Bassett has been my motivation for what follows. First the Attempt
Dear Editor Oh dear. The hoary old NZ Herald, once upon a time the failsafe recorder and respecter of everything ‘All Blacks’, has done it again – this time a classical mistake about the history of one of the game’s greats, former All Black loose forward Ian Kirkpatrick. In a
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 Shooter McGavin Thank you Shooter McGavin for taking the time to craft
