Pampering to a different world

An email doing the rounds at the moment depicts a cake of Cadbury’s rum and raisin chocolate with a halal motif on the packaging. The caption suggested that as Muslims are not allowed to consume alcohol surely the halal approval is superfluous. It was not a serious dig, and anyway I suspect rum and raisin chocolate is flavoured with rum essence rather than the distilled spirit.I remember there was concern expressed some years ago about...

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Economic systems up for scrutiny

It seems likely that Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic Party’s nominee for the upcoming American Presidential elections, but Bernie Sanders is certainly giving her a run for her money. Mr. Sanders is a staunch socialist which in modern America is surely an enigma given the US’s decades-long tirade against communism. Surprisingly, the vast majority of Mr. Sanders advocates are well-educated young people which may just mean they’re...

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Out of sight, out of mind

After nearly six years on the Wairarapa District Health Board I still haven’t quite come to grips with just what the Ministry of Health actually does. I do know however that last week it was reported that they had gone cap-in-hand to the government for a bailout of $18 million to complete a $24 million refit to their office tower in Wellington. The refit was supposed to have been paid for out of ‘reserves’, but a miscalculation meant they...

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Nice work if you can get it

I wonder how cash-strapped dairy farmers are viewing their Fonterra masters moving into a new glass tower in downtown Auckland later this month. Regarded as the smartest contemporary building in the country, the Jasmax-designed glittering corporate headquarters is described as a bold statement about the dairy giant’s presence in the city. Critics however say it continues to highlight the disconnection between head-office and the shareholders...

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The welfare of the born and unborn

Abortion was made legal in this country back in 1977. Various restrictions were applied, but using the best available statistics I can find it would seem in the intervening 39 years around 500,000 terminations would have been carried out. This means half a million people never got to tread the earth on what we euphemistically call “Godzone.” Ronald Reagan reckoned everyone who is for abortion has already been born, but I’m not making judgements...

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