The report notes that Africa, Asia and South America lag behind in creating these structures due to a lack of resources.

It stresses the urgent need for "increasing solidarity among episcopal conferences, to mobilise resources for a universal standard in safeguarding".

The report

In 2022 Pope Francis asked the Commission to draft a report offering "a reliable account on what is presently being done and what needs to change, so that the competent authorities can act".

The report would be a step toward "transparency and accountability" for lay people who are losing trust because of the clerical abuse crisis, Francis said.

The Commission then undertook the first global assessment of the Church's efforts to address its sexual abuse crisis. After having a close look at a dozen countries, two religious orders and two Vatican offices, the Commission analysed its findings and recommendations.

Its subsequent annual report offers "mechanisms for change in the short-term" and guidelines for Church leaders at all levels for implementing safeguarding measures, says Maud de Boer-Buquicchio (pictured) who oversaw the report's drafting.

While progress is being made in some respects, "regrettably much of the Church remains without robust data collection practices or capacities" she adds.

The Church must commit to investing in its data collection infrastructure and resources" she says.

Journey of change

It is ten years since Pope Francis set up the Commission.

The report's analyses offer a "snapshot of the journey of conversion that we have been on" says the Commission president Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston (pictured second from left).

"It is a journey towards a transparent and accountable ministry of safeguarding, towards greater outreach, welcome and support for victims and survivors in their pursuit of justice and healing."

Commission member and sex abuse survivor Juan Carlos Cruz says the report represents a significant step forward and gives him hope for further progress.

"We're using words that we didn't use before. Truth, justice, reparation and a guarantee of non-recurrence...'' he says.

Improvement sought

The report made use of focus groups with clerical abuse survivors who pointed to the main ways the Church has mishandled abuse concerns.

Better access for victims to information about their individual cases is needed, the report says.

It was particularly concerning that victims are often not informed of the outcomes of canonical trials.

In its most critical note, the report called for greater transparency from the Vatican's sex abuse office (the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith) which oversees the Pontifical Commission for Minors.

The Dicastery's "slow processing of cases and secrecy were re-traumatising to victims, and its refusal to publish statistics and its own jurisprudence continues to foment distrust among the faithful, especially the victim/survivor community" the report says.

Source

• AP News
• RNS

In a new interview published on Oct. 17, the pope said that he plans to visit his native Argentina, adding: "Somebody said that if I go to Argentina, I should stop at Rio Gallegos, then head to the South Pole, land in Melbourne, and visit New Zealand."

"It would be a rather long journey," he joked.

The 86-year-old pope does not currently have any international trips on his official schedule, but he recently made a 4,000-mile journey to Mongolia and visited the French city of Marseille. Continue reading

We have to modify our lifestyles. The earth is suffering. Excessive consumption of the earth's resources has to stop. Or at the very least, change. Modify, says Pope Francis.

A major new international report shows 2021 record-breaking greenhouse gas emissions.

Despite that, international travel has been taking off.

Air New Zealand expects to be back to 90 percent of all its flights by 2025.

The world is set to reach pre-pandemic levels of air travel by 2024.

One way we in New Zealand can help is to re-think the way we travel. Our climate experts suggest canceling or cutting down on our trans-Tasman getaways especially. Have fewer, stay longer perhaps.

Transport and freight are major carbon contributors. Governments need to "do the heavy lifting to bring about change and decarbonise societies" climate experts say.

In his message for last Thursday's World Day of Prayer for Creation, Francis said the climate crisis is a call for everyone, especially Christians. We must "repent and modify our lifestyles and destructive systems".

Our common home's state of decay merits the same attention as other global challenges, he said.

Living our vocation to be protectors of God's handiwork is essential to a life of virtue. "It is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience."

The earth has fallen "prey to our consumerist excesses" and an attitude where people are at the centre of the universe is evident.

This has led to the extinction of many species and the loss of biodiversity. It greatly impacts the lives of the poor and vulnerable indigenous populations. Their ancestral lands are being invaded and devastated on all sides, Francis said.

Younger generations feel "menaced by shortsighted and selfish actions". They are "anxiously asking us adults to do everything possible to prevent, or at least limit, the collapse of our planet's ecosystems".

Francis hopes 21st century people will be remembered for generously shouldering their responsibilities.

Limiting global warming is a "call for responsible cooperation between all nations" to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to zero.

Francis hopes new agreements will "halt the destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of species". He is hopeful these will come about when world leaders meet at this year's COP27 and COP15 summits on climate change and biodiversity.

We need to modify "models of consumption and production, as well as lifestyles". Then we must transform them into something respectful of creation and integral human development, he says.

This requires "a covenant between human beings and the environment".

For believers, the environment is "a mirror reflecting the creative love of God, from whom we come and toward whom we are journeying."

Justice, especially for workers most affected by climate change, must be met as well, Francis says.

To prevent "the further collapse of biodiversity" he says the mining, oil, forestry, real estate and agribusiness industries must "stop destroying forests, wetlands and mountains, stop polluting rivers and seas, stop poisoning food and people".

Source

• Catholic News Service
• 1News

The vocally loud and unmasked protesters took over the Capital's streets and pavements as they snaked their way from Wellington's Civic Square, through Mercer and Willis Streets and down Lambton Quay to Parliament.

At one point it seemed there would be no end to the protest as more and more people just kept coming.

They were very loud.

A local business person told CathNews it was one of the largest protests in Wellington she has seen for a while.

The protestors' message was clear.

They were freedom marchers; chanting a range of phrases in opposition to what they labelled an experimental Pfizer vaccine and the vaccine mandate.

They protested the lack of choice for other vaccines, and a strong distrust for Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern.

The pro-Government and uninquiring role of the media also featured prominently in the protest; one placard saying the "Media is the virus".

Many also opposed the vaccine roll-out for children, with one young person emblazoned in a hand-painted T-shirt reading: "My mother calls the shots".

Others protested lockdowns, business closures, mental health and the rights of New Zealanders being trampled on.

One protester told CathNews she was there to support Aucklanders' whose mental health is under pressure and their livelihoods in jeopardy.

"Jacinda's not interested in Auckland, Aucklanders and their struggle.

"Her kindness is just for the cameras, and is fake", she said.

Also among the protestors were a number of religious fundamentalists, claiming New Zealand had lost faith in a God who will protect us all.

Commenting on the role of pentecostal protest, senior lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Waikato, Fraser Macdonald says Pentecostals seem unwilling and are unable to accept epidemiological explanations and strategies.

"Pentecostals' steadfast assertion that the raw power of the Holy Spirit will prevail over the principalities of darkness has run up against the cultural and environmental realities of the modern world", he writes.

Macdonald's comments were amplified, Tuesday by a protester who told CathNews: "They've removed Jesus from the Parliamentary prayer and the vaccine is all part of a new world order, Satin's agenda".

This fundamentalist pentecostal agenda is however at odds with mainstream churches; Cardinal John Dew again today is urging people to get vaccinated in order to help keep themselves and others safe.

Speaking with a Wellingtonian after the event, a woman said she's re-thinking what pro-choice means.

"I'm pro-choice on everything.

"Choice is good, but these people really annoy me", she volunteered.

"They're making me think about what being pro-choice actually means.

"Do they have any sense of social responsibility?" she posed.

"This protest was just socially irresponsible", she said through her mask.

Other reactions also condemned the protest, calling it "shocking" and those involved as having a "toxic underbelly".

Among those reacting was Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern who dismissed the participants, saying they did not represent the vast bulk of New Zealanders whom she thanked for getting vaccinated.

National's leader, Judith Collins however was more moderate, saying some of the messages were unhelpful, but that the protesters highlighted an issue of trust.

"There are people who don't trust the vaccine, who don't trust Pfizer, and who don't trust the Government".

"It is best not to dismiss them, it is best to deal with their concerns", said Collins.

On Monday, Singapore announced that anyone who is unvaccinated by choice will no longer receive free Covid-19 treatment.

Sources

• Supplied
• NZ Herald
• Stuff

But residents of a handful of places that successfully kept Covid-19 at bay — including New Zealand and Taiwan — actually lived longer. Read more

The report by UN special rapporteur Leilani Farha on adequate housing was tabled at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday, following her visit to New Zealand in February last year.

Housing speculation, a lack of affordable housing options, limited protection for tenants, substandard housing, the absence of an overarching Te Tiriti (treaty) and human rights based housing strategy, and a lack of adequate social housing or state subsidised housing are the main causes of the crisis, the report says.

Farha said housing had become a "speculative asset" in New Zealand rather than a "home", citing low interest rates coupled with an underdeveloped rental housing system with inadequate tenant protections. Read more

• Unlike Germany, there is no state support for the churches here.
• Unlike the US, piety is not worn on one's sleeve.
• Attend a funeral or a wedding in New Zealand these days and what springs to mind is the incredible variety of what is on offer.
• Celebrants, or even MCs, are more common than priests or ministers.
• Grief at funerals is not encouraged.
• Ritual is remarkable for its absence.
• Recently I attended a pub where Jesus Christ was very much present, but of course in rollicking, unselfconscious expletive form!
• These days life in New Zealand feels very secular indeed.
• Pakeha Kiwis are uneasy about the term religion.

One often hears: "I'm not religious", meaning I'm not, or no longer, a member or adherent of any church.

In comparison with the 1950s, institutional religion has moved to the margins, become a niche interest.

This does not necessarily mean a lack of interest in spirituality. Spirituality, however, is such a vague term.

How far can we stretch it?

Would it include, for example, the Santa parade, which is the nearest we come to a traditional religious procession? Thin gruel, indeed!

The old "main line" religions — Roman Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist — all tend to be tarred these days with a neocolonial brush, as having their cultural roots elsewhere.

This may partly explain the willingness to accept Maori rituals on community occasions, even when their content is largely Christian.

Maori now seems to function, as Latin once did, as the acceptable language for the numinous.

One suspects that the widespread loss of the churches' mana derives not only from recent revelations about sexual abuse, but from lingering, sometimes traumatic memories of religious bigotry and puritanism and narrowness. (Never apologised for, either.)

Interestingly, too, that the once vibrant liberal streams in Anglicanism, Presbyterianism, Methodism and Roman Catholicism have virtually dried up as well.

Yet one cannot speak simply of decline.

The evidence points every which way.

• The social analysis and input of the Salvation Army continues to carry conviction.
• Kiwi hymn-writers such as Colin Gibson and Sheila Murray rank internationally in the premier division.
• The religious poetry of James K. Baxter or the art of Colin McCahon remain powerfully resonant.
• Religious music is an integral part of the offerings of choirs and orchestras and folk concerts.
• At the University of Otago, the theology programme is part of the nuts and bolts of the place, unthinkable a few decades ago.
• Congregations which offer pastoral warmth, liturgical colour, and an openness to the tough issues of the day continue to flourish.

In his Nobel Lecture, Seamus Heaney famously described humanity as "hunters and gatherers of values".

Kiwis very much resonate to that quest, as seen in the remarkable response to Jacinda Ardern's evocation of "kindness".

Traditional Christian virtues seem to re-emerge in new dress.

For many Kiwis, however, the loss of traditional church authority and control has proved immensely liberating, not least in the area of gender issues, and in the rejection of the secondary values of respectability and social conformity.

Yet is it not the case that for many the new household gods of career and consumerism and individualism which have elbowed out Christianity have led to a dramatic narrowing of horizons?

The banality of daily life tends then to be mirrored in the soulless weddings and funerals which one encounters so often.

Swept clean of religion, the culture is inundated with secular kitsch. Continue reading

• Peter Matheson is a Dunedin historian.

It's the follow-up to another investigation in September which revealed that many of the same palm oil plantations made use of child labour and outright slavery.

Palm oil products have come under fire in New Zealand many times before, but usually, for the devastating environmental impact the plantations can have.

Clearing land for any tropical crop often necessitates clearing hectares of native forest, home to endangered species such as tigers and orangutans.

While a huge number of goods sold in New Zealand are potentially linked to these practices, there is no labelling or certification requirement for products which use palm oil, nor any real legal ramifications for companies which benefit from slave labour and other forms of abuse.

Tracking palm oil from the worst offending plantations all the way to supermarket shelves is extremely difficult, but there's no doubt that palm oil is a mainstay of some of New Zealand's most popular cosmetics and skincare products.

The reports also cast further doubts about the role of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an NGO which promotes "sustainable" palm oil products, but which was alleged to have ignored instances of worker abuse.

How palm oil came to be in everything

Palm oil is mainly extracted from the African oil palm, a tree which was brought by western colonists to many of the world's tropical climates. The reddish pulp is milled, refined, bleached and deodorised into an ingredient in a huge number of products.

Once just one of many oils used worldwide, western industrialists soon found palm oil had near endless versatility. T

he palms produce more oil per hectare than any other crop while delivering a product that stays solid at room temperature, rarely goes off, doesn't smoke when cooked, forms a lather in soaps, and even raises the freezing temperature of ice cream.

About a third of the world's palm oil is burnt by trucks as a component of biodiesel.

Needless to say, this cheaply produced oil generated huge demand, and western colonists in the tropics cleared vast swathes of forest for palm oil plantations throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

Nowadays, 85% of all palm oil is produced by corporations in Indonesia and Malaysia.

It has been estimated that each person on Earth consumes an average of just under 8 kilograms of palm oil every year, and much more if we consider cosmetics or fuel.

New Zealand is a major importer of palm oil, not only inside various products but also as a raw resource.

Dairy giant Fonterra imports more Palm Kernel Expeller, a palm oil byproduct and low-cost cattle feed, than any other company in the world.

Slavery and child labour on palm oil plantations

Millions of labourers work in palm oil plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia.

The first AP report focused primarily on workers who are undocumented migrants, often from the poorest corners of Asia, trafficked by their employers and living in fear of police raids.

One man, working for the state-owned Felda corporation in Malaysia, said his bosses confiscated and lost his passport, leaving him stranded and forced to sleep on the open ground of the plantation, constantly in fear of an attack by tigers.

His story was by no means unique: of the 130 workers interviewed in the report, nearly all reported similar experiences of being trafficked across borders. Many became indentured labourers, forced to work off debts to their employers for helping them enter the country.

However, the vast majority of palm oil workers are Indonesians who cross the porous border into Malaysia to take the low-paid jobs that Malaysians won't take.

The best-case scenario is to find a job making $2 a day, but many end up saddled with huge debts, or are forced to work for nothing under threat of having their passports destroyed.

Even under ideal conditions, working on the plantations is tough, dangerous work.

Workers must carry long sickles on poles to hack off palm branches large enough to injure or kill those below.

To meet the high quotas set by the companies, many workers bring on their families as helpers, where they act as unpaid labourers picking up the red pulp from the ground.

The first AP report was the most comprehensive investigation ever conducted into the industry, with workers from the majority of palm oil companies surveyed.

The report found that abuses and indentured labour were common in companies that had been given a seal of approval by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, a watchdog organisation which promotes environmental justice and better conditions for workers.

Women workers on plantations

The most recent AP investigation into palm oil plantations was much more specific in its goals, focusing on the treatment of women workers alone. The report found that women working in the palm plantations were much more likely to be abused by bosses, and found a slew of reproductive health problems endemic to the industry.

Investigators interviewed over 200 workers, government employees, activists and lawyers who confirmed that abuse, including sexual assault, was widespread across the industry.

An Indonesian official from the government's women and children's office in West Kalimantan province said the isolated location of palm plantations made sexual assaults common. In most cases, these were perpetrated by the plantation bosses and managers.

In addition to assault, many women workers reported health problems, often the result of chemicals used in tropical agriculture.

One woman said she suffered from fevers, coughing and nose bleeds after spraying pesticides without protective equipment.

Another woman mourned the babies lost through late-term miscarriages after being forced to carry heavy loads. Indeed miscarriages and infertility are alarmingly common, as women are forced to wade in the chemical runoff and carry loads so heavy that their wombs can collapse.

The report also notes that despite the enormous issues facing women workers, the RSPO has never investigated reports of abuse. Continue reading

Imam Gamal Fouda spoke out after two beheadings and the murders of three people at a Catholic church in Nice.

The attacks are abhorrent and contradict "the tolerant teachings of Islam and all good human values," he says.

"I condemn and denounce these heinous crimes, regardless of their perpetrator's motives or goals."

Hate speech, including towards Muslims, is wrong, he says. It's important to separate Islam and Muslims from the criminal acts.

Fouda who survived the March 15, 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings, is outspoken against extremism.

In the first Friday prayer in Hagley Park after the mass killings, he said:

"The terrorist tried to tear the nation apart with evil ideology but instead we have shown that New Zealand is unbreakable."

"We are broken hearted but we are not broken."

France's President Emmanuel Macron is continuing to work on ridding France of Islamic extremism. This work is part of a project he labels "separatism".

French Muslims have reportedly felt stigmatised by terror attacks and under pressure.

Fouda is also calling on President Macron and his government, and "everyone who offends Islam and the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, or any religion," to respect Islam.

We should do this just "as we must respect all beliefs without discrimination or racism against anyone," he says.

"This is the simplest principle of mutual respect between human beings."

"I also call on everyone to stand against extremism and I invite the French government and people to take a lesson from what happened in Christchurch, New Zealand after the terrorist attack on the two mosques on March 15, 2019 where the citizens and the government all united together against violence and declared that the principle of love will win against hatred."

At the same time, the Christchurch imam is calling on Muslims, especially those living in Western countries, to "combat any tendency towards extremism."

"I reiterate that terrorism has no religion, and all Muslims are called to reject this criminal act that is not related to Islam or to the Prophet of love and mercy," he says.

"All forms of violence and terror targeting anyone aim to destabilise security and stability and are inconsistent with all religious and human values and principles."

Soure

• NZ Herald
• Image: Stuff

In the 2019 Islamicity index, released earlier this year, New Zealand is ranked first overall, followed by Sweden, Iceland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark and Ireland. The top Muslim-majority country is United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 44.

New Zealand ranks 3rd in terms of its economy, 4th for legal and governance, 5th for human and political rights, and 8th for international relations. Read more

Education is awash with debates and dichotomies. Should schooling be about knowledge or personal discovery?

Should teachers provide motivation for learning or nurture it intrinsically?

Should schools provide freedom now or preparation for freedom as an adult?

For most teachers and parents, answers lie somewhere in the middle.

As Education Minister Chris Hipkins said: Education is a broad church. It's a wide spectrum with traditionalists at the one end and progressives at the other, all of whom believe their formula works best. The key to the changes we're making is to work hard to capture the best of each world view and bring the whole spectrum along.

Few could disagree.

Progress calls for solutions, not endless battles between extremes.

However, Hipkins' statement overlooks that official policy and ‘research' in New Zealand is far from ordinary.

Over the past few decades, the national curriculum and assessment have turned the school system into an experiment in child-centred orthodoxy.

The philosophy has changed everything from what is taught to the teacher's role in the classroom. It has transformed the purpose of school.

By appealing to the inarguable idea that children should be at the centre of decisions about their learning, children-centred orthodoxy has undermined subject knowledge.

It has told teachers they are at their most professional when they let their students lead.

Consequently, educational standards have plummeted. Despite a 32% real rise in per-pupil spending since 2001, students have gone from world-leading to decidedly average.

In reading, maths and science students now perform far worse than the previous generation just eighteen years ago. In all three subjects, 15-year-olds have lost the equivalent of between three and six terms' worth of schooling. Far fewer pupils today perform at the highest levels. Far more lack the most basic proficiency.

Worse, in the latest round of OECD testing, New Zealand recorded the strongest relationship between socioeconomic background and educational performance of all its comparator English-speaking countries.

Yet, without these international metrics, there would be no way to see this systemic failure. In fact, so strong is the grip of child-centred orthodoxy that the data from the national assessment, NCEA, shows the opposite. Continue reading

And South Auckland is the country's ground zero, where 23,000 calls come in yearly for family violence.

The area also has a large Maori and Pacific Islander population, but New Zealand's police force is mostly white.

Encounters between residents and officers summoned to respond to family disputes have often ended with arrests made and children funnelled into emergency state care, where a bewildering bureaucracy of government agencies and community organizations await.

Families regularly fall through cracks between services that compete for funding.

Often, when help comes, it arrives too late, or doesn't reflect the culture of perpetrators and victims.

"By the time you blink, you've got children living in a virtual war zone, and it's been a year down the track with five or six more incidents," said Jonelle McNeil, an operations manager for Barnardos, a New Zealand nonprofit that deals with children and their families impacted by family violence.

Maori are twice as likely to be victims of intimate partner violence compared to all New Zealanders.

Alcohol, poverty and other factors play a role in that.

It is a reflection of the generational trauma facing families whose parents or grandparents moved away from tight-knit, tribal communities to the largely unfulfilled promise of urban jobs.

This is layered over the impact of European colonization that began in the 1800s. (According to scholars who've studied the roots of the issue, violence toward a female partner was unacceptable in Maori society before European settlers enforced a gendered belief system.)

But a new Maori-led response to family violence in South Auckland is showing early signs of success in addressing the problem. Te Taanga Manawa — a Maori term meaning a place of rest and safety — was launched in March, bringing together 13 government, Maori and community agencies, including local police, in a single building.

The multi-agency team ensures a collaborative response that is quicker and more culturally nuanced.

As advocates for law enforcement reform in the U.S. wrestle with racial bias in police violence and seek more effective alternatives to traditional policing, New Zealand's experiment bears watching as a model for how police work and social work can be threaded together.

"It works well because there are no barriers, no bricks and mortar to separate the opportunity to deal with whanau [families] quickly and directly," said Dee-Ann Wolferstan. She is the chief executive officer of Te Whare Ruruhau o Meri Trust, a social justice arm of the Anglican Church, and Te Iwi o Ngati Kahu Trust, the support service of a Maori tribe.

Both organizations are involved in Te Taanga Manawa.

Te Whare began experimenting with a multiple-agency approach to family violence in 2018 by joining with Barnardos and Fonua Ola, a nonprofit organization that serves Pacific Islander families.

The organizations shared information, brainstormed together, and presented one cohesive strategy to each family.

That meant families had just one point of contact, said Wolferstan, "instead of a million."

Within 12 months, more than 90% of families referred to the initiative agreed to participate in programs like parenting classes, a jump from 20%.

In South Auckland, local police still respond to the initial incident. But instead of looking at the incident through just a law-and-order lens — make arrests or remove the perpetrator — they seek the root causes of family violence.

"Is this a food issue?" said Wilkie.

"Are there drug and alcohol issues? Have people lost their jobs? Do the children look malnourished?" Continue reading

On 8 June, the island nation announced that its last person known to be infected with COVID-19 has recovered.

This means that (at that stage, at least) the virus had been eradicated. In total, New Zealand (5 million inhabitants) has confirmed just 1,154 cases and 22 deaths because of the coronavirus.

This is undoubtedly a success that could be attributed to three major factors: a harsh lockdown, geographical remoteness, and widespread testing (up to 8,000 tests per day).

The media coverage of COVID-19 is being questioned as the disease has swept across the world.

While it is not out aim to question or belittle the success of New Zealand, we contend that the international media approach of singling out of New Zealand in the struggle against COVID-19 is unfair, dismissive, and problematic.

Why are some countries more newsworthy than others?

Why is New Zealand's success story exclusively highlighted in global news coverage, and not Tunisia, Taiwan, Jordan, Senegal, Vietnam, or Rwanda?

The answers to these questions can be addressed on two levels.

On the one hand, there is the bias of the Western media, undergirded as it is by both a certain "white saviour" narrative and undeniable structural racism.

The embattled Global North desperately needed some reassurance of its position of dominance, and New Zealand managed to hold out that silver lining.

After all, culturally, New Zealand is closer to the Western world than countries in Africa, the Middle East or South-East Asia who managed to defeat the virus despite their limited resources and lack of adequate technologies.

Italy, France, and the UK have completely failed in their responses to COVID-19, and the American President told US citizens to drink bleach.

In a piece in the New York Times, the lack of American leadership during the pandemic was bemoaned, but little or no mention was made of the countries setting positive examples.

Only one story on Vox mentioned Jordan as a success story, along with Iceland and Slovakia.

As a small country with almost double New Zealand's population, far less wealth, and an enormous refugee overload, the Kingdom of Jordan had 915 cases, 671 recoveries, and only 9 deaths.

The remaining stories related to Jordan reported on how it "flattened the curve."

In the same vein, only one piece by the American magazine Foreign Policy praised Taiwan. As an island state of 23.8 million people in Southeast Asia, located less than 150 km from the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak, Taiwan has recorded 443 cases, 431 recoveries, and only 7 deaths.

It is worth mentioning that Taiwan does not enjoy a membership in the WHO.

The island relied on its experience in fighting the SARS pandemic and has shown great adaptability in dealing with the COVID-19.

The example of Taiwan would be a case that can be studied, discussed, and duplicated if it had better media exposure.

This is what success in fighting coronavirus looks like.

But instead of having international media outlets amplifying the voices of these successful models, we get romanticised stories of how Germany is an "exception," even while reports studiously ignoring Germany's large death toll.

Iran was covered as if it was a "complete disaster," and yet the death toll there is almost exactly the same as in Germany.

And while reports — such as The Telegraph, Time magazine, CNN, and Ici Radio Canada — have all widely lauded the leadership and competence of two white women leaders, Angela Merkel and Jacinda Ardern, they fell short of extolling the achievements of women leaders from the Global South, such as President of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, and the Tunisian Chief Medical Officer, Dr Nissaf Ben Alaya.

On the other hand, while these aforementioned countries belong to the Global South, international news flow has historically remained in favour of the developed world or the Global North.

The unequal coverage and under-representation of the Global South already have been of great concern because of how they influence the way people perceive these countries.

Western Media are still unable to understand, much less admit, that there are other civilizations, cultures, models, and societal structures out there. It praises a "Western civilization" that they believe is to be universally adopted.

Praising New Zealand, Germany, and similar nations is not just an issue of media representation — it is an ideological, political, and historical phenomenon which is reflected in and reinforced by global politics. Continue reading

It is the "stuff of nightmares" Waitakiri Primary School teacher Helen Houghton told the committee.

"I believe our professional integrity comes under threat when we are required to teach ideology that many in our parent communities, as well as personally and professionally, disagree with," she said.

The petition urges the Ministry of Education to remove the learning objective for teaching gender diversity in the sexuality education guide and to remove gender diversity from the TKI website, a teaching resource.

Houghton told the select committee of a parent who contacted her recently.

She said the parent's daughter had reached out to support her cousin who came out as transgender and that they attended a support group together at school.

The parent told her: "My daughter decided to help him and went along herself a couple of times to the support group where I can only guess they somehow convinced her that she, too, was transsexual."

"I'm literally not exaggerating when I say she left the house that day female and returned with her hair shaved off, a chest-binder on, and wearing male clothes."

"Now, my daughter is this boy who believes he is meant to be a girl thanks to the guidance counsellor at school... This literally is the stuff of nightmares."

Houghton also spoke of a US woman who transitioned (from female to male) but later regretted the decision.

She has written about how she regretted becoming an "overweight, pre-diabetic nightmare of a transgender man".

Labour MP Kieran McAnulty says he's not convinced there's an issue with the current school syllabus.

He said Houghton "failed to convince" him there is an issue.

"I'm intrigued you came to the select committee to convince us there is an issue and you've used an overseas example presumably from the internet," he told her.

Despite her views on the curriculum, Houghton admitted she believes there "are people who suffer with gender dysphoria where they feel they are in the wrong body, a psychological condition not biological, which we must support".

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the Minister of Justice (Domestic and Sexual Violence Issues) Jan Logie said she hopes Houghton will "learn more about the needs of trans students".

During the select committee hearing, a comparison was made between teaching religion and gender with Houghton arguing they are both ideologies.

If "transgender ideology is to be imposed on all students, then Christian theology should have equal time," she said.

Logie responded saying being transgender is "not a belief system. It's about who they are and it's about inclusion."

Source

• NewsHub
• Image: Stuff

So far I have spoken in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Hobart and Launceston, Adelaide, Perth and Benalla in North East Victoria.

The idea for the forums came ahead of a visit to Papua New Guinea (including Manus Island), that I made in August, following my retirement from the Federal Parliament.

I wanted to get the message across to Australians and our government that even with the closure of the detention centre on Manus Island, the next step must be taken for those who remain in PNG as asylum seekers.

We must continue to urge the Australian Government to resettle those eligible asylum seekers in New Zealand.

The existing situation continues to cost Australians too much both financially and in terms of our reputation in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific.

The overwhelming response from the PNG people has been that it is time to end detention and they are proud and supportive of the action taken by their Prime Minister, James Marape, to initiate the termination of services provided to asylum seekers detained on Manus Island.

During my two terms as Member for Indi between 2013 and 2019, eight branches of Rural Australians for Refugees (RAR) in the electorate and the then National President, Marie Sellstrom, ensured I was informed of the status of those seeking asylum in Australia but placed in offshore detention in PNG and Nauru and in onshore detention in all Australian states.

Working with Rural Australians for Refugees provided the opportunity to speak directly to Australians about respect, justice and compassion for those seeking asylum and the need to find a solution to the plight of people "dumped" in PNG.

It is also important to respect the rights of PNG to manage its own affairs in the best interests of the country and its people.

I want to do more than speak to rural and regional Australians about the plight of asylum seekers.

I want everyone I speak with to take action and write to their local MP and State senators in the Federal Parliament. By taking this kind of action throughout our communities, there is a greater chance the Government will listen and respond.

Many within the faith communities I have spoken to in the past month support this approach. The Josephites, Brigidines, Baptists, Uniting Church and Anglicans have all provided venues for the speaking tour we have organised.

I thank them and my friends within RAR for their help.

Now we are asking all faith communities to support our request that the Australian Government end the punishment of people seeking asylum. Please write to the Australian Government and Parliamentarians, asking them to work cooperatively with the New Zealand and PNG Governments to find a resolution to the unacceptable quarantining of human beings on the islands of PNG and Nauru.

Pope Francis has said, "Migrants, refugees, displaced persons and victims of trafficking have become emblems of exclusion". It is shameful the Australian Government and the country's major political parties have taken this approach.

On September 30, 2019, Fr Giorgio Licini, General Secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of PNG and the Solomon Islands wrote:

"Nauru and Papua New Guinea fall within the majority of countries that, in spite of all the goodwill, still can't ensure proper care for their citizens.

"These countries have few doctors, scarcity of medicines, lack of equipment and lack of facilities.

"Thousands of people die in PNG every year from curable diseases despite everybody's efforts. Trying to push the idea that asylum seekers and refugees in PNG have proper health care is laughable and irritating."

Together with Rural Australians for Refugees, I ask all those who believe in social justice and human rights, especially the Bishops of New Zealand, to support Fr Licini and urge the Governments of New Zealand, PNG and Australia to work together to find a resolution to this issue seeking a fair and just process for people seeking asylum in the Asia Pacific Region.

• Cathy McGowan AO, Former Australian Independent Federal Member for Indi
• Image: Planning Institute Australia

I had to hope that my hosts would be very understanding. The black suit of a priest would hardly pass as ‘summer chic'!

At any celebration, the hosts are very much in charge.

They determine not only what the guests should wear but also where they will sit, what will happen and when, what is served and when the party will end.

However, the guests are not without influence, even power: knowing when to speak and what to say, being discrete yet playing their part, sensing the mood, making others grateful for your company and bringing out the best in them.

These are ways in which a guest can help make any occasion memorable.

Hosts and guests, then, need to work together to make their time in each other's company a success. One cannot do without the other!

For me, such thoughts prompt a question about the position of the Church in New Zealand.

• As a minority in our secular democracy are we now tolerated as long as we do not rock the boat, speak out of turn, challenge accepted patterns of behaviour?
• Are we expected to conform to all the written and unwritten rules of polite and acceptable Kiwi behaviour?
• When it comes to the well-being of the nation have we been effectively replaced for most by the social welfare State?
• Do we need to re-think, then, our ingrained assumption that the Church is still a necessary pillar of our society?

In short, is the Church now a guest in New Zealand hosted by a secular and democratic state?

At first glance, this may seem to be a very unpalatable idea.

We have, deeply embedded within us, the conviction that no earthly kingdom can ultimately be ‘the way, the truth and the life'.

Only the Church can reveal the fullness of human aspirations.

Why can't we speak up, then, as and when we like, in the name of the ‘Good News'?

Shouldn't we shout it from the rooftops? We are ‘the light of the world', after all.

And yet, changing our mind-set and considering the Church as a guest could well prove to be a blessing in disguise.

Thinking of itself as a guest may help the Church to refresh its sense of mission.

Could not the unwritten rules for a guest, the rules about speaking, being sensitive, allowing others to play their part, working for the good of all - guide the Church on how to be an appreciated presence in a country where talk of God and quoting the Bible are considered bad manners?

Would not accepting such a status be positively humbling by reminding us again of a truth we profess: that we are servants of the Word who ‘took the form of a slave'?

Such a guest might discover that it is not without influence - even power - in modern day New Zealand.

• Kevin Mowbray SM is currently an assistant priest at St Mary of the Angels Parish, Wellington, New Zealand. Recently returned to New Zealand, for 30 years Kevin worked in Asia before taking up the role of Marist Bursar General.

Yet Pakeha have not always cared to remember them in anything approaching a robust manner, engaging at different times either in elaborate myth-making that painted the wars as chivalrous and noble or, when that was no longer tenable, actively choosing to ignore them altogether.

More recently there are signs of a greater willingness to face up to the bitter and bloody realities of these conflicts. For many Maori, that is not before time.

If a turning point in Pakeha remembrance could be identified, then perhaps it might be the petition organised by students from Otorohanga College that led to a national day of commemoration for the New Zealand Wars: Ra Maumahara.

In 2014, students from the school, some as young as 15, visited nearby Orakau and Rangiaowhia.

The group was led by kaumatua who were descendants of the survivors. At each site, they recounted what took place during the invasions and the ongoing impact on hapu and iwi.

These stories had a profound effect on the students and their teachers, not least because the events in question took place in the Waikato, where they lived. Yet very few Pakeha seemed to know anything about them.

These silences weighed heavily on the young people.

They responded by starting a petition which called on the government to officially acknowledge the New Zealand Wars in a national day of commemoration and also to introduce local histories and studies of these conflicts into the school curriculum.

The petition, signed by more than 12,000 people and presented to Parliament in December 2015, attracted a groundswell of support from others who were also troubled by these silences.

In August 2016, the government announced that a national day of commemoration would be established (although not as a statutory holiday).

The first Ra Maumahara was hosted by Te Tai Tokerau iwi at Kororareka in March 2018.

But the government's willingness to acknowledge the wars did not extend to the school curriculum. Continue reading

Feminist abolitionists, who wish to see an end to the sex trade, call it "the oldest oppression" and resist the notion that prostitution is merely "a job like any other".

Now it would appear that the New Zealand immigration service has added "sex work" (as prostitution is increasingly described) to the list of "employment skills" for those wishing to migrate.

According to information on Immigration NZ's (INZ) website, prostitution appears on the "skilled employment" list, but not the "skill shortage" list.

My research on the sex trade has taken me to a number of countries around the world, including New Zealand.

Its sex trade was decriminalised in 2003, and has since been hailed by pro-prostitution campaigners as the gold standard model in regulating prostitution.

The promises from the government - that decriminalisation would result in less violence, regular inspections of brothels and no increase of the sex trade - have not materialised.

The opposite has happened.

Trafficking of women into New Zealand into legal and illegal brothels is a serious problem, and for every licensed brothel there are, on average, four times the number that operate illegally.

Violent attacks on women in the brothels are as common as ever.

"The men feel even more entitled when the law tells them it is OK to buy us," says Sabrinna Valisce, who was prostituted in New Zealand brothels both before and after decriminalisation.

Under legalisation, women are still murdered by pimps and punters.

When prostituted women become "employees", and part of the "labour market", pimps become "managers" and "business entrepreneurs", and the punters are merely clients.

Services helping people to exit are irrelevant because who needs support to get out of a regular job?

Effectively, governments wash their hands of women under legalisation because, according to the mantra, "It is better than working at McDonald's."

As one sex-trade survivor told me, "At least when you work at McDonald's you're not the meat."

The decision to include prostitution as an "employment skill" is a green light for pimps to populate brothels to meet the increased male demand for the prostitution of the most vulnerable women.

The practice of using human bodies as a marketplace has been normalised under the neoliberal economic system.

Supporting the notion that prostitution is "labour" is not a progressive or female-friendly point of view.

I have investigated the breast milk trade in Cambodia, where wealthy American businessmen recruit pregnant women and pay them a pittance for their milk.

I have seen desperately hungry men outside hospital blood banks in India, offering to sell their blood in exchange for food. Girls in the Ukraine sell "virgin" blonde hair for use as extensions in western salons.

It is increasingly common to "rent a womb" from women in the global south to carry a baby on behalf of privileged westerners.

In the Netherlands, which legalised its sex trade in 2000, it is perfectly legal for driving instructors to offer lessons in return for sex, as long as the learner drivers are over the age of 18. Continue reading

• Image: Spiked
• Note: Since first published in NZ Herald, New Zealand Immigration has determined the skill shortage for these jobs no longer exists. However, an archive of the shortage remains.

In a goofy, inattentive way I learned Latin and French at school, unconvinced that I'd ever need either of them, so unwilling to put an effort into learning them properly.

Like many kids, I was an idiot about this. It doesn't matter if you never go to Paris or ancient Rome, or a marae. A language is deserving for its own sake.

I can still read and understand some French, in spite of myself, and even now use meagre Latin to nudge at the meaning of unfamiliar words.

I'm no longer convinced that Latin is a corpse with a rusty dagger through its heart because it survives in the language we use every day.

For that matter, most Pakeha already know and use far more Maori words than our parents did; we just balk at the idea that we should work at it. I get that. I'm lazy too.

No language is irrelevant or pointless, though, whatever you think as a stroppy 13-year-old. They are all worlds that open up new ways of thinking and understanding.

Pakeha thought we were bringing civilisation to savages, and back in the early 19th century missionaries - my ancestors among them - took great care to learn te reo so that Maori would become Christian.

But maybe to them, we looked like savages: we brought alcohol and guns as well as religion, and land wars that led to illegal confiscations of Maori land.

Americans make triumphant westerns out of such conflicts. I like to think we have been quietly ashamed. Continue reading

• Rosemary McLeod is a New Zealand writer, journalist, cartoonist and columnist

This month Health Minister Jonathan Coleman announced a $100 million allocation to fund 17 initiatives to bolster mental health services and try to stem New Zealand's appalling record on youth suicide, which is the highest in the developed world.

My message to Dr Coleman is that bold, new approaches are needed.

It is great that he has stated youth suicide is his top priority.

Also on the right track is the discussion paper published last month by the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir Peter Gluckman, that called for more primary intervention starting early in life.

However, primary intervention can do only so much. It is front-line services which deal with people contemplating ending their life, where most of the focus should be.

Non-statutory organisations exist essentially because most official services don't work. Beefing up crisis help-lines like Youthline and Samaritans is a first step to prevent suicides.

What Dr Coleman should do is channel away from institutions like psychiatric hospitals and units, switching funding to charitable and not-for- profit organisations working on the front line.

It is a fact that these organisations save more lives than formal services.

Having worked in suicide prevention for 35 years - 15 of those within the psychiatric system and 20 outside - I seriously caution Dr Coleman and district health boards against spending more money on hospital beds.

This is my third visit in six years to conduct suicide prevention workshops for various groups; and, anecdotally, it looks like New Zealand, currently, is following the institutional approach that I was brought up by in the 1970s.

This approach is based on medicating, containing and controlling patients but fails to really engage with them as people. From what I have been told, currently, the system is short on talking treatments.

Putting someone in a psychiatric hospital increases significantly, the likelihood of suicide both as an inpatient and following discharge. Continue reading

• UK-based John Henden, author of Preventing Suicide: The Solution Focused Approach, was brought to New Zealand to conduct workshops for the Samaritans, Life Matters and Napier Events.

For counselling and support

• Need to talk? Free call or text 1737 any time
• Lifeline - 0800 543 354
• Samaritans - 0800 726 666
• Chinese Lifeline - 0800 888 880
  (for people who speak Mandarin or Cantonese)
• Youthline - 0800 376 633, free text 234 or email talk@youthline.co.nz
  (for young people, and their parents, whanau and friends)
• What's Up - 0800 942 8787
  (for 5-18 year olds; 1 pm to 11 pm)
• The Lowdown - visit the website, email team@thelowdown.co.nz or free text 5626 (emails and text messages will be responded to between 12 noon and 12 midnight)
• SPARX - an online self-help tool that teaches young people the key skills needed to help combat depression and anxiety.