Wheeler,s Corner NZ special Feb 2023

Wheeler’s Corner January 2023

Connecting people who care

Henry A. Giroux wrote a wonderful piece on neoliberal’s connection to the pandemic facing America and its handling of it. Using his words and adding my comments I hope to link ANZ [Aotearoa New Zealand] to the various points he makes: Those words in italics are his words.

“The current coronavirus pandemic is more than a medical crisis, it is also a political and ideological crisis. It is a crisis deeply rooted in years of neglect by neoliberal governments that denied the importance of public health and the public good while de-funding the institutions that made them possible. At the same time, this crisis cannot be separated from the crisis of massive inequalities in wealth, income and power. Nor can it be separated from a crisis of democratic values, education and environmental destruction".It is impossible not to agree to that paragraph.

Henry A. Giroux went on to write:

“The corona-virus pandemic is deeply interconnected with the politicization of the natural order through its destructive assaults waged by neoliberal globalization on the ecosystem. In addition, it cannot be disconnected from the spectacle of racism, ultra-nationalism, anti-immigrant sentiment, and bigotry that has dominated the national zeitgeist as a means of promoting shared fears rather than shared responsibilities.

COMMENT: You can naturally have your own opinion regarding the political aspects of the above paragraph, but the question for me is: Do those words have meaning for us in ANZ, yes I think so, We entered into the mad world of neoliberalism madness with the Clark Douglas Labour Government followed by the National led governments. Remember the Nats even attempted to sell off our public hospitals. Just imagine if that had happened...

“The plague has as one of its roots a politics of de-politicization, which makes clear that education is a central feature of politics and it always plays a central role — whether in a visible or a veiled way — in any ideological project. For instance, it has been a central pedagogical principle of neoliberalism that individual responsibility is the only way to address social problems, and consequently, there is no need to address broader systemic issues, hold power accountable or embrace matters of collective responsibility. As a politics of containment, neoliberalism privatizes and individualizes social problems, i.e., wash your hands as a way to contain the pandemic. In doing so, cultural critics Bram Ieven and Jan Overwijk argue, “it seeks to contain any real democratic politics; that is to say, a politics based on collective solidarity and equality [because] democratic politics is a threat to the market.”

Well in this day and age we have yet to move collectively to combat climate change and its effect on how we presently do things; as an example take coal for example.

Neo-liberalism debt that isn't recorded anywhere on the government's books. But the fact that its not recorded doesn't mean it doesn't exist or doesn't cause problems merely that its not properly managed. And the government needs to manage it, by paying off that debt and investing in hospitals, homes, and yes, teacher's salaries, before it makes any moves to give it themselves as tax cuts”.

It’s hard not to agree with NRT, when our so-called surplus is at the expense of people who are really feeling the pinch, it really proves that the present Government pretends to care when in fact their Neo-liberal fraction is still running things.

We’ve had eighteen years of Neo-liberal madness and look where it has gotten us. On a forever slippery slope of ever declining living standards. We don’t need tax breaks for the wealthy as the Nat’s would have us believe... but I see little change happening because the guy they put in charge of the tax so-called working group, was and still is the same Neo-liberalist that was there when Douglas ruled the roost.

The people of Auckland can now understand just what it means to understand what it means to ignore climate change and its effects, houses have been washed off hill sections, streets have been flooded, roads and bridgers washed away and people killed because we as a nation have failed to take climate change seriously. The TV and media pictures show clearly how slowly those in power have considered the risks facing humanity

Here in Palmerston North a group of supporters of climate change activists have been attempting to make PN residents aware of ignoring the clear evidence of climate change.

XR Manawatu Led by Philip has appeared every Friday outside the PNCC building corner every Friday, assisted by Rachael, Beth, Kirsty, Jean, Angela, Helena and myself

Well we held a meeting and decided to ask other groups to join us in getting the message about climate change urgency we had an offer from a group

The beehive collective to come to our regular Friday in Te Marae O Hine on Feb 17th. 2023

The Beehive Design Collective is a wildly-motivated, all volunteer, activist-art collective dedicated to “cross-pollinating the grassroots” by creating collaborative, anti-copyright images for use as educational and organizing tools. We work anonymously as word-to-image translators of complex global stories, gathered and shared through first hand conversations with affected communities.

They have made large portable murals of drawings about subjects and use the murals to tell stories and educate.

The mural that they would bring to us is about

The True Cost of Coal, They examine all of our connections to coal, while celebrating stories of struggle from mountain communities. The last chapter of the story also looks to the future, raising questions about alternatives, remediation, and regeneration.