To lift our vaccination rate we need to not just vaccinate those already booked in, but get more people actually wanting to vaccinate. And sadly the data is not looking great. Here’s the number of people who have been vaccinated or booked in from MOH data:

• 23 September 3.347 million
• 28 September 3.375 million
• 30 September 3.388 million

So the total wanting to be vaccinated has increased just 38,000 in one week which is 5,500 a day.

So at this rate we would only get to 90% in 77 days at the current rate. Now sadly the rate is more likely to fall than stabilise or grow but let’s assume it stays at 5,500 a day. That means we get 90% with one vaccination by around 16 December. And waiting six weeks for second doses gets you to end of January and two weeks after that for immunity to be most effective and we are in mid February.

This means that lockdowns may continue until mid February, unless the Government can lift the vaccination rates.

The Guardian reports:

Wayne Couzens has been ordered to spend the rest of his life in jail after a judge said his crimes were as serious as a terrorist atrocity because he abused his powers as a police officer to kidnap, rape and murder Sarah Everard.

The former Metropolitan police officer used his warrant card and handcuffs to get Everard, 33, into his car as she walked home in south London at the height of Covid lockdown restrictions in March. The restrictions were his probable pretext for stopping her.

Couzens drove her to Kent before strangling her with his police belt and burning her body. Lord Justice Fulford told Couzens his crimes had damaged the victim’s loved ones and wider society, shattering the Everard family, eroding faith in the police, betraying his wife and two children and stoking the fear women felt.

It was a hideous crime, and an appalling abuse of power.

What earned Couzens a whole-life tariff, said the judge, was the abuse of his position to commit his crimes, meaning the court would treat it as seriously as a murder carried out for a terrorist motive. The sentence means Couzens will die in jail.

Good. I wish we would see more life without parole sentences in NZ.

I believe lockdowns were a “necessary evil” in 2020 as there was no vaccine then for Covid-19 and our hospitals would not have been able to cope with mass infections.

But as we come towards the end of 2021, and we still have internal travel restrictions, it is worth reflecting how the powers granted to Government are a huge infringement of our human rights, and must be temporary. Before 2020, the thought you would need permission from the Government to get in your car and drive from Auckland to Hamilton would be something from a former Soviet country, or some sort of dystopian fiction.

And the notion that one could be confined to your house for weeks on end, only allowed out for local exercise and queuing at your local supermarket would have been dismissed as too fantastical for a fiction book.

So as some people argue these restrictions should remain with us in 2022, we should assert that the right to travel, the right to leave home, the right to go to work is not a privilege granted by Government, but a basic human right.

So let’s look at the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. and see how many we have temporarily suspended:

• Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person: Needing permission to leave your home is not liberty
• Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state: No freedom of movement for a third of the country
• Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country: 30,000 or more New Zealanders unable to return
• Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry: Not under Level 4!
• Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion;: Can’t go to church or mosque etc
• Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression: Can’t attend a protest march
• Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.: Not under Level 3 or 4
• Everyone has the right to work: Not when your employer can’t open or operate
• Everyone has the right to education: Not under Level 3 and 4
• Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community: Not under Level 3 or 4

Almost every major human right is infringed by lockdowns. They were a necessary evil pre-vaccine but we must be resolute in stating it will be unacceptable for them to be part of life going forward. People sneer about how people want to trade lives for holidays. The right to travel is not a privilege. The right to return to NZ is not a privilege. The right to attend church services is not a privilege etc.

Stuff reports:

Two senior judges did not act inappropriately when contacting a Family Court judge in relation to a part-heard case, the Judicial Conduct Commissioner has found, but he said that guidelines for judges could be made clearer.

Commissioner Alan Ritchie decided to investigate after reading an article on Stuff on August 25, which revealed that Judge Peter Callinicos had been contacted by Chief District Court Judge Heemi Taumaunu and Principal Family Court Judge Jackie Moran in relation to the part-heard “Moana” case.

Judge Callinicos said the senior judges had wanted to convey concerns from Oranga Tamariki interim chief executive Sir Wira Gardiner. He said their actions were inappropriate and any communication would be “a breach of judicial independence”.

A government agency involved in a court case secretly complains about the Judge to the two bench heads and they approach the Judge while case is still live – hard to think of a more open and shut case of breaching judicial independence.

In a preliminary report issued on Wednesday, Ritchie said he decided to treat the media coverage as a complaint due to “the perception I have of a growing and wide-ranging concern felt (rightly or wrongly) by parties to proceedings, complainants and others in the community about challenges being faced by women and children in the Court system”.

This implies there were no formal complaints, which is false. Lawyer Tony Ellis complained, and I believe others did also.

The commissioner sought comment from Judges Taumaunu and Moran. Judge Taumaunu denied any attempt to direct Judge Callinicos and said he and Judge Moran wanted to engage with Judge Callinicos about their concerns over his “in-court conduct”, not his decision-making.

Here’s the incredible thing. The JCC never interviewed or sought comment from Judge Callinicos. This is the Judge who said he regarded the approaches as inappropriate and a breach of judicial independence. And the JCC did not even talk to him. He just talked to the two bench heads. I’m sorry, but that destroys any credibility in my eyes.

And the suggestion it was only about his in-court conduct is risible, as if so they could raise that after the case was decided. But they intervened while the case was live.

Judge Moran said there had been numerous complaints about Judge Callinicos and “they had to be addressed promptly by the Heads of Bench in order to prevent their recurrence and to maintain public confidence in the Court”.

She said she held monthly meetings with senior Oranga Tamariki staff and those meetings frequently involved discussion about difficulties the organisation’s Napier office was experiencing with Judge Callinicos.

So now they make Judge Callinicos to be the person at fault. They cite numerous complaints but were all of these from Oranga Tamariki? Why does a government agency get to have secret meetings with the heads of bench?

There is a well established procedure for raising concerns about Judges – the lawyer takes it to the local law society who takes it to the NZ Law Society President who raises it with the head of bench. In this case OT was communicating directly while the case was active.

Judge Moran said Oranga Tamariki believed Judge Callinicos’s alleged behaviour was “seriously undermining the confidence of the Napier community and compromising the safety of children”.

This was especially so in the “Moana” case, she said. Three social workers involved in the case “were so badly treated by the judge that they were left feeling mocked and beaten to the extent that psychological support had to be organised for them,” she said.

Actually the problem seemed to be the OT staff lied to the court and were found out. They were held accountable for their terrible behaviour. I’ve read his judgement and here are some extracts:

It is apparent from the evidence that, unbeknown to the caregivers, Moana’s lawyer and the Court, certain Ministry personnel had been planning to retract from the purported permanent placement of Moana with the Smith’s and instead place her with Ari’s caregivers. The evidence in support of this being a clandestine strategy is both strong and concerning. It does not put the actions of the Chief Executive in a good light. …

The evidence demonstrates how Ms Martin operated simultaneously in two worlds; what she said or wrote to persons external to the Ministry, and what she communicated internally of it. The external and internal communications were often polar opposites. …

The evidence of most of the Ministry’s witnesses left the impression that they have lost sight of the importance of review documents, almost as if they were a mere tick box or perfunctory exercise, rather than carrying any real purpose. The evidence of some social workers around their lack of awareness of what was contained in the statutory reports was concerning. It was of such level that it supported a conclusion that the social workers did not place much stock in the importance of these fundamental documents. …

Judge Harrison recorded her concerns as to what she called the “untruthful, unprofessional…and emotionally abusive” statements made by one social worker.

I have no doubt OT staff do not like appearing before Judge Callinicos. But that is their fault, not his.

Complaints about Judge Callinicos’s behaviour in the ‘Mrs P’ case were dealt with by the Commission in June. Ritchie declined to refer the matter to the Attorney-General and instead referred it to the heads of the High Court and District Court, stating it was up to them what they wished to do.

Judge Callinicos told Stuff he had not been approached by the commissioner.

“If the Judicial Conduct Commissioner was investigating a complaint in which I was a participant, but not the subject of, then in the absence of some extraordinary reason, I would have thought that I would have been invited to make input,” he said on Wednesday night.

This is the most incredible aspect. Judge Callinicos was never interviewed or approached by the Commissioner. This is farcical.

HDPA writes:

It’s been fascinating to watch the reaction to Sir John Key involving himself in the political debate around our Covid response. 

One of the more interesting hot takes was that John Key isn’t reading the room right, which is to say he’s not in step with public opinion.  

Isn’t he?  

Feels to me like he’s absolutely reading the room right when it comes to Auckland.  

I gather this might be news to Wellington, but Auckland is angry. Auckland is over this lockdown.    

Compliance is way down. The streets are busy. People are breaking bubbles outside cafes.  More than thirty people played a game of touch in mt roskill.  We’ve had reports of people having parties at their houses.  And that’s just what ends up in the papers.  

I really feel like the mood is changing.  John Key is only the latest high-profile kiwi to have a crack at the way the Covid response is being run.  Rob Fyfe did, Sir Ian Taylor did, Don Braid of Mainfreight did, 90% of the columnists in yesterday’s papers did.  This wasn’t happening six months ago.  

The polls are shifting in opinion.  Remember that Herald poll showing support for elimination?  Well, only 46% of people wanted to keep endlessly eliminating.  A bigger number, 52% wanted us to drop elimination now or drop it after we got to 70% vaccination rate.  

This weekend, Research NZ put out a poll showing 70% support for lockdowns.  But look closer. Two thirds of those people said they only support lockdowns until we get vaccinated.    

Which is my position. Lockdowns must be a temporary tool that is phased out.

Last night I reflected that I began teaching thirty years ago. Leading into that I had an Economics degree and a teaching diploma. While teaching in the first few years I was desperate to understand the inequity in our system and the lack of political investment in genuine excellence for all. Equity with excellence is called mediocrity (a level above where we currently are).

Last week I read an article by very passionate journalist Ethan Te Ora on housing for Maori over the last thirty years.

These were some key comments:

“No Māori will own houses by 2061, unless the current trajectory reverses.”

“Migration to the cities, however, was effectively a transition from a subsistence lifestyle into low-wage work.”

“You still needed a decent income, to be able to service your mortgage.”

“Even when whānau did manage to buy a house in the city, the reliance on the Government for work was a ceiling of another kind. “They were at the bottom level in terms of income, meaning there was no intergenerational wealth developing,”

 “The other reasons were wide-spread institutional racism, and the inability to accumulate intergenerational wealth.”

“Māori have moved into the cities; they’re working predominantly for the public sector,” Rout says. “They’re in this really precarious position, where they are dependent on the state for their income and housing.”

“It was the year Māori home ownership rates started to drop, and they never rose again,” Rout says. “They just kept trending down.”

Where we are racist as a nation in education is not through a system that cannot bring young people up – but that we carry a set of expectations on a daily basis (from a range of sources) that young Maori and Pasifika, poor and neuro-diverse are less capable than the apparent favoured few. We expect noting but what Hipkins calls “appropriate pathways.”

I once got published in Stuff on housing. The key point being that we live in a market economy. To buy a large asset you have to save. To save you have to have the ability to earn more than you spend. To do that you have to have a skill set to offer to employers or you need to take risks as an entrepreneur.

Sir Peter Buck is one of my role models on I draw on frequently (there are many others alive today bucking trends).

I love this information: “This was a great tribute, because Peter was a well-educated man. In 1896, he went to Te Aute College, a place that forever helped his future. When Peter started at the boarding school, it was under the leadership of John Thornton, who taught the boys unforgettable lessons in life. “I remember that he once emphasised the fact that everyone, no matter how humble his walk in life, was necessary to the fullness of human society,” Peter wrote.

For any family to have intergeneration wealth change education is a major key. If you leave school and you have no, or very limited, qualifications you have nothing to offer to an employer (your earning mechanism). Without a ticketed trade, degree and/or profession, or ability and willingness to take ownership risks you are stuck on a minimum wage or welfare. Wealth growth is simply not on your horizon. It CANNOT happen.

I am not a person given to despair; however I have never seen our education system so disconnected, disregarded, segregated and neglected by a Minister and Ministry. Schools that were once pillars of their towns, cities and regions are in decline. The newest schools are statues of mediocrity. Is it any wonder that employers are desperate for immigrants to fill skill gaps because our schools are failing at a very deep level.

Our young people deserve better and with genuine leadership the best is yet to come. It is not just the government – even this week in the House – not a single question on education at any level. National and ACT are completely MIA in this area. They need as much pressure as Hipkins does. A government can only be held properly accountable by an active and informed opposition. Try and guess who the Greens spokesperson is?

When we have 10,500 of school age students not even enrolled. When our decile 1 – 3 children are fully attending at 41%, when we have a range of schools losing their 14 – 16 years olds at up to 30%, where some of our high-profile schools have less that 15% moving into degree study, when Maori and Pasifika achieve UE at 20% and Asian students at near 70% … where can “intergenerational wealth change” possibly come from?.

If a Labour reader ever drifts here … I will call anyone out from any government … but this has been, by far, the worst government (very must including our Ministry leadership) for children and education in our history.

I can back it up with a full-set of processed data on our high-schools. Email me on:
[email protected]

www.innovativeeducation.co.nz/

National released:

The Government must urgently explain why it wants to give itself the power to delay next year’s local body elections limitless times through to 2023, National’s Covid-19 Response spokesperson Chris Bishop and Local Government spokesperson Christopher Luxon say.

“The Government is currently able to adjourn a local election for up to six weeks in a local body election year.

“In a bill introduced to Parliament only yesterday, and now rushed through its first reading under urgency, the Government wants to empower itself to adjourn polling day multiple times without constraint – and not just in an election year, but the year after as well.

Considering local body elections are done via postal ballot, this sneaky urgent law change should be seen as a bad faith power grab, and be rejected.

If the Government really thinks its management of Covid-19 is so bad that we can’t even have local elections in October 2022, then its pretty dire for those sick of lockdowns.

The Herald reports:

The highly contagious Delta variant of Covid-19 is “seated” in Auckland’s gang communities and among rough sleepers, the Ministry of Health has told MPs today.

“If we think about the current outbreak, how it seems to have seated itself in a gang environment and the homeless, these are people that are less likely to be trusting of the health system,” pacific health director Gerardine Clifford-Lidstone said at today’s online select committee briefing on the Government’s response to Covid-19.

Gangs are not just less trusting of the health system – they are less inclined to regard themselves as bound by the law. So when most NZers are following the law around lockdowns etc – why are we surprised that many gang members are not?

Yesterday Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said a South Auckland boarding house that provided transitional housing was the focus of a new sub-cluster as cases emerged among residents.

Many in transitional housing are gang members or affiliates.

So the question I have, is how many of the current Covid-19 cases involve gang members or associates?

Stuff reports:

Two judges have taken remarkably different stances on a controversial drug rehabilitation programme, which targets gang members, who suffer addiction issues.

Earlier this month, two gang members, in two cities, came before two judges for meth-related offending. Both asked for sentencing discounts for attending a new drug rehabilitation programme, which is led by the Notorious Chaindog chapter of the Mongrel Mob. They received two very different reactions.

One believed the controversial gang-run rehab programme provided valuable treatment, and warranted a discounted sentence. The other said there was nothing to back up the efficacy of the programme, adding that the involvement of a group that was central to the country’s meth problem undermined the validity of the initiative.

Again the Mongrel Mob have it so good. They make money importing and selling meth. They make money running a course to “rehabilitate people” from meth and if any of their own members get caught, they go on the course which both generates more money for the mob, but also allows them to ask for a lighter sentence.

These cases, which played out in the High Court at Wellington and the Napier District Court, show the differences in how members of the judiciary view the Kahukura drug-rehab programme.

This is the key – one judge was local and knows how ridiculous it is to have the Mob both selling meth and running a rehab course for it, and one is in Wellington.

National has released their Covid-19 plan. A summary of the key points are:

1. Supercharge vaccine rollout – prioritise South Auckland, increase resources for Maori health providers, vaccinate in MIQ, use incentives, vaccinate in schools, be ready to vaccinate 5 – 11 year olds once approved and mandate vaccinations for healthcare workers
2. Order vaccine boosters – Order boosters for 2022 and 2023 now.
3. Upgrade contact tracing
4. Roll out saliva testing – mandatory daily testing for border workers and in quarantine.
5. Roll out rapid tests – Have rapid testing for arrivals from low and medium risk countries, essential workers and allow all NZers to access rapid testing if desired
6. Set up a dedicated Covid response agency – will be based in Manukau, not Wellington.
7. Build purpose built quarantine facilities – Aim to open in early 2022
8. A digital app to authenticate your vaccination status – would also include history of tests
9. Invest in next generation Covid-19 treatments – Ringfence some Pharmac funding for Covid-19 treatments
10. Expand ICU capacity – implement a specialist healthcare workforce migration plan, support migrant nurses already in NZ, fast track build of new wards

All 10 points look great to me, and should already be happening – sadly they are not. National of course can’t make any of these things happen as they are not in Government. But by clearly stating what they would do, they will hopefully influence the Government to move quicker on saliva testing, rapid testing, a dedicated quarantine facility and expanding ICU capacity.

National then proposes a three step future.

1. Status quo – lockdowns with elimination strategy
2. 70% to 75% vaccination rate – elimination strategy without lockdowns
3. 85% to 90% vaccination rate – vigorous suppression strategy with traffic light travel system into NZ

The vigorous suppression strategy will still see tools such as vaccination boosters, mass testing, contact tracing, isolation for positive cases, use of Covid-19 app and mask wearing.

The normal hysterical types will claim 90% vaccination rate is not enough to open up and that it would lead to thousands of deaths. You have to wonder if the highest vaccination rate in the world would not be enough to open up for them, then what would be? Will they give a straight answer as to what level they would open up?

And this is the problem with the Government. We know that at some stage they will open up the borders, as the rest of the world is. But they won’t tell us their criteria for deciding (possibly because they don’t have any). National is being transparent and honest in laying out what they would do.

I will link to the full policy when it is online. It is 52 pages long and extremely detailed. It is one of the most thorough and considered policy documents I have seen from an opposition party, and should be a template for others.

One News reports:

The 1News Colmar Brunton poll asked whether vaccines should be made mandatory, except for those with a medical exemption. The results are as follows:

It should be made mandatory for all New Zealanders aged 12 and over: 44%

It should only be made mandatory for New Zealanders aged 18 and over: 17%

It should not be made mandatory: 35%

This shows that the majority of NZers have been scared into supporting draconian measures.

I am a huge vaccine fan. On Tuesday I became fully vaccinated with my second shot. I think any adult who chooses not be vaccinated is foolish.

But people have a right to decide for themselves their own medical treatment. The thought of the state forcing an adult to undergo medical treatment they don’t wish to, is repugnant. You can make a case for certain jobs to require vaccinations, but there is no case for forcing a medical treatment on a non consenting adult.

Likewise, Council for Civil Liberties spokesperson Thomas Beagle said it should be “the very last method” chosen.

“There’s a lot of other things we can do first before we get into coercion or forcing people,” Beagle said.

The Council for Civil Liberties should not be saying forcible vaccinations is the last method chosen. It should be saying it is never acceptable. There is a difference.

The Herald reports:

Norway has ditched all its Covid-19 measures, even social distancing, in a radical move that as yet has unclear consequences.

On Friday, the Nordic nation’s government announced that it was time to “live as normal” with Covid-19 after 561 days of enduring some kind of restriction, whether that be venue capacity limits or stay-at-home orders.

Now, Norwegians can attend restaurants, night clubs, sporting events and anything else at full capacity, with social distancing thrown out the window.

They’ve even started encouraging travel outside of Europe, removing travel warnings.

The new rules come into effect on Saturday, 4pm local time (Sunday, 4am NZT).

“It is 561 days since we introduced the toughest measures in Norway in peacetime … Now the time has come to return to a normal daily life,” Prime Minister Erna Solberg told reporters.

More and more countries are doing this. The restrictions were the right thing to do, but they must be temporary not permament.

The Herald reports:

The Lancet medical journal has been accused of sexism after describing women as “bodies with vaginas” on the cover of its latest edition.

A Tweet sharing the front page has provoked a wave of criticism, with academics cancelling their subscriptions and resigning as reviewers, doctors blasting the phrase as “dehumanising” and activists suggesting the term is “unhelpful” for broader debates about inclusivity.

If only there was some sort of medical term for human bodies with vaginas, then the Lancet could use it. Maybe there was one that was popularly used in the past?

TVNZ have released the latest One News Colmar Brunton poll. Key details are:

Party Vote

• Labour 43% (-3% from last poll)
• National 26% (-3%)
• Greens 8% (nc)
• ACT 14% (+5%)
• Maori 2%
• NZ First 3% (+2%)

Seats

• Labour 55 (-10 from election)
• National 34 (+1)
• Greens 10 (nc)
• ACT 18 (+8)
• Maori 2 (nc)

Preferred PM

• Jacinda Ardern 44% (-4%)
• Judith Collins 5% (-4%)
• David Seymour 11% (+5%)
• Christopher Luxon 3% (nc)
• Simon Bridges 2% (nc)

On this poll the CL parties have 65 seats and the CR parties 52 seats. If the CR parties can gain 7% or so over the next two years, they would be in a position to govern.

AP reports:

Israel is pressing ahead with its aggressive campaign of offering coronavirus boosters to almost anyone over 12 and says its approach was further vindicated by a U.S. decision to give the shots to older patients or those at higher risk.

Israeli officials credit the booster shot, which has already been delivered to about a third of the population, with helping suppress the country’s latest wave of COVID-19 infections. They say the differing approaches are based on the same realization that the booster is the right way to go, and expect the U.S. and other countries to expand their campaigns in the coming months. …

Most adults had received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine by March, causing infection levels to plummet and allowing the government to lift nearly all coronavirus restrictions.

But in June, the highly infectious delta variant began to spread. After studying the matter, experts concluded that the vaccine remained effective against the virus, but that its efficacy waned roughly five months after the second shot.

In late July, Israel began distributing booster shoots to at-risk citizens, including those over 60. Within weeks, it expanded the campaign to the general population.

More than 3 million of Israel’s 9 million citizens have gotten a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine, according to the Health Ministry.

In a study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine, Israeli experts said that in people who had been vaccinated five months earlier, the booster increased vaccine efficacy tenfold compared with vaccinated patients who didn’t receive it.

The science seems clear that booster shots increase protection dramatically, especially for over 60s. The effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine starts to decrease after five to six months. This is significant for New Zealand as it is around six months ago we started to vaccinate our over 60s. We should now be starting to give them booster shots. Instead we are still a long way off even having a majority of the population had their second shot.

The Herald reports:

A Mt Roskill resident called 111 three times yesterday morning to report a touch rugby game involving 32 people at Margaret Griffin Reserve, with police confirming they took an “education first approach” advising the group of the level 3 restrictions.

She called 111!!!

Not once, not twice, but three times – on a game of touch rugby.

The Mt Roskill resident described being so angry she was shaking after reporting the touch rugby incident.

She should seek counselling.

A very good op ed in Stuff from Muhammad Umar.

Similarly, I am not shy to say that there will be some extremist people present in the Muslim community, and also, there are several conservative people.

But there are many who want to be integrated, who are just like normal day-to-day Kiwis.

Why there are several conservative people present in western societies, why some become extremists, and others become more tolerant and open minded, is very hard to understand.

But one way to comprehend this is by understanding the difference between Islam (faith) and Islamism (ideology, or in other words, the fundamentalist version of islam).

By the end of 19th century, many Muslims were living under European rule, and their power was diminishing.

Turkey and Malaysia went towards secularism and reformism versions of islam. But some Middle Eastern regions went towards Islamism, and the idea that Muslims are lagging behind the west because they are not good Muslims.

In this version, they need to be devoted Muslims and reject the influence of the West in order to gain back glory.

Islamist groups (Islamism inspired) were there before 9/11, but after this incident, the rise of Islamist groups helped shift some Muslims away from their national identities, towards a more exclusive Muslim ummah one.

When some of these migrants with Islamist thinking (Muslim ummah) come to New Zealand and other western countries with preconceived conservative ideas, because they cannot change the society here by preaching or by force, they become even more conservative in their own thoughts. 

They will sometimes start doing hardcore rituals with even more passion, they will meet with only other similar mindset and ethnic backgrounds.They will celebrate only their own festivals and become wary of all other thoughts.

Some will just stay in their bubbles. Some of the very conservative ones will get strongly associated with Madrassahs and mosques, thinking that this would be a salvage against all the sins they see in the society, and will save them from hell fire.

These Madrassahs have the potential to become breeding spaces for Islamist thinking where men, women and children go learn hardcore rigid Islamic beliefs. …

Not everyone is like this. There are people who don’t get into the trap of Islamism, or who were just weakly associated with political ideology of islam.

There are people who just accept Islam as personal faith, and to get connected with God. They accept science and logic, admire the west, and want to learn from them. 

These people meet and greet and make friendships with all others irrespective of their religion, race or language.

These are the Muslims who become critical thinkers and free thinkers. 

They become more moderate, they become more flexible, they become more integrated into society. 

They raise questions on their preconceived ideas and learn. 

They accept everyone and stop looking at everything from religion’s lens.

These are the people who are not fascinated by the ideas of death and afterlife. Instead, they connect with life itself and with humanity.

There are many of these people in New Zealand society.

Nicely said.

News.com.au reports:

An angry backlash has erupted after an all-boys netball team won a state title in Queensland by beating sides made up of female players in the decider.

The Queensland Suns Under-17 team was comprised entirely of boys and won the Under-18s championship in Brisbane this week, beating regional female teams en route to the trophy. …

Netball Queensland has strongly defended the state’s decision to allow an all-boys team to take part in the state netball competition.

“We want to make clear that there is a place for everyone in our sport,” it said in a statement on Thursday.

“We stand by the decision to choose inclusion over exclusion.

I actually played netball when at university. I’m all for men and boys playing netball and all for women and girls playing rugby. No sport should be reserved for one gender.

But that is very different to not having different competitions for men and women or boys and girls. Tennis is an inclusive sport but they don’t have one Wimbledon competition – they have one for men and one for women. If they didn’t, then not even Serena or Venus WIlliams would be there. So would that be inclusive?

You can be both fair and inclusive. It isn’t that hard.