D.W. de Boer

New Zealand experienced two very important events this week that are more closely related than you might think. First, the chairman of the social housing ministry was sacked for making political statements in public.

New Zealand often plays an insignificant part in greater geopolitical schemes. But we've been part of the current world order since before the outbreak of the Great War.

While I've enjoyed many summer birthday celebrations, I was born in the winter. The cold and wet weather of this year's birthday felt like something of a flashback to 28 years ago.

If you've had a look at the new census forms being sent out, you will have noticed there's a new question: "what is your gender" which is followed immediately by "what was your sex at birth?" This is deliberately dishonest on their part.

When I saw Paul Hunt's comments on white supremacy being woven into the fabric of New Zealand, I thought about putting some brief comments on my Telegram or my Twitter and carrying on.

As Cyclone Gabrielle bore down on our coasts, the MetService warned about what the storm god Tawhirimatea "has in store for us over the next few days" and that the sea god Tangaroa told them that the ocean would be unpredictable.

Every now and then I think about the 2006 "prophetic documentary" Idiocracy, which is about a future America where everyone is stupid because the underclass of society has lots of babies and the intelligentsia has none.

One of the key takeaways that commentator Bryce Edwards took from Chris Hipkins' first speech as Prime Minister is that he failed to mention "Aotearoa" or any other Maori words and that therefore his premiership will be one of "dewokification".

Jacinda Ardern resigned suddenly as Prime Minister on Thursday, bringing back into focus the power of the Maori Caucus. In many ways the inevitable end to the liberal order that must come with co-governance had made Jacinda's position untenable.

The knighthood of Sir Ashley Bloomfield has something to teach us about the proper functioning of the elites in any ordered system. Now, our system is ordered towards evil, but it is still a somewhat ordered system.