Mark Keown

According to the Herald this morning, John Key is asking New Zealanders to spend their tax cut or give it to charity ( http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10562448 ). I for one don't think now that is the time to be giving tax cuts to New Zealanders when we are facing a real economic crisis. Labour should have moved in this direction when the economy was strong, but now the moment has passed. It will come again, and I think we should wait until the crisis has passed. I suppose Key thinks he can't break an election promise. However, I think he should as this increases the national debt and we may need that money for the unemployed and suffering. We may pay for it in the long term especially if the unemployment levels really rise as they may. I also think he should not over-rate the tax cut. For a worker on $45,000 that gives them $11.54 a week; those on $100,000 $24. Excellent, $11-12 covers about 7 litres of milk, 5 bottles of coke, a block of chee...

What do we make of Josef Fritzl ( http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10562205 )? He's the guy who locked up his daughter downstairs for years, raping her and fathering her children while deceiving his wife and raising some of her children. His behaviour is evil. What causes such monstrous evil? It brings in the wider question of evil. What is it that makes Robert Mugabe treat his nation and citizens as pawns in his power game? What led Adolph Hitler and other meglamaniacs in their lunacy? Such people demonstrate that there are forces at work in this world that lie behind what we see and experience. The notion of Satan and demons are out of vogue in the western world. Some Christian thinkgers have sought to explain the biblical material on such things as remnants of an ancient world view and/or imports from other religious perspectives. Others see Satan and demons not as personal beings but as human evil individual and corporate. For me, before my ...

I see in the Herald on Sunday that the lead story is about the tragic air bus crash in France. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10561736 . In this crash, tragically 5 people died pilot Brian Horrell, 52, aircraft engineers Noel Marsh, 35, Michael Gyles, 49 and Murray White 37, and Civil Aviation Authority inspector Jeremy Cook, 58. What gets me as I read this is how money ends up clouding every issue. One would have thought that the companies involved would move quickly and compassionately to compensate the families. These men gave their lives for the company and their families are now withut their fathers and husbands. Yet, according to this article, this is going to get messy as XL airlines, Air NZ and ACC decide who pays what, when etc. We are utterly held captive to money aren't we. We have formed our society on it, and we are in its grip. This demonstrates this. I saw this at the supermarket last night. I was in a bit of a rush and saw a check ...