No conventional Friday linky today. I haven’t been collecting links to odd and interesting stuff this week because it’s all elections, all the time in my little brain.
With the Obama win still roaring in our ears, we Kiwis face up to our own election tomorrow, where the nine-year three-term leftish Labour government led by Helen Clark looks set to be booted out in favour of the rightish National government led by relative newcomer John Key. I don’t think a Nats government would be the end of all that is good in New Zealand, but I am unhappy to look at Key’s team and see all the same faces that helped to break our country in the 90s.
Canadian social philosopher John Ralston Saul’s “The Collapse of Globalism” used New Zealand as a case study for the failure of the free-market reforms demanded by global capital. (He could write a new chapter on how deregulation has led the world into unprecedented economic crisis through the housing derivatives market.) Here’s a Harpers essay summarising the book-length argument in a page. Relevant quote:
Then, in late 1999, came the general election in New Zealand. Fifteen years earlier this small country had become the model for Globalization. Now, overnight, its electors voted to change direction, endorsing a strong interventionist government devoted to a mix of national social policies, enforceable economic regulations, and a stable private sector. Why? Its national industries had been sold off, its economy was in decline, and its standard of living had been stagnant for all fifteen years of its Globalization experiment. Its youth were emigrating at alarming rates. This, the citizens now said, was not inevitable.
Ralston Saul argued that this was the beginning of the end for what he calls “globalism”; the death knell that would reverberate everywhere. It seems he spoke to soon. John Key will bring back into power the politicians who presided over the discredited project of “globalism” in New Zealand, and there is every reason to expect they will seek to pick up exactly where they left off.
So while I don’t think it will be the end of everything, I think we are in for a risky time should National get enough votes to govern without needing a challenging coalition partner. And that’s not even counting the environmental issues at stake in this election.
The good news, of course, is that New Zealand uses a proportional representation system to determine its Parliament, and that means every vote counts. So get out and vote, New Zealanders. I’ve already endorsed the Greens here. You’re all smart enough to figure out for yourselves who deserves your vote.
The other good news: you won’t have to queue for an hour and a half to vote.
(Okay, one Friday Linky: what President Obama can learn from Sci-Fi Presidents. The Morgan Freeman bit is great.)
Why are we voting for an asian guy with tinsel on his head?
Because he looks trustworthy.
Because John Key told us to vote for change, and when it comes to change, let’s face it, a rich right-wing white male millionaire just can’t compete with an Asian guy with tinsel on his head. Plus the Asian guy with tinsel on his head is less likely to sell Kiwibank to the Aussies. He may enslave Kiwibank to the Krokbeasts of Jatulon IV, of course, but you know, Krokbeasts or Aussies, no contest, surely.
um, he looks like hes been to the $2.00 shop. there is one green poster I like – the one with the kid in the tyre. That rocks.