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Trump reconsidered

In this post I am thinking out loud. I don’t understand America, but I am trying to. It is important to develop some analysis of what has just happened. As a Socialist I am deeply worried by the global shift to the authoritarian right, the growth of nationalism and the appeal of populist politics. I see it here in Aotearoa: in Seymour’s colonialist Treaty Principles Bill and in Jones’ empty promises of a future where every man, woman and child can stuff themselves with crayfish, the way he does. Trump is dangerous – environmentally, socially, globally. I have written posts about Trump before – gobsmacked as I was when he was first elected US President in 2017.

I am interested in how the political appeal of such an overtly flawed character is generated and sustained. What are the socio-economic drivers? What are the cultural / ideological settings (and shifts) that have made this possible? It is easy, perhaps too easy, to write-off the American voting public as inherently stupid. This is too simplistic. Americans aren’t stupid – indoctrinated and manipulated maybe – but not stupid, or at least no more stupid than the rest of the human race.  

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Child protection, abolition and radical hope

This post links to the most recent presentation in a series of on-line Seminars that have been organised by the Social Justice and Child Protection Research Network Aotearoa. This is a small group of academic researchers concerned with the question of social justice and the theory and practice of child protection social work, now and into the future. Current co-directors of this initiative are Emily Keddell, Kerri Cleaver, Shayne Walker and myself, Ian Hyslop. This Seminar begins to wrestle with some of the implications of abolitionist ideas for social work generally and child protection in particular. A video recording of this session is linked here and an outline of the material covered is described below.

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The wrecking ball swings

We have just lost 9% of Oranga Tamariki staff in order to help reduce spending so that good Kiwis can get the tax cuts promised by the coalition Government. I am reminded of those pandemic casualty images where 5,000 people are standing in a field and then one in every ten is slowly faded out of view. This image is profoundly disturbing but it is the justification provided by the Minister – that this decimation of the physical and intellectual resouces of our state child protection and youth justice agency will make our ‘at risk’ kids safer – that is truly bizarre: “Hello … ? … is anybody home? … this doesn’t make any sense”, except perhaps in the alternate universe of hard-right ideology. The origin of the word ‘decimation’ lies in ancient times when every tenth soldier was put to death to punish and deter insurrection in rebellious Roman legions. There is an element of truth signalled in this analogy. Public servants are potentially powerful and rebellious.

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Truth matters

I try to tell social work students that they need be aware of the relationship between the big picture of politics and power (the policy settings that influence the way that opportunites and resources are distributed) and the small picture of individual circumstances. We are slow to learn from our history; patterns repeat in slightly altered form and in Aotearoa New Zealand we are on a regressive course politically, with tax cuts and benefit sanctions designed to redistribute wealth upwards to the already wealthy and privileged. In this post I would like to explore some wider questions about the socio-political construction of ‘truth’.

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Oranga Tamariki revisited

Oranga Tamariki has its troubles; always has had in my experience. The recent Ombudsman’s report, Children in care: complaints to the Ombudsman 2019-2023, calls for change “on a scale rarely required of a government agency”. It is clearly written, concise, and worth a read. I wonder what change of this magnitude might mean under the current hard-right coalition government?