By Rufus Tyler

Portugal is a small country in Southwestern Europe with about 10.8 million people (2017 estimate) the median age is 42.2. It's about a third the size of New Zealand. It borders Spain and the Atlantic Ocean. Since joining the then European Community in 1986 the economy has become increasingly service-oriented. Over that time neoliberalism has unleashed a series of reforms like privatisation that have resulted in increasingly precarious working conditions. In 2011 it received a rescue package from the IMF bringing Austerity measures that pushed emigration to levels not seen since the 1960s.

By Rufus Tyler

In September 1970 Salvador Allende was elected into government at the head of a left-wing coalition, the Unidad Popular (UP). Even though the coalition was reformist, the bourgeoisie still feared the revolutionary potential of the UP government:

By Rufus Tyler

“Materialism” as a philosophical notion means that all things in the universe are made of the same thing – matter. There's no heaven or hell, no ghosts or spirits. Materialism is a version of monism

Matter is not a social construct, it exists independent of human ideas and thought. This can be contrasted with philosophical idealism which states that things are influenced and created by ideas, essentially saying that the world is not real and that matter (“things”) are derived from ideas. To idealists reality, and matter, are mere reflections of thought. (ideas)

Dialectical Materialism is one of the three key tenets of scientific socialism, the other two being Historical Materialism and Marxist Economics.

by Miles Lacey

In New Zealand there is a phrase that is commonly used in all walks of life: "She'll be right".  Until recently the term generally had positive connotations, reflecting our laid back attitude to life.  In more recent times the term has become increasingly negative as it often refers to a complacent attitude that leads to poor decision making, often of a financial nature.

Article by Rufus Tyler

The Covid-19 virus most likely originated from the wet markets of Wuhan, China. It is certainly not a manufactured disease as proposed by former United States President Donald Trump – who claimed that it came from a Chinese lab - and it wasn't spread deliberately by American military personnel during the 2019 Kowari trilateral military exercises that were hosted by Australia and attended by the US and China in Northern Queensland as claimed by Chinese propagandists.

Prior to the European settlement of New Zealand, most Maori lived in small villages where the very notion of ownership was unheard of.  Housing was usually allocated according to the position held by a person, or more commonly, a family within the community.  The houses were usually made of whatever materials were available, especially raupo.  They were also quite small because most of the activities undertaken within the villages were done outside or in communal buildings such as the marae (meeting house). 

Article by Sione Ma'u 

After the formation of the Labour-led coalition government in 2017, there were hopes that the housing crisis was going to be tackled. Labour promised a mass house-building programme called “Kiwibuild” that would build 100,000 new houses over a decade. The Government would play an active role in driving this programme and work together with developers, city councils and other landowners (such as iwi) to deliver high-quality housing at affordable prices for first-home buyers.

After Joe Biden was elected President of the United States in November 2020 the big question on most people's minds was if Trump would go peacefully.

That question was answered on January 6th, 2021.

State of parties after the count on election night (Turnout 82.5% - up 2.7% on 2017)

(*Special votes (overseas votes) yet to be counted ** Māori Party lead Labour in electorate -special votes will determine outcome)

A political earthquake struck New Zealand on general election night with the Labour Party securing a second term in office with an absolute majority. This is the first time since the MMP voting system was introduced in 1996 that a political party has won such a majority.

The New Zealand Minister of Finance, Hon. Grant Robertson, delivered the budget on 14 May 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the original budget had to be scrapped.  The new budget is  dubbed "Rebuilding together" and its main focus is on jobs.

The main budget item, whose cost dwarfs all others by an order of magnitude, is the $50 billion COVID Response and Recovery Fund (CRRF). Most of the money is to save businesses with wage subsidies and tax relief, and launch a number of major infrastructure projects to create more jobs.  About $30 billion of this fund has already been committed.   This also includes ongoing costs associated with keeping COVID-19 eliminated from New Zealand.  Everyone entering the country is put up, for 14 days, in hotels which have been repurposed as quarantine facilities.  People are tested twice during quarantine - near the beginning (day 3) and near the end (day 12) of the quarantine period, before being cleared to enter the country proper.