Kia Ora: The fire that caused the shocking death of five people at Loafers Lodge in Newtown, Wellington has brought into focus the difficulties of rental accommodation. The Post in Wellington included an insert in a recent edition -Ko Te Reo o Nga Tangata -The People’s Voice- We are Poneke City Housing Tenants. The articles included were moving accounts of the experiences of City Housing Tenants. A headline over some personal stories reads “Poverty is Isolation.” An advocate for Basic Income, Rutger Bregman, author of Utopia for Realists, has also said “Poverty is not a lack of character, it is a lack of cash.” Another meme of perceptive truth, possibly an evolutionary survival technique, notes “No one remembers how far you got it right. No one forgets the day you made a mistake.” Finally, a poem from The Post insert: Poem by Kate Yianakis We open and close like flowers: First awake and the body stand straight, but as the day ends and the sun dips over the hills The back begins to bend over, the shoulders...

Kia Ora: Today ANZAC 25th April is sombre. War is futile, bringing destruction of so much, family relationships by death and injury, the destruction of habitat for the myriad life forms that populate our planet. The Sudan is now erupting with the flames of warfare. The world Humanist community waits for the release of Mubarak Bala now entering a fourth year of imprisonment. Mubarak, his wife and young son are denied their right to normal family life. Monday Meeting 1 May 6.30pm and by Zoom Watching of a Transgender Documentary, followed by discussion In present day society there are many hues of thought around sex and gender. However, the science is well developed. The Scientific American article mentioned by Tim in his Notes from the President is dated 13th June 2019. Wikipedia in Transgender History informs us that transgender people have existed in cultures worldwide since ancient times. Critical or scientific studies first began to emerge in the late 1800s in Germany, with the works of Magnus...

Kia Ora: We have had a few turbulent days with the New Zealand visit of British anti-trans campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, also known as Posie Parker. Humanist NZ expressed our concerns in a letter to the Minister of Immigration Michael Wood - see further down in this newsletter. The thoughts of Sir Peter Gluckman, researcher, scientist and the Prime Minister's former Chief Science Advisor are insightful and food for thought. In 2020 Sir Peter Gluckman released a report Sustaining Aotearoa New Zealand as a cohesive society produced by Koi Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures at the University of Auckland. This report concluded that social cohesion and national unity were going to come under pressure in the years to come, and we are seeing this in 2023. Societies are polarising through not coping with the rapid change we are experiencing. Sir Peter comments that: "We've seen the weaponisation of narrative, particularly through social media and these things polarise people, make people scared, which in...

Kia ora: Our year has opened with a cataclysm. Cyclone Gabrielle has changed our landscape forever. In Wellington I have watched News broadcasts with incredulity, the raw energy of nature escaping our human constraints. Our thoughts are with the many who experienced this fury at first hand and have lost so much. My brother, Robert, drove south, through the Volcanic Plateau, a few days after the Cyclone and was aghast at the scale of the forest destruction. He penned these words expressing the despair, we echo, that more care is not taken to value our environment. Whale oil might symbolise our time The Destruction of a majestic species The boon. Baleen stays for the ladies elite Fine oil for industry, oil for the lantern… The adoption of the concept, the Whale Created to supply the demands of Men The absurd destruction of majesty beast They contained something we wanted. Though we profit from destruction, without consent. Yet worse, blithely unaware The acronym for progress Just cause for blind destruction....

Kia ora: 2022 is coming to a close and Humanist NZ wishes all humanist friends in Aotearoa New Zealand and around the world a refreshing and relaxing holiday break. In 2023 we can hope that Mubarak Bala is released from his illegal detention. We can hope for peace in Ukraine, and that Iranian protestors can bring change to the Iranian Islamic Republic. However, there are already clouds on the 2023 horizon. In Aotearoa New Zealand we have two issues of concern – Hate Speech Law and Religious Instruction in Schools. These two issues are expanded below in the body of the newsletter. The newsletter will reappear in March 2023. December monthly meeting: Saturday 3 December High Tea @ Carterton 2pm Our final meeting will be a get together at our President Tim Wright’s home in Carterton. An opportunity to relax and anticipate the coming holiday season. Bring your favourite culinary taste sensation and we can enjoy the sunny Wairarapa. For address and directions please RSVP to Tim at tim@tfwright.co.nz. All are...

Humanist Society of New Zealand (Inc.), PO Box 3372, Wellington, New Zealand – Registered Charity No. CC36074 The Humanist Society of New Zealand is a Member Organisation of the International Humanist and Ethical Union Humanist NZ Newsletter November 2022 Kia ora: From our shores we watch the unfolding of war around the globe. At the moment the Russian invasion of Ukraine occupies our screens, our reading and our sorrow. The killing of Mahasa Amini because of improper wearing of the hijab still horrifies us, and this shocking action has ignited world-wide protest. In the last few days, a celebrity chef, Mehrshad Shahidi (Iran’s Jamie Oliver), has been killed amid the anti-hijab Protests. In New Zealand we support the protests against the Iranian regime. On a personal level, I have had good reason to be grateful for the men and women of science who have spent countless hours in investigation and research to untangle the mystery of Covid-19. The developments in vaccination and anti-viral drugs meant that when...

The Humanist Society of New Zealand is a Member Organisation of the International Humanist and Ethical Union Humanist NZ Newsletter October 2022 Kia ora: At times of heightened emotions, I have noticed that inside my heart a small kernel emerges. It is a kernel of hope and the desire - “to do better”. With the death of Queen Elizabeth and the emotions that arise individually and collectively, is it possible to do better? Can the consequences of colonisation be remitted? What does it mean for New Zealand-Aotearoa, where our Head of State is the British Monarch? And on a completely different tangent - 19 -25 September is Basic Income Week, with the theme for the week being “Basic Income is Basic Humanism.” Humanism wishes that all people do well. The hope of Basic Income echoes this as well. October monthly meeting: Monday 10 October, 6:30pm by Meeting and Zoom 2022 Humanist NZ AGM And celebrating the publication of Maori Boy Atheist with author Eru Hiko-Tahuri On 20 August 2022, Eru Hiko-Tahuri launched his...

Humanist Society of New Zealand (Inc.), PO Box 3372, Wellington, New Zealand – Registered Charity No. CC36074 The Humanist Society of New Zealand is a Member Organization of the International Humanist and Ethical Union Humanist NZ Newsletter September 2022 Kia ora: At our August monthly meeting, Wendy Webber from Go Humanity gave us an interesting perspective on allocating grants for projects. It is their experience that the most successful projects were those where Go Humanity did not require that the project be ‘too defined.’ By recognising that the group applying for the grant knew their situation the best, they allowed the group to use their own creativity in developing and applying a tailored solution. Not one project with these parameters failed. Go Humanity does require reporting and accounting of how the funds were spent. This is a marvellous example of what can happen when people are trusted. I have an interest in Basic Income - an unconditional regular payment to every citizen of a country. A...

Humanist NZ Newsletter July 2022 Humanist NZ Newsletter July 2022 Kia ora: It was distressing to wake to news of deaths resulting from a Russian double missile strike on a crowded shopping centre in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchujk. The consequences of this Russian invasion of Ukraine, and all war, are devastating. I remember reading and hearing the words-‘Never again’- in relation to World War I and II, and here we are. The decision of the USA Supreme Court to over-turn Roe vs Wade, the 1973 landmark ruling which protected a pregnant woman’s liberty to choose to have an abortion is a denial of the rights of women to good health care during pregnancy. It is suggested by commentators that the Supreme Court may now turn its attention to overturning contraception and same-sex marriage rulings which have been advances in understanding and social justice over the last decades. Such a reversal of hard-won human rights is incomprehensible. When the possibility of the overturn of Roe v Wade first emerged...

The Humanist Society of New Zealand is a Member Organization of the International Humanist and Ethical Union Kia ora: As I begin this newsletter, I am so conscious of the dearth of good news. For good news we have the Church of Scotland acknowledging  that Churchmen and women are modern-day witch hunters, witchcraft accusers and witch persecutors. This moral leadership sends a clear and powerful message to Churches and affiliates in Africa where Churches are part of the problem of witch-hunting. And three centuries later, the last of the Salem witches has been pardoned by Massachusetts, USA, lawmakers formally exonerating Elizabeth Johnson, clearing her name 329 years after she was convicted of witchcraft in 1693 and sentenced to death at the height of the Salem Witch Trials. Elizabeth was not executed, but neither was she officially pardoned like others wrongly accused of witchcraft. And then we begin a long recitation of the problems besetting our world: climate change, habitat destruction, the...