The Best Pacific Islands Forum Coverage so far

If they mention the Forum at all, most mainstream media focus on the circus of what's happening in the wings of the Forum meeting (the cost of Adern's trip, Barbara Dreaver's brief arrest and a China-Taiwan spat). Gordon Campbell (Scoop/Werewolf) provides us with a backdrop and takes us inside. His 

Jacinda welcomed   pn69

Werewolf articles deserve far better coverage. -- ACW

Wednesday, 5 September 2018, 11:55 am
Column: Gordon Campbell

 Gordon Campbell on the fuss and fighting over the PM’s Pacific Forum trip  First published on Werewolf

If you want to sample the full range of the petty and misogynistic attitudes of which New Zealanders are capable, then social media will have been your happy place over the past 48 hours. Truly, the abuse being levelled at PM Jacinda Ardern for doing her job at the Pacific Islands Forum shows just how much – and on how many levels – Ardern seems to enrage a goodly number of citizens. They’re angry at her for getting pregnant, for having a baby, for flying to and from the Forum on an official plane…you name it. Anything she does appears to be triggering for some people. Its as if she’s having it all - and at their very own personal expense !

Incidentally, it makes you wonder about that proud tradition of us being the first country to give women the vote, and how deep that kind of commitment really runs. Essentially, the bile levelled at Ardern over the Forum trip has dripped with resentment that a woman! - with a baby! - should dare presume to be running the country. Or that such unnatural women should even try to have any work/life balance at all.

Well… is the nation getting value for money from Ardern over this 24 hour period? Read more