Hi and welcome to the 30th edition of Werewolf, which - as any thirtysomething should do - looks back, forwards and sideways all at once. In our cover story this month, we look back in anger at the 1992 legislation that created our laissez-faire culture of workplace health and safety and examine how those attitudes are playing out right now on the farm in quad bike deaths and injuries. The story also looks to the future, and how our entire workplace safety climate may change once the Pike River Royal Commission hands down its findings in a few months time. Elsewhere in this issue, Alison McCulloch explores the situation in Tauranga, the Ground Zero of ports reform, and traces its links to what’s happening on the waterfront in Auckland.

In this month’s essay on film, Philip Matthews evaluates the New Zealand documentary Mental Notes – a harrowing history of mental institutions in this country – and compares it to fictional versions of mental illness, including the just-released A Dangerous Method film directed by David Cronenberg about Freud and Jung’s fractious relationship. In this issue, we also return to the Hunger Games film and book, mainly in order to seriously offer its main character as a symbol of the feminisation of the modern work place. Does higher education make people more stupid about politics ? We have an article that consider this to be a distinct possibility.

Art and commerce are also the subjects of the music column this month, which deals with songs about money, with selections both for and against. On a more serious note, Paul Hamer traces the history of former Prime Minister Keith Holyoake’s blurring of the lines between public office and personal gain in the development of Kinloch, near Taupo. In his satirical column this month, Lyndon Hood laments the unfortunate confusion of Prime Minister John Key with an artificial construct, surely a mistake that anyone can make.

We also examine the life and work of the beautiful and influential pioneer http://werewolf.co.nz/2012/04/webs-of-maya/ filmmaker Maya Deren, and in our annual Womad photospread this month we take time to worry about how the festival may be affected by the local government reforms. Mark P. Williams notes how comics and horror stories made him the man he is today – or at least the man he remembers himself being, then and now. In Cartoon Alley this month, there is new work by Brent Willis.

Thanks to Alaster Thompson for helping me post this online. Werewolf is a thank you to Scoop readers and is intended as an outlet for local writers and artists. If you want to be involved, contact me at gordon@scoop.co.nz

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Cheers,
Gordon Campbell
Werewolf/Scoop
gordon@werewolf.co.nz