Enter the ‘Wolf

Hi and welcome to the latest edition of Werewolf, in which we analyse the various options for November’s referendum on the voting system. Newsflash : the Royal Commission on the Electoral System did the necessary spade work 25 years ago, and they chose MMP as being the most fair, most democratic system available. They were right then, and they’re still right now. But somehow, a few National Party diehards and disgruntled business leaders successfully leaned on John Key and got him to waste millions and millions of dollars on making the public repeat the exercise all over again. We suggest you choose MMP, and spoil their Christmas.

While deciding to waste money on the voting referendum, the Key government has been steadily under funding Radio New Zealand – and the Department of Conservation which, as Josh Gale reports in this issue, has therefore been forced to engage with the private sector in joint ventures to do some of its basic work. In the process, DOC is – potentially – losing its environmental mojo, and putting its conservation role at risk. In his movie feature this month, Philip Matthews praises the quietly devastating science fiction horror film Never Let Me Go. Rosalea Barker reports from California (in her Left Coasting column) about the conditions inside US Supermax prisons, and the hunger strike by some inmates to try and gain more humane treatment.

Talking of basic human rights, in this issue we also interview Salil Shetty, the director-general of Amnesty International about the pressures that have faced the organisation as it has shifted its focus to combat human rights abuses by Western governments during the war against terrorism, post 9/11.

For the last few years, the late David Foster Wallace has been the dominant literary voice of his generation – and this month, we examine the curious backlash being waged against him this year even and especially by his alleged friends, such as Jonathan Franzen. Madeline is our featured children’s book this month. In our Complicatist music column we survey the line-ups for this summer’s music festivals, and suggest you should go to Laneways, and to the Kurt Vile and Tuneyards gigs.

In this issue, Werewolf also salutes the opening of Evil Genius, a brave new music store/café in Wellington that’s in the vanguard of the vinyl revival. In his satirical column In the Hood, satirist Lyndon Hood features Baron Munchausen’s exclusive account of the Rena grounding.

Thanks again to David McLellan for helping me post this issue 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 and let's talk story ideas. However, Werewolf will be taking a month’s break next month, so that I can be involved on a daily basis with Scoop’s election coverage. Werewolf will be back with a scaled down Christmas edition, before returning full force in the New Year.

Cheers,

Gordon Campbell

Werewolf/Scoop

gordon@scoop.co.nz