Posts Tagged ‘Poverty’

New Zealand born Columban priest working with marginalised in Korea

Friday, September 14th, 2012

New Zealand born Columban priest Father Robert Brennan has been in Korea since 1966.  He has been working with credit unions, which lend money to those in need at low borrowing costs, as he continues to devote himself to helping families marginalised by the ruthlessness of capitalism. He studied Korean for two years before being Read more

The “Live Below The Line” challenge

Friday, September 7th, 2012

A couple of weeks ago Jonah Lomu announced that for 5 days this month he and his family were each going to live on just $2.25 a day.   This is to raise awareness for UNICEF”s “Live Below the Line” challenge. I admire his intention but will this really help the poor? Saturday’s DomPost Your Weekend Read more

NZ Churches unite to combat child poverty

Friday, August 31st, 2012

Proposals to reduce New Zealand’s unacceptably high child poverty rates need to be urgently debated and discussed, say the leaders of the Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian, Salvation Army and Assemblies of God Churches. “The crucial issues that result in child poverty need to be discussed by New Zealand’s political leaders and the wider community as a Read more

NZ inequality at highest level

Friday, August 24th, 2012

Household incomes dropped and inequality rose to its highest level ever in New Zealand last year, a Ministry of Social Development report shows. The Household Incomes Report measuring the wellbeing of New Zealanders by their total after-tax takings has revealed a fall in average incomes for the first time since the early 1990s. It shows Read more

Poverty hardly looks like privilege

Friday, August 24th, 2012

So help me, Hone Harawira is right. It’s not the display gangs make of themselves that matters, but the reasons why gangs exist in the first place. That a blue-eyed, pink-skinned, blonde MP, Todd McClay, tagging along after ex-Whanganui mayor Michael Laws, wants gang patches banned, illustrates the ignorance of even intelligent people when they Read more

Fr Kevin Barr quits Fiji’s Wages Council

Tuesday, August 21st, 2012

Fiji’s Wages Council chairman Father Kevin Barr has told the Fiji Times he has resigned from his position on the Wages Council. However the Ministry of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment has not received any formal notice of Barr’s resignation. On Sunday night, Minister Jone Usamate said neither he nor his permanent secretary Taito Waqa Read more

A cherry-picking PP serves 6 Westland parishes

Friday, August 3rd, 2012

South Westland might have some of New Zealand’s most beautiful scenery and one or two mountains to climb, however the territory is rather isolated. There is just one priest for six parishes and since returning to New Zealand Michael Mahoney accepted the challenge to minister to them all! There is also quite a bit of Read more

Nuns on the bus vs. bishops

Tuesday, July 31st, 2012

The recently completed “Nuns on the Bus” tour garnered a great deal of publicity for the sisters involved, who claimed they were making the trip to protest proposed federal budget cuts they say would hurt the poor. However, there were many more undercurrents to the nine-state, two-week trip than most people realize. The giant banner Read more

Income gap between the races gets wider

Tuesday, July 31st, 2012

New Zealand’s persistent income gap between Maori and Pacific people and the European majority has widened sharply during the recession. A quarterly update on vulnerable families by the NZ Council of Christian Social Services has found that European median incomes have risen slightly despite the recession of the past four years, but those of Maori Read more

One third of Maori children in poverty

Friday, July 27th, 2012

Maori children are being denied their basic human rights, Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres said. The Maori Affairs Select Committee is holding an inquiry into the wellbeing of Maori children. Mr de Bres this morning told the committee Maori children had basic rights to be free from discrimination, for their language and culture to Read more