Idoya Munn

An illustration for our times

I find the 'no such thing as transferable skills' narrative interesting because my entire working life has been based around using my transferable skills. (I was originally a dancer and the skills I learned have influenced everything else I've come to do, including writing and teaching.) Thread 🧵⬇️

What the Media Isn’t Telling You: Why Universal Basic Income Is the Answer to Poverty, Insecurity, and Inequality Why Universal Basic Income can solve poverty, insecurity, and inequality—and why opponents fear its power to shift our economy.

Excessive inequality shortens life expectancy, increases infant mortality, corrodes social cohesion, amplifies violent crime, mental illness, domestic violence and child abuse, political instability and conflict risk. UBI directly reduces inequality [so] ... these other problems can be relieved.

These people won’t just sell the family silver, they’ll sell the air you breathe and the ground you stand on. They’ve already sold the bottling rights to the water that’s fit to drink, and the other water rights to farmers.

Strap in e te whānau. Even IF we vote them out. We're stuck with this mess for a few years after I suspect. Pretty much every statistic will get worse, mental health, health system, houses, respiratory diseases, suicides, jobs, cost of kai.
We need to support each other as much as possible.

Most of us in higher ed in the US are going to lose something over the next four years (opportunities, or funding, or time). But if we believe universities exist, in part, to preserve historical memory and create a space for dissent, our primary job right now is to fight and take the hit.

Budget 2025: NZ branded 'a fair-weather friend' after climate and aid funding cuts But a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Winston Peters said Aotearoa "is committed to doing its bit to help the Pacific meet its development needs".

From our Pacific team.

Budget 2025: NZ branded 'a fair-weather friend' after climate and aid funding cuts www.rnz.co.nz/internationa...

www.facebook.com/share/p/1a6u...

It is so clear this isn't a Prime Minister for New Zealand, rather, he is a PM for his wealthy (white) mates.

Husband agreeable with Hosking about the "maorification" of NZ was a real mask off moment.

Don't forget. Vote them out.

#Nzpol

The Regulatory Standards Bill has been a loaded gun from the start aimed straight at Te Tiriti.

Today, the govt pulled the trigger. It’s on the Order Paper.

This isn’t just another bill. It’s part of a calculated assault.

#NZPol

Are you passionate about showcasing the arts and uplifting community in Ōtepoti Dunedin? Do you see opportunities for urban revitalisation lurking in our city’s forgotten corners?

Apply here for a parttime position;

www.dunedindreambrokerage.nz/call-for-bro...

Earthlings!
Here's What Erica Stanford & Nicola Willis had to say about The Pay Equity Bill in 2017 being “shepherd” in by the government at the time.
Happy Mothers Day ❤
#nzpol #payequity #womensrights #economy #aotearoa #union #unemplyment #luxon #women
www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/governm...

Turns out you can have it all. So long as you’re prepared to be a c... to the women who birth your kids, school your offspring and wipe the arse of your elderly parents while you stand on their shoulders to earn your six-figure, taxpayer-funded pay packet. https://www.thepress.co.nz/politics/360681822/girl-math-budget-will-cut-deep-especially-women

Goodness gracious Andrea Vance #nzpol

the new york article about AI cheats and the generation of moronic zoomers unfortunately vindicates classical education methods over so-called modern learning. back to oral and handwritten exams, socratic method, and a strict policy of no phones or laptops in the learning environment

It's 80,000 BC. You are immortal. The world is still frozen in an ice age. You decide to save $10,000 EVERY DAY, never spending a cent. 82,021 years later, it's 2021. You still don't have as much money as Elon Musk. TAX. THE. FUCKING. BILLIONAIRES.

related

Tax the fucking rich (it's now $12,000 a day for 82 thousand years & still not have enough money as Elon)

Centrist parties are universally dedicated to this strategy of moving rightward to get more votes that at best does not work and at worst normalizes the right and makes them even more popular.

Enrol or update online Enrol to vote or check and update your enrolment details. Get ready to have your say in New Zealand’s elections and referendums.

Just a reminder that we have local body elections this year Aotearoa and they MATTER. ACT is going to be funding candidates like there is no tomorrow. (because they want to sell tomorrow btw)
Please update your voting registration. Your vote matters.
#NZPol
vote.nz/enrolling/en...

I’m picturing a world in which students use AI to write their essays and AI marks them and everyone scores an A+ and nobody ever needs to learn to write or read.

University in NZ was basically free until 1991.

Most of the people setting the policy and legislation on this issue received their degrees for free.

There’s an alt-rightish weirdo sociopath who goes by Vox Day who caught heat like 15 years ago for saying “we could logistically deport all the foreigners, look what the Nazis achieved with the Jews.” It was seen as transgressive even for performative online assholes.

Now it’s policy.

I'd say there is a balance to be struck between being rightly highly sceptical of the current gen of AI and knowing & understanding it enough to be versant in it.

1. The majority of current AI noise is hype
2. Most of that hype doesn't understand the technology, particularly its limits
3. LLMs ...

Industrial hemp should be an 'agricultural crop' not a 'drug', says grower The industrial hemp sector is feeling unified and buoyant by a long-awaited regulatory review that it hopes will see more farmers adopt the crop and unlock its economic, social and environmental poten...

Industrial hemp should be an 'agricultural crop' not a 'drug', says grower
#nzpol

Above all, “Rot” reminds us that the Great Hunger was a very modern event, and one shaped by a mind-set that is now again in the ascendant. The poor are the authors of their own misery. The warning signs of impending environmental disaster can be ignored. Gross inequalities are natural, and God-given. The market must be obeyed at all costs. There is only one thing about the Irish famine that now seems truly anachronistic—millions of refugees were saved because other countries took them in. That, at least, would not happen now.

Holy hell, the kicker on this NYer article about the Irish potato famine www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

NATIONAL FAKING NEWS:

Nats: “New cost of living support coming for 1.5M Over-65 New Zealanders.”

Us: This increase happens automatically every year, by law, as an adjustment to superannuation.

Would they pay it if they didn’t need to? No. #nzpol

Anne Salmond: The Emperor's clothes Comment: An illuminating book on the favoured policies of the right of economics and politics has lessons for New Zealand.

Know what you’re voting for Aotearoa. #nzpol #OneTermGovernment #Democracy #Resist #TaxWealthMore
“Neoliberalism seeks freedom for the extraction of profit. If democratic restraints get in the way, they must be undermined, or cancelled. Critics must be silenced.”

newsroom.co.nz/2025/03/24/a...

Unsettling NZ History Ko Vincent O’Malley toku ingoa He kaimahi hītori au Nō Airangi, Koterangi me Ingarangi ōku tīpuna I tipu ake au ki Ōtautahi E noho ana au ki Te Whanganui-a-...

I am pleased to say I now have a newsletter, Unsettling: Aotearoa NZ History. First post here with links to subscribe.

buttondown.com/unsettling/a...

Fact #nzpol #OneTermGovernment

#nzpol this is government policy in action..