on Q & A

here is a link to the video of my spot on Q & A. i don't know how to embed it so you'll have to watch on the tvnz site. here's a link to the transcript if you don't have access to broadband or are living outside nz.

these things always go so fast, and i had a whole heap of things i wanted to say but never got a chance to cover. still, it was much, much less hostile than i was expecting even though the questions were challenging. it was helped by the opportunity to chat with graham redding, the prinicipal of the knox centre in otago. he is indeed a lovely man, and we found that we had much more in common than we had differences.

a couple of things i wanted to note. first of all, i wondered if you noticed that i was the only woman on the show. thank goodness for matt mccarten, otherwise they would all have been white males. there's a point to made about how much time is given to women's voices, especially in when it comes to discussing serious issues & political news. i'm not a regular watcher of Q & A, so don't know how much of a balance they usually have, but i'm really hoping it isn't like this all the time.

what is there to say about the wayne mapp interview? the SAS should never have been sent to afghanistan. combat troops were pulled out in 2005, and there was absolutely no reason to send them back. the war in afghanistan is going nowhere and achieving nothing. there is no plan in sight, there's no sense of when it might be over or what needs to happen so that foreign troops can say they've "won".

a couple of important links: the scoop report here is longish but well worth reading. the rolling stone article i referred to in my segment can be found here, but i'll put in a strong trigger warning on the material & especially the photographs (which i haven't looked at). it documents the cold-blooded murder of innocent civilians, and the taking & circulating of trophy photographs.

i wanted to respond to a point made by glyn carpenter, director of the nz christian network. he commented that while christian leaders condemned the qur'an-burning, muslim leaders hadn't condemned the killing of UN workers in afghanistan. well, he's just plain wrong about that. the OIC is the most power international group of muslim nations, and here is their press release. here is a video and a transcript of an interview on CNN with a representative of CAIR, and a press release from another american muslim organisation. i've condemned it on the programme & do so again - it's a tragic and horrific reaction to events in america.

finally, i'd have preferred not to be in the room with dr brash for some time, though we did manage to have a robust debate on a couple of issues. i'm not going to say what it was about, but let's just say that i could not resist the opportunity to take him on. i've actually met him before, though i very much doubt he remembers me, but i have to say that i certainly don't look forward to the possibility of him re-entering parliament.