Werewolf Edition #55 : The Folly Of Convention Centres

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Enter the Wolf!

Hi and welcome to the 55th issue of Werewolf. In our cover story this month, we examine how and why almost every major New Zealand city and tourist destination has been plunking dollops of public money on the table – or in Auckland, major gambling concessions and the use of public land - to fund convention centres. Born from civic pride and the desperate hope of an economic payoff, these buildings will be competing with each other for a limited global and domestic market for major conferences, to no discernible net benefit to New Zealand. That’s because If a lucky winner does triumph, it will be at the expense of other parts of the country, and while foreign convention /hotel operators skim the cream from public money being used to defray a risk they were plainly unwilling to shoulder themselves.

The “ precariat” is a term for the millions of people around the world who live without job security or a predictable income, often on short term or zero contracts. In this issue of Werewolf, New York – based NZ writer Richard McLachlan contributes one article on the social and economic forces generating the precariat, while in a second article he shifts focus onto the social and psychological struggles involved for those of us forced to live in this state – which is steadily growing as technology chews its way through the white collar jobs that used to underpin middle class security and aspirations. ( Other articles by Richard can be found on his New York blog, here.)

In a related article, Harry Johnson points to the increasingly long working hours that New Zealanders now endure, and contrasts that with the history of struggle required to create and regulate the 40 hour working week - and Harry makes a strong case for the need for similar regulatory protections in future. This month, Rosalea Barker traces the legal battles being waged across the USA to ban and/or penalise the single use plastic bag, given the harm to the environment (and to wildlife in particular) that billions of plastic bags are now wreaking.

In our film column this month we praise the new Mad Max movie Fury Road, and examine the meta-theories about the film and its director, George Miller. In our music column The Complicatist this month, we consider the mysterious alchemy involved in good, simple and direct lyric writing, as exemplified by the early 1990s indie band, the Vulgar Boatmen. Our resident satirist Lyndon Hood is on vacation this month but fear not, he will return.

Thanks to Alastair Thompson for helping me post this 55th issue online. If anyone out there ever wants to be involved and talk over some story ideas, contact me at gordon@werewolf.co.nz

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

The contents of this edition are:

Castles in The Square
Has the building of convention centres become our new cargo cult ?
by Gordon Campbell

Down The Up Ladder
A diagnosis for the age of income anxiety
by Richard McLachlan

Banning The Bag, & Bagging The Ban
The politics of controlling the plastic in our lives
by Rosalea Barker

In The City Of The Precariat
The subsistence existence is an incoming tide
by Richard McLachlan

Mad To the Max
Fury Road drives its metaphors to hell, and back
by Gordon Campbell

Out Of Control
How and why New Zealanders have come to be putting in longer hours at work…
by Harry Johnson

The Complicatist : Loving the Songs of the Vulgar Boatmen
Good lyric writing can be a thing of wonder
by Gordon Campbell

***** Werewolf Issue 54, April 2015 *****
The March 2015 edition of Werewolf
by Werewolf

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