You are a Social Moderate (56% permissive) and an... Economic Moderate (56% permissive) You are best described as a: Centrist Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Looks like my predictions were a bit off...

But so were most of the polls.

I predicted,

ACT: No seats
National: 55 seats
United Future: 3 seats
New Zealand First: 7 seats
Labour: 45 seats
Progressives: 1 seat
Maori Party: 5 seats
Greens: 8 seats

The end result was:

ACT: 2 seats
National: 49 seats
United Future: 3 seats
New Zealand First: 7 seats
Labour: 50 seats
Progressives: 1 seat
Maori Party: 4 seats
Greens: 6 seats

So it appears the country will be subjected to three more years of the same tax and spend government we have endured for the last six. However I can state with a great deal of confidence that in a little over three years we will have a new government of the centre right. National's 49 seats puts them in good stead for the next three years and I think we can took forward to seeing the government strongly challenged on every step they take.

Election 2005

Firstly, I apologise for failing to update this blog more frequently. In real life I have been very busy with work, and lacking motivation when not at work.
As many of you will be aware (if in fact the number of people reading this could be referred to as “many”), New Zealand will go to the polls on Saturday to decide who will lead us for the next three years. As in any political system, there is no perfect choice, no party which perfectly encapsulates all that I would do were I to be put in charge of our fair land. However one must nonetheless come to a decision as to how one is to cast one’s vote, and I have decided to give two ticks* to National. In previous elections I have cast my party vote for ACT and my electorate vote for National. This time I have abandoned ACT for several reasons. Firstly, unless Rodney Hide wins Epsom (which I consider to be unlikely), any vote for ACT is likely to be wasted as I they don’t have a show of making the 5% threshold. Secondly, I don’t trust Rodney Hide. Thirdly, with Don Brash in charge of the Nats, the difference between the two parties has reduced to the point where I consider it to be inconsequential.
Why have I chosen National:
I believe National’s taxation policy will be fairer, leaving more money in the hands of those who earned it, and will stimulate growth in the economy.
I believe National has a better chance of being able to restore relationships with the United States which have been so strained for the last 20 years.
A National government, while unlikely to undo the morally questionable Acts passed by the (hopefully) outgoing Clark government (e.g. civil unions, legalised prostitution), or affect the longstanding availability of abortion on demand, is less likely to pass any further pieces of social engineering legislation (e.g. euthanasia, decriminalisation of cannabis).
A National government will spend my money more wisely (hopefully on my department) rather than wasting it on needless things as this current government has done again and again.
My hope for the result would be a National party with enough seats to form a majority government unaided by any of the minor parties. This however seems unlikely. Second choice would be a National only minority government supported outside a formal coalition by United Future, or less comfortably, by New Zealand First.
My prediction:
ACT: No seats
National: 55 seats
United Future: 3 seats
New Zealand First: 7 seats
Labour: 45 seats
Progressives: 1 seat
Māori Party: 5 seats
Greens: 8 seats
Total of 124 seats as the Māori party will win more electorate seats than their share of the party vote would have entitled them to, bringing an “overhang”
The majority needed to form a government would be would be 63.
Possibilities on this scenario are:
National/UF coalition supported by NZF – 65 seats
Labour/Progressive/Green/Māori coalition supported by NZF – 66 seats

Neither of these would be terribly stable (nothing involving NZF could be), but I think the National/UF option has a much greater chance of successfully seeing out the next three years than an “all comers” of the left would. These hypotheticals are based purely on my arbitrary guesses as to how my fellow countrymen will vote on the weekend.

* For those who hail from places other than New Zealand: Since 1996 New Zealand has operated an electoral system known as MMP (Mixed Member Proportional). Each voter has two votes to cast, one for person who he wishes to be the local Member of Parliament, and one for the party he wishes to form or assist the government. In terms of deciding who will be the government after the election, it is the party vote which is the most important as this determines how many seats each party will have in Parliament. The party or block of parties with the most seats in parliament then attempts to form a government which will be able to attract and retain majority support in parliament. The leader of the largest party in the block which attains the support of a majority of parliament is normally appointed Prime Minister.

You scored as Roman Catholic. You are Roman Catholic. Church tradition and ecclesial authority are hugely important, and the most important part of worship for you is mass. As the Mother of God, Mary is important in your theology, and as the communion of saints includes the living and the dead, you can also ask the saints to intercede for you. Roman Catholic 96% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 82% Neo orthodox 79% Emergent/Postmodern 50% Classical Liberal 43% Fundamentalist 36% Reformed Evangelical 25% Modern Liberal 21% Charismatic/Pentecostal 18% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

My apologies for the paucity of posting recently. I have been rather busy with work and other "real life" stuff. As well I have been spiritually tired and feeling disinclined to blog and read catholic blogs, even when I have had the time. I feel this is passing now, so hopefully I should be able to post a little more over the coming weeks.

You scored as Fundamentalist. Fundamentalism represents a movement in opposition to Modernism, stressing the highest importance on foundational religious tradition. Science has brought on corruption of society. God is real and is watching. Scripture leaves little room for interpretation; man is God’s creation. About a quarter of the population in the U.S. is classified as Fundamentalist. Fundamentalist 69% Cultural Creative 63% Romanticist 56% Existentialist 50% Postmodernist 50% Idealist 38% Modernist 13% Materialist 0% What is Your World View? (updated) created with QuizFarm.com

A fairly accurate quiz result

You scored as Divine Command. Your life is directed by Divine Command: Your god and religion give you meaning and direction. “Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.” --King James Version of the Bible “Even as a tree has a single trunk but many branches and leaves, there is one religion--human religion--but any number of faiths.” --Mahatma Gandhi More info at Arocoun's" Wikipedia User Page... Divine Command 90% Utilitarianism 60% Hedonism 60% Existentialism 60% Justice (Fairness) 50% Kantianism 40% Apathy 30% Strong Egoism 25% Nihilism 0% What philosophy do you follow? (v1.03) created with QuizFarm.com

Graduation

Your humble scribe is now officially The Antipodean, B.A., LL.B.

Der Panzerpabst

Wow.

I never thought it would actually happen. Not for a moment did I believe that we would be given an uberliberal pope who would issue a bull endorsing the sexual revolution, but I didn't think the outcome would be this good either. In our new Holy Father, Benedict XVI, we have a man who will stand his ground. We have true Fide Defensor, a defender of the faith. We have a pope who will not compromise with evil to satisfy the world, and I couldn't be happier with the choice. Pope Benedict will speak the truth with charity and clarity. His words will be distorted by the press, but this will not stop him.

St Benedict, patron of Europe, pray for him.
St John Paul the Great, pray for him.

Papal commemorations at Auckland's Cathedral

I went to Confession and Mass at St Patrick's Cathedral today and was pleased to see a good number of large images of the Holy Father around the church. To the sides of the sanctuary were two particularly large banners with bearing photos of John Paul the Great. To the left was a picture of the Pope in his prime, facing us, vested for Mass with a smile, below it was the papal arms of John Paul II. To the right of the sanctuary was a depiction of the pope with his back to us, walking towards a mountain, towards our Lord. Below this image was the arms of the sede vacante. I thought this was an interesting way of depicting his passing.

Still two weeks after the ending of his earthly life, his faithful priests are struggling to not insert his name into the canon. Today Fr B started to pray "together with Jo.., with Patrick, our Bishop". For him, like so many priests, he has before last week never said a Mass without offering a prayer for "John Paul, our Pope". How strange it is to hear the silence where his name should be, how much stranger still it will be to hear the name of another.

Pope predictions

Who will be the next Pope?

I don't know, only God knows the answer to that question at the moment. Media speculation seems to have swung from Card. Arinze to Card. Ratzinger in the past few days, not that I think media speculation will indicate the result of the conclave. I would be quite happy with either of those two, who I would expect both stand reasonable chances.

My pick for a "surprise" pope would be George Cardinal Pell of Sydney, Austalia. At 64 he is a little on the young side for a papabile, but I think he is worth considering, certainly he is the only native anglophone with any chance (unless the Holy Spirit has a VERY big surprise in store for us). Card. Pell has studied in Cambridge, Oxford, Melbourne (Monash) and Rome (Urbanium). He has been a Cardinal only a short time, but has been a bishop since 1987 and Archbishop since 1996. He was entusted by our late Holy Father to serve as chairman of the Vox Clara commission looking into the English translation of the Mass. He has shown himself to be a man of dignity as when he was (falsely) acused of sexual abuse he stood down as archbishop without delay and waited patiently and prayerfully for the judicial enquiry to clear him.

That's just my five cents worth. We'll have wait till next week to see what the guy upstairs has to say.

Inside "The Passion"

Fr John Bartunek LC, who spent weeks with Mel Gibson during the filming of The Passion of The Christ will be speaking in Auckland on Thursday 28 April.

For more info click here.

"Dear Holy Father, now that you are with the Father in heaven, bless your flock in China. May the suffering on your deathbed complete your prayers and obtain the grace that the Chinese people may one day know Jesus Christ and be converted to God."

Bishop Joseph Zen of Hong Kong

Prayer intentions

With all the prayers flying the way of our late Pope, and the Cardinals who must choose his sucessor. Might I suggest that some of your prayer intentions be directed to Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the Pope's personal secretary since he was Archibishop of Krakow, and the group of Polish nuns who have served the Pope since first he went to Rome. They must be feeling the loss of the Holy Father in such an intense way. For them they have lost not only a religious leader, but a man who was to them, in a real sense, a second father. They have also lost their jobs and their homes.

No Kiwi Pope

At least according to the only New Zealander who will take part in the conclave, Thomas Cardinal Williams. When asked by a TVNZ journalist how he rated his own chances, he replied that he thought it would be impossible for him to become Pope "I simply don't have the qualifications".

Maniple?

Did I see the Cardinal (Somalo?) who blessed and incensed the Holy Father's body do so while wearing a maniple?

New blog

I have just found this new blog: Home, Throne and Altar, well to be more accurate, the author of that blog found me.

Anyway, it is a blog by an Evangelical Christian in Christchurch, New Zealand. From reading his comments it is becoming increasingly clear to me that Catholics, Orthodox and Evangelicals are the only Christians who still teach traditional Christian faith and morals. While I'm sure John and I would have many, many disagreements over the contents and practice of the faith, I doubt we would over any of the issues of public morals that are confronting society. For this reason I see it as extremely important that we forge links between our respective churches to preserve what remains of our society. I know the Anglicans won't do it.

Resquiscat in Pace

The only Pope I have ever known has returned home to his father. I feel no sadness for him, as I am sure (as sure as it is ever possible to be about someone else's salvation) that he is now in the presence of Christ. However I feel great sadness for us, now that we are to be deprived of his great leadership. May the Holy Spririt give us another great leader.


Grant unto him enternal rest O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace.

A strange Easter.

It was an unusual Holy Week for me this year. For the first time I can remember I was unable to fully participate in the ceremonies of Holy week due to my work schedule. I worked 12 hour days on Thursday, Friday and Saturday thus precluding my attendance at the Mass of the Lord's Supper, the way of the cross procession through the streets, the Commemoration of the Passion, or the Easter Vigil. On Sunday I went to Mass with my family and a family friend visiting from overseas. We went to the Mass promoted as the "Samoan Mass" which normally means a Mass in English, but with the hymns in Samoan. Instead we were faced with the whole Mass in Samoan, a language none of us understood. However I think we all enjoyed the experience.

As well as the language, some ritual elements of Samoan culture were brought into the mass. E.g. the Lectionary was processed into the Church just before the first reading on a platform carried on the shoulders of four men dressed as Samoan warriors and accompanied by two men also in traditional atire carrying spears who stood guard throughout the readings and the homily.

At the time of the offertory procession as well as the gifts of bread and wine, as is very common in Pacific cultures, leis of flowers were brought forward to be hung round the necks of the priests. More surprising was that on a platform once more carried on the shoulders of four men was ... a pig. Yes a whole cooked pig was brought forward to be blessed and then processed out of the church to be prepared for the feasting after Mass. That was something of a culture shock to my elderly grandmothers!!

It was quite an experience to attend mass celebrated by a priest whom I know very well, but in a language that I don't understand at all. I enjoyed it as one off experience, but wouldn't like to do it too often.

Election day is rapidly approaching

This year is election year for Kiwis, and it doesn't look good. Mr Tips at The Everlasting Man has posted his thoughts on our political parties and leaders. I would tend to agree with him. Yes Labour is rotten to the core, but is there really a better option.

National is hopelessly disorganised and seems to entirely lack any sense of direction for either the party or the country. Bill English seems sensible to me, and I think would have been a great PM, but has been cast aside in favour of the doctrinaire economist, Don Brash.

United Future stands for nothing and everything at once. A party that campaigned of "common sense" and "family values" which has supported the Labour government as they legalised prostitution, almost legalised Euthanasia (watch this space if they get back in) and created civil unions. I don't trust them.

The Greens are truly insane and need to retreat back to their natural habitat in the mountains somewhere (preferably some mountains outside NZ)

NZ First has some sound ideas, but is essentially a vehicle for the personality of it's leader and has little chance of surviving his eventual retirement. Ron Mark is about the only other MP who is ever heard. I suspect that is because the rest have little to say other than "I'm with Winston".

Jim Anderton's Progressive Coalition: what a name! Jim has had his day, it is time for him to retire and take his remaining lapdog with him.

ACT has had my vote in the last two elections, but I'm not so sure this time. They made a big mistake in chosing Rodney Hide as leader. I don't really trust him. If Stephen Franks was in charge I think they might be able to retain my vote, as it is, I don't think so.

So there we have it, parties which range from evil to mediocre to incompetent. What an enticing menu. I can't wait till September!!