It is critical to ensure our houses are in order with skilled staff and strong procedures, but the valuable ‘lessons learned’ from true-life emergency events are never that cut and dried, writes former public health worker Richard Simpson. There are different breeds of emergency manager. At one extreme there are the Abraham Lincoln types who, … Read more
Over the past month, The Spinoff audience has grown dramatically. Managing editor Duncan Greive explains what The Spinoff is, and how best to use it. The Covid-19 crisis has been so ubiquitous and upending that it’s hard to think of anything that will not in some way be transformed by what we’ve witnessed. So it … Read more
The greatest of cities is rapidly becoming the most afflicted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Tess McClure, a New Zealand journalist based in New York, writes. March 12 – 95 cases in NYC At the start of today – Thursday – we still thought we’d be going to work. The first emails had come through that … Read more
In an ideal world the physical lives we build would speak to the past, but the truth is New Zealanders silence it, building their social and industrial histories literally on top of Māori. Read more Lockdown letters here. “The past is a foreign country,” goes the famous opening line from The Go-Between, but for tangata … Read more
As a boy, finance minister and cricket tragic Grant Robertson was given the nickname Jock, in honour of the big-hitting batsman Jock Edwards, by his older brothers. It was a name he carried with pride. It must have been the summer of 1980/81. We were on a family camping holiday in Te Anau. It was … Read more
The nature of this coronavirus means that we need to steel ourselves for more tough news in the coming weeks. That should only firm our resolve, writes Siouxsie Wiles. Illustrations by Toby Morris. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 crisis is only possible because of the support of members. If you can, please consider joining Spinoff … Read more
With many of us forced to adapt to get through Covid-19 and the lockdown, the constant juggling act of freelancers should be a source of inspiration. Waiting for pay, waiting for work. Taking what you can get in between. For many people, such an austere scenario sounds like a scene from a grey and dusty … Read more
A new national survey shows overwhelming backing for the government’s Covid-19 response – and a clear majority willing to submit to location tracking, should it be introduced. Stickybeak’s David Brain breaks down the data. An exclusive new survey from Stickybeak for The Spinoff shows an overwhelming majority of New Zealanders approve of the government’s response … Read more
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The Spinoff Members here. On … Read more
As the UK records its deadliest day so far, with 980 deaths in 24 hours surpassing the worst seen by Italy and Spain, a New Zealand doctor reports from the frontline of a London hospital. It took eight painstaking months before I was allowed to work as a doctor in the UK. I became a … Read more
Wondering how to spend a long weekend when you can’t leave the house? Emily Writes has a guide to all the other wild documentary series you could watch. Netflix’s true crime/poverty porn series Tiger King is a hit, there’s no doubt about it. It’s been the streaming service’s most popular title for nine days straight … Read more
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The Spinoff Members here. On … Read more
Nirin, the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, remained open in March while many other exhibitions closed. Now one of Australasia’s most important art events is going online. “Nirin represents something like a spider’s web that connects people and ideas,” wrote Rosana Paulino in the catalogue for the Biennale of Sydney. “It is the border through which … Read more
‘It feels like there is an inner circle of walking that I can no longer break into, some pleasure I have become too stupid to feel. Maybe it’s the internet’s fault.’ Read more from the lockdown letters here. There is a lot of talk about going out for a walk. If you are a writer, … Read more
The second week of lockdown mobility data reveals NZ remains compliant with lockdown measures. Google mobility data covering most of the second week of lockdown shows New Zealand continuing to comply with the rules imposed by the level four lockdown. Compared with week one, the country is near identical in the six categories reported on … Read more
China’s culture of catchy slogans has been vital to its Covid-19 recovery efforts. Shanghai resident Asen Velinov explains the rich history behind some of the bizarre slogans seen on social media. “Pick where you will be resting – on your couch, in jail, in hospital or in an early grave.” “Take a walk today and … Read more
With each new day, it is becoming increasingly clear that we cannot and should not return to the normality we have come to know in health, writes ICU doctor David Galler. Over the past few weeks, our lives have been turned upside down and inside out in ways we could never have anticipated. Many of … Read more
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The Spinoff Members here. 6.15pm: … Read more
Week three of our lockdown Top 10s – books about elsewhere, brought to you by the good humans of Unity Books. A reminder that these lists are completely unshackled from space and time and what’s happening in the world of books right now. Take no notice of the numbers, either – we just like the … Read more
Noughts + Crosses is set in the present day, but if our history had run a wildly different course. Sam Brooks brings you up to speed on what you need to know before you dive into the show. First things first, what is Noughts + Crosses? Noughts + Crosses is a BBC series adapted from … Read more
The latest in our new series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall. This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff Members These posts collate the most recent statistics and present them as charts and maps. The Ministry of Health typically publishes data updates in the early afternoon, which describe … Read more
Sam Brooks takes a look at new American streaming service Quibi, and asks what sets it apart from all the rest. So what is Quibi and what makes it different? Quibi is a new streaming service based out of the US with one twist: you can only watch it on your phone. Or, to use … Read more
Today New Zealand begins two desolate days without updates from Ashley Bloomfield. Here’s something to soften the blow. The daily briefings from Dr Ashley Bloomfield, the director general of health, have become a staple in many people’s lives, especially under lockdown. He’s hardly missed a day, but this Easter weekend is having an astonishing two … Read more
A tape recording in a brown paper bag recently landed in Emily Writes’ letterbox. After thoroughly disinfecting it she was shocked to discover what it contained. Today was a normal day, day 8,271 of the lockdown, and I saw there was a parcel in the letterbox. Knowing a trip to the letterbox would be the … Read more
A new poem by Vincent O’Sullivan. Once Once in my life I’ve been fishing. A brother- in-law assured, ‘You don’t need to talk out there,’ so we didn’t. After an hour or so he lifted this reluctant silvery strip from its hook and walloped its head against the ridge of the … Read more
The government yesterday announced it would step up its arrivals policy to mandate hotel quarantine or ‘managed self-isolation’ for all returning New Zealanders – people like Andrew Todd, who describes what it’s like to live in a Covid-19 quarantine zone. Four weeks ago, I was living in Canada, earning a meagre but stable income as … Read more
Tara Ward talks to Spencer Stoner, the producer of Go Further South, the slow TV sensation that hits our screens this Easter. Let’s change Good Friday’s name to “Great Friday”, or maybe “Even Better Friday”, because Prime is giving us the television tonic every lockdown needs. Go Further South, the slow-TV sequel to 2019’s … Read more
Responding to sudden, shocking change requires a double lens. Read more from the Lockdown letters here. My granddaughter has been making a newspaper. The Daily Chirp. It’s very small, as befits a newspaper designed for birds, but it contains news (a worrying rise in Tweet-19), “Adds” for birdseed medicine (Fight the Tweet-19 virus!), and a … Read more
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The Spinoff Members here. 7.00pm: … Read more