Mea culpa, and some things we should do.

I'm sorry to start a conversation with an apology - it does rather get things off on the wrong foot - but acknowledgement needs to be made of the four months of silence. It's not that I haven't been thinking about things that I hold dear, rather that there's been some plotting and machinations in the background to act upon some of the things that make me irate/things that are important to me. That, and I've had some paid work writing, which does rather fill in one's spare time. (Small act of shameless self-promotion now follows... my article about language and science communication can be found here, while my profile of Nobel Laureate Roald Hoffman can be found here. Two further articles are in pre-publication.)

So onto the plotting and machinations - well, things not quite set it stone yet. so there's no marvelous websites to direct you to as of today, but they focus on one thing that breaks my heart - child poverty in New Zealand  - and on one thing that makes my heart sing - the role of the university in New Zealand, enshrined in law, as "critic and conscience of society." (Look, I have never pretended to be cool, okay?)

Tonight there's a book launch happening that neatly brings together these two critical aspects of my passions and future directions. Robert Wade, Professor of Political Economy and Development at the London School of Economics is giving a public lecture entitled 'Inquality and the West: Capitalism at a tipping point' at 6pm in the Old Government House Lecture theatre, after which a book called Inequality: A New Zealand Crisis, will be launched. The contributing authors are a long list of academics enacting the role of "critic and conscience." I'm proud to know some of them personally. I'm more than proud that they collectively view particpating in a project like this as an essential aspect of their vocation.

So despite x-ray appointments and basket ball games, I'll be there, listening to smart people talk about the ways in which we can address this moral outrage - that there are children living in poverty in New Zealand. I, and some others, have decided that both child poverty and the role of the university as critic and conscience are issues that need to be things that we act upon or enagage with as individuals - the article, the conversation, the email requesting donations for a local women's refuge - and things we engage with strategically - locating the research, listening to the experts, campaigning locally and nationally. There are things I can do with the skills I have been given, and it seems imperative RIGHT NOW that I use these skills to fight child poverty in New Zealand, and celebrate, shore up, the role of the university as critic and conscience.

There are people all over the world incensed by the growing gaps, the glaring unfairness of late capitalism. When I was 16, I watched Noam Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent, in which he says:"it is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies." I guess, at heart, I still have that refrain in my head. That and Jean Anouilh's "Il y aura toujours un chien perdu quelque part pour m'empêcher d'être heureuse." So I've returned to my youthful, uncynical belief that people can indeed change the world. Well, live trying to, at least.