Articles in ‘Culture’

A question worth asking as identity, policy, and performance collide · The question posed in the Norwegian piece is confronting, but it is not uniquely Norwegian. · That got me thinking... It is a question New Zealanders should be asking themselves. · Not emotionally. Not reactively. But honestly. · Have we seen something similar happen here? · A shifting definition of identity · New Zealand once had a clearly understood cultural identity. ·…

The 1960s were a turning point for Norwegian identity. Most Norwegians didn’t notice it at the time, but the arrival of the first illegal Pakistani immigrants would eventually erode the very community and sense of self on which the country had been built. These young Pakistani men began arriving in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Many came via Germany or other European countries on tourist visas, fully intending to stay. By Rebecca Mistereggen…

The state should work to save marriages, instead of simplifying their termination, Natalya Moskvitina has said · A young woman looks at the stand of Gosuslugi at an exhibition in Moscow. © Sputnik / Ilya Pitalev · Russians currently have the option of filing for divorce online. However, Natalya Moskvitina, the deputy head of the Public Chamber’s Demography Commission, insists that breaking up should be harder to do. ·…

By Abhimanyu Ghoshal · Almost a century and a half after construction began on La Sagrada Familia, the exterior structure of the tallest church in the world was finally completed last Friday in Barcelona, Spain. · The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família, as it's officially named and the only way I refer to it in casual conversation, has now had its tallest tower, the tower of Jesus Christ, reach its maximum height. It's…

Hobson’s Pledge says Auckland Council is allowing iwi to use heritage laws to claim parts of privately owned land as “culturally significant,” sparking fresh debate over property rights. In a post online, spokesperson Elliot Ikilei said the group has received complaints from residents who discovered that portions of their freehold property were being flagged by iwi for cultural or historic value, often without explanation. · One North Shore…