Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was.
An unfortunate and unavoidable fact of life is that no matter how hard you try, you will one day look back on your past self and feel embarrassed. Actually, embarrassment is the preferred emotion (over, for example, shame or deep regret). Most of the time it’s decisions we made confidently – whether in fashion, haircuts, intimate partners or jobs – that are weighed and found wanting.
Sometimes those decisions are known only to ourselves. Other times they are immortalised in film. Yesterday I watched a short video of an older man in Auckland making one such decision. Out shopping with his wife, the man is standing outside a store in downtown Auckland as protesters walk by on the street waving Palestine flags and chanting. In the clip, the man doesn’t say anything. He just stares, one hand in his rainjacket pocket, the other held low, flipping the bird.
Within seconds, his wife emerges from the store, slaps his arm down and tells him off before storming away. He gives one last smirk to the protesters before following her.
I’m not sure that man will ever be embarrassed, even though the video is very funny, but his wife certainly was. What was more startling than funny was that the video was taken just last weekend, in August 2025, when it is understood by virtually the entire world that Israel is committing horrific war crimes against the people of Palestine. It doesn’t feel like a topic of debate these days, which is a far cry from 21 months ago when the scandal of the week was Chloe Swarbrick saying “from the river to the sea”.
And yet, despite the sad humour in a grown ass man behaving like a child to people protesting the brutal killing of thousands upon thousands of children, that is how New Zealand feels right now in its lack of action or backbone when it comes to Israel.
If I can recommend a single story from The Spinoff this week, it would be Joel MacManus’s comprehensive case for stronger action (or even stronger words!) from New Zealand to prove we really are a country that stands for humanity and peace.
What Joel makes clear is both the scale of violence and destruction that Israel is unleashing, as well as New Zealand’s tepid response. Of the 193 UN member states, 147 have recognised Palestinian statehood, many having done it years ago. New Zealand is still deciding. Where other countries have placed sanctions on Israel or cut trade or expelled ambassadors, New Zealand has sat quietly and pondered.
In the moment, doing nothing can feel like the safest option. But one thing is for sure: at some point in the future, likely not far from now, all of New Zealand will look back on this time and feel deep shame.
The stories Spinoff readers spent the most time with this week
- A deep dive from Henry Cooke into the voters swinging away from National and Luxon
- Taylor Swift will never again perform in New Zealand. Chris Schulz explains why not
- An in-depth feature from Anna Rankin on what happens when a mill town shuts down its mill
- Some of New Zealand’s biggest Substack writers are leaving the platform. Emma Gleason lays out the reasoning
- Hayden Donnell Investigates why so many New Zealanders want house prices to rise
Feedback of the week
“A plea globally to stop Gen-mongering.The titles – X, alpha, frittata… – they feel like the new star signs and, in terms of accurately describing people, seem almost as useful.Except boomers. You don’t hog the spotlight (and everything else) for 60+ years without getting a group nickname. Them’s the rules.”
“Not a miss, but I just wanted to mention that if you go to the Howick market there are also some op shops nearby and an independent bookshop (Poppies). And you may have to fight my dad for a cheese.”
“I was once in a relationship with a good looking person (she was a fitness model, a PhD candidate, a fashionista). She was also the nastiest, rotten to the core, most evil narcissist I have ever met. I shudder when I think of her. My friends all hated her. She has literally ruined the lives of a couple of guys since, and we chat occasionally about how happy we are now that she’s on her broomstick elsewhere. Just because the cover looks shiny, it doesn’t make it a good book or something we ever want to experience again.”
