RNZ: Ideas

Ideas this week explores food production, food waste and inevitably hunger.

Ideas explores the place of children in a democracy with: Jessica Palairet - a member of the Commissioner of Children's Young People's Reference Group; Caleb O'Fee - the president of Feilding High School's student council; Cindy Blackstock of First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada; and Bronwyn Hayward, the author of 'Children, Citizens and the Environment: Nurturing a Democratic Imagination in a Changing World'.

MIT - which was ranked the world's top university by QS University Rankings earlier this week - has led the way in making its course work freely available on the internet.

In 1898, New Zealand became the first country in the world to introduce an old age pension; in 1926 it became the first to introduce a family benefit; then in the 1940s we led the way in introducing a universal family benefit. And each of those pioneering innovations was under-pinned by concepts of fairness. An historian, economists, and someone who works in the sector discuss the search for universal fairness in the welfare system.

Epuni Primary School's Common Unity Project aims to produce enough fruit and vegetables to feed not only the school's 110 pupils but their families as well. It's a classic example of what's been called Asset Based Community Development - or ABC Development.

In 2009, Venezuela became the first country in the world to ban any and all video games that involved shooting people. To date New Zealand has banned seven games. Jeremy Rose talks to his 13-year old son, Edi Rose, about the attraction of shooting people on screen; deputy chief censor Nic McCully and classification officer Hamish McCormick talk us through the process of rating a video game; and academics professor Brad Bushman of Ohio State University and Waikato University's Dr Gareth Schott discuss the evidence for the widely held belief that violent video games have a desensitising effect.

Jeremy Rose speaks with professor Norman Finkelstein and looks at the activism in the resistance of Mahatma Ghandi. Closer to home, Jeremy speaks with Rachel Buchanan about Parihaka and, perhaps, the world's original non-violent resistance.

In Ideas we hear from Jim Flynn - arguably New Zealand's foremost moral philosopher. His pioneering work on IQ's has changed the way we think about intelligence.

The concept of "economic man" - a hypothetical rational person with complete knowledge who acts entirely out of self-interest - is one of the foundations of conventional economic thinking. Ideas talks to two thinkers, from two very different disciplines, who take issue with not only the notion of economic man but many of the assumptions of conventional economics: William Cavanaugh, a professor of theology at DePaul University in Chicago and the author of 'Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire'; and Morris Altman, a professor of economics at Victoria University and the author of 'Behavioral Economics for Dummies'.

Radio New Zealand International's Annell Husband travels to Honiara and speaks to locals about efforts to achieve reconciliation following the ethnic conflicts that first broke out in 1999; and Richard Langston talks to Victoria University professor Jon Fraenkel, author of 'The Manipulation of Custom: From Uprising to Intervention in the Solomon Islands' (Victoria University Press).

David Grant, the author of "On a Roll", talks about the history of gambling in New Zealand and Professor Peter Adams from the University of Auckland talks about his concerns that the community has become addicted to the proceeds of gambling.

Child poverty is back in the headlines this week with 80 organisations banding together to call on the Government to make the well-being of children its top priority. Jeremy Rose visits Seaview's Kokiri Marae to talk to its manager of health and social services Teresa Olsen. Three employees of Wesley Community Action in Cannons Creek tell Jeremy about the realities of children growing up poor in Porirua; Chris Whitta talks to Child Poverty Action Group's Mike O'Brien.

In the latest of our occasional Countries in Focus series we take a look at Singapore. Jeremy Rose talks to Rodney King, the author of The Singapore Miracle - Myth and Reality (Insight Press). Then, Aucklanders Allan Yee and Matthew Ong tell Chris Laidlaw about the country of their birth.

This week we spend the hour marking the international year of the cooperative with an exploration of the ideas and ideals behind three very different cooperatives: Fonterra - New Zealand's biggest company; a small software start-up in Wellington called Loomio; and the Evergreen Cooperatives of Cleveland, USA.

A former chair of the Waitangi Tribunal, Justice Williams talks about his life and influences.