this post was submitted on 05 May 2025
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Wellington Airport's giant, Hobbit-themed eagles to be replaced (www.rnz.co.nz)
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Wellington Airport is about to have its wings clipped.

Its two giant eagle sculptures - each of which weighs more than a tonne - are to be packed away, and what will replace them is being kept under wraps.

"It's not unusual to see airborne departures from Wellington Airport, but in this case, it will be emotional for us," Wellington Airport chief executive Matt Clarke said.

"They have been a huge success and travellers from around the world have loved admiring them. After 12 years it's the right time for them to fly the nest."

The sculptures, made by Wētā Workshop, were installed in 2013 as a tie-in with Peter Jackson's The Hobbit movie trilogy.

"We're working with Wētā Workshop on some exciting plans for a unique, locally themed replacement to take their place," Clarke said.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think it's clear at this point he is trying to create the unstable market. A stable market isn't a good place to make a lot of money. The ups and downs are where money is made (and lost) in large amounts.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I agree; it's definitely some kind of extension of disaster capitalism. "Blood in the streets" is how you make money (if you're already rich) and the shock doctrine has also shown that it's how corporate power is minted and entrenched.

This sort of seems worse. Did you see this recent Klein article?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I had not seen it. I feel like we have a lot in common right now with the people who were living through the post WW2, cold war error, thinking the world was going to fall apart. These articles read like dystopian fiction, but it's really happening.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

I think you're right. And it feels like a lot of what is impinging on peoples' consciousness in the West now has already happened elsewhere, for example the rise of free market oligarchy in Russia after the fall of the USSR, or the experiences of refugees at the hands of ICE and their ilk, or the endless genocides.