Nga Kupu Aroha – Words of Love
1 June 2008
There is a sense of disquiet in Aotearoa and the nation is on edge over a spike in gang violence and series of vicious assaults and murders. Communities are crying ‘enough is enough’ and are looking to Government for action. Ombudsman Mel Smith says rational debate in the sector is almost impossible. Denis reviews what’s going in England and suggests following the ‘customer conscious’ approach. While sewage continues to pump into Hawke’s Bay the visual pollution of graffiti has the chattering classes all a twitter. New ideas that take into account the psychology of the perpetrator are required. Heavy thinking about behavioural economics and the concept of Libertarian Paternalism. Otatara a "Must-do" and frontline feedback from the 'Enough is enough' march, Maatariki feasting and a little whiskey .
Film & TV
1 June 2008
This is New Zealand actor Russell Crowe on the cover of the June issue of PhotoIcon in “typical mercurial and irreverent mood”. Taken by British portrait photographer Michael Birt in February 2000 at a pivotal moment in Crowe’s career, within …
Writers
31 May 2008
Wellington poet Bill Manhire takes the cover of the 2008 spring edition of literary periodical Poetry London, in which his poems ‘Song with a Chorus’, ‘Velvet’ and ‘The Carpe Diem Poem’ appear. Manhire read his verse alongside UK author and …
General
29 May 2008
New Zealand is the first English-speaking country in the world to have banned smacking and Europe wants to follow suit. The New Zealand police were reassured when they won the right to apply the smacking law in 2007 with discretion, …
General
29 May 2008
The anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay’s ascent of Mount Everest in 1955 has been honoured by search engine giant Google. Google periodically changes its logo to celebrate special events and anniversaries, such as the invention of …
Taste
28 May 2008
Auckland trio, Tim Tregonning, Dan Phillips and Danis Roberts are crowd pleasers; their project, OurBrew is currently recruiting beer drinkers to unite and develop a collective drop by signing up online, voting and then launching the world’s first crowd produced …
Cricket
28 May 2008
Jeremy Coney, as announcer on Sky TV’s ‘Test Match Special’, is “cricket’s answer to the poet and critic Tom Paulin”, according to Guardian sports blogger Rob Bagchi. A guest on TMS for the last 20 years, Coney’s pitch reports for domestic New Zealand …
General
28 May 2008
Four hours from Auckland, New Zealand developer Peter Cooper’s 400 ha Mountain Landing property boasts white sand beaches, native bush and historical value. “When I first saw the property, I knew that it was a very special place and then …
Education
27 May 2008
Thirteen-year-old Hamilton spelling champion Thomas North will compete at the 81st Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C., travelling further than any of the record 288 competitors. North competes a year after Christchurch entrant Kate Weir’s memorable spelling of ‘jardinière’ flummoxed the American judges. …
Science/Tech
26 May 2008
James Watson, head of Massey University’s school of history, philosophy and politics in Palmerston North and author of agricultural study, ‘The Significance of Mr Richard Buckley’s Exploding Trousers’, won an Ig Nobel prize in 2005 for discovering that sodium chlorate …
Rugby
26 May 2008
Forty-eight test veteran, Jerry Collins, 27, has announced his retirement from New Zealand rugby. Collins said: “It’s difficult for me to talk about myself but I know I’ve always been committed to every minute of every game and that’s the way I want …
Motorsports
25 May 2008
New Zealander Scott Dixon, 27, woke to the traditional 6am race-day explosion, ate American pancakes with hot syrup for breakfast and then from pole position drove 200 laps to win the 92nd Indianapolis 500, a race “filled with antics and …
Film & TV
24 May 2008
New Zealand is once again the backdrop for Middle Earth, Peter Jackson and Hobbit director Guillermo Del Toro confirmed in an hour-long live internet chat with fans. Speaking from New Zealand and London respectively, the pair answered 20 of the …
Golf
22 May 2008
The Lodge at Kauri Cliffs in the Bay of Islands was voted one of New Zealand’s best resorts in 2007 and one of the top 20 resorts in the world by readers of Andrew Harper’s Hideaway Report. Owned by New …
Politics and Economics
21 May 2008
New Zealand comes in at number four on the second annual Global Peace Index released by Britain’s Economist Intelligence Unit. A survey on the harmoniousness of the world’s nations, the Index evaluates 140 nations with respect to 24 criteria, including …
Politics and Economics
21 May 2008
Though New Zealand tycoon Christopher Chandler keeps a reclusive profile, he has invested $50 million in a business school for students from developing countries in Boston. Chandler, a beekeeper’s son from Matangi who has built a fortune estimated at $1.7bn …
Business
20 May 2008
Divided into four tribes: kea, ruru, tui, and weka, 200 employees of US firm Seagate Technologies face the elements in the mountains above Queenstown in a week-long “mother of all of team-building events”. CEO Bill Watkins spends $2 million making …
Film & TV
18 May 2008
Auckland greensman Robbie Penny has worked on Bridge to Terabithia, 10,000 BC and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian arranging on-set nurseries, sourcing Belgian lettuce ferns and relocating apple orchards. Feet are Penny’s biggest enemy. For instance, “In Prince Caspian, …
Writers
17 May 2008
First published in New Zealand in 1881, the second volume of science fiction novella The Great Romance lay hidden on the shelves of Dunedin’s Hocken Library until the 1990s when the work was discovered. Published under the pseudonym ‘The Inhabitant’, …
Science/Tech
17 May 2008
On a subsea mountain peak 400km south of New Zealand, a robot submarine has filmed tens of millions of waving five-armed creatures called brittlestars, in a never-seen-before seamount discovery. Scientists from New Zealand and Australia discovered “Brittlestar City” on a …
Film & TV
16 May 2008
Tauranga-based filmmakers Lance and James Morcan are searching for the best person to take on the role of four-foot-nine power-lifting champion Precious McKenzie. Ranked the best weightlifter in South Africa, McKenzie, now 71, was barred from representing his country because …
Writers
15 May 2008
New Zealand author Emily Perkins leans out to close a window at her publisher’s in Soho and “raising her voice over a building site, takes a deep breath of London air to say, ‘It’s great to be back’.” Perkins spent …
Nature
15 May 2008
New Zealand ‘the youngest country’, is the new focus of Tourism New Zealand’s international branding. Tourism chiefs have called in London PR agency Henry’s House as they revive the country’s popularity post-Lord of the Rings. Tourism New Zealand UK and …
Watersports
14 May 2008
Lake Karapiro in Cambridge is the headquarters for Rowing New Zealand’s centralized training programme which has produced “one of the strongest rowing squads in the world” on a budget of just four million dollars. “Medals are important,” said RNZ’s high …
Magazine
14 May 2008
Edge Message #99 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM New Zealanders in Global Headlines New Zealand headlines in this week’s sampling of global media appearing in The West Australian, Telegraph, Hindustan Times, Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times, The Daily Telegraph, The …
Taste
12 May 2008
Christchurch is visited by some 20,000 Israeli backpackers annually, and to cater for these numbers, the city will soon be home to New Zealand’s first kosher restaurant. Rabbi Mendy Goldstein, formerly of Brooklyn, New York, views the restaurant as a …
Rugby
11 May 2008
Former Highlander Anton Oliver, 32, will play the last rugby matches of his career at Oxford University while he studies for an MSc in Biodiversity, Environment and Management. Oliver, winner of 55 New Zealand caps at hooker who was last …
Science/Tech
11 May 2008
James Flynn, Emeritus Professor of Political Studies at the University of Otago and moral philosopher, says human intelligence has improved over the last century, rather than declined as was widely thought. “But,” Flynn says, “we have to rethink exactly what …
Cricket
11 May 2008
Sir Richard Hadlee and his father, Walter are probably one of the most successful father-son sporting combinations according to the Guardian’s Will Buckley, but this son doesn’t want to be compared. Richard Hadlee, chairman of the New Zealand board of selectors, is …
Music
11 May 2008
Auckland band Ruby Suns has the UK press “salivating” over its latest guitar-pop album Sea Lion, with other acts like the Brunettes, Connan and the Mockasins and Lawrence of Arabia proving to have just as tasty reputations in both Britain …
Politics and Economics
10 May 2008
New Zealand dairy farmers are benefiting from a worldwide demand for milk and cheese with Fonterra Cooperative Group members promised big payouts for their efforts this year. Never before has the term “cash cow” been more appropriate. Senior economist for …
Rugby
10 May 2008
First five-eighth and fullback Aucklander Nick Evans has signed a three-year contract with English side the Harlequins for the 2008-2009 Guinness Premiership season. Considered the high-quality understudy to Daniel Carter, Evans is one of many New Zealand players leaving for …
Design
9 May 2008
The 1931 Napier earthquake devastated the Hawkes Bay region, but two years later Napier was rebuilt and an Art Deco masterpiece. The Sydney Morning Herald’s Rebecca Lancashire pays a visit and “wanders the city looking up at whimsical pastel-painted facades: …
Film & TV
9 May 2008
Filmmaker Andrew Adamson’s Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, shot in New Zealand, Czech Republic, Poland and Slovenia, has been released worldwide. The release comes just before Adamson takes a break from what has been an all-consuming but lucrative multi-billion dollar …
Education
9 May 2008
New Zealand-designed educational software Hector’s World, which teaches children about the dangers of online aedophiles with cartoons, has been launched at St Vincent de Paul RC Primary School, in Westminster, Central London. Hector’s World has been used in New Zealand …
General
8 May 2008
Actress Keisha Castle-Hughes, 19, has joined the Save the Whales Campaign and is urging the New Zealand government to reject Japan’s proposal to resume commercial whaling in its waters before a June 22 International Whaling Commission meeting. She said the …
Business
7 May 2008
In 1949, New Zealand engineer and economist Professor William “Bill” Phillips astonished the London School of Economics revealing his “do-it-yourself” creation: an analogue computer model of the workings of the British economy. The Monetary National Income Automatic Computer or MONIAC …
Music
6 May 2008
Flight of the Conchords have “a gift of genre-blending that makes even David Bowie’s efforts pale in comparison,” writes London Time Out. Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie shift comfortably from the soft-hitting hipn hop of ‘Mutha’uckers’ to the admittedly vogueish …
Dance
6 May 2008
Rotorua-born and Ruatoria-raised political campaigner and artist Tame Iti has the leading role in a Europe-bound performance based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Iti will perform in Tempest II with the 15-member Mau Dance Company. The Dominion Post quoted choreographer Lemi …
Obituaries
5 May 2008
Colin Murdoch, inventor, pharmacist and self-taught engineer, a man who designed something the world could not do without, has died in Timaru, aged 79. Murdoch led an extraordinary life; creator of the disposable syringe, he also invented the tranquiliser gun, …
Politics and Economics
4 May 2008
Neil Berkett is eight weeks into his role as chief executive at Virgin Media and already has battle scars. Actually, he explains in an interview with Sunday Times reporter Andrew Davidson, he just banged his head at home, and you …
Media
4 May 2008
The Mongrel Mob feature in an episode of BAFTA award-winning BBC documentary Ross Kemp on Gangs, in which Kemp explores the history of the gang, formed in Hastings in the 1960s. He follows members into clubhouses around the North Island, …
Cricket
4 May 2008
Palmerston North Black Caps all-rounder Jacob Oram, 29, has recovered from stress-related injury and is braced for the first Test against England at Lords on May 15. Oram’s economy rate of 2.4 is the best among leading New Zealand bowlers of the past …
Film
3 May 2008
The trailer for the New Zealand film, Second Hand Wedding.
Music
3 May 2008
New Zealand singer/songwriter, Mihirangi has returned from a trip to Antarctica where she filmed a video for her latest single No War. “They put me on this iceberg all by myself!” she said. “It was this million-year-old iceberg, in the …
Nature
2 May 2008
New Zealand is a haven for environmental refugees and in this BBC World Service programme, one of six in the Global Perspective documentary series, four immigrants discuss their new home. In Escape to New Zealand, dire planetary predictions influenced one …
Magazine
2 May 2008
Edge Message #98 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM Greetings. We are pleased to record our 10 millionth pageview since inception. Ka pai. New Zealanders in Global Headlines New Zealand headlines in this week’s sampling of global media appearing in Guardian, …
Sport General
1 May 2008
Palmerston North-born Matt Reed is 6-foot-5 and the world’s tallest triathelete. Two weeks ago Reed, 32, won the US men’s team trials in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and secured a place on the American Olympic team. “It was total exhilaration, a total …
Taste
1 May 2008
New Zealander Mark Simmons, 29, a sous chef at New York restaurant Public and until recently a contestant on popular reality show Top Chef, wants to open his own restaurant in the Big Apple serving antipodean cuisine. Simmons says he …
Film & TV
1 May 2008
Academy-Award winner Anna Paquin, 25, features on US Men’s magazine Maxim’s 2008 Hot 100, the “ultimate list of the world’s most beautiful women.” At number 50, Paquin is described as the: “sexy, troubled, and underutilized Rogue in the X-Men movies.” …
Nga Kupu Aroha – Words of Love
1 May 2008
A review of good work in South Auckland with previously warring groups; the system’s dilemma of how to react to pro-social gang leaders; coping with the tough times when things go wrong (stick to the kaupapa and say your karakia); big inflow of P-related product threatening to wipe out progress of demand reduction strategies overnight; ANZAC has become a day of national unity; Maori and Pakeha seem to get on better when at war than when at peace; Napier Pilot City Trust works on this with Unity Week and builds the Robson Collection as a resource for building communities rather than prisons in a time when our numbers have doubled in 20 years; Governor General Anand Satyanand gives the Robson Lecture on the history of capital punishment and pays respects to community volunteers; a 93rd birthday for Helen Mason.
War & Peace
1 May 2008
New Zealand is where the revolution will happen and a “perfect place for an ideas summit,” writes journalist Craig Sherborne in an essay entitled ‘Not all Black and White: Inside New Zealand’s Social Laboratory’ featured in Australia’s The Monthly. “For …
X Files
30 April 2008
Two of the first television chefs, Graham Kerr and Fanny Cradock.
Writers
30 April 2008
From Takaka, Telegraph foreign correspondent Peter Foster writes a weekly blog on life in the small South Island town, population: 1,182. Foster was the Telegraph’s South Asia Correspondent for four years until January 2008 when he moved to live at …
Medicine/Health
30 April 2008
A University of Otago study has found that obesity in women may worsen the impact of asthma and also mask its severity in standard tests. The findings were published in the first issue for May of the American Journal of …
Nature
30 April 2008
Te Papa’s colossal squid, the largest ever caught, has created a worldwide media furore making headlines from South Africa and Germany, to Iran and Uruguay. Very little is known about colossal squid; only about 10 have ever been caught and …
