Get Up Stand Up – Kiwi Cultural Laboratory
New Zealand doesn’t get the attention it deserves as a “kind of cultural laboratory for issues such as the rights of indigenous inhabitants or the equality of women”.
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Van Dyke Taken to Heart
Former South African International Netballer Irene Van Dyke picks up public choice player of the year as New Zealand fans claim her as one of their own.
Brits take to New Girl
Emily Perkins’s The New Girl: “The atmosphere of summer, youth and restlessness in a social backwater is strong, as is the projection of Miranda’s intriguing personality and its effect on Julia, her brightest pupil….
Origin Controversy
Is every living thing on earth descended from a heat loving bacteria – or are we, as Dr Anthony Poole of Massey University suggests, all really aliens on our own planet?
School’s dinner
On the heels of his hotly anticipated new venture Providores, edge fusion food-man Peter Gordon spurns the celeb-chef cliche for knife-wielding cruelty and cooks top notch cuisine to raise funds for a new school…
Palliser Palate Thriller
“My top pick Vintages white is a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc that thrills the palate: Palliser Estate 2000 Sauvignon Blanc.”
Advice to Note
Icon of NZ music remembered. Composer Douglas Lilburn, 85, found a “distinctive voice from his native New Zealand.” The Guardian praises the “strong emotional appeal” of his music, noting that Lilburn took to heart…
Island Export
Treasure Island, Survivor – love them or loathe them “reality” means ratings. With a patent on the format Treasure Island is a New Zealand export success for Touchstone Productions.
Dealing to the Queen
It’s only a matter of time before New Zealand becomes a republic says PM Helen Clark, stressing that it’s still not a high priority.
Yankee Dangle
Want thrills? Inhale the air head to Queenstown for “utter exhilaration” and the town Bill Clinton called the “most beautiful place on earth.”
Easy-over or Sunnyside Up?
Which ever way you flip it, global warming will affect every part of New Zealand – but perhaps we’re among the lucky ones?
Historian Remembered
Professor Neville Phillips – erudite, open-minded “sometimes spiky”. One of New Zealand’s leading historians, remembered for the day he stood up to Rob Muldoon in defence of the university and intellectual freedom. Neville Phillips: Died July 2001
ANZAC Bond
On April 25, 1935, Ataturk, the great general who masterminded the historic Turkish defensive victory at Gallipoli said, “Wipe away your tears. Your sons are now resting in our bosom and are at peace.” Words symbolic…
Miracle Reading
Reading Recovery, developed by New Zealand’s Dame Marie Clay, means results at a Toronto Public School where staff “watched miracles unfold” after the programme was introduced.
First class performance
New Zealand student Geoff Pinfield gains a first class degree and the inaugural Simon Callow prize for Theatre Criticism at Queen’s University, Belfast.
Financial Future Rosy
Finance Minister Michael Cullen optimistic about New Zealand’s economic future despite the global slowdown.
Maori Leader Born
July 3 is the anniversary of the birth of Maori leader and MP Sir Apirana Ngata in Kawakawa, 1874.
Hogg Headed
New Zealand-born and educated scholar and teacher James F. Hogg appointed to head Western State University College of Law.
Trickster Wasp
Newly discovered New Zealand parasitic wasp creates a whole new insect family – Maamingidae, named after the Maori word for trickster, because it has taken so long to come to light.
Writing With a Cause
Working for international NGOs appeals to journalists as “an honorable route forward”, including former New Zealand reporter Brendan Parry, now working for Amnesty International, where there is “a huge amount of recognition if you do good work”….
The New IT Kiwis
“We should be treating any skilled, IT-qualified immigrant to New Zealand like gold,” says Auckland Regional Chamber of Commerce head Michael Barnett.
Another Shade of White
Bridget Jones not withstanding, the reign of Chardonnay is over – Sauvignon Blanc is the white of the moment, and Marlborough’s “peppery, citrus driven” offerings have set the contemporary standard.
Clean as a Whistle
New Zealand comes up smelling of roses, second equal behind Finland in the world anti-corruption rankings.
Intimate work
New Zealand actress Kerry Fox generates massive buzz for her award-winning work in Patrice Chereau’s Intimacy, based on the metro-culture sex and angst stories of Hanif Kureishi. For Fox, the film was about “braving…
Out of the Roo’s Pouch
New Zealand’s continued “innate patriotism and pride” make a political merger with Australia unlikely, but economic convergence is welcome says foreign minister Phil Goff.
International Peak
New Zealand-born Rhys Millen drives over the competition, posting a record-breaking 11 minutes, 58.53 seconds in the 79th Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.
Landing the big one
Turner New Zealand baits the hook for US seafood buyers with on-demand video demonstrations by celebrity chefs and NZ-fresh fish delivered to the door. Not only is Turner’s food the finest gourmet offering,…
Bach Symphony
Design/style bible Wallpaper scours the globe to compile a directory of the best architects to pick if you’re thinking of home improvements and includes the “sparklingly clear vision” of edge architects Fearon Hay. Inspired…
My brilliant career
Jurassic action hero and “rugged individualist” Sam Neill gets the NY Daily News career review: “tall, handsome, fiftyish, New Zealand accent”. And Neill wonders at the anonymity despite the star turns: “people will come…
Healthy Holiday
Allergic to mold? Your best holiday destination is “a snow-capped New Zealand mountain above the Pacific” where the elevation, snow, and ocean breezes kill dust mites and mold.
The new girl
Emily Perkins is “an adventurous writer” whose recent novel, The New Girl is an “ambitious work, rich with creative tension”, and a “huge leap” for a writer whose first two books met with critical…
Sandwich Wars
How do Americans explain the antipodean phenomenon of Vegemite? “It looks like a mixture of kangaroo poop and old motor grease, but it doesn’t taste as good as either.”
The Fox Boy
Comment on Peter Walker’s “fascinating” biography of William Fox Omahuru, the Maori boy abducted to be raised by Sir William Fox, future New Zealand PM. A tale of colonialism told with “doggedness, intelligence and…
Well Crafted
New Zealand-born Alice Beatrice Waymouth was a noted silversmith, enameler and jeweler. Her daughter Judith Hughes, now 89, is “a cabinetmaker and designer who reached the top of a male dominated profession” and was dubbed “Miss Chippendale”…
Emily’s choice
British-based New Zealand writer Emily Perkins sat on the all-powerful all-girl jury for the Orange Prize, Britain’s major literary award for women only. Also, Perkins comments on the double jury battle of the sexes controversy…
Crackers Rowers
Former New Zealand representative sailor Dominic Mee and his best buddy Tim Welford are half way across the Pacific in a rowboat named Crackers.
Where Everyone Gets Some Shares
400 store managers at the Warehouse Group are to receive share options with a total value of $184 million, but Australian managers, working in newer, smaller stores will miss out.
Jolly Jodphurs
“Suave, tanned and wearing tight white jodphurs,” New Zealander Peter Grace is Britain’s best polo coach, teaching the rich and trendy to swing mallets and retain a firm seat at Ascot Park Polo Club.
Gentleman Amateur
Mourning the days when tennis players had urbanity and looked like professors, Howard Jacobson, first time Wimbledon-watcher turns to the past for solace: “Bored with it, I take a turn around the museum and spend…
On the Up
A low dollar, good tourism revenues and buoyant international prices for our primary commodities are leading New Zealand towards an unexpectedly strong export-lead recovery, including a $95million current account surplus. Also, “It was a boomer,” says UBS Warburg…
Nearly There
“In principle, we are just about there. I want it and everyone wants it,” says former NZ-PM, WTO head Mike Moore, confirming his work on bringing China into the WTO has nearly reached its conclusion. …
Fairytale victory
Kiwi co-directed Shrek is “a computer-generated miracle. Based on William Steig’s 28-page book, the film puts forward the most marvellous case for the craziness of repressing fairytales since Sondheim’s musical Into the Woods.” But,…
Penguins Pegging Out
Global warming, along with over-fishing and oil-spills, threatens penguin populations around the world says University of Otago penguin biologist Lloyd Davies.
Carbon Up
New Zealand’s carbon emissions rose 22% in the 1990’s, almost certainly putting Kyoto targets out of reach.
Dame Kiri in Greece
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, “a woman with an exotic beauty and – beyond any doubt – an absolutely stunning voice” who “personifies the modern version of a diva most completely” talks about her roles,…
On the Defensive
The debate continues over scrapping the Air Force. Is it an example to the world or peacenik idealism?
Hot Shit!
Renewable Energy Corporation, powered by New Zealander Paul Williams’ organic waste energy generation technology, signs to put power-plants next to pig farms in North Carolina. The plants will gasify pig manure and burn the gas to…
AIDS Action
New Zealand’s health minister Dr Annette King calls on the world not to neglect the small island nations of the Pacific in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Rat Attack
New Zealand rat predatation expert Mike Bell called in to save the puffins of Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel.
Free Farming
New Zealand leads the world with a fully deregulated agricultural sector – but big players like the US still protect and subsidise farmers, talking the free-trade talk but not walking the walk.
Survivor 3: The Holiday
Survivor 2: The Australian Outback has tourism spin-offs for New Zealand in South Nevada.
Private Worries
New Zealand’s privacy laws touted as an example for Australia to follow in protecting the rights of its citizens and mesh better with EU legislation.
Rollerskating Don
Oxford’s “Rollerskating media don”, Kiwi Ngaire Woods is a classroom pioneer using team game and corporate learning strategies in her International Relations MPhil classes.
Fe-mail, He-mail
Gender can’t be hidden, even in faceless e-communication according to research by Tamar Murachver of Otago University.
