Torture Campaigner
Nations that try to bury painful episodes in their history are destined to remain dysfunctional until the past is confronted, says New Zealand-born anti-apartheid activist Michael Lapsley.
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Eco-2001
Seventy-five international teams extreme sport teams will tackle 400km of New Zealand’s roughest terrain at ECO-Challenge 2001. Kiwis are feared competitors in extreme multi-sport, “dominating competitions world-wide”.
It’s Shirley, Isn’t It?
The Shirley Convention 2001 is expecting “500 Shirleys from across Australia and New Zealand”.
Robbie Not Guilty
Too guilty to keep a Ferrari sports car, but OK with flying his New Zealand tattoo artist to Glasgow to create his tenth tattoo…
Nuclear Protest
ANZAC protest flotilla to confront Tasman-bound shipment of nuclear waste in early 2001.
Brash Blueprint
New Zealand’s Reserve Bank is a model for a proposed independent committee of economic advisors in Britain.
Figuring It
Britain’s Chief Statistician, New Zealander Len Cook is “in the hot seat” over the accuracy of official figures.
De-mining for Peace
New Zealander Greg Lindstrom co-ordinates the de-mining operation in Lebanon. “There’s a peace dividend to all this,” he says. “Clearing minefields means that people can come back to their lands”.
Benefits Suspended
New Zealanders, the group with the highest rate of employment in Australia, will lose the right to benefits under new immigration restrictions.
Peace Keeping On
New Zealand peace keepers will remain in East Timor for an extra twelve months, until May 2002.
Go Native?
A beer ad showing beach babes “going native”, (doing a haka), has been withdrawn from British TV after being branded insensitive and racist.
Download a Friend
Auckland-developed virtual faces read your email in your own voice. Download for free at lifeFX.com.
Dot.com Dream
Kiwi Victoria Davies is among the silicon dolls burnt by the dot.com crash. She’s now on a $100,000+ salary, but has less confidence in stock options, “I don’t look at it as my ticket to being…
Nobel Award
New Zealander and Nobel laureate for Chemistry, Dr Alan MacDiarmid, receives his award from His Majesty the King of Sweden.
Beery Good
“Beer makes people more sociable in an increasingly unsociable world. Beer, particularly for the Aussies, is something of an icon, so I’m very well aware of the responsibility,” says Scot Gordon Cairns, the man taking New…
Into Africa
“These flying doctors, as they are sometimes known, were the inspiration of Wood, Sir Archibald McIndoe of New Zealand and Tom Rees of America. They perceived that the only way to cope with casualties and sickness…
Ideal Burglar
“If you wanted an ideal burglar, we could give him a reference. You never know he’s been in,” says Ron Hancock of the crook who’s broken into his Lake Rotoehu holiday house twenty times in the…
Scottish
“The evening’s most accomplished performance comes from the New Zealand tenor Ian Storey, whose Pinkerton is sung with rich and fluent tone and acted with a rare warmth and understanding.”
Because It’s There
Slovenian Davo Karnicar, the first person to ski down Everest, now plans to slalom Aoraki (Mt Cook).
Neill at home
“It’s good to get back to New Zealand and Australia to make a film because I feel more at home in that part of the world,” says Sam Neill, now on screen in Aussie…
Creamier, milkier, safer
New Zealand butter has much lower concentrations of dioxin than Australian, European and American products.
Vertical Exhilaration
NZ-filmed and directed Vertical Limit goes public. The scenery scores universal acclaim: Ottawa Citizen, Chicago Sun-Times, USA Today, ctnow, entertainmentnewsdaily, National Post, Chicago Tribune, the Star, Washington Post. Scott Glen battled Mt Cook, the…
A Plague on Both Your Houses
“All the studies that have been done in New Zealand show that the sentiment ‘a plague on both your houses’ motivated the majority who voted in New Zealand’s 1993 referendum … in practice, MMP in New…
Xmas Cheer
Montana Wines, New Zealand’s largest winery, have swallowed Corban’s, creating a company that will produce 55% of New Zealand wine.
Hotel NZ Disgrace
The New Zealand, 235 Main St, Vancouver – one of the ten most troublesome establishments in the city.
Avalanche Warning
IT staffing company Avalanche plans to open a branch in New Zealand. The attraction? “English is a native language … and there is a first world infrastructure”.
Moral Turpitude
“My eye always goes back to that sad and sinister little word at the beginning of the list: what the hell is “turpitude”, anyway? One immediately thinks of child molesters, satanists, and men who do funny…
Soldier Five
New Zealand courts give ex-Bravo Two Zero patrol member Mike Coburn the OK to publish his memoir of the mission behind Iraqi lines.
Skin Tight
Based on iconic Dennis Glover poem ‘The Magpies’, Gary Henderson’s Skin Tight is a play with “spare beauty and competitive power”.
Still singing
Dame Kiri scotches retirement rumours. Her agents are “actively seeking engagements and opportunities well into 21 and beyond”.
Ozone in Godzone
Having suffered under the hole, New Zealand should be among the first places to feel the benefit of ozone regeneration.
Coutts Coming
The Swiss syndicate headed by Russell Coutts has been cleared to challenge in 2003, after doubts about the legality of the entry.
Virtual Success
Virtual Spectator, the New Zealand company behind the America’s Cup graphics, plans to revolutionise the way all sport is viewed, allowing spectators to view reconstructed plays from every angle.
Tom the Pole
Stationed in New Zealand in 191, Irish Navy-man Tom Crean managed to get a place in Scott’s Antarctic expedition.
Moko on Film
Jillian White’s Moko, a short documentary featuring the first contemporary man to wear moko, included in Sundance 2001. Felicity Morgan-Rhind’s short Donuts for Breakfast, is also on the programme.
Proof of Life
The plot goes wobbly, but Russell Crowe is the man. Crowe is “a powerful screen presence, the sort of fellow every man wants to befriend and every woman wants to love”: “the movie comes…
Temping It
An influx of hard-working New Zealand and Australian temps has lifted industry standards in the UK.
Walk Over
Kiwi apprentice jockey Michael Walker: one season; a record-breaking 131 wins; “probably the greatest thing to happen to racing for a long time”.
Divine Edge
“It’s not often you are greeted at the door of the Coliseum by a bleach-blond New Zealand Benedictine monk, but this was merely the prelude to a slightly surreal tour of Frank Matcham’s venerable old building…”
Proof of quality
Oscar noms tipped for Crowe’s Proof of Life turn as kidnap and ransom rescue specialist Terry Thorne.
Museum reborn
A “New Zealand ancestor figure” is among the art on display in the inaugural exhibition at the revamped British Museum.
White Flight = All Black
British journalists fear reverse colonisation as staunch Polynesian men flex their muscles on the rugby field.
Heartening News
New Zealand researchers have found Pravastatin, a drug that helps control cholesterol, also helps ward off heart disease. Bring on the Xmas pav…
Spiritual Edge
Colonel Margaret Hay of the Salvation Army accepted The Times Preacher of the Year award with humility: “It just goes to show that God does use the foolish and the weak to do his…
Killer Wine
Wairau River Sauvignon favoured by the Star and National Post Online, “killer” Cabernet Franc in the Washington Post, Villa Maria leaves the National Post reaching for more.
Netjetters to NZ
New Zealand features on the itinerary for the winners of the Guardian‘s netjetters competition.
Can the Kiwi Economy Fly?
A contrary view: “recent claims that New Zealand’s economic experiment has failed, and that it therefore needs to change course, do not stand up”.
1953 – Hillary’s Year
“It was also a year in which a white man and a brown man, held together by a light nylon rope, climbed the highest mountain. In this feat of the New Zealand beekeeper, Edmund Hillary,…
E-tax
IRD sets a dodgy precedent, requiring Dominz to hand over personal details linked to all .NZ domain names.
Price of Milk
“So this film is my dream about New Zealand, this make-believe country that seems almost empty of people” – director Harry Sinclair on his dairy-tale romance, The Price of Milk.
Cut Short
Can you catch apotemnophilia, the desire to become an amputee? A spate of recent “voluntary amputations” performed in Britain take their cue from work by ground-breaking but controversial New Zealand sexologist John Money.
