A refreshing piece on diversity in our mainstream media

Two fantastic items in my Tweetstream today, the first from journalist Jehan Casinader, a New Zealander of Sri Lankan heritage, in Stuff. Some highlights:    As an ethnic person, you can only enter (and stay in) a predominantly white space – like the media, politics or corporate leadership – if you play by the rules. […]

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Cautiously optimistic about Boucher

When I ran for office, there was often a noticeable difference between how I was treated by locally owned media and foreign- owned media. There are exceptions to that rule—The New Zealand Herald and Sky TV gave me a good run while Radio New Zealand opted to do a candidates’ round-up in two separate campaigns […]

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How to come third in a mayoral election

One mayoral candidate recently asked me for my advice. I won’t name who it is, since I want those who contact me to know I’ll keep their communications in confidence.    Now, the first thing to do is to get a time machine and ask me the same question 18 months earlier.    But I […]

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The double standards on the Ross affair are equally to do with race

Graham Adams, in a very good opinion in Noted, suggests that while there is a public interest in knowing the identity of the married National MP who had an affair with her colleague, Jami-Lee Ross, the media have been silent because of the relationship it enjoys with parliamentarians. He contrasts this with The New Zealand […]

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Is the death of expertise tied to the Anglosphere?

Foreign and Commonwealth Office Boris Johnson: usually a talented delivery, but with conflicting substance.   I spotted The Death of Expertise at Unity Books, but I wonder if the subject is as simple as the review of the book suggests.    There’s a lot out there about anti-intellectualism, and we know it’s not an exclusively […]

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Fun for car anoraks—till you get to the factual errors

  I bought Steven Parissien’s The Life of the Automobile: a New History of the Motor Car, which started off as a good history. I’m 300-odd pages in now and the mistakes are really worrying. There’s also a shocking lack of editing (one part repeated, albeit in different language, and spelling and grammatical mistakes) in […]

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RIP Martin Crowe

Martin Crowe was not only our greatest batsman, but a gentleman and all-round decent bloke. I remember him as an honourable, nice guy, and soulmate to Lorraine, and it was a privilege to spend time with them both back in 2013. Back then, we had thought the worst was behind him; I am deeply sorry […]

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Why I ran

In two elections, I told people some blarney on why I decided to run.    In 2010: ‘I was working at Lew’s Diner and this guy had been picked on. I told him, “Stand tall, boy, show some respect for yourself. Do you think I’m going to spend the rest of my life in this […]

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A belated look back at 2013

I must have had a busy end of 2013, as I never posted my trade-mark summary of the year as viewed via my Tumblr. Here ’tis, better late than never. January 2013 Lucire has a facelift online—by December 2013, this “new look” would be history. Kylie Minogue is on the home page as the first […]

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Monica Z now out on DVD and Blu-ray

Monica Z, the bio-pic about the late Swedish jazz singer starring Edda Magnason, is now out on Blu-ray and DVD, as of earlier this week.    I learned about the movie not through my Swedish contacts—they were messaging me only when the film was in the cinemas—but when Edda appeared at Allsång på Skansen in […]

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