My thanks to Sydney-based photographer Robert Catto for linking me to this one, especially near the festive season. It is funnier than the one I took in Sweden many years ago, which in pun-land could be racist: The sad thing is, at some point, the majority will not get […]
Tag: culture
An expat’s thoughts about Hong Kong
Studio Incendo/Creative Commons 2·0 As an expat, I’ve been asked a few times about what I think of the Hong Kong protests. There’s no straight answer to this. Here are a few thoughts, in no particular order. The British never gave us universal suffrage, so the notion that it was all roses before 1997 is […]
Reflections about Lee Iacocca—unfortunately, not all of it is positive
The car Lee Iacocca will be remembered for, the 1965 Ford Mustang on the right. Before I found out about Lee Iacocca’s passing, on the same day I Tweeted about one of the cars he was behind when he was president of Ford: the 1975 US Granada. Basically, Iacocca understood that Americans wanted style. That […]
Read More… from Reflections about Lee Iacocca—unfortunately, not all of it is positive
Tumblr is now where Verizon’s corporate agenda rule
How quickly an opinion can change. I have been on Tumblr for 12 years, signing up in 2007, with my first post in January 2008. For most of that time I have sung its praises, saying it was one of the good guys in amongst all the Big Tech platforms (Google, Facebook) that […]
Read More… from Tumblr is now where Verizon’s corporate agenda rule
CSR is already woven into Māori leadership
I was fascinated to read a New Zealand Herald story on the Māori asset base, though it wasn’t the financial part that hit me. What was more significant were the principles behind Māori businesses. About 15 years ago, when chatting to a woman representing a Māori winery, I said that she had an amazing […]
Don’t group Chinese New Zealanders into one faceless bunch
Some visiting Australian friends have said that they are finding New Zealand politics as interesting as their own, although I don’t think this was meant as a compliment. Those of us in New Zealand had a few days of House of Cards-lite intrigue, in that it was stirred up by a conservative whip, in an […]
Read More… from Don’t group Chinese New Zealanders into one faceless bunch
Happy 40th birthday to The Professionals
‘Anarchy, acts of terror, crimes against the public. To combat it I’ve got special men: experts from the army, the police, from every service. These are the professionals.’ Forty years ago, ITV began airing one of the UK’s most iconic TV series. There’s more at Dave Matthews’ The Authorised Guide to […]
Wikipedia corrects serious error after 12 years
Well done, Wikipedia, you got something right. It only took you 12 years. Nick, who appears to be a senior editor at the site, fixed up the complete fabrication that a user called ApolloBoy entered about the ‘Ford CE14 platform’ in 2005, after I wrote a pretty scathing piece on Drivetribe about Wikipedia’s inadequacies, […]
Read More… from Wikipedia corrects serious error after 12 years
What a great opportunity for New Zealand that lies before us
Above: When I refer to Hillary in the below blog post, I mean the self-professed ‘ordinary chap’ on our $5 note. As the results of the US presidential election came in, I didn’t sense a panic. I actually sensed a great opportunity for New Zealand. I’ve been critical of the obsession many of […]
Read More… from What a great opportunity for New Zealand that lies before us
Brexit reminds us that we need to take a lead in making globalization fairer
Brexit was an interesting campaign to watch, and there’s not too much I can add that hasn’t been stated already. I saw some incredibly fake arguments from Brexit supporters, including one graphic drawing a parallel between the assassinations of Anna Lindh in 2003 and Jo Cox MP, saying how the murder of the former led […]
Read More… from Brexit reminds us that we need to take a lead in making globalization fairer