This weekend was spent in recovery mode after getting some weird stomach bug before Anzac Day. Without getting too gross, let’s say it took a lot out of me. That’s right: I was energetically drained. But it’s not to say that the campaign has stopped or slowed. Things seem to be proceeding at a […]
Tag: politics
A campaign fund-raiser on Thursday night
It’s been an exhilarating few days. First up was speaking to the residents of the Rita Angus Retirement Village last Friday—a very fruitful discussion to cement further some of my ideas for the mayoral campaign. Saturday, meanwhile, was Residents 2010 and Public ACTA—two conferences which were both very important to Wellington’s future and representation. More […]
On Wellywood, Murdoch and English accents
The good news today is that Wellington Airport is officially in two minds about what type of sign it will put up on the Miramar cutting, which means that the ‘Wellywood’ sign protest has had a victory of sorts. I’m thrilled at the news because it shows people power—especially people like Anthony Lander who […]
The rise of the city brand
I don’t have the other writers’ permission to show their side of this Facebook dialogue, but we had been chatting about growing the creative clusters here in Wellington as one of my mayoral policies. I wrote: Mostly by focusing on growing creative clusters and taking a bigger slice of the cake. So it is […]
The Downfall of ‘Wellywood’
Necessity is the mother of all invention. I never thought some of the Der Untergang (Downfall) parodies could be topped, but I think this just happened. You may also like Steve Guttenberg shows us how a Kiwi accent is done Live from Level 3 The rise of the city brand Cities are, or at least […]
Trading identities in the personal branding space
The day the current mayor, Kerry Prendergast, announced her intention to stand for a fourth term, I was asked by a few media colleagues what I thought. The wittiest reply I gave to Salient, as it was an email interview, and I seem to be cheekier in writing than I am in speaking. I won’t […]
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Wellington needs free wifi and jobs, not a council that goes nuts with spending
Funny how a media article can inspire you to send out a release, especially when you’re a ratepayer and you wonder if our City Council of élites understands how hard it was for us to make that money. In today’s case, it was Lindsay Shelton’s Scoop Wellington op-ed about Wellington City Council going nuts with […]
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How could the Chinese republic celebrate its centenary?
Next year marks the centenary of the founding of the Chinese republic. We got rid of our rather hopeless Ching Dynasty, and ushered in Asia’s first democracy. Both the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China see 1911 as an important year, and Dr Sun Yat-sen as the founder of the nation […]
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Wellington wants free wifi
While I’ve been a LinkedIn member for many years—my LinkedIn ID has six digits, which gives you an idea of how long ago—I have to confess that I did not browse the brilliant Wellington, New Zealand group till quite recently. And free wifi is being talked up there, too, as something Wellingtonians genuinely want. […]
Learned misbehaviours
Preparing for one of my Swedish speeches, I came across this, which I delivered in India in December 2008: If you ever get to read Michael Lewis’s writings about the US financial industry, you’ll learn that a lot of people within there do not know what they are doing or why they are doing it. […]