Thursday, September 20, 2007
Following up my confusion about the UN declaration on indigenous peoples (which New Zealand voted against), Robin sent me a Radio New Zealand piece (vanished, but still in Google cache) which says that the declaration isn’t good enough. It “implies different classes of citizenship”, and it could “put[...] into question matters that have been settled [...]
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
On September 13th the UN General Assembly adopted the “UN Declaration of Indigenous Rights of Indigenous Peoples” with 144 votes for, 11 abstentions, and votes against from Australia, the US, Canada, and New Zealand.1 I’m intrigued, confused, and slightly worried about the four votes against. First intrigued: because these are four countries that have reached [...]
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Another photo album. In Golden Bay I stayed with my folks, on their farm. Despite this, there are no photos of sheep. We did lots of other traditional Golden Bay things though. For instance… Beaches Tata (and a shag) Wharariki (walking on trees, and a seal) Bainham on the Abel Tasman (more shags) Haymaking (you [...]
Another photo gallery. In Wanganui I stayed with Ian and his fiancée Katie. Ian is a pilot and flying instructor, and I finally (after many years of promises, of living in different places and of foul weather when we did coincide) got to fly with him, in a wee four-seater with Katie and a friend [...]
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
It’s that time of year again! Latest discovery: How to prepare a Kiwi. (Via xkcd, which comes recommended. Buggered if I know where it comes from originally — if you know, give me a shout.) On the subject, there’s a fantastic animation on YouTube: Kiwi!. Previous editions: Animals Have Problems Too White Ninja gets a [...]
So I caught Fat Freddy’s Drop on Saturday, through a nice wee chain of coincidences. Thursday night we celebrated ending the Dutch course, and an American girl from the course (thanks Heather!) told me sometime in the evening that “Some band from New Zealand, Fat Freakies or something, are coming here in June or maybe [...]
I just booked tickets for my trip home. Wheeee! I’ll be travelling on December 30th and 31st, arriving in Auckland. The plan is to spend a week or ten days making my way down the North Island, calling on friends and relations along the way, and get home to Golden Bay in early January. Two [...]
Friday, November 25, 2005
This is for the folks back home in Dunedin. I hear from Robert that the secondhand bookstore Arcadia is closing, due to increased rent costs. I lived for a year two blocks down from Arcadia and spent simply ridiculous amounts of money there. (That flat was also within spitting distance of a video rental place, [...]
I’m some three months behind the news, but it seems that my current favourite Kiwi band, TrinityRoots, is no more. Damn shame, their albums are great (especially the first, True) but the live show was something else. Check it out, I recommend Egos in its True incarnation (track 14 on their streaming player), for the [...]
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
White Ninja has a strip featuring a kiwi.