Archives
Australia: Premier Daniel Andrews Has Been Summoned to Court
Daniel Andrews, Premier of the State of Victoria, Australia, who imposed the longest Covid lockdown in the world with widespread police brutality, has been accused of ‘misprision of treason’ and ‘fraud’ at common law, and has been summoned to court on 17 December 2021. (Update on 20 December 2021 – Case thrown out as thousands hijack live stream.)
7 December 2021
An Evocative Appeal From Some Indigenous People In Australia
The pain and suffering of the corporate takeover of sovereign Australia can end when the black and white people stand together and build a prosperous future together. “That time has come people, not just here for Australia, but around the planet.”
3 December 2021
The Political Power of Facebook
In the global imagination, Facebook would be a responsible social network that allows everyone to connect confidentially while censoring messages contrary to local laws. In practice, it is quite different. Facebook collects information about you for the NSA, censors your opinions and mints its own currency. In a few months, this company has become one of the most influential players in world politics.
21 October 2021
John Pilger on Julian Assange and His London Show-Trial
John Pilger delivers a profoundly disquieting speech about Julian Assange as a “moral” journalist, the deliberate assassination of his character, and how his London show-trial is not about “due process,” but “due revenge.”
11 September 2020
Gratitude: The Gift That Keeps On Giving
I am grateful every day for my view… The sanctuary I left Australia, with some regret, has been returned to me here in New Zealand with the added gift of the sea at the bottom of the garden. And I came upon it…
22 December 2018
Step Into a Postcard Picture Gallery On a Waiheke Island Walk
Experience Waiheke Island in her raw, natural beauty during nine days of free guided walks between 18 – 24 November 2017. Jump on a ferry in Auckland for an enjoyable 35-minute ride across Hauraki Gulf dotted with islands. Escape the tourist traps and enjoy…
23 October 2017
St. Martin: Before and After Hurricane Irma
“Look at the lobby… Look, look…” she said. I couldn’t help but look, stunned, as breaking waves surged into a building where a horrified woman filmed Hurricane Irma’s category five fury from the first floor.
19 September 2017
Smile! It’s good for your health.
There is a good reason to smile today: It is World Smile Day. Harvey Ball, the creator of the Smiley Face in 1963, introduced this day in 1999 to give greater meaning to the smile than the commercialised emoticom his Smiley Face became. Although Harvey Ball died in 2001, his message lives on in the celebration of World Smile Day…
03 October 2014
Tony Benn Dies at 88: Interview with Saddam Hussein and What He Stood For Still Relevant Today
Tony Benn was against war, and the folly of Britain following America’s lead into a war with Iraq after 9/11. He was so concerned about the events leading up to this war that he travelled to Iraq to interview Saddam Hussein and ask him point blank if Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or any dealings with Al-Qaeda.
17 March 2014
Update on Richard Bach’s Recovery
It is now eighteen months since Richard Bach crashed his seaplane, Puff, coming in to land on San Juan Island. With Puff rebuilt as good as new, the author of best selling book Jonathan Livingston Seagull has also rebuilt himself to again soar in the skies and write of his near-death…
Final Update: March 04, 2014
Enjoy a Twilight Ramble on Waiheke Island each Tuesday during January, beginning at 6 p.m. and ending around 8 p.m. The Rambles are run by Forest and Bird and open to all, with a free sausage sizzle at the end of each walk. See photos of these Waiheke Island walks.
07 January 2014
Waiheke Walking Festival for 2013
Waiheke Island (just 35 minutes by ferry from Auckland) is holding its forth annual Walking Festival beginning this long weekend. The festival runs from October 26 through November 03. There are walks for all ages and stages of fitness. View scenery from some featured walks. See also photos from the 2012 Walking Festival.
25 October 2013
The War on Democracy
This 2007 John Pilger Documentary is about how the United States manipulated Latin American governments over a period of fifty years. However the ‘war’ is ongoing. It is a war fought to maintain United States’ control over Latin America’s rich natural resources.
29 September 2013
Putin’s Message to Americans About Taking Action in Syria
“Recent events surrounding Syria have prompted me to speak directly to the American people and their political leaders. It is important to do so at a time of insufficient communication between our societies…” Although Vladimir Putin has been called a KGB thug and even a reincarnation of Hitler, Sharon Tennison shares a side of…
13 September 2013
View a selection of sculptures from the 2013 Waiheke Headland Sculpture Walk, including details about the winning entries. Pictured here is winner of the Lexus Premier Award, Pavilion Structure, byGregor Kregar. It is made from recycled timber in a very creative bird’s nest-like fashion. I could visualise walking with children to admire the…
17 February 2013
Waiheke Headland Sculpture Walk
The 2013 Headland Sculpture Walk celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. “A home grown art scene beckons” was the sub-heading alongside Waiheke’s rating at 35 in the “New York Times” article “The 46 Places to Go in 2013.” The sculptures will be exhibited along 2.5 kilometres of walkway with views along Waiheke’s coastline and across the Hauraki…
24 January 2013
Explore and discover Waiheke Island’s beauty and get fit in the process. Join the annual Waiheke Forest & Bird’s twilight rambles each Tuesday during January, 2013, beginning on Tuesday 8th. See images of these walks.
06 January 2013
Don’t Let the ‘Wool be Pulled’ Over Your Eyes in This Election
Lies, prejudice, ignorance, insipid reporting, and an overly dominant focus on the economy are the hallmarks of this American presidential election. The desperate nature of this contest tells me that much more is as stake than meets the eye.
06 November 2012
Richard Bach, author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, is recovering in hospital from a serious head injury after his small amphibian plane he affectionately calls Puff, crashed when its landing gear clipped wires while attempting to land on a grass runway at San Juan Island. See Update on Richard Bach’s Recovery: March 28, 2013
14 September 2012
The Waiheke Walking Festival, now going into its third season as a nine-day event, this month won the Event category in the Outdoors Awards, hosted by Outdoors New Zealand. This year the festival includes 40 walks to cater for about 2,500 walkers and runs from October 27 – November 4. Waiheke Island is just 40 minutes by ferry from Auckland city…
25 October 2012
I’m staying young at heart, of mind, and body. No facelift or dyed hair for me. Instead there is an image in my mind of an 82-year-old woman riding a horse.
15 August 2012
Are Free Contraceptives Really the Answer?
As New Zealand’s welfare bashing continues over the Government’s proposal to offer free contraception to female welfare beneficiaries, political hopeful Colin Craig has stuck his boots into New Zealand’s ‘promiscuous’ women by opposing such a move.
13 May 2012
Whenever negative thoughts send me spiralling down towards depression, I ask myself, “What can I appreciate about this day in my life?”
07 February 2012
Gifts Found in Unlikely Places
What you may call a disaster could actually become the greatest gift in your life. This is what I learned when Zeehaen, an eighteen-meter steel yacht my husband and I had bought to sail the world, foundered on a sandbar while at anchor, flooding the interior when she rolled into deeper water. After the high drama of a fight with salvagers…
13 October 2011
Molesworth Station in New Zealand’s South Island was carved by ancient glaciers into broad u-shaped valleys, conical and round-topped hills, moraines and corries. It is an ongoing visual feast spreading west from the knife-edged ridges of the Inland Kaikoura Ranges.
09 August 2011
Christchurch, and what can be learned from disasters
The second earthquake in Christchurch happened nearly two weeks ago (on February 22, 2011), but for many, the memory of it and what they have lost, will haunt them for years to come. My heart is with those who lost loved ones, for they can never be replaced…
05 March 2011
Today I read with shock and disgust and a sickening feeling in my stomach about a two-year-old boy who was kicked to death by his mother’s boyfriend. The little boy had been sleeping on a couch and awoke to discover that he had wet it.
01 February 2011
Jimmy Buffett: An inspiration to share your talents
Using one of Jimmy Buffett’s songs during a drama lesson with children and noticing their delighted faces, made me reflect on how connected we all are and that by sharing our talents, we can positively impact so many people and create good in the world.
30 January 2011
It was the noise that started it…my sudden desperate search for Utopia. It began to intrude upon me like an unwelcome guest the day air brakes squealed and whiffed repeatedly as a huge truck…
13 January 2011
Have too many of us forgotten what Christmas is really about? Think for a moment that this can be a time for giving other things as well – non-material things that can ultimately have a much higher value.
21 December 2011
Ending Cycles of Violence is and Inside Job
The choices we individually or collectively make can create heaven or hell upon Earth. Each one of us has the power of choice within us, and the power to choose peace within our own thoughts and therefore our lives.
23 September 2010
Emma Woods, voted this week as New Zealander of the Year, embodies all the above qualities, and what Christmas is really about. She found the courage to move through her grief and anger to a place where she found forgiveness by getting to know the teenager who lost control of his car, causing it to mount a footpath and…
11 December 2010
Violence in the home can create psychic wounds that may never heal. It can cause children to ‘harden their hearts’ by shutting down their feelings to enable them to survive it. It has also, I believe, created a silent epidemic of PTSD…
31 August 2010
Outer Crisis has an Inner Cure
“We devote a lot of time to adult policies, trying to make a better world. But every reform is frustrated or perverted. The quality of life is not improved, because the people are the same. What changes people? …”
19 August 2010
What Jade Goody had to Teach Us
Journalists had a field day poking cruelly at Jade Goody’s lack of education, but if they knew the cause of it, perhaps they may have seen able to see her big heart instead.
19 August 2010
Have you ever thought about quitting something that was important to you to do, or even quitting on life? Here are a couple of stories to inspire you not to quit…
03 August 2010
The power of love is the most amazing ‘medicine’ I have witnessed in its ability to heal. Read how Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len used his desire to love and heal himself, heal the inmates…
24 July 2010
Children see and understand far more than we give them credit for and sometimes it is worth acting on their simple wisdom, or taking their advice to heart.
14 July 2010
Facing our fears we can learn to love
Have you built a wall around yourself because you fear painful future experiences? It may be that your wall won’t let love in or out, thus creating more pain and loneliness in your life…
02 July 2010
Be patient with anger to learn what’s behind it
“One moment of patience can ward off a great disaster. One moment of impatience can destroy your whole life.” These words from a Chinese fortune cookie…
27 June 2010
What do you want to do that for?
“What do you want to do that for?” was the response to my unbridled enthusiasm about writing a children’s book on self-esteem. It echoed within a hollow past of stolen dreams…
18 June 2010
Help others to help themselves
Did you know that helping others can sometimes cripple them? Read Nellie’s story about how she allowed caring people to cripple her for twenty years.
13 June 2010
Mistakes allow us to learn and grow, yet for many, making mistakes can be deeply shaming. By changing your perspective on mistakes, you can become a positive role model for your…
05 June 2010
Overcoming self-doubts to share your gifts and talents with others can inspire them to grow through difficulties to reach their potential.
27 May 2010
Gifts Come in all Shapes and Sizes
I am sorting through old files and rediscovering little gifts of wisdom from the many people I met on my travels twenty years ago. It causes me to wonder, would I have…
22 December 2010