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THE CANTERBURY PUBLIC LIBRARY AND ME

In March 2011 we were invited by the Editor of the Christchurch City Libraries’ Digital Library Web Team, Richard Liddicoat, to write something for the Canterbury Earthquake for the Christchurch Public Library.
Keywords: Literature and Culture;
Dear Richard,
I could not write to anyone in the Christchurch Public Library about what is happening after the Christchurch earthquake. The [...]

24th March 2011 | Comments Closed

QUAKENOMICS

Earthquakes are bad for the economy, despite the wool some are trying to pull.
Listener: 19 March, 2011.
Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy;
Business journalists sometimes seem to compete among themselves for the silliest argument, but the height of fatuity must be the crowing that the Christchurch earthquakes will increase our gross domestic product (GDP). Perhaps [...]

19th March 2011 | Comments Closed

WHO WANTS ASSET SALES?

Those who favour privatisation can be divided into four camps …
Listener: 5 March, 2011.
Keywords: Business & Finance; Governance; Macroeconomics & Money;
Ideologues who hate the Government succeeding and want to scale it back, even if it is costly, as was privatising the Telecom monopoly. They would do the same to the three electricity companies. Given that [...]

5th March 2011 | Comments Closed

FOR PAUL

I went to Christchurch Boys’ High School with Paul Dunlop (1943-22 February, 2011). While our paths diverged at university – after physics, he worked as an optician in the Christchurch family firm – we kept in touch. He was one of three in Christchurch’s Methodist Durham St Church rescuing a pipe organ (they were his [...]

4th March 2011 | Comments Closed

MY READING (NZ BOOK MONTH 2011)

I was asked to write for the March 2011 New Zealand Books Month something about my reading.
Keywords: Literature and Culture;
There are hosts of books which opened up new vistas in my adolescence and the decade after. My reading today could not be possibly offer similar experiences; instead it enriches these landscapes. The exceptions are the [...]

1st March 2011 | Comments Closed