Not ultra, nor all that fast

Ultra-fast broadband availability is a government initiative to bring fibre optic technology to New Zealand homes, schools, hospitals, Marae and businesses. The cost was originally thought to be around $1.35 billion, but I suspect that figure will have escalated from when the plan was first unveiled some years ago. The theory was that by boosting the capacity of around 98 per cent of New Zealand’s computers this would increase economic...

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Identifying bad men in our midst

There are a number of emails doing the rounds that compare the Islamic State with the murderous Nazi regime of World War Two. The emails remind us that the German people in general were later to say that they didn’t realise what was happening around them at the time and were therefore powerless to do anything about it. The emails then postulate that the rank and file Muslims should be doing something about the radical element within their...

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The house that Jack built

Back in the sixties I was a member of the Masterton Jaycees. To the uninitiated, Jaycee is an abbreviation for Junior Chamber of Commerce, though back then we knew little about chambers, and even less about commerce. But we were a dedicated band whose basic aim was community service and leadership training. We were more successful at the former. Many community projects were completed, but around 1965 we were at a loss to know what to do...

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Ten good reasons to stay home

An Australian friend recently sent me a cutting out of his local paper with a headline that said: “10 reasons why kiwis are kicking our backsides.” Actually it didn’t say “backsides”, but rather the plural of a four letter word beginning with the letter “A” which I thought was unsuitable for a family newspaper; ours that is, but obviously not theirs. The article was accompanied by a large coloured cartoon of a kiwi appropriately kicking...

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