• Global commerce and our connections…

     

    I’m a political mongrel. Over my life, I’ve voted across the political spectrum. Whenever I do those slightly dodgy-feeling political surveys, that always feel like a precursor to ads for erectile dysfunction meds or weight loss pills, I always…

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  • Keeping active the key to long life

     

    I often bemoan the fact that I’m getting older. Among my regular running mates, I’m generally the first to lay claim to being an old, sad, broken and washed-up runner. In reality, the truth is that despite waking up…

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  • Building community from the grass roots

     

    In the hustle and bustle of modern life, the concept of community often takes a backseat. We’re all engrossed in our own worlds, whether it’s our immediate neighbourhood, the local sports club, or the organizations we volunteer for. Yet,…

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  • Why Dangerous Play Builds Thriving Children

     

    The other day as I was out on my usual run, I spied a tree hut in a lone pine. It made me reminisce about the good old days. Back when I was a lad, building huts, playing bullrush,…

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  • It’s the putting right that counts

     

    Being on the wrong side of 50 and having grown up in New Zealand, my formative years included Television ads for the electronic retailer LV Martin and Son. LV Martin a long-gone institution in New Zealand was a family-owned…

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  • It’s all about a bag of cement

     

    Many years ago, I dropped out of school to embark on an electrical apprenticeship. I was never a particularly good electrician – something about really disliking the work meant that it was a vocational choice that was sub-optimal in…

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  • In every generation. UNIHRD 2024

     

    Last Saturday was the United Nations International Holocaust Remembrance Day (UNIHRD). As a board member of New Zealand’s Holocaust Centre, and the son of a survivor of the camps, I was asked to speak at the Christchurch event. This…

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  • Baking and architecture…

     

    As I sat down to a slice of toast this morning, I got thinking about our recent European sojourn. You see my wife and I just returned from a month of road-tripping around Europe, in particular Eastern Europe. The…

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  • About that “wisdom comes with age” thing…

     

    A few months ago, I attended a function and happened to be sitting next to a very nice elderly man. Nothing particularly noteworthy in that, but bear with me. Said individual had a long and distinguished legal career before…

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  • In defense of the hippy kids…

     

    I like to confuse people. Being enigmatic is my modus operandi of choice. Being the worst-dressed traveler in the Koru Lounge is a given for me, as is being the most under-qualified individual around pretty much every board table…

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