Edge Message #83 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM
Aotearoa whanau whanui ki te Aonui
Global Community of New Zealanders
We welcome new friends to nzedge.com from Boston, Brisbane, Cambridge, Chicago, Colombo, Columbus, Durban, Glasgow, Hong Kong, Izmir, Laie, Little Rock, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Moscow, New York, Orlando, Perth, Puerto Vallarta, Riyadh, Roseberry, Rotterdam, Santa Maria, Sydney, Vancouver; and Auckland, Christchurch, Edgecumbe, Masterton, Mt Maunganui, New Plymouth, Paraparaumu, Taupo, Tauranga and Wellington. www.nzedge.com/mailbox/about_you.html
BLUEPRINT FROM THE EDGE: JOSEPH SINEL
Today we resume the NZEDGE Legends series which to date features 35 definitive short biographies of New Zealanders who have improved the world. Today, the story of Aucklander Joseph (Jo) Sinel (1889-1975), who led a visionary and exuberant life as a founder of the Industrial Design movement in America. An Elam graduate, NZ Herald apprentice, graphic artist, product designer, advertising creative, trademark developer, brand pioneer, mixed media maestro, inspirational teacher, lover of fast cars and California, disciplined bohemian – above all, Jo Sinel was strikingly modern. 2500 words. Illustrated. Authored by nzedge.com editor-at-large Paul Ward. Consultant editor Ingrid Horrocks. Thanks to Gifford Jackson for assistance and resources.
EDGE TO CENTER
New Zealanders putting edge into the globe as reported in the online editions of The Times, New York Times, LA Times, The Guardian, The Observer, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, BBC News, USA Today, The Economist, International Herald Tribune, The Observer, Melbourne Age, Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, Fashion Wire Daily, Seattle Post Intelligencier, Miami.com, Cincinnati.com, Rolling Stone, Fast Company, AdWeek, Dwell, Creativity, Elle Décor, brandchannel.com, and The Charlotte Observer. www.nzedge.com/media
– All Blacks “stand so far and away at the top of the games”
– “Self-lacerating” Mansfield diaries republished – “startling”
– John Buchanan heads The Times Power 100 of UK business
– Emily Barclay Best Lead Actress at Australian Film Awards
– Nicole Colovos as co-creative director of Helmut Lang
– Ian Wright’s electric X1 does 0-96kmph in 3.5 sec
– Karen Walker on “when you live on the moon”
– Mark D’Arcy, chief creative officer of Time Warner, on ideas
– Graham Henry on Haka: “Our boys get motivation from it.”
– Linda Niccol wins UK screenplay prize over 2000 other writers
– CD Steve Ayson of NY Sweet Shop “sublimely twisted”
– Dwell visits Architecture Workshop-designed 282 Wakefield St
– Catherine Griffiths, graphic/type designer, profiled in Print
– Melbourne Age visits Oamaru, Fiordland, Q Charlotte
– Martin Campbell re-invents James Bond in Casino Royale
– Carl Shuker’s “punch in the stomach” with The Lazy Boys
– Elle Décor features best NZ design in Essenze Manhattan
– Jonny Reid wins NZ’s first A1 victory in Indonesia 47-lap race
– 22 yr classical singer Will Martin soars on recording deal offers
– Steven Jaymes Black 17 “draped in blues, jazz and roots”
– Corporate astrologer Faye Cossar pilots company lifecycles
– Dunedin work ethic, values show Scot ties that bind
– Australian Parliament union with NZ as desirable, realistic
– Western spymasters in Wellington for SIS 50th anniversary
– Bic Runga’s Birds a “stunning set of deeply-felt torch ballads”
– At 45 degrees south Otago Pinot Noir mirrors Burgundy
– Baritone, rugby, basketball and equestrian star Jud Arthur
– Campion/Frame Angel film revisited as “classic”
– HuHu to film epic Bible stories in Auckland
– Kahurangi Maori Dancers swathe through North America
– Keisha Castle-Hughes has big Vatican moment in Nativity
– Funster Rick Kirkland stars with racing bathtub in US
– Haka takes hold in Louisiana football – “Kajun Ka Mate”
– Black Sheep – genetically-mutated and a global film hit
– Paratiho Farms of Nelson in food and experience rave
– Brit Govt pardons three NZers executed for WW1 breaches
– QEII unveils WWII memorial in Hyde Park
– 42 Below best Cocktail Spirit again at Australian Awards
– Phil Keoghan wins 4th Emmy for Amazing Race
– Rebecca Taylor has sweet success at NY Fashion Week
– Efficient – “racing’s next big thing” – wins Victorian Derby
– Auckland advances drug for treating eye, skin wounds
– Emily Perkins finds grit, traction in NZ urban life
– Jessica McCormack signs with Washington basketballers
– Guardian gongs NZ in “dream destination” travel awards
– Raglan is “Haight-Ashbury dressed in Billabong” – Guardian
– Ruatuna straw bale homes get attention for sustainability
– Bro Town screens on Australian multicultural SBS
– Auckland (5th) and Wellington (12th) in city “liveability” survey
– Jeff Clarke named one of world’s top six winemakers
– Hayley Westenra a global outstanding person by Jaycees
– Aotearoa wines win 123 medals at London Decanter Awards
– NZ musicians record LOOP album in Sao Paulo
– Robert Sarkies makes “searing” film of 1990 Aramoana
– LonelyGirl15 is Mt Maunganui-raised Jessica Rose
– 10gig service “Karen” links NZ research lab uni network
– Peter Jackson to produce The Dam Busters
– Natasha Bedingfield sells million albums, faces for Gap
– Canterbury and Otago U find broccoli virtues
– Flight of the Conchords wins 12 part HBO comic series
– Bio-fueled Earthracer on 30 city world tour
– Rodney Charters brings edgy cinemaphotography to 24
– Ron Holland, naval maestro, designs 190ft yacht
– Waiwera Station wins US Open wool-for-tennis ball deal
– US Gourmet fan of Forage’s blackcurrant and apple glaze
– Veils’ front man Finn Andrews compared to Waits, Cave
– Podium finishes for Kiwis league team, Valarie Vili, Nick Wills, Kim Smith, Shelley Kitchen, Black Ferns, Paralympics
– Robin Cooke of Thorndon, London, jurist, peer, dies at 80
– Walter Hadlee, partriarch of NZ cricket, dies at 91
– Maori Queen Dame Te Atairangikaahu dies at 75
Excellent selection of stories also at www.keanewzealand.com/news/success.html
NGA KUPU AROHA: DENIS O’REILLY
Blog #13: “Thrive for the days destined to you”
Bifocal world views on Fiji, Tonga and Aotearoa; Maori Television building a distinctive character into the nation; Ngati Pakeha; the passing of Dame Te Atairangikaahu, the Kingitanga of Tuheitia; strategies for Counties Manukau (165 ethnic groups, 39% of ppn <24); inverting the language “at risk” becomes “at promise”; Mokai Whenua Ora advances in Wellington through health, education, sport and abstinence; building future whanau narrative; creating traction for life-changing behaviors; community organizations in action; lateral thinking applied to social justice; Kapa Haka competition; drink, detox and meditation; Parihaka 07; and looking forward to an Irish Maori St Patrick’s Day, Waiohiki Creative Arts Village, Napier.
RECENT MAIL
Many messages received, here are six standouts.
Jo, Glasgow
My heart is forever NZ despite living in the UK for the last 16 years. I’m a girl who spots a kiwi accent in a crowded room, a carved necklace on a random commuter and is always, always delighted to hear news from home.
Claire, Dentist Therapist, Australia
I long to have New Zealand contact after 35 years living in Melbourne and Victoria. News and updates and perhaps some contact with fellow sufferers. Born in Urenui and lived in Wellington and Auckland, Taumaranui and New Plymouth. New Zealand is tamarillos, Len Lye, the Govett-Brewster gallery, ponga bush, cold rivers and black sand. Transport me!
David, Charity Worker, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
(formerly of Avondale, Auckland)
It has been a while since I last stepped foot in NZ, but whenever I see this site it gives me the urge to return. I am proudly a Kiwi in a place where there are few. I know we are a rare breed.
Mariana, Intern, New Plymouth
Nga mihi ki nga kaiwhakahaere o te pae tukutuku nei. Te mutunga ke mai o te pai! Congratulations to the developers of this website. It is excellent!
Richard, Film / Fotography / Filosophy, Masterton
Aw shucks, I was one of the first contributors to this site, what seems like, a life time ago. Then I was living between New York and Hollyweird. Took the plunge and became a US Citizen, ‘one amongst many’, now I am back, living in New Zealand. So, what’s it like being an expat of some 42 years and now, I’m back. Weird. Culture. Shock. Yep, physically beautiful, yep the Maori are amazing people, but, the whole damned country seems to be asleep, in denial, like sleep walking. I have written my thought here long ago, nothing has changed, it seems the country has gone backwards. Yes, there are great elements to New Zealand but there is also a great deal of myth in the marketing of the Clean Green Environment, unless that Green is a colour blind filter that keeps the population nicely in place. It’s still a small plot of England in the South Pacific, racism, child abuse, spousal abuse, political bullying, an infrastructure that does not deliver basic services and electricity that HAS to be the most expensive in the world and an internet that is the slowest. So what am I doing here? Well, living my life, as challenging as that may be and sound. More will be revealed but I am not willing to sing a song of praise until a song of praise comes to me. Cheers.
New Zealand
I have been in a relationship with a Black Power gang member for 8 years. As in any relationship, everyone has their struggles but we too were affected by the ways of street drugs especially P. The first time I tried P I never thought it affected me until later on down the track where sometimes I was too unfit to attend work and got paranoid by others around me even my own mother! As time went on me and my partner got worse. One day we had been awake for about 5 days and were driving out of the city. I was in the passenger seat and my partner was driving. He fell asleep at the wheel and when we awoke we were hanging on the side of a cliff. There was one tree in our path that blocked us from falling hundreds of metres down hill. The police had to get a helicopter to get us out and my partner was charged with reckless driving. We didn’t have serious injuries but you would think it would have taught us a lesson, but no, it didn’t stop there. Later on down the track, me and my partner started having difficulties again with our finances and we started stealing off people we loved just to support our habit. We were forced to move into my mothers place because we couldn’t afford to live on our own. Then me and my partner started fighting and arguing all the time. One day my partner cracked and he became very violent he pulled a gun out on me and started firing it. He fired three times the first two missed me then the third one hit me in the side of my leg. He freaked dropped the gun and picked me up. By that time my mum had rang the cops and within ten minutes the firearms squad and the police were all around us. They took me and my partner to the station charged both of us with domestic violence and my partner with intent to injure and then they finally took me to A&E. My partner did three and a half years in jail and my charges got dropped. It was only then we both realised we had a BIG problem. I went to Hamner Springs rehabilitation clinic and rehabilitated myself. I am proud to say I have been drug free now for four years and my partner three years now and forever. The moral of my story is it’s hard to recognise you have a problem. It’s not until you hurt someone you love that you wake up. Please, if you recognise you have a problem, stop it before it goes too far. Then maybe one day like me you will live to tell your story. What do we do now to help our Tamariki that are already in that path of destruction? What is out there to offer and how can I help? Please help me make a difference.
BOOK OF 07: 8 TRIBES
Wellington researcher Jill Caldwell and strategist Christopher Brown have written and produced 8 Tribes – The Hidden Class of New Zealand, uncovering our unspoken social systems. Are you North Shore; Grey Lynn; Balclutha; Remuera; Otara; Raglan; Cuba St; Papatoetoe? Insights honed from several years of researching and recommending New Zealand for corporations and agencies. Classical design. Contemporary insight.
KIWI CONNECTORS
Old Friends: See www.oldfriends.co.nz/KiwisAbroad.aspx for connecting to 150,000+ New Zealanders in 232 countries. Produced by the great people at www.trademe.co.nz.
Made from New Zealand: Waitangi Day 07, Los Angeles, a 100m long fern will be built on Santa Monica Beach to show how New Zealand makes its mark on the world. A team of 50 will construct the art installation. Maestro Mike Mizrahi will design, create, choreograph; produced by Steve Adams and Simon Shattky. www.madefromnewzealand.com Check it out to participate on Feb 06 07 (and buy the t-shirt).
Kiwi Parents: www.kiwifamilies.co.nz. Other members have told us that it’s great for Kiwi parents living overseas, as it gives a Kiwi view on parenting.
NZEDGE.COM FILM & TELEVISION CHANNEL
The www.nzedge.com/media page is a unique resource, a 7,000 story cache of New Zealand international achievement since Y2K. The biggest and most exciting and impactful activity is film. We have traced the international work of New Zealand films and television including filmmakers, directors, producers, writers, actors, cinemaphotographers and designers. There are 800+ stories from 2000 to 2006 and we have restructured them into a more navigable format. Biggest hits: Lord of the Rings and Peter Jackson/Fran Walsh/Richard Taylor; Russell Crowe; Whale Rider; Andrew Adamson; Sam Neill; Phil Keoghan; Jane Campion; Martin Henderson; Tim Bevan; Andy Niccol (the next 40 people are as compelling). www.nzedge.com/media/archives/film-tv_2006.html
NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE REPORTS ON COMPETING TO WIN EXPORT MARKETS
The problem: New Zealand cannot achieve high rates of productivity growth without much greater international activity. However, New Zealand’s international performance does not compare well against many other developed countries, and only a small number of New Zealand companies are substantially engaged in international markets. The response: Competing to win: an external strategy for a changed world. Substantially improving New Zealand’s level of international economic engagement will require an external strategy that strengthens the ability of New Zealand firms to access foreign markets. This report proposes three key elements of an external strategy for New Zealand: introducing an explicit outcomes focus into New Zealand’s external strategy to give a clear sense of direction for business and government; including a much more deliberate regional focus, with particular attention being paid to the Asia Pacific; and making much more substantial investments in New Zealand’s in-market presence to assist New Zealand firms to expand into these markets. Explicit goals are to lift NZ’s exports from current $30b to $65b (35% of GDP) in 2020; exports to Australia from $19b now to $41b in 2020; to the US from $7b to $17b; and China $2b to $10b. Start marketing now. www.nzinstitute.org
PART MAORI AVIATOR WON FIRST VICTORIA CROSS FOR ACTION IN THE AIR
Martin O’Connor, writing from Belgium has brought to our attention the extraordinary story of part-Maori aviator William Barnard Rhodes-Moorhouse, who was awarded (posthumously) the first Victoria Cross ever won in the air, for his actions on 26 April 1915 at Kortrijk, Belgium. O’Connor and a team of Belgians and New Zealanders are researching projects relating to the 2007 90th Commemorations of the Battles of Messines and Passchendale. Rhodes-Moorhouse’s attack target was a railway junction through which German reinforcements to the 2nd Battle of Ypres were being transported. Ignoring advice, Rhodes-Moorhouse flew down to below 300ft through a hail of machine gunfire from a church tower and from hundreds of rifles to deliver his bombs. Seriously wounded, his plane badly hit, and wounded again, Rhodes-Moorhouse flew his aircraft 35 miles, close to ground, back to base so he could make his report, before dying the following day. His grandfather William Barnard Rhodes was one of the founders of the colony of New Zealand, having played an active part in the early export, business, pastoral and political life of this country. Rhodes was an early Wellington commercial leader, he helped found the New Zealand Shipping Company Limited, the New Zealand Insurance Company and the Bank of New Zealand, and with his brothers – “men of shrewd judgment, bustling energy, and Yorkshire determination” – amassed considerable wealth, controlling over 300,000 acres of productive pastoral property in Wellington, Canterbury and Hawkes Bay. William Barnard Rhodes had one daughter, Mary Ann, by a Maori woman. She contested her father’s will, took it to the Privy Council, and was awarded “upwards of three-quarters of a million pounds”. Mary Ann married William Moorhouse in England, and their eldest son, also William, was VC Rhodes-Moorhouse. Tragically his wife Linda Rhodes-Moorhouse was to suffer again in 1940 when in an almost carbon-copy sequel their son William Henry Rhodes-Moorhouse, an accomplished pilot (and Olympic ski-jumper), was killed during the Battle of Britain. Use Google and see the biography at The Air League. Picture here. Thanks to all sources.
Kia kaha and thanks to artists and activists met or worked with and inspired by in 2006: Douglas Wright, Julian Dashper, Shane Cotton, Hamish McKay, Anita McNaught, Lloyd Morrison, Heleina Keeley, Craig Bary, Sarah-Jayne Howard, Claire O’Neil, Brian Carbee, Tairoa Royal, Phil Keoghan, Jim Barr, Mary Barr, Rob Cherry, Paul Ward, Ingrid Horrocks, Clare Marshall, Anna Brown, Sarah Maxey, Marty Behrens, Bob Isherwood, Derek Lockwood, Tom Eslinger, Nadene Milne, Jane Thomsen, Denis O’Reilly, Turi Park, Maitland Waters, Stuart McKenzie, Miranda Harcourt, Daniel du Bern, Courtenay Lucas, David Howell, David Skilling, Ross McConnell, Bridget Liddell, Bob Rigg, John Dauth, Roderick Fry, Laurence Varga, Patrick Bronte, Max Gimblett, Jan Bieringa, Jon Hartley, Andrew McAlpine, Jonathan Crayford, Tina Maree Kaipara, Sarah Reo, Tracey Tawhaio, Seddon Bennington, Te Taru White, Fenn Gordon, David Boyce, Jane Sutherland, Stephen McDougall, Philip Roche, Harold Streitman, Ron Prince, Gene deBartolo, Kevin Roberts – who has taken our edge to 50+ countries, the special SweeneyVesty Team in nz/oz/us, Carla Hofler, Greg Fahey, Alexandra & Olivia, and the transcendent Jane Vesty. Soundtrack by Nesian Mystic, Rick Bryant, John Psathas, Neil Finn and Moana Maniapoto.
2.2M
Number of pageviews on nzedge.com in 2006, up 25% on 05…and we did virtually nothing this year. Top 3 pages viewed were Edmund Hillary, Ernest Rutherford and Denis O’Reilly’s Nga Kupu Aroha.
There is a Tui in my Wellington back garden chuckling up a commotion. The Tui – is it Brucetta? – is a pugnacious, joyous and jubilant bird (among other attributes). A thriver. The Tui should be the symbol of New Zealand Export Decade 2007-2017 www.exportyear.co.nz that is commencing on 01 Jan. Our nzedge.com hybrid is driven by cultural and economic imperatives, both pivoting on taking major steps forward into the world in order to earn a future. Selling in international markets is the only way we can build scale in a desirable way, and we have many desirable but unleashed advantages on this edge, physically and virtually. Our primary export in terms of value and opportunity is our people – our mythic one million. The roots for our New Zealand tribe of 5 million have been laid and in 07-08 the levels of engagement will accelerate. nzedge.com is a private sector initiative (2 blokes actually), one of a number helping raise the temperature around our international connectedness; because a general absence – avoidance – of explicit goal-setting by this country is mothballing us from the need to push into the world. This ensures an aimless public life in New Zealand. No direction known. Explicit purpose needs to be articulated. As an exporter, my axis is NYNZ, sourcing and servicing energy and markets. Edge & Center. New & New. 212:64. Island to Island. The best solutions are driven by individual passion and there are scores of stories, many recorded on these pages, which show the imagination of diverse New Zealanders winning in the world. This passion needs to be multiplied out from 07 to 017. I am a fan of the “grand unifying theory” and wish for an ascendant construct/culture in New Zealand that totally puts it together. The All Blacks did this in 2007 and we need to replicate. In business, rules are simple: have goals; go after them. In 2007 we need more Tui. And more edge. Gotta go.
Kia ora koutou katoa, nga mihinui o te ra whanau o te Kaiwhakaora ki a koutou, me te tau hou, hoki. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to New Zealand Edge readers.
Brian Sweeney Producer
THE NEW ZEALAND EDGE
http://www.nzedge.com brian@nzedge.com
Thumbnail: Paradise Valley, near Glenorchy, Central Otago, 1 January 2001
