News of New Zealanders via Global Media

NZ-born Leader of Australian Welfare Reform

NZ-born Leader of Australian Welfare Reform

New Zealand-born Stuart McClure, an ex-Franciscan priest from Mission Australia is chairman of Australia’s Welfare Reform Reference Group, charged with leading improvements to the Aussie Welfare system that was once widely believed to be…

The Gould Standard

The Gould Standard

Vice-Chancellor of the University of Waikato and former British Labour spokesman Bryan Gould offers his perspective on one of the most heated debates in British politics – the integration of European currency and urges Blair’s government to…

Zambesi Zen

Zambesi Zen

Relax, salute the sun: this summer warm to the meticulously designed, unstructured, ‘new age’ look picked to capture the fashion mood. Yoga inspired spiritual materials for contemplative consumption. Leading the pack of new-agers are…

Hitting Sex Criminals Where it Hurts

Hitting Sex Criminals Where it Hurts

Maori activist Titewhai Harawira has recommended a traditional Maori punishment for sex criminals to ensure that they don’t re-offend: Her solution: tying flax around the offender’s penis and pulling until the penis drops off. “I’m sick of…

Te Rangi Hiroa/Sir Peter Buck Remembered

Te Rangi Hiroa/Sir Peter Buck Remembered

The Sunday Times remembers the birthday of Sir Peter Buck – a pioneering and internationally renowned anthropologist, the first Maori medical doctor, a politician, administrator, soldier, and leader of the Maori people. Born in…

More Marie Clay Pedagogue Innovation

More Marie Clay Pedagogue Innovation

Marie Clay’s “running records” reading assessment programme proved the hit of Howard County’s reading summer institute. “Running records were developed in the 1970s by the same New Zealand psychologist and educator who introduced the…

Rock at Home

Rock at Home

Alex Ross’ investigation of New Zealand music rock: “surface blips in the international musical marketplace give only a hint of an amazingly rich music…

Festival founding flutist celebrates the Hampton summer

Festival founding flutist celebrates the Hampton summer

Internationally acclaimed New Zealand-born flutist Marya Martin (Winner of the prestigious Young Concert Artists International Auditions) is the flute and artistic artistic director of the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival. Newsday talks to…

The Dunedin Sound #2

The Dunedin Sound #2

On August 9th, the 34th annual MacCrimmon Piobaireachd recital took place, as always, in the drawing room of Dunvegan Castle in Skye, Scotland, the seat of the 29th Chief of Clan MacLeod. It featured…

Sssshhh! Silence is Regulated Golden

Sssshhh! Silence is Regulated Golden

A multiplex in Birmingham banning kissing in its cinemas prompted the BBC to investigate cinema etiquette leading them to uncover the news that an independent cinema in Wellington, New Zealand, banned crisps from its…

Kiwi Museum Authority Leads Berlin’s Jewish Museum

Kiwi Museum Authority Leads Berlin’s Jewish Museum

Ken Gorbey of Te Papa, “New Zealand’s enormously successful national museum,” has been appointed artistic leader of of one of the new Berlin’s emblematic projects: the Daniel Liebeskind designed Jewish Museum. Gorbey’s challenge it…

Maori Mystique

Maori Mystique

The Washington Post’s Kid’s Section “Web@tlas” spotlights Australia and New Zealand, inviting readers to “take a peek into the world of the Maori – including the intricate tattoos that “they’re known for” by linking…

Cycling Gold

Cycling Gold

New Zealand won two gold medals in the fifth and final leg of the Track World Cup Cycling Championship. Glen Thompson won in the 30km points race and Sarah Ulmer continued her superb Olympic preparation.

Twin Poi: Fire Play With Me

Twin Poi: Fire Play With Me

Ultimate frisbee and hackeysack just don’t cut it anymore for the young and birkenstocked. Young Americans looking for the latest hip zen vibe have been inspired by Maori ritual: “Poi, an energetic twirling of a pair…

Art and text:

Art and text:

In an ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Artist Corp) collaboration Kiwi writer Damien Wilkins offers a “rather beautiful piece of writing” to accompany an exhibition of paintings by ascendent Aussie painter Noel McKenna (the…

Kiwi Cunning Conquers IQ Test

Kiwi Cunning Conquers IQ Test

In a Sunday Times report noted science commentator Bryan Appleyard ponders the limits of DNA science and why ‘designer intelligence’ is not such a good thing, using the evidence of New Zealander James Flynn and his…

Hold on to Your Stetsons – Fly-by-wire Hits Texas

Hold on to Your Stetsons – Fly-by-wire Hits Texas

New Zealander Neil Harrap, developer of the fly-by-wire concept is bringing his innovative and heart-pounding flight simulation ride to Texas. With the right stuff – $75 – you can pilot a 24-horsepower open aircraft at heights…

Crowe Songs Attract Flock of Acolytes

Crowe Songs Attract Flock of Acolytes

Crowds packed, paid up to $300 and queued for up to 12 hours to get into Stubb’s Bar-B-Q in Austin, Texas, for a performance by an unknown country-rock band called Thirty Odd Foot of…

Edge Affirmation from Elaine Showalter

Edge Affirmation from Elaine Showalter

The Princeton University feminist icon and scholar writes on effect of globalisation on national identity: “If one is an expatriate from, say, New Zealand”, as American Political scientist Daniel Bell notes, “one can click…

Superplonk

Superplonk

Is Cloudy Bay the new Champagne? “An utterly gob-smackingly gorgeous bubbly … Track down the 1995 vintage of Pelorus, from the Cloudy Bay bunch in New Zealand. A massive advance … this is one of the most…

Sir Ron Brierley: 61 Not Out

Sir Ron Brierley: 61 Not Out

Sir Ron described by the Financial Times as the “cricket mad corporate raider” and “one of the most controversial corporate figures of the past twenty years” knocked the London Stock Exchange for six when his Guiness Peat…

Lilith Lacroix Goes to the Olympics

Lilith Lacroix Goes to the Olympics

Well she’ll be performing, but at the Opera House, not Stadium Australia. Lilith, aka New Zealand composer Gareth Farr, brings his percussion concertos, Hikoi and Wairua to the Sydney Olympics Arts Festival. He’ll need…

Sailing Away with the Kenwood Cup

Sailing Away with the Kenwood Cup

New Zealand was officially named champion of the 12th Biennial Kenwood Cup Hawaii International offshore series, with Big Apple 3, after stopping to help a distressed boat, still coming in ahead of Australia, the USA and…

Cyber-policing

Cyber-policing

In Porirua, New Zealand, the thin blue line has turned into the thin blue URL in the fight against crime. Police have decided to enlist the use of a website as a way to…

Gaping Gandalf

Gaping Gandalf

In the The Grey Book, acclaimed actor Sir Ian McKellen’s diary of the Lord of the Rings film shoot, McKellen raves about the scenery: “New Zealand would amaze and enrapture anyone who responds to the wild landscapes of…

Russell Crowe: Hollywood Actor of the Year

Russell Crowe: Hollywood Actor of the Year

Russell Crowe was named Hollywood Actor of the Year at the Hollywood Film Festival Awards held at the Beverly Hilton on August 7th. Internet users voted online at Entertainment Tonight site ETonline.com and Reel.com…

Sheep Shearer’s Delight Strolling the Paris Catwalks

Sheep Shearer’s Delight Strolling the Paris Catwalks

Watch out Rod: “you wouldn’t want to mess with a girl like Rach. She is an Alp of a woman. Throw in the facial features of a young Judy Finnegan, a formidable Sports Illustrated…

New Zealand Firm to Introduce CNG Equipment to Pakistan

New Zealand Firm to Introduce CNG Equipment to Pakistan

Prescon Technology Limited has been chosen to introduce quality Compressed Natural Gas equipment to Pakistan, as well as introducing new and cheap water filters for domestic and commercial treatment plants. The aim of the enterprise is to…

All Black Diplomacy

All Black Diplomacy

Kiwi Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Don McKinnon, is “a New Zealander in the traditional mould … he’s a refreshing antidote to the blandness of his three predecessors, who knew that if they stopped being boring they were…

NZ Research Finds Anticholesteral Drug May Modify Stroke Risk

NZ Research Finds Anticholesteral Drug May Modify Stroke Risk

Pravastatin, a drug used to help lower blood cholesterol levels, may have a role to play in stroke prevention according to research (published in The New England Journal of Medicine) led by Dr Harvey D. White of…

Just Add Soap and Hey Presto: 20m Geyser!

Just Add Soap and Hey Presto: 20m Geyser!

In the notes and queries section of the Guardian a reader enquires about the practice of putting soap down geyser spouts to stimulate eruption. Leo Pyle elaborates on the science of the practice by refering to…

‘Human’ Cow Milk an MS Aid?

‘Human’ Cow Milk an MS Aid?

The lush pasture of some of New Zealand’s finest farming land will soon be home to a special herd of cows. New Zealand’s state-owned agricultural research institute has just won government approval for a five-year field trial…

Sam Neill: vintage celebrity

Sam Neill: vintage celebrity

The Telegraph investigates the latest celebrity trend: the wine-making lifestyle: accessorise with vines, winery and bottling linel. Kiwi Sam Neill makes the star vigneron along with Aussie golfer Greg Norman, French actor Gerrard Depardieu,…

Sport of Kiwis

Sport of Kiwis

New Zealand beat South Africa 11-10 after withstanding an onslaught in the final chukka, to win the BMW polo series 2-0 in Durban. They won the first test 10-8 and showed the benefit of professional experience,…

Kiwi Banker Helps Bosnia Rebuild

Kiwi Banker Helps Bosnia Rebuild

As the Bosnian economy struggles to recover from the ravages of war, its citizens are struggling to accept the recovering local currency. “The most telling detail on the new Bosnian currency is the signature on every…

Anna’s new rhythm

Anna’s new rhythm

Vanity Fair profiles the maturing of Kiwi actress Anna Paquin, from precocious Oscar winner in Jane Campion’s The Piano, to upcoming roles in Bryan Singer’s blockbusting sci-fi flick X-Men and Cameron Crowe’s 70’s rock…

Getting Jiggy: Bolstad Axes the Competition at ESPN Outdoor Games

Getting Jiggy: Bolstad Axes the Competition at ESPN Outdoor Games

Dave Bolstad “considered to be one of the world’s best” of Taumarunui won the most medals at the inaugural ESPN Outdoor Games held in the last week of July. The timber expert and world champion axeman…

Taking You to the Edge … and Jumping Off

Taking You to the Edge … and Jumping Off

“Not so long ago, New Zealand was finding it hard to shake off its “beautiful but boring” tag. It may have been renowned for its spectacular scenery – dramatic mountains and sweeping coast lines -…

Edge Exposure

Edge Exposure

Fiona McCann might have frozen as she hitchhiked around the South Island, but she was comforted by the warmth of Kiwi hospitality in “the thrill inducing, stomach curdling adventure capital of the world”. On the soft side…

Holy Boy! From Nintendo to Nepal

Holy Boy! From Nintendo to Nepal

A Kiwi kid is giving up his game-boy, chicken nuggets, cricket, pokemon, and other typical Kiwi 7year-old delights to study Buddhist philosophy and rituals at a monastry in India for the next 15 years….

Poetic shock tactics

Poetic shock tactics

An extensive Guardian profile of New Zealand poet Fleur Adcock that elaborates on everything from her OBE, the end of her muse, her relationship with Barry Crump (“New Zealand’s answer to George Best or…

“They Kiss With Their Noses in New Zealand”

“They Kiss With Their Noses in New Zealand”

In an exploration of social climbing etiquette the Philippine Star explores the kissing conventions around the globe, from the Latin influenced beso-beso, to hand kissing in France, to bowing in Japan to Maori hongi in New…

Hallertau hops give organic beer a bite

Hallertau hops give organic beer a bite

Bateman’s a family owned organic brewery in Lincolnshire has joined the swelling ranks of organic beers with Yella Betty Bitter, brewed with organic chariot pale malt and Hallertau hops from New Zealand – “wonderfully…

“Luck Star” shines in Shanghai

“Luck Star” shines in Shanghai

Lydia, an 8-year old New Zealand girl attended, with her father, the 2000 Shanghai International Children’s Art Festival. She was picked as one of the honour guests from millions of children who registered on…

A Leftist Free-trader: Oxymoore-onic?

A Leftist Free-trader: Oxymoore-onic?

Kiwi WTO chief Mike Moore, speaking to an audience of young socialists in Sweden responds to criticism of the World Trade Organisation “It is odd that some on the left have sometimes opposed free trade. If…

Edge Theory from Miami

Edge Theory from Miami

A Kiwi in Miami offers a defence of the urge to retain national identity and pushes the New Zealand edge: “I met my American husband in my homeland where he lived many years and gained citizenship……

A Bob Either Way

A Bob Either Way

“The only cast-iron certainty in golf right now is that New Zealand veteran, Bob Charles, will finish in the top six in the British Seniors Open.” The Belfast Telegraph correctly placed its bet on the Kiwi left…

Crunchies for a flat stomach

Crunchies for a flat stomach

Looking to get in shape for her acting career Kiwi supermodel Rachel Hunter enlisted the help of SunWoman who came up with a brilliant eating plan which included Hunter’s favourite foods: Crunchie bars, Frosties,…

Natural History New Zealand double Emmy nomination

Natural History New Zealand double Emmy nomination

Natural History New Zealand writers Ian McGee (who won NZ’s first Emmy last year) and Quinn Berentson were nominated for their for an episode “The Rat” in the 13 part series Twisted Tales co-produced…

Cyberpunk Sisters

Cyberpunk Sisters

Female hackers have proved so elusive that they slip under the radar of sociologists. ABC News investigates part of an underground subculture better known for the misogynistic stink of a high school boys’ locker room – geek…

On Top of the Brief

On Top of the Brief

The Times profiles New Zealander Carrie de Duluin, Personal Assistant to Serena Rees and Joseph Corré (son of Vivienne Westwood), creators of Agent Provocateur, the label that gave new meaning to “naughty, but nice”…

Biking Versus Hiking and the DOC Peacemaker

Biking Versus Hiking and the DOC Peacemaker

Mountain biker Yuri Kuzyk takes issue with an Ottawa Citizen article claiming that mountain biking erodes mountain trails in Gatineau Park. He cites the hard science of a 1995 New Zealand Department of Conservation Study that shows…

Dionysian Olympic Success

Dionysian Olympic Success

“Eventually, excellence of all sorts is rewarded, and one day New Zealand will be able to show off its medals.” The New York Times explores the success of New Zealand’s contender in the wine making Olympics:…

NZ Victim of Black May Massacre

NZ Victim of Black May Massacre

An official inquiry has only just been launched into the infamous Thai massacre where Kiwi Brendan Mahoney was almost killed eight years ago. He was staring up towards Bangkok’s democracy monument on a balmy…

Cate Blanchett Talks About Me, My Elf and I

Cate Blanchett Talks About Me, My Elf and I

Blanchett, Academy Award nominated for her performance in Elizabeth is in the final stages of filming another Queen, the role of elf Galadriel in Lord of the Rings. Blanchett explains why an attraction to…

Bloodlust ballet brings in the crowds in Australia

Bloodlust ballet brings in the crowds in Australia

The Royal New Zealand Ballet’s Dracula is slaying audiences across the Tasman. Described as “grand gothic entertainment layering gloom, psychological gutsiness and new eroticism over a hackneyed old plot” it has opened in Melbourne…