I survived socialism. So it’s always surprised me that Bernie Sanders is fond of saying America should look more like Scandinavian countries such as Sweden. Because what’s made Sweden the success it is on many of the metrics Sanders loves to point to aren’t the policies Sanders espouses. On the contrary, the reforms he wants […]
Roger Kerr: The Working Man and the Man and his Work
(The following is reprinted with the permission of Bryce Wilkinson. It is the eulogy he delivered at the service to honour Roger’s life held on Thursday 3 November 2011 at 2.30pm at Old St Paul’s in Wellington.) (Photo courtesy of the New Zealand Herald) Roger Kerr committed his working life to improving the quality of […]
Contrasting attitudes in New Zealand and Hong Kong
Originally published 22 July 1997 in Nexus, the University of Waikato student magazine, as part of a regular series I wrote under the banner of “Postcard from Hong Kong” What is the “New Zealand dream”? One could be forgiven for thinking that the answer is to simply leave this earth in no worse state than […]
The future of Hong Kong
The following is from my pre-blog archives. When I lived in Hong Kong in 1997, I was asked to write a semi-regular column under the banner “Postcard from Hong Kong” for a university newspaper in New Zealand. This article appeared on July 4 1997, three days after the United Kingdom transferred sovereignty of Hong Kong back […]
New Zealand pays price for letting mateship die
From the pre-blog archives, I was reminded of the following article I wrote when a friend posted this article about New Zealand immigrants protesting in Australia. One person commented “Kiwi’s protesting because they can’t access welfare in another country. Sick.” In fact, these New Zealanders are complaining to the wrong government. The reason Australia restricted […]