Posts

A dialogue on values.  Elon Musk says, “The fundamental weakness of Western civilisation is empathy”. Hannah Arendt who lived in Hitler’s Germany and covered the Israel trial of Adolf Eichmann, a German war criminal wrote, “The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism.      Read More →

I have always read  the world news. Guess it’s the DNA of being a journalist and I was that for many years.  But theatre has been a huge love too.  I see world events recurring on stage again and again.. Today I saw it.  Some years ago ago I directed  the play Antigone, the Greek  legend about how a ruler stops the burial of a dead Prince after a war. His mourning sister. Antigone, defies Creon, the ruler and buries her brother. She dies too. When Russia invaded Ukraine, I revamped the legend  to  a modern setting  and made  Vladimir Putin, the ruler.  Today  theRead More →

I have been  watching “Good Night and Good Luck” with George Clooney on Broadway. Exciting  Relevant. And… am I the only person thinking that President Trump was mentored by the philosophy of  the Junior  Senator from Wisconsin.Read More →

You’ll find snippets in this section of my website about William Shakespeare . I’ve been interested in the playwright and bis plays  since childhood. As a small child I lived in Scotland between Aberdeen  and Inverness and not far from Forres. This is Macbeth country. I was a child, around seven years of age when I arrived in the north of Scotland.. After school was over, we  would fight  each other  in  fatal battles with branches from trees and bellow at our opponents  “Lay on Macduff, and dammed be him who first cries,  Hold. Enough ”  We  shouted  “How far to Forres?”  without knowing why! Read More →

Interesting. Within  hours of my last post, I find that Alexa gives more  accurate information about Trump. I rephrased my questions in different ways. Got different answers.  Some accurate, some less so…some which maybe devious…with Alexa saying I don’t have an answer to that question, but you can look at …..???????  Alexa – if you make mistakes, perhaps you are on the way to becoming human?  Read More →

Ask Alexa if Donald Trump is a convicted felon?  She is not forthcoming with good and accurate information. According to what I can find out this morning, Alexa is frequently being updated. There must be a story here for an original  writer, not AI though…… HOW TO SCARE A COMPUTERRead More →

Mark Rylance,  the first artistic director Shakespeare’s  Globe Theatre  in London, between 1995 and 2005. suggests  theatre rap productions of Shakespeare plays. He says  Shakespeare’s precise words should be less revered, and  compares the Bard’s use of language to the rappers of today. Rylance says Shakespeare should not be worshipped on an intellectual level, saying too many performers speak his lines too slowly. Instead, he said, actors should learn from a generation of young people growing up on rap music, to reconnect with the quick-speaking emotion Shakespeare originally intended. “If I have a general criticism, which is true of my Shakespeare acting and most ShakespeareRead More →

The Government  has passed the first reading of  David Seymour’s Regulatory Standards Bill through Parliament. Doing it in the shadow of the Budget is  cynical move for Seymour  and his claims is about “transparent” lawmaking. The Government  timed it to avoid public scrutiny.  ACT tried three times before before to pass a bill of this genre . It has already drawn widespread public opposition. Over 20,000 people submitted on the bill’s first consultation -under one percent  supported it. ACT with less than 10% of the electoral vote acts like Trump. Arrogant and narcissistic .  He will become Deputy PM, soon.Read More →

Our Minister of  Education  has a narrow view of drama  and what she wants young people to  appreciate. A culture needs diversity and that means colleges and their teachers must have  flexibility to select and teach drama without  being locked into any one dramatist or poet or writer. The word is diversity. A good English teacher will read widely  and know many dramatists. If he/she teaches about what they love  in drama, there is a fair chance some of the emotion and learning  will rub off to their students. As a lover of the Bard and in possession of at least five DVD versions ofRead More →

Ever since COVID hit NZ and the world I have been writing film scripts. It’s odd how  one big unforeseen  experience in life will shape the mind.   My most recent script is Africa Avenger.  Details are on this website, so I won’t repeat them. If you wish, the script is there to read.  I worked in Africa in several countries  in Development Aid for a NGO.  So my script used some of my experience and much non-experience. The latter is called imagination.  I love Africa. The people I worked with were  family people.  All their money supported their family and others members of the family…Read More →

He talks about democracy and equality. Yet, he loves urgency for his Parliamentary Bills. That means no discussion  and viewpoints from the public. I award him the dark star. Who voted for him. His ACT party  got under  10% of the election vote. Our P.M.  will soon have David Seymour as Deputy P.M. Something is surely rotten in the state of New Zealand.Read More →

Attended it yesterday. A wide range of people there. Several thousand maybe. Hard to tell. Old. Young.  I looked at many of the banners. The protesters  were mainly concerned like me about  the insults and double dealings of the Government on the abuse of the the Treaty. And it is a Treaty that belongs to all of us. I also saw posters about issues of Health, Disability, Education and the abuse of women right to equal pay for equal work.  As a former migrant it’s sad to see  NZ slipping downhill. Luxon and Seymour  are behind  much of this chaos. Collins added to it withRead More →

Without any warning or consultation, National government  cancelled every pay equity claim covering about 180,000 low-paid workers – including nurses, teachers, midwives and care workers. Since then, they’ve been claiming it’s not a cut. The truth is they’re taking money that was going directly to increasing women’s pay to save their budget. That’s a cut and no amount of distraction can change that.Read More →

Note him. His party vote is low.Under 10%.  He believes in referendums that he hopes will bind  the country to ignoring  our relationship with Maori through the Treaty.  Is he fascist? I believe so.Read More →

We have a P.M, alas, here is the NZ choice who seems indifferent to the weak, the unlucky  in capitalism. Has he ever seen a prison or been inside.Read More →

Anti-Semite.  It pays to be one. Take me. I’m popular as I have dealt viciously with the issue. I am Prime Minister and I want to get rid of Semites and I do,  by bombing every day, schools, hospitals and kid in tents too.  Kids grow up to adults. Don’t feed the little bastards. Can be dangerous. Nazism had the words. I have my words. Hitler, Houthi, Hate. The last is a word that resonate at all times.  It gets fed every day. When I was a child myself I learned about The Trojan War which took place some distance from I live now.  TheRead More →

It is appalling that a small party ACT with around 8% of the vote is making policy and taking away equal rights for working women.   And three political parties in  power  support it and  then take it through  to law by  urgency. The Prime Minister can’t even be bothered to be in Parliament. Don’t forget the names of these “leaders” when you vote.    Read More →

Am laughing and crying and feeling frustrated with Nicola Willis and kids and rebates and filling forms to get rebates that are mostly small amounts.  She is a mother. Has she forgotten about the  time and effort and extra effort needed to look after children?Read More →

Sexuality, male, female. It concerns you and me and when we do it in private it is of no concern to anyone else . If we both consent and do not harm others or to use an old cliche – do not scare the horses, leave us alone. Word difference  it how you will, there are so many similarities in life. We work in jobs , play sport, sing and dance.We read, listen to politicians, who fret about holes in the road, orange cones and can find $9 billion overnight but don’t want to feed hungry children. We have a P.M.  who needs training inRead More →

Pat’s career includes many years of teaching, radio broadcasting, film making, lecturing in broadcast journalism at The University of the South Pacific and working in Development Aid projects in the South Pacific region and Africa. He worked for over twenty years for Radio NZ in News, Radio Documentary Unit and was the first Manager of The Radio NZ Continuing Education Unit (CONTED). He has NZ qualifications in teaching, literature and drama. These skills were put to use in his Development Aid work with short and long term projects media education in Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and South Sudan.Read More →