Posts by Richard Llewellyn
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RB
For some reason the party in Brixton sounds familiar. Late 1990 I attended a double-decker bus party, which involved a magical mystery tour around London with around fifty 24 hour party-people to the tunes of Screamadelica et al, ending up at a huge party at a Brixton squat at around 5.00am .......
You don't recall a bus-full of revellers arriving late in the piece?
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Dad 4 Justice
With all due respect to your experience of current police culture, I would have to say that it is absolute bollocks to tar all with the same brush on that basis.
While there was clearly a bloody awful element within the Rotorua/Tauranga police force from the 80's, I wouldn't extrapolate from that all police are rotten.
One of my oldest friends is a policeman in Upper Hutt, and is the most gentle, dignified and honorable person I know, carrying a lot of mana in the community.
He's doing a tough job not many others would want to do, for relatively little reward, and doesn't deserve to be associated with the rotten apples so casually.
My 10c worth .....
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But back to the cricket .......
Aside from the photo in the link, last nights game delivered a couple of other memorable images, the 'see, its easy' look on Gillespies face as he chopped and edged 16 off one crucial over, and by far the most satisfying image of the cricket season, the "I've just eaten some awful tasting humble pie" by John 'Give us a challenge' Buchanan as he saw an unlosable game slipping away.....
A mastercard ad in waiting .......
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Brilliant
I'm sure some of this was used for the Bob Marley doco that screened on Sky Documentary Channel a week or so ago.
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Robyn "I think I might have to watch that High School Musical thing to get my musical fix".
Andrew "Yes, the redemptive power of baking... set to music. Don't do it, you'll get diabetes."
Bro -
Careful dissing that High School Musical thing, if they could navigate their way through PAS, you'd have a whole can of whoop-arse being opened on you by millions of irate tweenies ...... truly a phenomenon for the little people (and better songs than Dreamgirls)
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While you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn't lament the decline of Auckland in terms of infrastructure, transport, architecture, social cohesion, yada yada, what depresses me even more is that we have had many of the finest minds in NZ working on a variety of solutions for eons.
There's currently the likes of the Metro project, the Super-Council, Stadium debate, Richard Simpsons work, etc etc (I'm sure there are many many more)
To me the biggest question is, why aren't any of these solutions getting up, when virtually any one of them would have been better than the status quo? Are there too many chefs in the kitchen? Is the local and central government mechanism dysfunctional? Are there vested interests in the status quo?
I appreciate that 'Da Vision Thing' can be dangerous in the wrong hands, but how do we move on from inertia?
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Paul
CSR (as represented by Equator principles) is an interesting phenomenon.
While there are more than a few big corporates in NZ heading down the CSR path (not sure about Equator) it would be interesting to know why.
I'd argue they are doing not out of pure altruism, but because there is enough green dollar in it for them, and that it increasingly makes good business sense.
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I wanna know where to get one of those cool LED suits!.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Great Blend, thanks again to you and everyone else involved - a unique and welcome event.
If you want the full 'oldstyle town hall' experience then yeah, the venue was perhaps just a bit too much (amazing place though). And maybe invite Gary McCormack along.
Loved the Back of the Y guys - new to me, but surely Randy Cambell was the forerunner of the Jackass guys
Ethical investing - almost a misnomer really. There are more than a few theses on the subject, usual conclusion is that it is almost impossible in a globalised multi-national world. Ethics is in the eye of the beholder.
Surely the job of NZ Super Fund is solely to make money to pay for our retirement?
If so, as long as it isn't directly investing in anything illegal, is it their job to worry where the ethical 'line' is drawn in the sand?
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Merc - no I didn't mean the Cornerstone development, but thanks for the pointer - another good example.
I guess that the best urban development solution will involve a combination of government and market forces (PPP anyone?).
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Tom,
FWIW, I have seen first-hand that there are a group of developers who are ahead of the government curve on this, and are actually being hampered by local government in their desire to deliver more sustainable, high quality, mixed density housing, in conjunction with existing or planned economic, social, and transport hubs.
So, in some cases, I'd be willing to argue that the 'market' is actually being held back on urban development.
By 'smart' developer, I mean one who has recognised that building for a sustainable community actually delivers more business return in the long-term than making a quick buck and moving on.
But I take your point that, on the whole, under current state of play of development industry and government regulations, the likely outcome of unrestricted urban development will be more of the same unsustainable sprawl. Until, of course, it is no longer possible to sprawl. More like a crouch.