Scooters then and now by Susan Grimsdell
There was a wonderful photo in the Christchurch NZ newspaper a week ago. It showed about a dozen 10-year-old boys in the year 1921 at a primary school in a small Canterbury town, lined up on their home-made wooden scooters, looking deadly serious, several of them with bare feet. The picture tells a story about each of those boys and their scooters. We can be almost certain they had help from a parent or sibling through everything it took to get to the finished scooter. Planning and designing, scrounging timber from around… Read More
The source of happiness by Susan Grimsdell
We’re living in an age of self-fulfilment, finding ourselves, getting to our inner selves, mindfulness, meditation, all about looking deep into ourselves to find happiness. Self, self, self. Ancient values When I was a kid, we had no idea who we were or what we were all about – such notions never entered our heads. It was drummed into us that we didn’t matter, other people mattered – don’t be selfish, stop thinking of yourself, share your toys, share your lollies, children should be seen and not heard, don’t talk about yourself… Read More
The tale of the sealion and the shark by Susan Grimsdell
Recently a sealion was bitten by a great white shark and lived to tell the tale. Well, the sealion didn’t tell it, a reporter did. A feel-good story The tone of the news story was very upbeat – a happy story told entirely from the perspective of the sealion. If it had been told from the shark’s perspective it would have been quite different. Perhaps it might have been told like this: “There has been an unprecedented and alarming increase in the risk of extinction of great white sharks. According to “Nature”… Read More
NZ farmers’ protest by Susan Grimsdell
Taking to the streets Hundreds of farmers recently took to the streets in their expensive tractors. The vehicles are big bullying things, and that makes me think the drivers are too. Sitting way up high, big wheels, the whole rig shouting – “I’m big and powerful and rich so get out of my way.” As far as I could make out, that was the essence of their protest – “This government is telling me what to do. I won’t have it. It’s my land, and I’ll say what happens to it.” Farmers… Read More
Skin cancer in NZ by Susan Grimsdell
We all know that skin cancer is the most prevalent cancer in New Zealand, and that we have the highest incidence of melanoma – the worst, most deadly kind of cancer – in the whole world. We slip slap slop on ourselves and our children, we use the top level of SPF, renewing it every two or three hours, as per instructions. We do our best to protect ourselves and our families. Sunscreen fraudster However, what we didn’t know was that there is a man in the USA, Gabriel Letizia Jr, who… Read More
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