Former PM dies

Very, very sad news over the weekend. Former NZ Prime Minister David Lange passed away. (See: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1500960)

I was at high school when he was Prime Minister, and even though I was too young to vote then, I must say he was an excellent Prime Minister in so many ways. He was just so charismatic. Wouldn't it be good to have another Prime Minister like that again. (Wonder if it will happen at this election??)

It's a big pity that there isn't going to be a state funeral for him - he definitely deserves one.

I wonder if the Labour Party are going to turn his death into an advantage for their election campaign???

Petrol not going up??

Oil prices have reached a record $US64 a barrell, but as yet petrol prices have not gone up again here in New Zealand! Very unusual - any hint of anything sends the prices rocketing!
I thought these new petrol companies such as Challenge and Gull that came in to the market a few years back would force the price of petrol down - ha, that didn't last for very long!
There is absolutely no competition whatsoever in the petrol market in this country. Wouldn't it be great if petrol companies competed with each other for cheaper prices - yeah right!
Perhaps some smaller service stations in the country should do what more than 1000 independent service stations in Australiaare doing. They are discounting their petrol prices by 4 cents a litre - now that's the way to go!
(See: http://www.skynews.com.au/business/story.asp?id=63598)

No more Paul Holmes on Prime

Some more sad broadcasting news. It was that last nightly Holmes show on Prime TV tonight. (See: http://www.primetv.co.nz/linktxt.asp)
A few months back Paul Holmes switched his nightly current affairs show from state broadcaster TVNZ to Prime TV. After the switch I found his show to be much better. Unfortunately a lot of the viewers from TV One didn't make the switch. So this means that it wasn't Paul Holmes that they like to watch, it was just the current affairs show at 7pm on TV One. So no matter what they call and and no matter who fronts it (even a monkey in a suit) people will still watch it - odd!

Peter Jennings dies

Some very sad news, in fact some shocking news in the "news" world today. Peter Jennings, long time anchor of ABC News in the States, has died at age 67. (See: http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=1015438) That's quite a young age actually.
I watched ABC Word News Tonight when I had the chance when it has been shown here in New Zealand. I remember watching Peter Jennings on ABC News more than 10 years ago.
It's a great loss to the broadcasting world.

Labour cuts student loan interest

Yesterday, the New Zealand Labour Party announced an "election bribe" for 461,000 New Zealanders by saying they would no longer pay interest on student loans from April next year. (See: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10337799)

It does sound like a great idea, especially to encourage graduates to stay in New Zealand. I'm a university graduate who has stayed in NZ to work. However, since I left university about 6 years ago my student loan has not decreased at all - I am barely making enough to pay off the interest. Will they credit all that interest back to me? I doubt it!

Anyway, my $32,000 student loan will still take years and years to pay off, so it's not going to make me change me vote to Labour!

By the way, I bet National are kicking themselves that they didn't think off it first!

Humans back into space

After two and a half years the Space Shuttle is finally back into space, when the Discovery lifted off this morning (See: http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/07/26/space.shuttle/index.html)

It is great to have humans back into space again, but being a Star Trek fan I think this is all a bit primative! They've got a long way to go until humans are sent to Mars (http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/library/episodes/VOY/detail/108170.html) or till the first warp ship is built! (http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/library/episodes/MOV/detail/88.html)

Whaling

New Zealand is a part of the IWC currently meeting in Korea discussing international whaling issues. Of course Japan wants to continue its whaling for "scientific purposes" - yeah right! I wonder where all that whale meat in Japanese restaurants comes from???
Sure, they can go and kill whales, but when they become extinct don't come crying to us! Perhaps they all should watch the movie "Star Trek: The Voyage Home", then they'll see what a world without whales would be like!
There's been talk about boycotting Japanese products - somehow I don't think this will happen, while I watch my "Sony" TV, watch videos on my "Panasonic" VCR, and drive around in my "Mazda" car!

Schapelle Corby guilty

I cannot believe that Schapelle Corby has been found guilty in an Indonesian court this afternoon of drug trafficking. She is not guilty at all! How could she be? She obviously did not intend to smuggle drugs into Bali. The drugs were just tucked into her boogie board bag - not a very efficient way of hiding them!!

She appears to be a beautiful and lovely person, and it makes me sick to my stomach that she will be 20 years in that disgusting, unhygenic jail.

I can't believe there are still court systems in the world where you are guilty until proven innocent.