At the local supermarket the other day I was taken by the cost of organic food. The “ordinary” carrots were $1.69 per kg, while the organic ones were $4.34 per kg. That’s two and half times the price! This annoyed me and set me thinking.  Read More...

I recently asked my friend Dave Tims to come and talk to one of my classes at Laidlaw College about the work that he does among the “urban poor” in Manurewa, South Auckland. Dave has given more than 20 years of his life to working with the poor and the marginalised, so I knew that what he would say would be both real and challenging. But what most surprised me was the link that Dave made between friendship and poverty. Read More...

So the All Blacks are in discussions with potential sponsors who will place their logo on the centre of the jersey front. The English have the big Oa on theirs, the Springboks have SaSoL, the Wallabies have Qantas. But the ABs have been able to stay free of this dominant logo. Traditionalists are up at arms, crying foul. They want to keep the jersey pure. “No longer All Black” is the cry. Forget of course that Adidas already have their logo on it. Others concede that nothing can stop this, as it will yield the cash strapped NZRFU a way out of their financial predicament in these hard times. Should they sell their souls?  Read More...

As is not unusual, our political scene is a bit messy at the moment. The big talking point is the Kim Dotcom-John Banks donation scandal. The situation has emerged because allegedly John Banks asked Dotcom to split a $50,000 donation into two $25,000 donations and then declared them anonymously when he should have named the donor. So now there is a he-said, she-said type of situation with Banks denying wrongdoing and knowledge, and the wolves gathering to prove he did. It sounds a little messier today with John Banks having lobbied Maurice Williamson over Dotcom’s proposed purchase of his Coatesville home. Read More...

While it would be fool-hardly for me in distant Auckland to express an opinion on the recently announced demolition of the Christchurch Cathedral, it has got me wondering. I feel deeply and will continue to pray for all involved in this situation – it is a tough question, one of many such questions in Christchurch.  Read More...