Boomer Buzz
World Press Freedom Day

UNESCO is the only UN agency with a specific mandate to defend freedom of expression and press freedom and earlier this month was carrying out that remit locally.   

On May 3, World Press Freedom Day, Professor Mark Pearson from Griffith University in Australia, was in the city to speak at UNESCO’s inaugural  Freedom of Expression lecture at AUT University.

So too was Auckland human rights lawyer and occasional Kiwiboomers columnist Tim McBride, who introduced the lecture. World Press Freedom Day is growing in significance and the reason is simple: the increasing number of serious assaults, killings and worst - the murders of  journalists around the world. 

 

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The rain in...

Brian Viner

So what has happened in the past couple of weeks?

Maggie's gone for a start. Margaret Thatcher that is. Maggie to her friends and I am sure she would have counted me as a friend if we had ever met. Which we didn't, so she would have counted me as an enemy, like all people she never met.

Now Maggie was either loved or hated in her own country. Mostly hated. Which I consider most unfair. Maggie has never received the credit for what she has done for the British handbag.

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May miscellany

  • At home with her age
  • How words commonly used on the Net evolved
  • Wage cuts and cuppa cuts
  • The Boston bombings
  • A little medical mayhem
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Democracy going, going...?

Paul Smith

Went to a meeting on democracy the other night. Expected an audience of maybe 20, including the organisers. But when I turned up the car park was full, with drivers searching hurriedly for a park so they wouldn’t miss the speech by Icelandic activist Hordur Torfason.  

All of this seemed a little strange. Here in the so-called democracy of Godzone, people filled the hall to learn more about… democracy? That could only happen if it was in jeopardy and clearly many felt it was...
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mid-April miscellany

  • Maggie's legacy
  • Breasts. Bare breasts! And mini-skirts.
  • The British class system
  • Self-Medication in Animals…?
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April Miscellany

  • Condoms rock!
  • That’ll be burgers with... eek!
  •  Diet pre-surgery
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Right of a Reply

Robyn YousefRobyn Yousef

Maybe I’m being pedantic, but I sincerely believe that even at the ripe old age of 60 I deserve a reply when I apply for a job.

I’m a freelance writer who loves to write... As all those involved in the media know, the freelance market is now very tight and many publications who used freelancers willingly in the past are now sticking to a policy of using staff writers only.

Over the last three years or so I’ve seen some of my steady little earners disappear. And so I sought out ...a nice little part-time number...

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The Ides of March - miscellany

  • Where there’s smoke there’s… a new Pope
  • Boomers badly hurt in motorbike accidents
  • Are we as healthy as we think?
  • Another ism in the schism of climate change debates
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March miscellany

  • Pee power
  • Love hurts
  • Remember not to forget
  • Liars’ truths
  • Silly or sane
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The end is nigh...

Did you know that there have been not one – but  five mass extinctions on Earth in the past 540 million years? And according to a review recently published in the journal Nature, there are signs that we may be entering a sixth such event...
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