If Anyone Can, A Kiwi Can!

Every New Zealander knows about keas - our cheeky mountain parrots – but their namesake is a global community: KEA, or Kiwi Expats Abroad.
More than 750,000 New Zealanders live overseas...that's 16% of our population, a quarter of all our highly skilled workers! While some see this as a huge skills drain, others regard it as a unique competitive advantage for the country.
Since its inception in 2001 by the legendary 'Warehouse' founder Stephen Tindall, KEA has helped business people connect with and leverage the knowledge and contacts of talented New Zealanders around the world. It now has 25,000 members, with membership growing at over 20% per year.

Imagine KEA as an enormous global Old Boys Network, with tentacles reaching into 178 countries. For a business seeking overseas commercial or professional contacts, KEA could be damn useful.
And furthermore, you're working with ex-pats on the same wavelength: thinking kiwi, talking kiwi, doing it the kiwi way...what could be better?

Bush Birthday

Birthday greetings to the woman who lusted for Heathcliff – the Man with the Child in His Eyes - who Ran Up That Hill, chased by the Hounds of Love ("It's in the trees! It's coming!"), while dressed as a Babooshka... clicked yet?
Yes, that ethereal waif who stunned the musical world with Wuthering Heights back in 1978 is 51 today. English singer/songwriter Kate Bush's eclectic style has made her one of England's most successful solo female performers of the past 30 years.
While NZ radioplay was generally limited to her earlier bigger hits (causing many to muse “Whatever happened to...?”), back home all of her albums hit the UK Top Ten. She's often cited as a major influence on the careers of many artists worldwide. In 2002, her songwriting ability was recognised with an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music, and she's also been nominated for three Grammy Awards.
To illustrate her diversity, here're some video links to: Wuthering Heights, Running Up That Hill (the 12” mix), Babooshka, King Of The Mountain and, from the Elton John tribute album, try her reggae take of Rocket Man.

In Praise Of Apostrophes

In my early days, I found apostrophes confusing and their usage deeply frustrating.
The dear ol' nuns must have prayed hard for my grammatical redemption because one day it all just clicked: I morphed into a grammar Nazi who'd return emails with errors highlighted, and howl derisively at signs advertising VIDEO'S.
Over the years I've been urged to "let it go" - generally by those without as firm a grip on punctuation skills. I thought that was just part of New Zealand's sad and inexorable slide into the mire of the world's worst language butchery: when the weather is described as "foin und moild in Wullintun" (that's "fine and mild in Wellington"!), you know you're in heartland New Zulin. And when shops have SALE'S, how illiterate we must appear to the rest of the world.
But wait: we are not alone! Thi's erroneou's use of apostrophe's ha's become a planet-wide pandemic! (OMG! Another pandemic!!) It seem's there's not only a global glitch in the correct use of apostrophe's but also comma's, colon's and virtually any punctuation mark's' that could help turn a string of word's into a fluent sentence.
On-line, you'll find The Apostrophe Protection Society and Apostrophe Abuse bemoaning the maltreatment of the beloved apostrophe.
In this texting age, I wonder if the demise of ALL punctuation is imminent. Those who've suggested I "let it go" also tried to persuade me this was normal linguistic evolution, and queried whether I wanted to be righteously correct but all alone on a desert island amid an ocean of 'linguistically modified' people.
My answer? Ye's!