Colourful Dreamer

This was in an email I received just before Christmas. It saddens me to see how new Zealand is slowly pulling back on any commitments to the UN Millennium Developments Goals and Poverty Eradication under the guidance of Murry MCully. I never thought I would say it, but I miss Winston as our Foreign Affairs Minister . CWS statement on Government funding 17 December 2010 At 65 years Christian World Service is at the crossroads.  On Thursday December 16, CWS received notice that only one of its six applications for government funding was successful.  Ama Takiloa in Tonga is an effective organisation that is a broad ranging programme to improve the livelihoods of local people.  So are the other partner groups but for reasons unclear to CWS they did not receive funding.  CWS has a strong track record of effective partnership relationships and has always received very positive reviews for its work from independent and government development experts.  With oth

Happy new year to any one who reads this. I drove past Auckland Grammar today. Boys were lurking in their uniform, ready for another year. Wait, most schools go back next week! so what was that about? Any how, I did laugh at this pretentious school last week. They are so wanting to be a private church school without the church stuff (like a few church schools really). Any how again, I laughed at the rationale given last week as to why they were encouraging their boys year 11 level to not do NCEA and to do Cambridge exams instead. because ti will motivate them! really! My experience of being a boy, of teaching 15 year old boys, and watching our boy is, yeah right! all they will do is slack of all year, and so enough at the end of the year to do well enough. their marks may be higher. But what will they learn? isn't that what schools are really about, learning and not the grades? My daughter has rightly pointed out that your school marks count for very little once you have left