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Last night 80 children from throughout the school, put on a most amazing performance at the Christchurch Town Hall, as part of the Christchurch Primary Schools Cultural Festival. The children were in two groups, the Junior Nga Matikao, and the Seniors as part of Te Tipuranga.   Te Tipuranga had brought with them their kete of knowledge handed down to them by their treasured Tipuna. The children had photos of their special family members and ancestors in the kete. During the performance two children used sign language to communicate  the  words of the waiata.   Nga Matikao celebrated the different cultures of our school in a colourful and lively performance.  " I was really nervous, but when we got on stage everybody knew what to do and it was awesome! It made me real proud to be supporting my own school and I saw lots of my old friends from last year. "       Steve "I got to wear my great, great, great Aunties piupiu, I felt very proud. And our girl's pukana at the e...

In Staple 71, (2009) there's an interview with Cornelia Parker. In it the interviewer mentions one of her works, "a Bible you'd retrieved from a chapel burnt by lightening ... displayed ... on a lectern, open on a colour picture showing people running away from a temple that was being destroyed by lightening." (p.67) It's a neat enough idea, but what does creating the prop add? What does the authenticity add? For me, very little. If I went to see the piece I'd have to read a caption to get much from the piece anyway. Writers know that the film adaption isn't always better than the book, and I think the same applies to the concepts of conceptual art. She's a visual artist and should be able to judge what will work visually. I liked her "Cold Dark Matter" (exploding shed) when I saw it in Tate Modern. It's like walking into a special FX film where time stands still except for the observer. But I wouldn't go to see the lectern. Later she...

Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam: “People do want to know, there is curiosity, it is a matter of public interest. That is not sufficient reason to disclose information. It is not sufficient that there be curiosity and interest that you want to disclose information.” One of the functions of Parliament is to call Ministers to account. With regard to individual Ministers the expectation is that PArliament is able to get information from them on matters that affect the public. As a representation of Ministerial accountability, Parliament is empowered under Standing Order No.19 to put questions to Ministers pertaining to 'affairs within their official functions'. Any question about Temasek put to Mr Tharman would be within the ambit of his official functions as a Finance Minister. By Convention he is obliged to answer those questions unless the question is itself within the ambit of excluded matters listed out at Standing ORder No.21. (The Parliamentary Standing Orders ...

We have just been notified that our Therapy Funding has been reinstated. While this is great news unfortunately it is only for children who are presently on our school roll. We will not receive funding for any new students enrolling at our school. There is a review of Special Education to take place next year. Check out this article in the Press Newspaper Saturday 15 August 2009 . 

Last Friday the Green Team was also busy assembling a planter box. This was kindly donated by Reg Platt of Fresh Harvest Planters . Reg delivered and then helped the Team to assemble the box. This planter is high sided so that our Conductive Ed children can access them from their wheelchairs. A big thank you to Harvest Planters for this. The school will be purchasing two more raised beds for our planned vegetable gardens, and the children are busy planning what they would like to grow.

Over the past two Fridays, the Green Team has been busy in our Rose Garden, working compost into the soil, and discovering the joys of worms, centipedes, slugs and other grubs. The team have put compost and soil conditioner into the rose bed, so that planting of the blue and yellow pansies will be happening this week!! Thanks to Oderings Nursery who have given us a great deal on these plants, and another big thank you to Graeme Wood for all his help with the trailer and extra tools.

8.22pm, 9th August 2009 – A moment of no real significance for our nation. But, as trumpeted by the mainstream media, it was ‘the universal pledge moment’. A moment of ‘significance’ manufactured out of thin air. An insignificant point in time artificially grafted onto the nation’s collective consciousness. 10am – That would have been my preferred time. 10am – The moment that the independence of Singapore was proclaimed on the steps of the City Hall. Wouldn’t that be more significant? Wouldn’t we at least have a greater historical sense of what we were doing when we took the pledge? Wouldn’t it be emotionally significant to those old enough to recall where they were and how they felt at the precise moment of independence? As with the general plasticity of many things in Singapore, the 8.22pm moment was just another plastic moment. Well, it doesn’t really matter in the end what time the pledge was taken. The larger question that we should ask is how many of those that took the ...

Big Pharma is at it again. I have long been conerned by their attempts at restricting access to cheaper alternative drugs. Originally, the Trade Related Intellectual Property Agreement provided the pharmaceutical companies with a great deal of bite in the global market through enhanced patent protection. However, thanks to a third world led fight for an exception in the TRIPS Agreement, patented drugs need not be shoved down the throats of needy patients in countries where they can't afford the drugs. They can obtain cheaper alternatives. This exception applies when there is a public health emergency. Therefore, given H1N1's status as a pandemic, the public health emergency exception should now apply to TAMIFLU. But, would patients be able to get their hands on cheaper alternatives? Seems like the World Health Organisation is serving Big Pharma's interest right now. The following article from The Independent is instructive: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/comm...

He peered into the bin exploring the day’s possibilities. At 71, Mr Lim is active enough to support himself. After all, life is a constant barter trade of drink cans for his daily bread. Like all good businessmen, he has learned the art of cost-cutting: home is now a choice of 4 void decks and the wet market thankfully offers a 20cents per entry toilet. Staring at him from the bin was a kickapoo can; not as common as Coke or Pepsi these days. He used to enjoy it almost every day at the shipyard. Those days are still fresh in his eyes. He watched the port speed its way to become the busiest of them all. His best friend Ramu used to joke, “we carry the whole of Singapore on our shoulders”. Ramu was a proud man. Diabetes took away one of his legs and he used to sell lottery tickets at waterloo street until two years ago. Lim heard that nobody claimed Ramu’s body. ‘What happens to unclaimed corpses at the mortuary’, he wondered. His prolonged gaze at the kickapoo can was broken b...