upton-on-line
2001 archive
Upton-on-line notes french reaction to the slaying of Sir Peter
Blake, gives a glimpse of how one young diasporan, Hamish Coop,
thinks about New Zealand from afar and describes the sorry tale of an
aborted submarine expedition of Lake
Taupo by the Institute of Geological & Nuclear Science...(13 December
2001)
Special antiquarian number
Upton-on-line reflects on swearing fealty to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth
II as a member of Her Majesty's Privy
Council...(22 November 2001)
In this issue… what one prominent Australian politician, retiring Victorian
State MP, Mark Birrell has to say about the state of the Trans-Tasman
relationship, some fresh headaches for the nuclear industry and
some seriously sensible commentary on
Maori Knowledge from Tahu Potiki...(8 November 2001)
Upton-on-line reflects on the sudden rash of musings by Islamic
experts in the media, reports direct from the chalk face of contemporary
French education, and passes on some mouth watering details of
just some of the goodies that French political trotters can hope
to dredge from the political trough. But
first, the leadership change in New Zealand's National Party...(11
October 2001)
Upton-on-line reports on some of the ripples the
terrorist attacks in the US have created on his side of the Atlantic.
(20 September 2001)
It is the end of the summer holiday season in France. Holidays have
been going on more or less since May when a rash of public holidays
prepare people for the tidal wave of closures and reduced services that
finally bring life to a standstill in August. Having battled the indolence
manfully through to mid-month, upton-on-line finally succumbed and slunk
off to the Celtic extremities of Finisterre. Apart from finally seeing
off Ian Kershaw’s vast two volume, 2000 page exegesis on the
life of Hitler, weighty thought has been suspended. Hence this
brief edition – a summer ‘filler’ for those
with time to waste...(30 August 2001)
In this issue…upton-on-line takes a deep breath and tries to say something
non-anaesthetic about the recently released report of the Royal Commission
on Genetic Modification. But in case some readers feel their eyes
glazing over at its mention, he offers two quick cameos as an
intellectual anaesthetic (much in
the way NZ newspaper editors do with their animal stories on page one…)
(9 August 2001)
Upton-on-line opines on the significance of the Kyoto Protocol
in its latest incarnation and muses on whether Italian
entrepreneurs in San Gimigniano would survive the Resource Management
Act... (26 July 2001)
In this edition, which is mercifully short, upton-on-line reflects
on France’s glossiest new toy, the recently inaugurated TGV service
to Marseilles, some broader mobility
issues and fresh torments for Premier Lionel Jospin...(28 June 2001)
How the French spend their holiday weekends, a new sub-plot
in the long-running Opéra de Chirac and related
scandals; and some (far too lengthy) ruminations on the report of the
National Party’s Constitutional Taskforce (not exactly a triumph),
Maori Representation in Parliament and Simon
Schama on British history... (7 June 2001)
Special Sustainable Development Edition
This is the edition many readers will have been dreading. An
entire issue devoted to Sustainable Development. But it is the issue
upton-on-line grapples with by day at the OECD. And this is the
week in which Finance & Environment Ministers from OECD countries
(including our own Jim Sutton and Pete Hodgson) gather
in Paris to the review the results of three
years' study of the issues by the OECD...(16 May 2001)
We consider the completely different way in which political drama
is played out in France, the way in which bi-lateral relations
are nurtured by countries with a serious approach to foreign relations,
and agriculture as culture – the
ingenious multi-functionality argument for agricultural subsidies...(26
April 2001)
Some reflections on New Zealand tourism
(with all the benefit of distance), climate
change (political rather than meteorological) and proportional
representation with style - the
French way… (5th April 2001)
Direct from Paris' 6th Arrondissement comes the first edition of upton-on-line
for 2001. Upton-on-line has been off-line for two months now trying
to furnish an unfurnished apartment (which in France means supplying
everything from curtain tracks to light bulbs), doing battle with France
Telecom (an agency devoted single-mindedly to causing maximum customer
despair) and explaining to the children that their tantrums are exquisitely
audible for the lucky folks above and below us in the building. All
in all, very character building... (March 15, 2001)
Final Edition from the Motherland
A hectic round of loose end tying brings upton-on-line to the end of
2000 and the last edition from the motherland. 42 years on the same
farm (that's all of them by the way), 17 years in the same house and
19 years of political detritus accumulating in box files and folders
in Parliament is a lot of dead weight to throw overboard. And upton-on-line
is an inveterate hoarder. But the 6th arrondissement beckons. (15 December 2000)
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