Kiwiblog

Fran O’Sullivan facebooks:

Just a note to say that Owen McShane died suddenly today. He had a major heart operation a year or so ago. Was a contributor to NBR in recent years but long time commentator on Auckland planning issues and RMA.

Owen contributed a huge amount to public policy in New Zealand ranging from being a commentator here at one end of the scale to having done a ministerial reviews of the RMA. He was a wealth of knowledge on planning issues, and a consistent voice for less regulation and centralised control.

He was a fine New Zealander, and will be missed my many,

My thoughts go out to his family and close friends.

AP report at Stuff:

Whitney Houston, who ruled as pop music’s queen until her majestic voice and regal image were ravaged by drug use, erratic behaviour and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, has died. She was 48.

Beverly Hills police Lt. Mark Rosen told KABC-TV that Houston was pronounced dead at 3:55 pm in her room on the fourth floor of the Beverly Hilton. Her body remained in the hotel and Beverly Hills detectives were investigating.

Houston’s publicist, Kristen Foster, said Saturday that the cause of her death was unknown.

I loved her music. What a huge loss to the music world.

It is very rare for a 48 year old woman to drop dead of natural causes, so sadly it will probably transpire it was an avoidable death.

Lloyd Morrison has died following a prolonged battle against leukaemia. He was aged only 54.

He was one of Wellington’s finest. At the age of 30 he set up Infratil, and it has become a major infrastructure company.

He also led the campaign to change the NZ flag, and helped bail out the Phoenix.

Lloyd was also a big supporter of the arts – setting up a musical trust and has served as a director of the NZSO and trustee of Chamber Music NZ Foundation.

He has been given so many awards for business leadership, I won’t even name them. Suffice to say he was a brilliant businessman, and a passionate New Zealander and Wellingtonian who did much for his country and city.

My condolences to his family, and closest friends.

Stuff reports:

Energy specialist and renewable energy advocate Barrie Leay will be sorely missed says Windflow Technology chief executive Geoff Henderson. …

Henderson said Leay brought a wealth of New Zealand energy experience and international contacts to the company through his prior roles as executive director of the Electricity Supply Association of New Zealand and chairman of the APEC Energy Business Network in the Asia Pacific.

Barrie Leay was also the National Party’s General Secretary for much of the 1970s and 1980s. His nickname was Buddha, I recall.

Barrie’s tenure was in the golden years of Sir George Chapman, and also Sue Wood. He was a powerful figure. His successors have tended to be fairly apolitical, but Barrie was very political, and hence somewhat controversial.

I joined the party around the time he retired, However I had a wee bit to do with him through the National Political Centre, which was a  internal policy thinktank. He was indeed an expert on energy policy and issues.

Barrie devoted a large part of his life to the National Party. May he rest in peace.

Stuff report:

Wellington street personality Ben Hana, more commonly known as “Blanket Man”, has died.

Hana, 54, died in Wellington Hospital at 3.35pm today, a Capital and Coast District Health Board spokeswoman confirmed.

Authorities had become increasingly concerned about his health in the past few weeks.

It was not known what he died from. However, he was suffering medical problems stemming from heavy alcohol use and malnutrition, lawyer Maxine Dixon said.

Many Wellingtonians had a soft spot for Blanket Man, and he did become an unofficial icon. However he was also a serial pest to some shop keepers, and to female passer-bys from time to time.

I recall there was once a Facebook group called something like “I’ve seen Blanket Man’s penis” and there were several thousand members of it. His public page had 25,500 fans, which is a lot.

If I recall, Hana was a successful forestry worker, married with four children. A number of traumatic personal events including a drink driving death led to his downward spiral. For all the fun associated with Blanket Man, he was in fact a very sad and tragic figure.  May he rest in peace now.

This death is truly one to be mourned.

Havel died aged 75.  He was one of the most inspiring freedom fighters of our generation. He fought communist rule of his country for 20 years and then in 1989 became the last President of Czechoslovakia, later serving as President of the Czech Republic and seeing it enter the EU.

When one thinks of the term that the pen is mightier than the sword, I often think of Havel.

The Herald reports:

Kim Jong Il, the mercurial and enigmatic North Korean leader whose iron rule and nuclear ambitions dominated world security fears for more than a decade, has died. He was 69.

Kim’s death 17 years after he inherited power from his father was announced today by the state television from the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. The country’s “Dear Leader” reputed to have had a taste for cigars, cognac and gourmet cuisine was believed to have had diabetes and heart disease.

I always felt a bit sorry for him. His father was the truly evil despotic one who imposed his barbaric rule on North Korea. The son never had any chance being raised by such a father, to be any different.

North Korea has been grooming Kim’s third son to take over power from his father in the impoverished nation that celebrates the ruling family with an intense cult of personality.

That would be Kim Jong-un. He spent a few years attending school in Switzerland so may turn out to be slightly more benign that his father and grandfather.

AP report:

Cancer weakened, but did not soften Christopher Hitchens. He did not repent or forgive or ask for pity. As if granted diplomatic immunity, his mind’s eye looked plainly upon the attack and counterattack of disease and treatments that robbed him of his hair, his stamina, his speaking voice and eventually his life.

“I love the imagery of struggle,” he wrote about his illness in an August 2010 essay in Vanity Fair. “I sometimes wish I were suffering in a good cause, or risking my life for the good of others, instead of just being a gravely endangered patient.”

Hitchens, a Washington, D.C.-based author, essayist and polemicist who waged verbal and occasional physical battle on behalf of causes left and right, died Thursday night at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston of pneumonia, a complication of his esophageal cancer, according to a statement from Vanity Fair magazine. He was 62.

“There will never be another like Christopher. A man of ferocious intellect, who was as vibrant on the page as he was at the bar,” said Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter. “Those who read him felt they knew him, and those who knew him were profoundly fortunate souls.”

A huge loss of such a wonderful writer.

An emphatic ally and inspired foe, he stood by friends in trouble (“Satanic Verses” novelist Salman Rushdie) and against enemies in power (Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini). His heroes included George Orwell, Thomas Paine and Gore Vidal (pre-Sept. 11). Among those on the Hitchens list of shame: Michael Moore, Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong il, Sarah Palin, Gore Vidal (post Sept. 11) and Prince Charles.

“We have known for a long time that Prince Charles’ empty sails are so rigged as to be swelled by any passing waft or breeze of crankiness and cant,” Hitchens wrote in Slate in 2010 after the heir to the British throne gave a speech criticizing Galileo for the scientist’s focus on “the material aspect of reality.”

Out future King he’s talking about!

The Herald reports:

Wellington Police investigating a serious assault in Boulcott Street early yesterday morning have upgraded it to a homicide investigation.

The 43 year old male victim, believed to be Phillip Alexander Cottrell from Radio New Zealand, died in Wellington Hospital a short time ago.

Detective Senior Sergeant Scott Miller of the Wellington CIB says the victim suffered the fatal injuries between 5:30am and 6:15am yesterday morning, as he walked home from work on The Terrace.

“As the victim got halfway down Boulcott Street outside the Baptist Church it appears an altercation has taken place and as a result the victim received fatal injuries.”

I used to work on Boulcott Street, and it is not an area I would have ever thought would have a homicide occur.

My thoughts go out to his colleagues at Radio NZ, and family and friends.

From the sound of it this was not pre-meditated, but a situational killing. Those sort of killings strike fear in many of us – it could happen to anyone. I hope the Police find his killer.

The MP for Tamaki, Allan Peachey, died on Saturday. It was no secret he had cancer, but few knew it was this advanced.

Allan was a top class educationalist and if his health had been better, may have had the opportunity to be a top class Minister of Education. Education was his passion.

My thoughts go out to his family especially, but also his close friends and colleagues.

The last MP to die, while an MP, was Rod Donald in 2005 I think. I’m not sure who was the last one before that.

Incidentally if Allan had been contesting Tamaki again, his death would mean that voters in Tamaki would get a party vote only at the general election, and a by-election would be held, probably in December.

I was greatly saddened to receive the news that morning that Roger Kerr had died, inevitably losing his battle against cancer. My thoughts go out to Catherine, Nick and the rest of his family.

I first met Roger around 20 years ago, when we invited him to speak to a Young Nats conference. He always accepted our invitations, and through his leadership the Roundtable always took a keen interest in getting young people interested in public policy.

I’ve had a lot to do with Roger and the Roundtable over the years, and regarded him as a friend. He was a nice guy whom I never knew to get abusive or nasty about anyone – even those who demonised him. For him, it was all about policy, not personalities. And his intellect was astonishing. He could debate any issue to great detail, and was a walking library of references.

Roger had a great love of New Zealand. I have no doubt he could have earnt much more money if he had not devoted the last 25 years to establishing and growing the Business Roundtable. While of course his views were controversial and often unpopular, Roger was only motivated by a genuine desire and belief that they would make New Zealand a better place. Please note that this thread is not for people to debate whether or not they agree with those views.

An issue which I knew Roger had strong views on was the decision to abolish the youth minimum wage in 2008, as it priced young people out of the jobs market. He wrote on it often, as did Eric Crampton, myself and others. I’m not sure if he was aware of it, but am glad he was still alive on Friday when National announced their policy to partially reverse the changes made in 2008. One final victory for Roger. Of course Roger would have pointed out that in typical fashion National did a compromise, rather than a full reversal.

I will miss Roger very much. Farewell.

UPDATE: Richard Harman has put this out:

On April 16 Sean Plunket did a long interview with Roger Kerr. Roger knew then he was dying. Bue he faced Sean the same way he confrtonted his disease, with boldness and good humour. The interview was intended to be something he could leave behind which would set out his own life story and his core beliefs and hopes. I am sending it out again, as a tribute to a man who believed passionately in debate and who was  never afraid  to stand up in the media to argue his case.His death is a great loss to us in the media and to anybody who believes in the importance of a well reasoned discussion on public policy. 

The PM has also said:

“Roger made a significant contribution to New Zealand business, public policy and the wider economy over several decades,” says Mr Key.

“He was a man of integrity and energy, who was not afraid to debate important issues passionately and often controversially.  But he did it calmly and focused on the issues at hand, rather than making the debates personal.

AP reports:

Muammar Gaddafi, Libya’s dictator for 42 years until he was ousted in an uprising-turned-civil war, was killed Thursday (overnight NZ time) as revolutionary fighters overwhelmed his hometown of Sirte and captured the last major bastion of resistance two months after his regime fell.

Interim government officials said one of Gaddafi’s sons, his former national security adviser Muatassim, was also killed in Sirte and another, one-time heir apparent Seif al-Islam, was wounded and captured.

His death was probably inevitable, once he refused to flee into exile. It seems he was captured alive, and he should have been put on trial, but there are conflicting stories of whether he died from wounds or was executed.

Gaddafi did many evil things in his life. However it did seem for a while that he had become a more benign dictator when he stopped funding terrorism. However his response to peaceful protests showed that the leopard hasn’t changed his spots.

Families of victims killed in the Libyan bombing of a PanAm jet over Scotland in 1988 said justice was served with Gaddafi’s death.

PanAm flight 103 exploded as it flew to New York from London on December 21, 1988. All 259 people aboard the aircraft were killed and 11 others on the ground in Lockerbie also died from falling wreckage.

“I hope he’s in hell with Hitler,” said Kathy Tedeschi, whose first husband, Bill Daniels, was among the people killed in the bombing. “I just can’t stop crying, I am so thrilled.”

“I am sure (Gaddafi) was the one who pushed to have this done, the bombing,” said Tedeschi, 62, whose three children were aged 10, 7 and 2 when their father was killed.

Now that the Libyan Civil War is effectively over, the question is who is next?

This is belated as I have been travelling, but I have to mark the premature death of this great man.

Wired.com has one of the extensive biographies. Some extracts:

Steven Paul Jobs, 56, died Wednesday at his home with his family. The co-founder and, until last August, CEO of Apple Inc was the most celebrated person in technology and business on the planet. No one will take issue with the official Apple statement that “The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.”  …

His accomplishments were unmatched. People who can claim credit for game-changing products — iconic inventions that become embedded in the culture and answers to Jeopardy questions decades later — are few and far between. But Jobs has had not one, not two, but six of these breakthroughs, any one of which would have made for a magnificent career. In order: the Apple II, the Macintosh, the movie studio Pixar, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad.

My first computer was an Apple IIe. And I was the last person in Parliament to have a Macintosh as my work computer.

After his call to Packard, Jobs worked at HP as a teenager. He later had a job at Atari, when the video-game company was just getting started. Yet he did not see the field as something that would satisfy his artistic urges. “Electronics was something I could always fall back on when I needed food on the table,” he once told me.

That changed when Steve Jobs saw what a high-school friend, Steve Wozniak, was doing. Wozniak was a member of the Homebrew Computer Club, a collection of Valley engineers and hangers-on who were thrilled at the prospect of personal computers, which had just become possible with the advent of low-cost chips and electronics. “Woz” was among several of the group who designing their own, but he had no desire to commercialize his project, even though it was groundbreaking in simplicity and also was one of the first to include color graphics.

I met Steve Wozniak when he came over to Wellington as a guest of the Wellington Apple Users Group, which he was patron of. One of WAUG’s co-founders was a school mate of mine, Grant Collison. Grant was in the 4th form when he helped form it, and off memory was the one who cheekily invited Woz to be the patron, and all were impressed when he accepted.

I have many fond memories of Grant’s massive collection of 5.25″ discs with various games and software. He was our generation’s version of Bit Torrent

In October 2001, Apple introduced a music player, the iPod. It broke ground as the first successful pocket-size digital music player. Because Jobs had a tremendous ability to locate and hire brilliant talent, his team produced it in less than a year. The process is indicative of the way Apple ran. Though Jobs could be overwhelming in pushing his point, he understood that ultimately, his products would not work if their best ideas were discarded. In the case of the iPod, hardware designer Tony Fadell knew how to get his best prototype approved by Jobs — he showed his boss three different designs, with one clearly superior, to give Jobs a chance to berate two efforts before saying, “That’s more like it!” with the last.

Sometimes, Jobs would dig in and only back down when the marketplace spoke. Again, the iPod was an example. Originally, he felt that the iPod should only work with Macintosh’s computers. But its instant popularity led him to agree with some of his employees who had been arguing for a Windows version. When iPod became available to the entire population, it really took off. Apple has sold over 300 million iPods.

Thanks Steve for my Apple IIe, for my many Macs, for my iPod and my iPad.

As most will have heard, Allan Hubbard died in a car crash yesterday. Thoughts go out to his family and friends.

The troubles of the last few years are well known. Hopefully he will be remembered for his decades of business success and extensive generosity, rather than his more recent mistakes. A lot of people owe him a lot.

This week saw the death of the Jack Layton, the Leader of the Opposition in Canada. He died from cancer after taking leave on 28 July from his duties.

Layton was Leader of the left wing New Democratic Party since 2003. In 2000 they won just 13 seats out of 301 with 9% of the popular vote. Layton in 2004 lifted the vote to 16% and 19 seats. In 2006 the vote went up marginally to 17% but the seats to 29 as the Liberals got thrown out.

The 2008 election saw further gains with the popular vote at 18% and seats to 37. Then just over three months ago a landmark election saw the Liberals (the natural party of Government for most of the last 100 years) fall to third place and the NDP soar to 31% of the vote and 103 out of 308 seats.

If he had lived, Layton may have become Prime Minister one day. He has always been a popular politician, beyond the support for the NDP.

The political ramifications of his death will take some time to become apparent. Canadian parties take months to elect a new leader, sometimes over a year. So the Liberal Party has no permanent leader yet and now neither does the NDP. The interim leader is 68 years old and is unlikely to become the permanent leader.

This means that PM Steven Harper will have no strong opposition until at least 2012. It also means that the Liberals may have a chance to regain support from the NDP, if the new leader doesn’t fire.

Very sad news filtered through last night about the death of an SAS solider in Afghanistan. He is the fourth NZ or NZ born solider to die in Afghanistan in the last year, but the first from the SAS.

Thoughts and condolences to his family, comrades and friends.

Sir Paul Reeves has died aged 78. His appointment as Governor-General was somewhat controversial, but he performed the role with warmth and dignity.

My condolences go out to his family.

The HoS reports:

Amy Winehouse, the beehived soul-jazz diva whose self-destructive habits overshadowed a distinctive musical talent, has been found dead on Saturday in her London home, police said.

It’s very sad but when I read the headline I wasn’t surprised at all. It’s a useful reminder that just being rich, professionally successful and famous is not guarantee of happiness.

Was sad to receive the news that Brian Dooley had died, aged 79.

WHen I discovered the Internet, I also discovered Usenet newsgroups, and from 1996 to 2003 spent many an hour debating politics, society and well just about everything in nz.general, nz.politics and soc.culture.new-zealand. I met and made many good friends through Usenet.

Brian was one of the regular posters on the nz.* groups up until this  year. I’ve not beeen on Usenet for many years but have fond memories of debating Brian, and even met him a couple of times at meet-ups. He has an acerbic wit which I appreciated, even if it was directed at me occasionally.

My condolences to his family and close friends.

AP reports:

Randy “Macho Man” Savage, the professional wrestler known for his raspy voice and the sunglasses and bandanas he wore in the ring and the young woman named Miss Elizabeth who often accompanied him, died in a car crash Friday in Florida. He was 58.

He was one of the great baddies.

Mike Crean in The Press reports:

Maurice Carter, who became a leading Christchurch builder, property developer, local government politician and philanthropist, died yesterday. He was 93.

The quiet, modest Carter has been described as “a city father” and his family as “a political dynasty”.

As founder and head of the Carter Group, he built hundreds of houses in the 1950s and 60s, many of them in Bryndwr and Burnside.

His ethic of hard work and perfectionism was so evident in his buildings that real estate firms still use the label “Maurice Carter home” as a recommendation in their advertising.

Carter was a city councillor from 1956 to 1989 and deputy mayor for the last six of those years. He was then a Canterbury regional councillor for six years, having sat also on the former Christchurch Drainage Board, Regional Planning Authority and Canterbury United Council.

Son Philip and grandson Tim have followed him on to the city council. Another son, David, is Minister of Agriculture.

Born in Bradford, Yorkshire, Carter did a carpentry apprenticeship before coming to New Zealand in 1938.

A lifetime of hard work saw him go from a carpentry apprenticeship to his own building empire. An inspirational story.

Belinda McCammon at Stuff reports:

The husband of former National Party President Judy Kirk has been killed in a hunting accident on his Taupo farm this morning. …

Prime Minister John Key said he was “shocked and saddened” by Mr Kirk’s death.

“I have known Roger as long as I have known Judy, and counted him as a friend.

“Along with Judy, he was a good friend of the National Party. 

“I would like to express my deepest condolences to Roger’s family, friends and colleagues at this time.”

Roger Kirk’s step-daughter, Anna Kirk, is a councillor on the Taupo Council.

Taupo mayor, Rick Cooper, told Stuff he had spoken with Anna about her step-father’s death this afternoon.

”My heart goes out to Anna and Judy, she lost her dad last week as well so this is a double-whammy.

Words can’t express the depth and breadth of the sorrow of this tragic news. Roger was one of life’s wonderful people, and his death is a loss to everyone who knew him, but an absolute tragedy to his family.

There were lots of Nats at Parliament tonight, for Jami-Lee’s maiden speech, and everyone was stunned by Roger’s death.

My thoughts and love go out to Anna and Judy. We mourn their loss.

The Herald reports:

The New Zealand solider killed in a vehicle crash in Afghanistan has been named.

Private Kirifi Mila, 27, died when the Humvee vehicle he was in rolled down a steep 30m cliff in Afghanistan’s north east Bamyan province. Three other soldiers were injured in the crash.

The incident happened about midday local time on Tuesday (9pm NZT) while the soldiers were on a routine patrol near Ferosak village, 14km east of their base in Bamiyan.

Private Mila – also known as Cliff – was born in Western Samoa and joined the New Zealand Army in 2006. He was deployed to Afghanistan last year as part of the 2nd 1st Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment based in Burnham Military Camp.

He had been due to return to New Zealand in April.

A very sad accident, not caused by combat – but still while on active service. Condolences to his family, colleagues and friends.

Incredibly saddened to hear yesterday of the death of Denis Dutton. I’d been fortunate enough to meet Denis on a few occassions, through mutual conferences we attended. He was a wonderfully clear thinker, and a a real gentleman.

His family and close friends suffer the biggest loss, but many New Zealanders will miss his presence amongst us.

News has just broken of a second explosion at the mine.

It is now inevitable that there were no survivors of the Pike River explosion. It had already become quite clear none of the 29 survived the initial blast – this will eventually be confirmed by pathologists.

For now we mourn New Zealand’s worst disaster since Erebus 31 years ago.

Rest in peace:

1. Conrad John Adams, 43, Greymouth
2. Malcolm Campbell, 25, Greymouth (Scottish)
3. Glen Peter Cruse, 35, Cobden
4. Allan John Dixon, 59, Runanga
5. Zen Wodin Drew, 21, Greymouth
6. Christopher Peter Duggan, 31, Greymouth
7. Joseph Ray Dunbar, 17, Greymouth
8. John Leonard Hale, 45, Ruatapu
9. Daniel Thomas Herk, 36, Runanga
10. David Mark Hoggart, 33, Greymouth
11. Richard Bennett Holling, 41, Blackball
12. Andrew David Hurren, 32, Hokitika
13. Jacobus (Koos) Albertus Jonker, 47, Cobden (South Africa)
14. William John Joynson, 49, Dunollie Australia
15. Riki Steve Keane, 28, Greymouth.
16. Terry David Kitchin, 41, Runanga
17. Samuel Peter Mackie, 26, Greymouth
18. Francis Skiddy Marden, 41, Runanga
19. Michael Nolan Hanmer Monk, 23, Greymouth
20. Stuart Gilbert Mudge, 31, Runanga.
21. Kane Barry Nieper, 33, Greymouth
22. Peter O’Neill, 55, Runanga
23. Milton John Osborne, 54, Ngahere
24. Brendan John Palmer, 27, Cobden
25. Benjamin David Rockhouse, 21, Greymouth
26. Peter James Rodger, 40, Greymouth (British)
27. Blair David Sims, 28, Greymouth
28. Joshua Adam Ufer, 25, Australia
29. Keith Thomas Valli, 62, Winton.

The graphic is from the NZ Herald site. if you go there, you can click on each photo to read details of each of the deceased.

All my thoughts are with families and friends of the dead, and the entire West Coast community. Those of us from outside can only try and imagine what this must be like.

Incidentally the second explosion should be a lesson to the self appointed experts demanding people rush in. If they had been in charge, there could be many more dead.