TOKYO -- "The wound is the place where the light enters you." These words of the 13th century Persian poet Rumi sang in my head as I examined a simple, ceramic bowl in a tiny cafe in a western suburb of Tokyo. The bowl had been elevated to a luminous, compelling objet d'art, by the gold-filled cobweb of cracks snaking across it.
Light had indeed entered this bowl along the lines where it had once shattered, thanks to the particular Japanese art of repairing ceramics called kintsugi. The technique uses the sap of the urushi tree, a powerful natural adhesive, mixed with powdered gold.
Unlike other methods of repair like welding or gluing, kintsugi's power lies in its refusal to disguise the brokenness of an object. It does not aim to make what is broken as good as new, but to use the cracks to transform the object into something different, and arguably even more valuable.
Kunio Nakamura demonstrates the kintsugi technique. (Photo by Pallavi Aiyar)Kintsugi (kin means gold and tsugi means to join) is not just a practical craft, although it undoubtedly prolongs the utility of things. It is also a philosophy that speaks to the human condition. As with much of Japanese aesthetics it is steeped in philosophical concepts rooted in Zen Buddhism.
One of these is wabi-sabi, an aesthetic ideal that emerged in the 15th century as a reaction to the contemporary preference for ornate designs and rich materials.
Foreign Minister Murray McCully today announced the appointment of diplomat Michael Burrell as High Commissioner to South Africa.
"New Zealand is placing increasing priority on our relations with Africa," Mr McCully says.
"Our relationship with South Africa is based on our shared Commonwealth history, respect for democracy, strong links between our people, and close sporting ties.
“We are also continuing to grow our trade and investment links, and a significant aspect of the High Commissioner’s role is to support New Zealand business develop export markets in South Africa.”
Mr Burrell is currently the Director Sustainable Economic Development at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and before that was CEO of Aquaculture New Zealand.
Mr Burrell will also be accredited to Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Lesotho, Angola, Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania.
Deputy Prime Minister Bill English will lead New Zealand's Ministerial delegation to the annual Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF) in Sydney tomorrow.
Mr English will be accompanied by Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce, Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy, Trade Minister Todd McClay, Customs Minister Nicky Wagner, and Commerce Minister Paul Goldsmith.
“The Forum brings together over 200 chief executives from the largest trans-Tasman companies to engage with both Governments on initiatives to strengthen our $24 billion trade and economic relationship,” Mr English says.
“Seventy five per cent of New Zealand exporters generate income in Australia, so it is vital that we keep the trans-Tasman economy energised.”
Separate to the ANZLF, Mr English will hold talks with Australian Treasurer, Scott Morrison, while Ministers from both sides of the Tasman will meet to discuss new initiatives to reinvigorate the Single Economic Market agenda.
“We are continuing to build a seamless trans-Tasman market so that it is as easy for New Zealand businesses to operate in Sydney as it is in Auckland,” Mr English says.
During the Forum Mr English and Mr Morrison will launch the Australia New Zealand Infrastructure Pipeline (ANZIP), which is designed to provide greater transparency to our construction sector, as well as global investors, to better identify infrastructure opportunities on both sides of the Tasman.
Foreign Minister Murray McCully has appointed diplomat Lyndal Walker as New Zealand’s new Ambassador to the Netherlands, to be based in The Hague.
“The Netherlands is an important partner for New Zealand in Europe and The Hague is the seat of multilateral institutions like the International Court of Justice,” Mr McCully says.
“The Netherlands is our fifth largest trading partner in the European Union, and is a strong source of foreign investment into New Zealand.
“In addition to these economic ties, more than 25,000 Dutch tourists visit New Zealand annually and over 150,000 people of Dutch descent now live in New Zealand,” Mr McCully says.
Ms Walker is currently the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Consular Division and has served as Counsellor and Consul General in Washington DC. Ms Walker will also be accredited to Denmark, Finland, and Norway, and manage New Zealand’s relationship with the International Court of Justice and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce has today announced that the New Zealand Research Institute of Viticulture and Oenology (NZRIVO) has been selected to become the first new Regional Research Institute.
“The NZRIVO, which will be based in Marlborough, will undertake new research activity and collaborate with other domestic and international research institutions to support the growth and continuing success of New Zealand’s wine and viticulture industry,” says Mr Joyce.
The Government will provide funding of $12.5 million over four years for the new institute with additional funding from industry, and it will operate as a private, independently governed organisation.
“In its proposal to establish the NZRIVO as a Regional Research Institute, New Zealand Winegrowers and its partners made a strong business case demonstrating ongoing financial sustainability beyond initial government support,” says Mr Joyce.
“The new wine research institute will support innovation in Marlborough and bring jobs to the region, will work to grow industry R&D intensity across the country, and assist related organisations to make the most of their unique business, technology, and economic growth opportunities.
“I look forward to seeing the results from this new institute benefit the Marlborough region and local and national players in the grape growing and wine making industries.”
Regional Research Institutes were announced in Budget 2015. In Budget 2016, the Government set aside $40 million of additional funds to support this initiative, bringing the total funding available to $65 million. The institutes are designed to encourage industry research and development and innovation in regional New Zealand.
In addition to the NZRIVO institute, there are currently two shortlisted proposals in final stages of business case development:
Applications for the second funding round for Regional Research Institutes will open in early November.
Reaching for the moon with NASA - A Victoria University of Wellington PhD graduand is investigating what new information can be gained about moonquakes during his postdoctoral fellowship at NASA.
Jesse-Lee Dimech, who is completing his PhD in Geophysics at Victoria, says seismic energy is useful for looking inside planets.
“Using the energy from earthquakes, or in this case, moonquakes, we can gain insight into the composition and structure of the Moon.”
Between 1969 and 1972, five of the Apollo missions successfully placed seismometers at landing sites on the Moon, which recorded ground motion and radioed this information back to Earth. Contained in this dataset are more than 13,000 moonquakes that were recorded up until 1977.
“I’m working on categorising and detecting moonquakes using the Apollo seismic dataset, as well as some extra datasets not previously used for this purpose. This particular work is being done in collaboration with Dr Renee Weber, my advisor at NASA, and Dr Brigitte Knapmeyer-Endrun, a scientist at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research.
“It's a great opportunity to work with some of the world's top planetary seismologists. By applying new seismic analysis techniques we may be able to learn new information about the Moon—even from such an old dataset,” says Mr Dimech.
One of those new techniques is shear wave splitting analysis, a key research interest of Professor Martha Savage from Victoria’s School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, who has collaborated with Mr Dimech to undertake the first shear wave splitting analysis off Earth.
“When seismic waves travel through layers of rock they split in much the same way light does when it hits a crystal. By measuring how much splitting occurs, we can infer physical properties from the rock, such as stress and fracturing, the presence of fluids, and rock laminations,” says Mr Dimech.
Another technique, developed by Victoria’s Associate Professors Richard Arnold and John Townend, is a statistical method of examining the geometry of the faults responsible for earthquakes.
“I applied this technique in my PhD to earthquakes we found in the upper mantle—the layer beneath the crust—which was able to tell us what type of faults produced them. We will be using a modified version of this code to understand the type of faulting associated with ‘deep’ moonquakes, which are situated about halfway between the Moon’s surface and its core.
“I’m continuing to work with Professor Savage and Associate Professor Arnold while I’m at NASA. New Zealand has some great scientific talent and I’m excited about maintaining these relationships and building new ones.”
Some of the techniques Mr Dimech uses may also be useful in helping NASA learn about the composition of Mars when they land a seismometer there in two years’ time as part of the InSight mission to Mars.
Australian-born Mr Dimech says he has loved space since he was a child, and a postdoctoral role at NASA is the culmination of a lifelong ambition.
“I was actually pen pals with Australia’s first astronaut Andrew Thomas. We exchanged several letters when I was a kid, and I even talked to him on the phone once, as well as fellow astronaut John Glenn who just happened to be in the office at the time. They definitely inspired me. I was also the youngest member of an astronomy club. I’ve always been fascinated by NASA.”
Over 150 people from all over the country with gather at Victoria University of Wellington this week to examine how China’s modernising agricultural sector may impact New Zealand exporters, business relations and trade policies.
The two-day conference, The Rise of Chinese Agriculture, has among its guest speakers 17 international speakers representing Chinese and New Zealand government departments, New Zealand practitioners in China and top international scholars from five countries. The conference is organised by the New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre.
image013.pngVictoria University International Relations Senior Lecturer and Research Fellow at the China Centre, Dr Jason Young, says China’s agriculture and food sector is in a period of “profound transformation” as it shifts from small-scale family plots to large industrial and commercial agriculture activities.
“The transformation is driven by the Chinese government’s focus on agricultural modernisation, greater use of science and technology, and improved food regulation and safety, as well as a growing demand from consumers for high quality food products.”
Dr Young, who will present at the conference, says the modernisation of China’s agriculture creates opportunities for New Zealand food exporters but could also generate new competition and regulatory requirements.
“New Zealand food exporters need to understand what these policy changes may look like so they can be prepared for them, and also be in a good position to make the most of new opportunities.
For example, Chinese agribusinesses are increasingly looking overseas for international partnerships. At the conference, we’ll discuss the potential opportunities, as well as the motivations for Chinese companies seeking investment opportunities in New Zealand or with New Zealand companies in China.”
New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre chair and conference organiser, Tony Browne says the conference will be “New Zealand’s most comprehensive analysis of China’s food and agricultural policies and market characteristics”.
“We have an incredible line up of speakers, including representatives from China’s Ministry of Agriculture, international policy and strategy advisors, plus leading international experts across agricultural policy, economics, international trade and investment and Chinese economic reform. This conference will be very helpful in gaining a better understanding of the challenges and changes ahead.”
Visit the conference webpage for more information on the conference including the programme, list of speakers and registration details.
Australia's beleaguered farmers are poised to unlock vast new export markets as producers, peak bodies and both sides of politics prepare to bury their differences to sell products into China under a "one brand, one logo" approach for the first time.
The new strategy – under wording and a trade symbol designed for maximum Chinese impact – would pitch Australia in a head-to-head race against the gold-standard in export marketing, "100% Pure New Zealand".
'Grey market' exports of vitamins and baby formula to China brought in $1.3b in revenue last year. The breakthrough, facilitated by the recent free trade agreement, would have all Australian food products including beef, vegetables, cheese, wine and high-end condiments predominantly branded as Australian ahead of their individual branding, while also certifying them as clean, green and safe.
The proposed high-tech, high-visibility labelling would also be designed to be counterfeit-proof and to allow China's increasingly safety and quality-conscious consumers – in a country where the middle class is projected to grow by 350 million people over the next four years – to trace the origins of individual products back to a specific animal or producer.
Pacific Aerospace along with its Chinese joint-venture will announce further plans to grow China’s general aviation sector at the upcoming aviation spectacular Airshow China, just days after opening a big custom-built aircraft manufacturing plant at Changzhou.
The opening of the 10-hectare facility at Changzhou airport on October 21, attended by several hundred Chinese and New Zealand businesspeople, joint venture leaders and Chinese and New Zealand government officials and plant workers, celebrated the company’s first aircraft, a reassembled P-750 XSTOL, to roll out through the new facilities. The P-750 XSTOL is the world’s most versatile utility aircraft, pioneered in New Zealand.
The aircraft, registration number XL204, was flown immediately after the plant opening to Zhuhai in Guangdong, where it will participate from November 1-6 in the China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition, also known as Airshow China, the largest aviation event in mainland China.
Pacific Aerospace and joint venture chief executive, New Zealander Damian Camp said the new company would announce at the Zhuhai airshow at least two major initiatives to spur general aviation sector development in China, as well as showcasing the P-750 aircraft in “a significant demonstration that we are in this market and serious about it”.
“This intensive eight-day programme, Te Tira Toi Whakangao, is part of the Government’s push for more export growth and high-value jobs for Māori,” Māori Development Minister Te Ururoa Flavell says.
“Innovation and technology careers and businesses offer a path to doing that. We need to connect Māori to the best programmes that connect themn to jobs and income growth. Much of this happens at a whanau and community level. But this programme offers it on a global scale which is huge.
“Māori-owned technology is an area with huge growth potential. The start-ups and established technology companies taking part in this visit are already on a growth trajectory, and many have exciting commercial developments coming together.
“The challenge for the delegation, the New Zealand Government and our industry partners is to take this experience and apply this knowledge to benefit other emerging Māori tech start-ups and encourage more rangatahi to enter the tech space, for the benefit of New Zealand.”
The technology companies will be accompanied by leading Māori investors who have assets across a range of sectors, and are looking to learn more about global tech opportunities and where New Zealand businesses fit in.
The programme aims to:
“The US is already our third largest trading partner and there is plenty of opportunity for New Zealand technology companies to expand business partnerships and explore new ones, and leverage US knowledge networks to learn more about the global technology landscape.”
The programme will run from 30 October – 8 November and has been organised by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise with support from Ernst Young’s Māori advisory practice EY Tahi.
Last month, Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce and Māori Development Minister Te Ururoa Flavell opened applications for the Government’s Māori Digital Technology Development Fund, designed to improve and promote pathways for Māori to enter the digital technology sector.
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242