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Fairfax-APN New Zealand Marriage: Vows of a Mature Publishing Couple

No lawful impediment to the union is pending. www.mscnewswire.co.nz Napier, MSCNewsWire, 11 May 2016 – The coast is clear for the marriage of the two New Zealand subsidiaries of Australian media chains Fairfax and APN. There is no legal impediment remaining to their union. They resemble a duo well past the full flush of youth and on their lips are the words “why didn’t we do this years ago?” Like any couple of, well, mature years entering into wedlock, the duo for some time have sensibly laid the groundwork in assessing their mutual possessions and especially so in terms of the long term care and maintenance of the children, in this case the sprawling gaggle of district newspapers and other such assets. The couple have already, for example, worked out who will claim what in the couple’s sprawling Central Districts region where a medley of jointly owned free and subscriber titles have for so many years jostled together, uneconomically . Now the couple at last can realise value on their joint hard assets. These are the ones that they had to keep funding in order to accommodate these separate families. Things such as offices and plants. At least, the ones they didn’t have to sell and then lease-back. They can sample the honeymoon excitement of the type that even after the long postponement is still full of fun. Looking at the logistics will be one such source of bliss. Will they print in Auckland or Wellington? Christchurch, even? The newspapers are skinny enough nowadays to fill an air freighter. There is the enjoyment of owning your own uninterrupted destiny in the form of knowing that there are no other suitors knocking at the door. So the weekend bulldog editions and Sundays can be printed early and rail freighted across the […]

4 lessons from Bhutan on the pursuit of happiness above GDP

In the picture:Novice monks at the Dechen Phrodrang Buddhist monastery walk down a hillside to have breakfast in Bhutan’s capital Thimphu. Waking to the sound of monks chanting prayers and drumming their gongs during countless traditional pujas, a ceremony of honour, worship and devotion; running up the steep Himalayan mountain slopes under colourful prayer flags hung between trees in the lush natural landscape; looking out at the expanse of forests and mountains that surrounded its capital city, Thimphu. These are the memories that remain imprinted in my memory after two years living in Bhutan – the Himalayan Kingdom best known for its concept of “Gross National Happiness” (GNH). But, what is GNH and are the people of Bhutan really the happiest in the world? GNH as a development philosophy in Bhutan dates back as far as 1972, when the fourth king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, announced that Bhutan would pursue “happiness” in its path towards development, rather than measuring progress merely through growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Revered in Bhutan for his many progressive actions as king, this forward-looking leader recognized that GDP did not take into account the ultimate goal of every human being: happiness. What does the pursuit of happiness really mean? John Lennon sums up the concept, and the tensions behind it, beautifully. He wrote: “When I was five years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.” Naturally, “happiness” is a challenging goal to understand, let alone measure. Yet, since the 1970s, much has been done to move GNH from being […]

May I have your attention, please?

Mindfulness could benefit individuals and organisations and transform the way we live and work, according to a researcher from Singapore Management University. Whenever you need a break at work, instead of checking your social media account, try this instead: STOP, and by that I mean Stop, Take a breath, Observe and Proceed. Stop whatever you are currently doing. Take a conscious breath, or two, or three. Observe how you are feeling at this very moment: are you feeling tense? Energetic? Tired? Think about your intentions for the next hour or day: what needs to be done? And finally, proceed to connect back with the flow of your day. This is a quick, yet powerful mindfulness practice that helps you to realign your attention and focus on the present, says Jochen Reb, associate professor of organisational behaviour and human resources at the Singapore Management University (SMU) Lee Kong Chian School of Business. His research interests lie in the psychological aspects of behavioural decision-making as well as the study of mindfulness at work. According to Professor Reb, mindfulness is defined by present-centred attention and meta-awareness—to be fully in the here and now, moment to moment, and to be aware of it. Mindfulness teaches you to pay attention to your own habits and actions, some of which may seemingly be subconscious. “You can experience temptations but not necessarily give in to them,” he says. “We often give in automatically, for example, by checking our e-mail on the phone when we wake up at night.” But with mindfulness, practitioners could become more aware of their impulses and then make a decision whether they want to address them or not. “We try to practice becoming more aware of these impulses, recognising that we actually have a choice; it doesn’t have to be automatic,” he explains. […]

Harvard University president, Drew Gilpin Faust

‘It’s a man’s world, sweetie’ – how 3 female leaders dealt with sexism

Harvard president Drew Faust: “My mother thought the best outcome would be if I found a suitable husband.” Between them, they run one of the world’s most prestigious universities, one of its biggest companies and one of its most powerful institutions. It’s hard to imagine anyone telling Christine Lagarde, the head of the IMF, Drew Faust, the president of Harvard, or Indra Nooyi, CEO of Pepsi, that they couldn’t succeed because of their gender – but that’s precisely what happened. In different situations, these three women were effectively told the same thing: that girls and women shouldn’t aspire to the same goals as boys and men. It’s a message that’s stubbornly pervasive in every society in the world, reinforcing a global gender gap. Unsurprisingly, Lagarde, Faust and Nooyi refused to listen to it. Here’s how they reacted when faced with overt sexism and dubious advice. Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF, walked out of a job interview Long before she was appointed managing director of the International Monetary Fund in 2011, Lagarde started her career as a lawyer. CNN reported her telling the following story: “It was when I applied to the biggest law firm in Paris and I was told that I would be a great recruit and that I would be given good work to do – but that I should never expect to make partnership because I was a woman. “I thought to myself: ‘You don’t deserve me, I’m going.’ And I had that sense of extraordinary freedom, walking down the staircase and thinking to myself: ‘What would I do in this firm? Why would I work with that kind of attitude?” Rather than just “making partnership”, Lagarde went on to became the first female chair of the international law firm Baker & McKenzie, the first female […]

What is GDP, and how are we misusing it?

www.themirrorinspires.com The Elephant in the Conversation on FaceBook You shouldn’t judge a country by its GDP. Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and growth thereof, has been widely used over the years to measure economic progress. But what is GDP, and why does it matter? Mathematically it is the sum of consumption, investment and government spending (plus exports, minus imports). It is regularly cited in discussions related to the economic health and wellbeing of countries and regions, with some governments such as China going so far as to set specific targets for GDP growth (placed between 6.5 and 7% at the recent National People’s Congress in the new Five Year Plan). And even without specific targets, the evolution of GDP remains a fixation for governments around the world and is also a regular topic on the agenda of global and regional groupings such as the G20 and the European Union. What does GDP miss out? Amid this GDP obsession, it is easy to forget that it was not initially intended for this purpose – it merely provides a measure of the final goods and services produced in an economy over a given period, without any attention to what is produced, how it’s produced or who is producing it. Simon Kuznets, who defined the modern version of GDP in the 1930s, specifically cautioned against using it as a measure of welfare. Yet its relatively straightforward measurability has led it to be used widely over the decades for precisely that purpose. Of course, GDP is highly correlated with a lot of the things that we prize in a society: good education, quality infrastructure, functioning markets. And yet, as has been […]

What happens when demand for oil peaks?

Forget peak oil: what about peak demand? Since the First Industrial Revolution, oil and gas have played a pivotal role in economic transformation and mobility. But now, with the prospects that major economies like the United States, China and European nations will try to shift away from oil, producers are coming to realise that their oil reserves under the ground – sometimes referred to as “black gold” – could become less valuable in the future than they are today. Of the four scenarios for the future of the industry outlined in a new set of whitepapers from the Global Agenda on the Future of Oil and Gas, three of them envisage this type of world. Factors such as technological advancements, the falling price of batteries that power electric vehicles, and a post-COP21 push for cleaner energy could even drive oil use below 80 million barrels a day by 2040 – 15% lower than today. So what would a future of falling demand mean for the oil and gas industry? We’re already feeling the effect Uncertainty about whether oil demand will continue to grow is already impacting the strategies of oil and gas firms. Through the 2000s and up until last year, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), whose policies influence global oil supply and prices, took a revenues-oriented strategy, believing that scarce oil would be more valuable under the ground than out in the market, as global demand rose exponentially over time. Oil companies, too, responded to this world view by pursuing a business model that maximised adding as many reserves as possible to balance sheets and warehousing expensive assets. Now, with new trends discussed in a new whitepaper, producers are coming to realise that oil under the ground might soon be less valuable than oil produced and sold […]

Could indigenous knowledge systems combat climate change?

www.themirrorinspires.com As the global scientific community combines technology and brains to track climate change patterns and effects, indigenous populations have been noting these changes in a landscape they know intimately. In the Philippines and Indonesia, scientists and nongovernmental organisations are working with indigenous communities to map territories for future research and for hazard mapping during times of natural disasters. In India, farmers in arid and semi-arid regions rotate crops and change the dates for sowing seeds based on climate conditions. In the Koli community of Mumbai, they change their fish catch patterns to enhance the availability of fish in the future. This is part of the Navdanya programme, which promotes biodiversity conservation with the help of local tribal people. Among its activities, the programme maintains and engages with religious and tribal traditions such as rainwater harvesting, growing medicinal plants and maintaining biodiversity by conserving varietal flora and fauna. “Indigenous peoples across the globe have been confronting climate change and variability on a regular basis due to their heavy dependence on natural resources for their livelihoods,” says Vijaya Gupta from the National Institute of Industrial Engineering in Mumbai. The unique knowledge systems held by indigenous populations can play an important role in monitoring small climatic changes and events that might go unnoticed by scientific tracking. During the July 2015 climate change conference in Paris, scientists called on the global research community to seize the opportunity to collaborate with indigenous populations that are often taken for granted. “Indigenous people are living on the land so they are being exposed to ecological changes. [Thus], they would be able to monitor, evaluate and read the signs … of how we are adapting to climate change,” explains Anne Poelina, managing director of Madjulla Inc., an indigenous non-governmental community development organisation based in Australia. In order […]

Reducing poverty among smallholder farmers

In some countries, smallholder farmers earn as little as $1.26 a day Life can be hard for a smallholder farmer. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) estimates that there are 500 million smallholder farmers worldwide – usually working on plots of land smaller than two hectares – producing about 80% of the food consumed in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Despite this, smallholder households are often some of the poorest in the world, a fact which is causing the children of smallholders to abandon their farms in search of better opportunities in cities. This shift contributes to two very real risks. First, food security. the UN estimates that the global population will reach 9 billion by 2050 and consume 60% more food. And second, rising urban poverty. For these reasons, it is imperative that smallholder farming becomes a much more profitable and sustainable venture; this is the goal that we at Kennemer Foods International, together with the Philippine Government, have been working on for the past five years. Based on our experience in driving the growth of the Philippine cacao industry, here are some of the key ingredients necessary to dramatically reduce poverty among smallholder farmers: 1. Comprehensive credit, guarantee and insurance policies geared towards smallholder farmers The average coconut farmer in the Philippines earns approximately $450 a year from one hectare of land (gross revenue). This translates to roughly $1.26 a day, for a household of 4-5 people. Given this situation, it is almost impossible for a smallholder farmer to adequately provide for the needs of his or her family, much less to make the necessary investments into newer or better farm inputs and technologies in order to improve yields. Without access to affordable – and more importantly, patient – capital, smallholders cannot break the cycle of low farm […]

Cities need more ‘living green’, concludes International conference

The importance of ‘living green’ was brought to the attention of sixteen countries at an International Green City Conference this month. Becoming the greenest city in the world, using plants to manage stormwater threats, how to implement greening and change the public mindset, how buildings need to be able to ‘heal people and the benefits of a ‘Green City’, were all on the agenda. Organised by the International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH) and the Canadian Nursery Landscape Association (CNLA) the event was held in Vancouver, Canada on 14-18 March. Sponsored by TD and Davey Trees, it attracted delegates who are committed to greening city landscapes. Vancouver is working towards being the greenest city in the world by 2020. The former Mayor of Vancouver and Premier of British Columbia, Mike Harcourt, opened the conference by demonstrating that Vancouver has had an environmental focus since the 1980s when back then they were already looking at alternatives to cars and different energy sources as well as planning the city to be more sustainable. For a long time it has been a philosophy of Vancouver that there is a close link between greening the city, economic sustainability and livability. Vancouver Urban Forest Strategy which has a target of achieving 22% tree coverage in the city by 2050 was introduced by Bill Stephen from the City of Vancouver. In a densely populated city this is a big challenge as growing space has reduced with city development, but initiatives such as ‘Street tree cooling networks’, the ‘citizen forester’ and planting 150,000 trees by 2020 will all help in reaching the goal. Local examples of green city projects were provided from the University of British Columbia, including the East Clayton Neighbourhood Project, introduced by Patrick Condon and Sara Barron, and how plants have been used to […]

Global power generation shortfall in 2030

A 2016 research paper in the Journal Nature predicts a 40% shortfall of available water across the globe by 2030 with effects not just for drinking, food production, hygiene and public health, but also for 98% of global electric power generation. Presented at the Asia-Pacific Energy Leaders’ Summit in New Zealand the early findings of a new report, ‘The road to resilience – managing the risks of the energy-water-food nexus’ from the World Energy Council is calling for immediate action in order to secure resilient energy infrastructure. Supported by a task force of over 140 experts from across the world, the report makes five recommendations: Improve understanding of the water footprint of energy technologies in order to mitigate the risks of stranded assets Account for the price of water, particularly in areas of water stress Consider a wider range of financial and insurance instruments to hedge short term risks such as adverse weather incidents and associated electricity price volatility Give investors the confidence to invest by providing them a full risk assessment that includes different climate and hydrological scenarios in financial analyses Provide a reliable and transparent regulatory and legal framework that takes into account water issues and competing stakeholders’ interest. Christoph Frei, Secretary General World Energy Council said: “The energy-water-food nexus poses a systemic risk which could impact the robustness of the energy supply and demand over many years to come. Power plants across the world could be affected by changes in precipitation patterns, which are combining with increasing competition between water users to adversely affect the resilience of energy services. “Clear co-ordination and integrated planning needs to take place now, or we will start to see the effects of water scarcity on energy supplies in the very near future. Assuming a water price during project planning is one […]

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