GREBE GRABS GREATNESS
Never heard of the Puteketeke or Crested Grebe until fast talking, fact amassing comedian, John Oliver of the American network, spluttered about the grebe a couple of weeks ago.
It is a kind of duck and not seen in the North Island for ages and only a 1000 survive in the bowels of the South Island.
Oliver has done me a favour. The annual NZ Bird of the Year is a bit of a farce and so when it came to the NZ Bird of the Century which promised to be equally farcical, along comes Oliver, whom I have a great admiration for, and dug the knife deeper into farcical.
Every year we are virtually told by NZ Forest and Bird whom to vote for in Bird of the Year or at best given a list of maybe three birds and advised who could be favoured. The idea is to spread it around the dozens and dozens of birds that grace our lands. So it is a joke this annual public voting. It is just a publicity stunt.
And who can forget that two years ago Forest & Bird promoted a non- bird for the Bird of the Year and of course sheep-like voters complied and the animal ( a bat) won.
Be that it may, we were told to select who we like as NZ Bird of the Century but to really go for the North Island Brown Kiwi.
In steps Oliver and proclaims on his televised weekly show that the Puteketeke nestled in Australia, NZ and in some other Pacific islands should be honoured with the title and not the little Brown Kiwi.
The Kiwi is reserved, rather dour, colourless, quiet and a night-time-only prowler. The Crested Grebe is the opposite. Colourful, quirky, well adorned and can make a splash.
Oliver's choice and his organisation's promotional costs won out by a landslide - over 290,000 votes to the 12,000 allotted to the NI Brown Kiwi.
if you have never before heard of John Oliver you have now. Thank you John. NZ Forest & Bird just might feel compelled to change the way they promote animals that live in NZ in future.
Poll: Would you rather: Christmas in summer forever or winter forever?
Just a bit of a fun poll to get you thinking.
If you had to live out your Christmas days, would you prefer it was a summer Christmas or a winter Christmas?
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63.3% Summer
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35.4% Winter
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1.3% Other - I'll share below
EMPIRE BUILDING TRUMP
So Donald Trump does not want to start any wars and is a peace maker.
And yet he is seriously seeking to annex the world's largest island, Greenland from Denmark, take over the Panama Canal from the sovereign country of Panama who have owned it since 1977 and even forthrightly suggesting that Canada ceases being a nation and become a state or series of states of the USA.
Greenland above everything else, harbours minerals vital for todays and tomorrows world and that is what probably attracts Trump most. His son is looking things over in Greenland as this thread is being produced. Climate change is also changing Greenland which despite its name is currently mainly covered in ice and snow all year round. Greenland has a population of 55,000.
Panama's major asset after tourism and services is the canal with a current revenue of $5 billion. It operates its shipping charges through an international organisation so that the USA gets an unbias deal for its ships etc that use the canal. Panama is a poor country on the improve and has a population of 4.5 million.
Denmark is a member of NATO. But Trump has threatened many times for the USA to pull out of this Europe-USA defence alliance and Greenland may be the straw that finally breaks the pact.
Canada is surrounded by the USA but it is so much unlike the USA and much more akin to Australia and NZ. In contrast to the USA, Canada is one of the happiest countries in the world and in total land area is the world's second largest.
NZ is going to come under the scrutiny of Trump and his henchmen/women. He will probably look to cut NZ away from its free trade arrangements with China with some kind of ultimatum.
New Year, New Questions You Won’t Solve!
I get smaller every time I take a bath.
What am I?
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