In some ways many of today's kids do have it easy. Calculators and tablets for schoolwork, mums (and dads) zooming them everywhere in cars for after-school activities, bugger-all real chores to do. But in other ways today's kids have it harder.

THE five most ignorant countries in the world are Mexico, India, Brazil, Peru and New Zealand. And the five best informed are South

The issue of paying Whanganui councillors for attending meetings - or, more pertinently, not paying them when they do not turn up

In the 1960s an eccentric English aristocrat, Alexander Thynn, the 7th Marquis of Bath, proposed that the world should consist of

MONDAY Chiefs CEO Andrew Flexman: The boys are hurting over their loss to the Hurricanes. But that's rugby. At the end of the day

PIZZA for breakfast! That's just one reason why I love Saturday mornings at the River Traders market. The market is popular with

FOLLOW the Yellow Brick Road ... Dorothy (Anne Tolley) was no longer in Kansas but in Otara on a journey to find the answer to inequality. Following

Over the years I've never made a secret of the fact that I call it like I see it. My no nonsense approach has meet with criticism

In Liverpool they sing You'll Never Walk Alone; in Patea they sing Poi E. When I arrived in Patea more than 30 years ago to work

NOW that both political parties have chosen their nominees for president, the US public can look forward to 100 days of raucous campaigning

By Anna Wallis Air Chathams and Whanganui Airport have certainly started things off with a bang. There was a large crowd out at

By Fred Frederikse I AM not a great musician, but to quote Kinky Friedman: "I like hanging around with musicians because they have

By Scott Lee WHAT if I said: "Everyone is already wealthy." Would you respond: "Go on, Scott -- you're having a laugh." Or would

CELEBRATING is something uniquely human that transcends cultures, demographics and history. No matter when you were born, in what

By R K Rose WHAT on earth to wear today? It's not a question I usually spend any time on. The answering question is invariably:

MONDAY At the end of the day I think the majority of New Zealanders will feel good about this Government's abrupt and laughably half-baked

The bright sparks of Whanganui converged on the War Memorial Centre on Wednesday evening where their creative credentials were given

The notion that if we want action on a specific issue it requires a Minister of the Crown to have personally experienced it has been

Don't be so eager to leave, says former Youth MP Timothy Rowe I LOVE Whanganui - the river where I used to train, the schools that

Ah, the sweet smell of success. Whanganui could create a tourist attraction by turning Virginia Lake into a treatment pond.

By Paul Brooks There is little realism in a format designed to titillate the voyeuristic ... What is it about television bosses and

By Mark Dawson ACCIDENTS will happen ... no matter what. So it becomes a question of how much we want to invest in limiting the

MY lawn is so wet, it's ridiculous. I live on top of a hill with a gully behind and a sloping section. You'd expect the water to

MISTAKES are inevitable but learning from mistakes is what makes their next possible iteration avoidable. Years ago I bought an old

THE decision by the Ministry of Health not to fund pepi-pods doesn't seem right. Arguing that the worth of the pods in saving babies

By Fred Frederikse SOMETIMES I get the urge to write columns again ... The lack of a deadline meant I no longer had the commensurate

OBSERVATION and knowledge of reality are topics that raise all sorts of prickly philosophical questions, chief among them the one

Time is always my enemy ... I have so much to do and such little time to do it in. Right now I am around about half way through

"School Bans Clapping." Had I read that headline a year ago my blood would have boiled. PC or not, today I just laugh at such stories

MONDAY Donald Trump: Hello, Cleveland! Thank you all for coming here today for the most ably organised Republican convention in