The Fall and fall of John Archibald Banks MP. New Zealand has had its fair share of colourful political characters, amusing us with their shenanigans; from bully boys like 'King' Dick Seddon and Rob Muldoon to the larger than life bon vivant, raconteur David Lange. Two whose parliamentary careers began in the National Party during the last days of Rob Muldoon's reign, are the mercurial Winston Peters and proudly self-made man John Banks; both who in their own right; love them or hate them, have been truly colourful characters in and out of Parliament, up to all sorts of high jinks and gamesmanship. Banks of course, no less attention-grabbing as Mayor of Auckland than more recently as ACT MP for Epsom. His most recent political roller coaster ride however, must have been especially emotionally draining, even for him; accustomed to controversy as he is. Found guilty on the 5th of…

Fortune returns to Tainui but controversy envelops the House of Paki Last week, (5th July, 2014), Tainui made the news in a couple of stories, one regarding the tribe's return to fiscal prosperity, the other saw the second son of Maori King Tuheitia enveloped in scandal. In the first it was announced that Tainui has at last turned its finances around and is enjoying unprecedented affluence following its earlier financial loses. Certainly the tribe has experienced a rocky ride fiscally in the years since being awarded significant government reparations in 1995 under its Treaty of Waitangi settlement. Since then there has been scandal concerning its finances; accusations of ineptitude and incompetence and finally, this week, the good news that the tribe has now, finally, returned to pre-colonisation levels of prosperity. However, in the other story of the week, Korotangi Paki, second son of King Tuheitia, has been embroiled in an…

Feng Shui 101 Get Water – Seek Shelter Voices from the past Many of the fundamentals that govern the practise of classical Chinese feng shui are laid out in the oldest book known to have put the two words, feng (wind), and shui (water), together in reference to traditional Chinese earth sciences. That book is The Book of Burial, written by Guo Pu; a highly renowned Chinese feng shui scholar (276 – 324); who lived during the last years of the Song Dynasty. This book, probably above all others, is considered to be the book that lays out the very foundations of what classical Chinese feng shui theory is really all about. Here, I’m going to take what is probably the most frequently quoted of all its lines, and explore its meaning as it pertains to the application of feng shui today. However, before we can begin to do that,…

Sometime just after 11am on Sunday 29th December, (2013), famed Formula One driver Michael Shumaker, was out skiing at a resort in the French Alps when he fell and hit his head on a rock; splitting his helmet wide open and leaving him with serious head injuries. He was rushed to a near by hospital where he is still receiving treatment. He remains in an induced coma with doctors saying the prognosis is uncertain. Looking at Michael Shumaker’s Four Pillars of Destiny and the dynamics at play on the day and time of this dreadful accident, it would appear he has suffered from the Fire Penalty so prevalent in this year of the Snake. We must begin the assessment by examining his Four Pillars of Destiny; but first we need to understand just what the Four Pillars of Destiny are and how they work. The ancient Chinese fortune telling system…