Sometimes you just need a picture of a kitty.

the smallest, originally uploaded by christinelinnell.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) runs a volunteer programme that includes providing foster homes for animals recovering from illness or surgery. They provide all the food and supplies and help the volunteers take care of the animals until they're healthy and ready for adoption.

While I was in Paraparaumu I helped my friends take care of four sick kittens. They all looked pretty miserable when we got them - this little girl had us worried for the first few days - but by the time I moved back to Wellington they were climbing all over the place.

It was hard work but I loved taking care of them. You'd be surprised how fast you get the hang of administering eye drops to a grumpy kitten before she can get her needle-sharp claws into you, and how exciting it is when she finally starts eating on her own. And then, of course, cuddles!

If you've got the time and space to be a foster care provider I would totally recommend it.

Christchurch

I was at a science conference in Auckland when I heard the news. The announcement silenced everyone in the room. It didn't make sense; Christchurch had already been through a major earthquake six months ago. They had been recovering from the scare, learning their lessons and thanking God that damage had been minimal and no-one had been killed. It wasn't supposed to turn out like this.

The thing I've learned about New Zealand is that all tragedies are local tragedies. This isn't a distant city we only see in the newspaper. We know this place. If we don't have family and friends in Christchurch, then someone close to us does. We've been there; we remember what the streets were like, where we felt the most at home. When something like this happens, it hits all of us.

And so we have this instinct to support each other - open our doors to strangers, share information, be kind to each other - that I haven't felt in quite the same way anywhere else. Help will come from all over the world, but New Zealanders will get through this the way they get through everything: by getting back on their feet and standing together.

On the Kapiti Coast

butterfly kite, originally uploaded by christinelinnell.

I spent Christmas, New Year's and most of January living with friends at their beach house in Paraparaumu. The town is a bit shabby and suburban but the beach is excellent, wide and flat with smooth white sand. I spent my time there going for runs, taking the dog out to chase seagulls and photographing the sunsets.

Beyond the farm and the theme park

Wellington-based physicist Sir Paul Callaghan was recently named New Zealander of the Year. I had the opportunity to interview him about his latest book in April 2009. Originally published on the Futureintech website.

As a boy growing up in Wanganui in the Sixties, Paul Callaghan saw physics everywhere. “It was the age following Sputnik. There was a big emphasis on science. And physics is beautiful – it was always a part of my life. I got up to stuff, basically. I built my first crystal radio set when I was ten or eleven, and I was able to pick up two radio stations. It’s life-changing for any young boy.”

Fifty years later, Dr. Callaghan is one of the leading physicists in New Zealand, author or co-author of three books and over 200 scientific articles, and the founding director of the Wellington-based company Magritek. But while he views scientific innovation as the key for New Zealand’s prosperity, he feels that we’re held back from our full potential by a myth of our own making.

In his latest book, Wool to Weta: Transforming New Zealand’s Culture & Economy, Callaghan makes the case that New Zealand needs to shift from its overreliance on tourism and agriculture, and invest in a new economy based on science, technology, and intellectual property. As he notes in the book’s preface, “David Lange once said, cheekily, that New Zealand’s destiny was to be a theme park, while Australia’s destiny was to be a quarry. This book tells the story of how we must move beyond the farm and the theme park if we are to build sustainable prosperity in New Zealand, protecting our natural environment in the process.”

Wrestling with Zinn

Once when I was eleven or twelve, my dad kept my brothers and me at the kitchen table after dinner. In a grim voice, he warned us that there were big changes coming to America’s school system and we would have to be on our guard.

Dad told us that schools were about to start rewriting American history and indoctrinating their students with a politically-correct ideology called Multiculturalism. The goal of this change was to empower other countries and cultures by making us feel ashamed of our Western heritage.

Instead of learning that Christopher Columbus was the heroic discoverer of the New World, we would be told that he was a bad man who murdered the Indians. Instead of learning about the noble ideas of the Founding Fathers, we would be told that they were atheists and slave owners. If we didn’t pay attention, our teachers might trick us into thinking that America is evil and send the quality of education in this country down the drain.

Eighteen years later, I can say with relief and some bemusement that multicultural education has not led me to intellectual ruin. (Though of course that’s exactly what an indoctrinated person would say... Just kidding, Dad.) What it has done is encourage me to rethink old assumptions and work harder to empathise with different points of view. In a lot of ways it’s the driving force behind my love of travel and my curiosity about people.

The latest step in this journey was to read A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn. I knew almost nothing about him when he passed away a little over a year ago, but my progressive friends responded to his death with such emotion that I bought the book that same afternoon. The thick, densely-written paperback sat glaring at me from my bookshelf until this past Christmas, when I set the goal of finishing it by the end of my holiday.