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.

Paraparaumu Line

Not bad for a fifty-minute commute to work.

Keith Olbermann Signs Off

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I didn’t start watching “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” until 2008. To be honest, I was determined to dislike him at first. I’d already chosen even-tempered Rachel Maddow as my political role model, and Olbermann seemed like something else altogether – loud, pushy, full of self-righteous indignation. A left-wing version of Bill O’Reilly, I thought. Obviously I was far too intellectual and sophisticated for such things.

Turns out I was wrong, both about my first impression of Olbermann and that whole sophistication thing. As the media became obsessed with Sarah Palin, I found myself sitting up late at night poring over news coverage on the Internet, looking for someone who was fighting back – some sign that Americans hadn’t completely lost their minds. One night I stumbled across one of Olbermann’s Special Comments on YouTube. Within two weeks, I’d watched all of them.

You Suck (Not That There's Anything Wrong With That)

Lately I've been thinking a lot about feminist language and the importance of identifying common phrases that contribute to prejudice in our culture.

For instance, using "bitch" or "whore" as an insult is rightly called out by feminists as reinforcing misogynist stereotypes about women, and saying "that's gay" to mean "that's stupid" feeds into a culture of homophobia. This kind of language can be harmful even when modern usage has obscured the original meaning of the phrase - like "that's lame", an insult to the physically handicapped.

So what about the phrase "you suck"?

Think about it. This is generally accepted to be a reference to oral sex. So if we say "you suck" to imply that someone is weak or stupid, are we not saying that people who perform oral sex on men - i.e. women and homosexuals - are also weak and stupid? Aren't we reinforcing heteronormative stereotypes about dominance in sexual relationships? What if every time we say "My god, does Twilight suck" we're not only reinforcing stupid vampire puns but also teaching our impressionable youth that some forms of sex are better, more virtuous, more valid than others?

Hmmm.

Later, I will consider the possibility that "go f*** yourself" perpetuates unhealthy attitudes toward masturbation.

An Expat's View of Arizona

Last week in Tucson, Arizona, 22-year-old Jared Laughner opened fire on a crowd of people who had gathered to meet U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords in a Safeway parking lot. Fourteen people were injured and six were killed, including a nine-year-old girl. Giffords was shot through the head but survived and is expected to recover.

For an American living in a different country, events like this one are especially difficult. There’s an exhaustion that sinks over me, along with the shock and grief, as headlines of yet another shooting in the United States dominate the local media. I know that my friends and colleagues are going to have questions for me. Because to them, America’s gun culture is not just controversial but incomprehensible, something they can’t get their heads around.

2010

What can I say about 2010?

I complained a lot. I watched as everyone around me seemed to go through personal hardship at the same time – illness, unemployment, relationship woes, deaths of family or friends. I saw my native America face issues of racism, sexism, homophobia and social injustice. We made progress on some, found new and spectacular ways to fail at others.

I fretted over my unfinished novel and began to get bored with my office job. I tried and generally failed to go to parties and stay out late in bars the way functioning adults are supposed to do. I did, however, learn to appreciate booze.