New Zealand Listener Issue 50, 2022

When Mike Taylor started Pie Funds, he had a simple goal. He wanted the investment funds to outperform the market. “I believed most fund managers were serial under-performers and saw an opportunity,” he says. There weren’t many smaller fund managers on the scene. Taylor was in his late 20s and didn’t have a huge track record behind him, so it was a risk. But he was confident. “I thought we should be able to beat them. I felt like we could achieve it and, if we achieved it, we would be able to get clients.” And they did get clients. Pie Funds first started managing the money of friends and family, but over time the client base grew to over 3,000 highly valued clients and nearly 20,000 KiwiSaver members. “Many of the investors from when…

This country has been struggling for decades to lift its productivity, the key driver of competitiveness and ultimately prosperity. We are sliding down international rankings. This inadequate performance is shaped in part by our geography, but more fundamentally by policy choices over the years. The government has taken some steps towards fostering a more productive economy: eight Industry Transformation Plans are under way, providing a starter. However, top-down strategies have difficulty accommodating regional nuances, which is where the rubber hits the road. If New Zealand seriously expects to move beyond exporting commodities, a marked policy departure is required. In exploring options, we can learn from others. My economic development work has taken me globally, from Addis Ababa to Cusco, Kharkiv, Saskatoon, Zanzibar, and many places in between. Many localities, including two small…

WINNING CAPTION Bob Richardson, Christchurch FINALISTS Boris Johnson: “Don’t give me that look. You know this is a no-smirking area.” – Dean Donoghue, Papamoa Beach Caption: Lest we forget. – Joe Baker, Dunedin Johnson: “Lettuce not forget who lasted longer!” – Paul Kelly, Palmerston North Johnson: “Et tu, Elizabeth?” – Mike Hamblyn, Dunedin Johnson: “You say that you were Prime Minister. I must’ve blinked.” – Bob Richardson, Christchurch Liz Truss: “Boris, did you really have to say, ‘Lettuce remember’?” – Bill McEwan, Blenheim Caption Competition {listenercaption@aremedia.co.nz} TO ENTER Send your captions for the photo at right to listenercaption@aremedia.co.nz, with “Caption Competition No 490” in the subject line. Alternatively, entries can be posted to “Caption Competition No 490”, NZ Listener, PO Box 52122, Kingsland, Auckland 1352. Entries must be received by noon, Tuesday, December 13. THE PRIZE In Wild Kinship: The Makers, Monique…

I congratulate the Listener for the stunning Médicins San Frontières photographs and article (“Heroes & hope”, December 3). It left me wanting more. Working as an aid worker in Sudan in 1985, I recall one of the senior Save the Children staff members describing MSF as “cowboys”. In my experience, working in Wad Kowli refugee camp with Save the Children then later with the World Health Organisation, MSF is one of the best aid organisations. At Wad Kowli, MSF were responsible for adult curative care, inpatient and outpatient. Our relationship with them was at all times excellent. At the MSF clinic for adults, the four doctors saw 1000-1500 patients a day. A Save the Children report from 1985 mentions, “[MSF’s] handling of the cholera outbreak was copybook, and placed very few extra demands…

“Every morning you open the door and you get scared … [There is] fear in your mind that something will happen and someone will do a silly thing. Always constant fear.”– Kiwi dairy owner Raju“Parenting during the holidays is just a mix of threatening to call Santa while simultaneously trying to give your kids the best Christmas ever.”– seen on Twitter“The great advantage about telling the truth is that nobody ever believes it.”– Dorothy L Sayers“I am very intense. I can’t help it. That’s the way I am. You can’t be in this business without being intense. The pressure and tension get to you; it can’t help but show on you.”– Fame and Flashdance singer and actress Irene Cara.“Progress is man’s ability to complicate simplicity.”– Thor Heyerdahl“I want to prove…

1. Which film was American actress Jessica Chastain not in? ❑ Zero Dark Thirty❑ The Good Nurse❑ Interstellar❑ Terminator: Salvation 2. Who wrote the novel Catch-22? ❑ Joseph Heller❑ WG Sebald❑ John le Carré❑ Norman Mailer 3. “Treacle” originally referred to an antidote against a venomous bite. True or false? ❑ True❑ False 4. Bronze is made up primarily of: ❑ Copper and tin❑ Copper and iron❑ Copper and zinc❑ Iron and tin 5. The White Ferns is the nickname for New Zealand’s: ❑ Women’s rugby team❑ Women’s netball team❑ Women’s football team❑ Women’s cricket team 6. The largest country in the world is: ❑ China❑ Russia❑ Canada❑ The US 7. Around which planet would you find the moon Titan orbiting? ❑ Jupiter❑ Saturn❑ Uranus❑ Neptune 8. Who manages UK football club Manchester City? ❑ Arsene Wenger❑ Pep Guardiola❑ José Mourinho❑ Jürgen Klopp 9. Lepidoptera is…