Gifts from the Magi - Export Products

‘After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east… Then Herod summoned the wise men to see him privately. .. he sent them on to Bethlehem… and going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary… Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.                                  Matthew 2: 1-12

Image: www.sxc.hu/photo/416373

The treasures of the Wise Men were thought to be from Arabia and almost certainly were products that were traded at the time of Jesus’ birth. Gold represented Jesus' Kingship. What of them now as export products?

New Zealand has its own gold mines and history of gold mining.   It continues to export gold and in 2008 gold exports to the world were valued at US$369,763,250; this was an increase in value from the previous year when our gold exports were valued at US$200,842,188 (Source: UN Comtrade database).  

New Zealand's largest gold producer is OceanaGold which operates mines at Reefton on the West Coast and at Macraes in North Otago.  It was expecting to produce between 280,000 and 300,000 ounces this year - more than ever it has produced.

Figures Factsheet - New Zealand's Top Ten Exports 1999-2009 FREE!

Photographer: Robert Percy Moore Cambridge Co-operative Dairy Co, Hautapu, between 1923-1928.  

Panoramic negative Reference No. Pan-0545-F.   Photographic Archive, Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand.  No known copyright restrictions.  Source: Commons on Flickr

If you are interested in the latest Factsheet from the New Zealand School of Export download it now from: http://www.export.ac.nz/freedownloads.html

Google Book Search and ‘Exporting’ New Zealand books

You may be aware that on November 9, 2009 the US Authors’ Guild and the Association of American Publishers were scheduled to file a settlement to resolve their suit against Google for alleged breach of copyright in its programme to digitise millions of books and make them available for a fee online.

Google has already digitised over ten million books.  The New York Review of Books has published a feature article by Robert Darnton entitled Google and the new Digital Future which surveys and summarises this issue as it is being played out in the US.  You can find it at: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23518

How does this affect New Zealand authors and their books?  Does it mean that Google will be able to make money from our authors and their works, when we should be able to sell or give them to the world ourselves?  In fact New Zealand has been left out of the deal and Google will only scan and sell book registered with the US Copyright Office or published in Britain, Australia and Canada.

Claire McEntee explains the situation clearly in her article Kiwi authors want to call the shots online  which can be found at http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/3086310/Google-books-row-explained  if you want to check it out.   I think it is worth a read.

Radio New Zealand National : Programmes A-Z : Morning Report

Radio New Zealand National : Programmes A-Z : Morning Report - 2025 Taskforce Report

I found this segment on Radio New Zealand this morning interesting. Included in the audio clip are Dr Don Brash, the Hon. Bill English with more extended comments from Roger Kerr of the Business Roundtable and from Bryan Gould formerly Vice-Chancellor of the University of Waikato and British MP. Of these two comentators Dr Gould was the only one who spoke logically about the way exports could play a part in the achieving the broad aims of the 2025 Taskforce. What do you think? http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/national/mnr/2009/12/01/2025_taskforce_too_radical_-_bill_english Click on this link to hear the audio.

Reports, Presentations and Speeches from the Taskforce - 2025 Taskforce

Reports, Presentations and Speeches from the Taskforce - 2025 Taskforce

There has been a great deal in the media since the 2025 Taskforce report was issued. If you wanted to check the report for yourself here is the page to go to - click on the heading above.