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One of the underappreciated joys of parenthood is lying to your children. Children are full of questions. Read more

Confirmation came this week that New Zealand’s once world-leading school system continues its steady decline. Ever since the OECD began testing the educational performance of 15-year olds in the early 2000s, New Zealand students have performed progressively worse in all three assessed areas of reading, maths and science. Read more

Moving to New Zealand in 2003 was a bit like stepping into an underpowered time machine. The new-release movies in theatre were ones that had hit the big screen in the US months earlier. Read more

No one has ever accused the Germans of boundless optimism. There is a reason the word Weltschmerz (world-weariness) was once coined in Germany. Read more

“If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands”. Clapping is a common gesture across all cultures – even babies clap. Read more

A couple of weeks ago, I spoke to a group of 13-year-old South Island students on a college excursion to the capital. Their teacher had introduced them to me as specially “gifted and talented” but their main gift appeared to be an inclination towards state action. Read more

Tonight, and probably on my own in New Zealand, I am celebrating a geopolitical anniversary. On this 9th of November, 30 years have passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Read more

November 1 was the beginning of a new era for the European Central Bank. Former French finance minister and IMF director Christine Lagarde is the new president of the ECB. Read more

Until last week, the East German state of Thuringia was internationally most famous as the home of Martin Luther, Thuringian roasted sausages and the Bauhaus Movement. Now we can add last Sunday’s state election result to that list. Read more