Mark Keown

I love MXC. It is a crazy program on Channel 4 with Japanese people doing crazy stunts with hilarious (if somewhat rude) American voice overs! The stunts are hilarious! I love it. These people are genuinely mad. Running head first into doors, racing over rollers, sprinting across rocks, swinging onto small stands; it is great fun! True entertainment for my appallingly small mind! On the other hand I utterly deplore Deal or No Deal on TV3. It is a shocker. I cannot believe in the 21st century that a program today would have all those women standing around posing with their cleavages barely covered (only due to some double sided tape). The show itself has absolutely no merit except the gamble and tension of wondering what is in the next suitcase. I hate the show and it should be removed! I am sure it will due to shocking ratings! Take in MXC... it is good!

I cannot believe that NZ and the Aussies are critical of the Boks for not bringing down their A team for the away games in the Tri Nations. The Aussies have taken away substandard teams to Europe for a number of years now. As for NZ, it is a joke for us to complain. Apart from taking away weakened teams for a number of years and rotating our team last season there is the slight problem of the Super 14 reconditioning. Ridiculous to complain! We are determined to win the World Cup and so are they. They have a royal chance and now is their only chance to get the team up for the World Cup. So I say, go for it! Good on them. I don't think it is a good time to do so however. They need time together, combinations etc. These are their last games leading into the Cup and they need to work to gain confidence. So I say, good on them, and question whether it will help them. Imagine what confidence they would have gained from coming down here and smashing us on our home patch! They now do not h...

I don't know who reads this blog but I want to get something off my chest. To me BCNZ has as responsibility to the NZ church. It is to lead the way in the equipping of leaders for ministry in the church, mission and society. I love Mark Strom's desire to see us connect more with society. I agree with him wholeheartedly; that we need to prepare people to take Christ into all dimensions of society with the big vision of the tranformation of the whole world into its created intention. All I can say is, yay, thanks God for bringing this. I am thrilled that BCNZ still equips students for overseas mission and pray that we continue to do so and do it better and better. I love the way that Merv Coates and Stuart Lange and others train people for pastoral ministry and leadership. More! I praise God for Dave Wells who is a legend and who is doing a brilliant job of equipping people for youth ministry... more! But there are holes in what we do; big ones. Most of us who are getting a bit l...

What a great weekend. The America's Cup went from the sadness of losing to the joy of winning. It was great to see Team NZ win a race. To me, Alinghi looks quicker though. I hope I am wrong, I pray I am wrong; but I get the feeling they are quicker. That being said though, if they can't hack the pressure, Alinghi may not have the team. The All Blacks were fantastic. Sure, there were far too many handling errors and our lineout was not great. But this is the first game of such intensity for us after a flight to Durban, in what we call tropical heat, and against a fired up South African team. We had a number of scoring opportunities and the South Africans benefited from an intercept. By the last 15 minutes they were out on their feet. Great stuff NZ. How on earth Rodney S was named man of the match I will never know, Richie McCaw was sensational! He tackled and took the ball up incessantly. We are on track for France. It will be a huge challenge to now fly to Melbourne and front ...

I was shocked watching the news last night seeing the story about the arrest of a ring of men from around the world who watch paedophilia live on the net. It even involves people requesting of the criminals that they do this and that to these poor kids. This is shocking and a disgrace to our civilisation. These people should be castrated and incarcerated for life! I am not an advocate of the death penalty but when I read of such heinous crimes I believe there is a next best thing. Kids are precious. They are vulnerable and depend on our love and care for them. Anyone who violates them sexually deserves nothing but the fullest treatment of the law. Some may bemoan my attitude too harsh advocating 'restorative justice' rather than punitive. I agree with many of the notions of restorative justice and our justice system needs much work in this regard. I agree that minor offences in this regard can be dealt with in a restorative way. However, another function of justice is protectio...

About 3 months out from the world cup where are things at. Well there has been one game that counts, Australia 19 South Africa 22. This can tell us one of a few things. Perhaps the Australians are much better than we expected. Perhaps the South Africans are worse. Perhaps the Australians had a good day, the South Africans a poor day. We won't know until the Tri-Nations plays itself out. The AB's to me have not been good. They look either like a side that is on the wane or they are simply going through the motions preparing for the big games ahead. They should have won the first three games by more points and with a more clinical effort. They drop too much ball and overcook their attack without doing the basics. The loss of the locks means we are weaker at lineout time and have a real weakness opposition teams can target. So for me the season has begun and the SA NZ clash at Durban will tell us more. The outcome is not that important in terms of the WC to come. However, we will ...