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Otago Daily Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Packed audience treated to powerful work
The Southern Youth Choir and Chamber Orchestra are directed by John Buchanan in a performance of The Armed Man to a capacity audience at St Paul's Cathedral in Dunedin yesterday. PHOTO: GERARD O'BRIEN Southern Youth Choir The Armed Man St Paul's Cathedral Sunday, May 25 St Paul's Cathedral was a sellout yesterday afternoon for a performance by Southern Youth Choir (director John Buchanan) of The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace. The Armed Man is an anti-war work composed in 2000 by Karl Jenkins, using liturgical Latin Mass text, prose and poetry from other religions, assembled by librettist Guy Wilson. The event began with the SYC Chamber Choir, conducted by Noah McBirney-Warner in Geistliches Leid (Brahms) and a beautiful setting of Psalm 23 The Lord is my Shepherd (Rutter), with oboe obligato and counter-melodies (Callum Fotheringham) and organ (David Burchell). The Southern Youth Choir, currently with 60 members, organ and chamber orchestra (including three percussionists) then presented an absolutely outstanding 70-minute performance, full of dynamic contrast and emotion, expressing war, horror and loss, ending with a prayer for a peaceful future. As the final words faded to silence, the entire audience sprang to a standing ovation until the very last performer had left the stage. So deserved. Choir members taking solos were soprano Rosie Auchinvole, alto Tessa Campbell, tenor Teddy Finney Waters and bass Ewen Clarke-Wallace. The opening Mass simulated a marching army with drum beat, then a gradual orchestral build-up assembled the choir, singing 15th century text The Armed Man. Style and pace matched the beginning of war; Adhaan, a Muslim call to prayer, Kyrie, Sanctus, Hymn Before Action, with text by Rudyard Kipling ("Lord grant us strength to die"). The climax came with Charge — a long drawn-out chorus of screaming and wailing depicting the worst action of war, followed by silence and Last Post (Ralph Miller). So effective. An excerpt from the poem Angry Flames, about the horrors of Hiroshima, Torches, Agnus Dei, Benedictus and lines by Tennyson's Better is Peace completed the work. Text in the programme enabled full understanding of each section in this epic, never-to-be-forgotten performance. Review by Elizabeth Bouman
Otago Daily Times
6 days ago
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Crafty creatures used to reduce risk of bird strike
An Air New Zealand ATR-72 turboprop plane taxis past a wooden coyote silhouette at Dunedin Airport. PHOTO: GERARD O'BRIEN A pack of coyotes have been stalking the runway at Dunedin Airport. They can be seen peering from out of the grass and have been known to not stay in the same spot for too long. But the wooden silhouettes — not the real North American predator — are actually one of many tools used by the airport to reduce the risk of bird strike. Business development general manager Megan Crawford said the "seven dogs and four cats" were made by its Airport Emergency Service team using plywood. Designed to resemble predators to birds, the airport hoped the silhouettes would reduce the risk of bird strike "as much as possible", Ms Crawford said. "We move them around the airport, so they don't stay in the same spot. "But they're always in the grass area around the runway." They had been using them for about eight months. Bird strike resulting from wildlife including plovers, magpies and seagulls proved a "constant risk" that needed to be managed, as was the case at other airports. One of the wooden coyote silhouettes at Dunedin Airport that have been given reflective eyes to "add realism". PHOTO: SUPPLIED Gas cannons, "scaring devices" and other preventive measures, in addition to the silhouettes, were all tools the airport used to manage the risk of bird strike. The effectiveness of the silhouettes to date had been difficult to gauge, Ms Crawford said. "Anecdotally, bird numbers have been less on the airfield since the silhouettes have been introduced." Airport crew chief Bruce Smaill said the silhouettes were made to resemble coyotes or dogs in a state of alert or hunting. He said he copied the idea from the Christchurch City Council, who were using the same type of silhouettes to keep Canada geese off the grassy parked areas near the Avon River/Ōtākaro. "I thought they might have the same effect on our problem birds and they have." They also had reflective eyes "to add realism". As long as they were moved regularly, the silhouettes would have the same effect as if a farmer's dog was present on the airfield, Mr Smaill said. "We cannot have real dogs roaming for obvious reasons."
Otago Daily Times
6 days ago
- Health
- Otago Daily Times
Hui held to refresh responders' skills
Green Line Trauma Supplies director Matt Hitchiner shows a new defibrillator that Primary Response in Medical Emergency (Prime) responders were being trained to use at the Prime Hui, in Dunedin yesterday. PHOTO: GERARD O'BRIEN Aside from Dunedin Hospital, the Dunedin Art Gallery was probably the next best place to have a major heart attack at the weekend. About 100 Primary Response in Medical Emergency (Prime) responders from around New Zealand were at the gallery for their annual hui, where they had a refresher course for trauma and medical emergencies and were taught to use some new equipment that had been added to their response kits. Prime responder and Prime Hui committee member Rob Atkinson said the service used specially trained rural GPs and nurses living in rural areas, to support seriously ill or injured patients when the response time for a St John ambulance service would be significant. They also provided higher-level medical skills than may otherwise be available, to help the ambulance service in rural communities. Prime practitioners carry a pager, a Prime response kit and other relevant safety equipment. They are mobilised by the Ambulance Clinical Control Centre following an emergency call. Mr Atkinson said this year's Prime Hui 2025 also focused on political discussions about rural health and examined the infrastructure around their capacity to respond to major incidents in the rural sector — not only along the Alpine Fault, but also at major crashes that immediately overwhelm rural resources. "We've provided this hui as a platform for people to come in and get some sense of how they can respond at a community level and how the infrastructure around that community level works in terms of the National Emergency Management Agency and how disaster management is escalated and how communities can be better supported. "The speakers that we've had during the hui have been people who work in disaster management. "I think it's important that they Prime responders get insight into how that works at a higher level. "We also had speakers who worked through Cyclone Gabriel, so we had that on-the-ground representation of the struggles and the challenges that go with actually living within a major incident." He said those who attended would now head home with a new vision of their role in the community and improve the way that they respond to major casualty incidents.
Otago Daily Times
23-05-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Govt's infrastructure contracting criticised
Still waiting for work to begin on the Dunedin Hospital inpatient site. The outpatient building is behind. PHOTO: GERARD O'BRIEN A lawyer at CPB Contractors, the Australian construction giant set to build the new Dunedin hospital, has gone public to slam the government's "disastrous" approach to contracting major infrastructure projects. Meanwhile, any contract between CPB and Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora (HNZ) to get on with the delayed inpatient build is pending, despite a promise by Health Minister Simeon Brown in January that work would start mid-year. In a social media post liked by a senior HNZ infrastructure boss, CPB legal manager Tom Horder wrote that New Zealand was "very bad at delivering major infrastructure" and pointed the finger at contracts demanding delivery for a fixed price. "There are some practical things we can do to improve. "One of them is picking the right contract model for our big projects ... Over the past decade in NZ, the lump-sum model has been inappropriately applied to major projects, with disastrous results." In the post, Mr Horder links readers to a document listing alternate contractual arrangements including agreeing some costs with the client as a build progresses and challenges emerge. Sources have said HNZ and CPB have considered various contract arrangements, but the government is demanding a fixed price. The decision rests with ministers, but there is an indication that an alternate contract model has been preferred by at least one senior HNZ staffer. Mr Horder's post was liked by HNZ head of infrastructure commercial and procurement Paul Hrstich, who first worked on the project in March 2020, but has "not been involved in the project since January 2023", according to HNZ chief infrastructure and investment officer Jeremy Holman. CPB has also worked on the project for years, under an Early Contractor Engagement (ECE) contract signed in 2021 with HNZ to plan and price the project. However, last year former health minister Dr Shane Reti and Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop forced a tools-down on the former Cadbury factory site after claiming a budget blowout. After the decision to proceed again, the chance of CPB undertaking the build has been thought to be a certainty for continuity reasons and due to limited big-build competitors. However, HNZ has issued an invitation for construction firms to tender by mid-June to finish the "substructure". The invitation asks for a fixed price. Naylor Love former chief executive Rick Herd said a fixed price for the Dunedin inpatient build, determined by a set-in-stone design, was "unlikely to happen due to the quality, competency, calibre and capacity of the design teams we have got in this country". He also blamed poor government leadership. "The government struggles to get consistency, continuity and agreement within their own teams and clinicians of what a big hospital should look like and in my experience are constantly changing their mind. This makes it impossible to fix a price." Any agreed price would likely require a "huge contingency" and result in the contractor filing for variations throughout the build, causing "stress, antagonism and conflict". A price tag should be attached to "unknowns" and a decision made about who carried that financial risk. CPB declined to comment.
Otago Daily Times
06-05-2025
- Health
- Otago Daily Times
Dentistry PhD research ‘a very new area'
Dentistry PhD student Vaishnavi Yeleswarapu with one of the comics she has created to promote oral health. PHOTO: GERARD O'BRIEN When Vaishnavi Yeleswarapu tentatively suggested producing a comic book for her PhD in dentistry, she expected an overanimated and colourless frown from her supervisor. But she was pleasantly surprised by the response. "They loved it because it's so unique. "Very few people around the world have done that for dentistry. "There have been quite a few research papers published on comics on the medical side, but not on the dental side. "It's a very new area to research on." Miss Yeleswarapu said the first part of her PhD research involved developing minimally worded digital comics to promote important oral health in a very simple and visual way. "The aim is to tell people they don't have to spend a lot of money on dental treatment if they take care of their teeth. "I'm trying to show them how easy it is." Surprisingly, the comics are geared towards adults in their late teens and early 20s — not children. "Young people have free dental care here, but people just about the age of 18 are struggling more with their oral healthcare because they no longer have that free dental help. "And because they are still at a young age and not earning money yet, they are less likely to be able to pay for their private treatments. "So, that's when I thought, 'OK, that's my target audience'." The project had since progressed to include all adults, she said. Each comic "episode" shows people how to brush and floss their teeth properly, shows why it is important and answers questions like 'are electric toothbrushes better than manual tooth brushes?'. The comics also describe procedures that a dentist might carry out when you are in the chair. The topics for the comic strips came from a diverse group of people in the community, including refugees and international students, each with various questions about oral health, she said. "I've tried not to use too many words — just facial expressions instead — to tell the story. "I kept it minimal, just to make sure that people who find it hard to read, or people who are not very comfortable reading English, would be able to understand the story and get the meaning of what I'm intending to say." Inspiration for her PhD came from her love of comic books, online webcomics and Japanese anime and manga, Miss Yeleswarapu said. "Also, during the pandemic, I was actually unemployed for a while and I didn't want to just sit and do nothing. "So that's when I taught myself how to draw comics. "Then a friend taught me how to use Photoshop and then I started putting the comics up on my social media page. "It was strange, because a couple of people I didn't know gave me some really positive feedback and comments on how they loved it. "And that's how I came up with my research idea for my PhD." She has now created eight comic strips, and the next step is to get public feedback on them. Members of the public could contact the University of Otago Dental School to participate, she said. She hoped her comics would eventually grace the walls of dental surgeries and schools around the country, or even reach a global audience on social media. Her PhD would be submitted in May 2026, she said.
