A Little Bit of Everything...

Tena koutou katoa
Greetings to you all
Mt Taranaki, Mt Egmont, or koro as he is affectionately known to some of you, splendid in the morning sky, beckoned as I drove toward Taranaki. A good omen, I thought.
I also pondered on my new adventure in the Stratford community and the region, and soon discovered that the people of the 'Naki were, as I remembered, salt of the earth and welcoming.
I'm Merania Karauria, from the Whanganui River, and here in Stratford as acting editor while Jessica Ranginui is on maternity leave.
In my other job on the Wanganui Chronicle I wrote three columns - Maori Perspective every Monday, and Business Briefs every Friday. I also covered general news.
I still write my two-weekly column, Goddess of Clean, and continue with Maori Perspective when I spend one day a week back in the Wanganui Chronicle newsroom.
I covered the Trans Tasman Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) which the Government planned to join with Australia. On Monday it was scuppered, but on hold, because the Government did not have the numbers.
Two-and-a- half million New Zealanders opposed the new administration, as did this country's businesses that manufactured complementary products.
The TGA (Australia) was responsible for the worldwide Pan Pharmaceutical recall in 2003, citing unsafe, a pharmaceutical product the company manufactured under various brand names for other companies.
Pan was the fourth-largest manufacturer of health products in the world and the largest supplier of complementary health products in Australia.
On closer inspection, the TGA in Australia is a member of the Codex Alimentarius Commission an international body set up by the World Health Organisation to globally regulate and control access to natural products.
The first commission was convened in 1963 and since that time Codex delegates have overwhelmingly represented large, multinational, pharmaceutical companies and government regulating authorities including the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Australian TGA.
And speaking of pharmaceuticals, Alinghi owner Ernesto Bertarelli, ranked 76 in the world's billionaire club, inherited his family's biotech company, Serono.
He tried to sell the company for $15 billion, but the offer was balked at.
Still on the water, the America's Cup sponsor, Louis Vuitton, has withdrawn after 25 years, citing commercialism, and the way in which the defender Alinghi was directing the next cup race.
Amidst the global unrest, we have seen Live Earth concerts held to raise awareness to save the planet from climate change; pop king Prince's 2.9 million Planet Earth CDs giveaway in the UK's Mail on Sunday because he was "getting music direct to those who want to hear it", and the revival of John Lennon's Imagine by a lineup of musicians, said by Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono, to be "the power of music to create change".