FAQs
Location
Bio
Hi, My name is Linda.
Back in NZ since 23/2/09. But I still try to keep up with whatz going on over here.
A New Zealander, or a Kiwi as we are commonly called.
Living in VA. BTW New Zealand was the first country in the world in which all the highest offices were occupied by women, between March 2005 and August 2006:
the Sovereign Queen Elizabeth II of New Zealand, Governor-General Dame Silvia Cartwright ,
Prime Minister Helen Clark,
Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives Margaret Wilson
and Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias.
Also PM Helen Clarke is our 2nd female Prime Minister.
NZ is also the first country in the world to give women the vote in 1893.
In 1987 New Zealand passed legislation making the country a nuclear free zone, namely the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act; in the same year the US retaliated with the Broomfield Act, designating New Zealand as a "friend" rather than an "ally".
The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, codenamed Operation Satanic, was a special operation by the "action" branch of the French foreign intelligence services, the DGSE, carried out on July 10, 1985. It aimed to sink the flagship of the Greenpeace fleet, the Rainbow Warrior, while she was docked in the port of Auckland, New Zealand, to prevent her from interfering in a nuclear test in Moruroa. The ensuing scandal resulted in the resignation of the French Defence Minister Charles Hernu, and the subject became so touchy that it was not until twenty years afterward that the personal responsibility of French President Mitterrand, although he denied any involvement at the time. These events worked to strengthen New Zealand's resolve to retain its anti-nuclear policy. Relations between the two countries are now cordial.
2004 New Zealand angrily denounced Israel and imposed diplomatic sanctions on it after two suspected Mossad agents were jailed for six months for trying on false grounds to obtain a New Zealand passport. Uriel Zosha Kelman and Eli Cara, were convicted of passport fraud in Auckland. Israel has ignored requests for an explanation and an apology.
