David Williams is an author, journalist and theologian, based in New Zealand.
New Zealand is a sovereign island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses—the North Island, and the South Island —and around 600 smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres (600 mi) south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal, fungal, and plant life. The country's varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, while its most populous city is Auckland.
He gained notoriety following the publication of his 1989 account of the failed drug run and subsequent execution of Australian drug runners, Kevin Barlow and Geoffrey Chambers. Titled This Little Piggy Stayed Home: Barlow, Chambers and the Mafia the book was one of the more controversial publications of Panorama Books. The book was never printed again following its initial release, despite continued demand, because of fears of litigation. It caused a stir in the large Italian community based in Western Australia and, for a time, was roundly rejected as an accurate account of the mafia's existence and operation in WA. That changed when famed mafia hunter, Judge Giovanni Falcone, used Williams' book to describe the formation of the mafia in the state around cells of influence. Falcone was assassinated on 23 May 1992, in a massive car bomb attack — not six months following his vindication of Williams' work.
Italian Australians comprise the sixth largest ethnic group in Australia, with the 2016 census finding 4.6% of the population claiming ancestry from Italy be they migrants to Australia or their descendants born in Australia of Italian heritage. The 2016 census counted 174,044 people who were born in Italy, down from 199,124 in the 2006 census. In 2011, 916,100 persons identified themselves as having Italian ancestry, either alone or in combination with another ancestry (4.6%). By 2016, Italian was identified as the fifth most spoken language other than English with 271,597 speakers. In 2011, Italian was the second most used language at home with 316,900 speakers. Since the arrivals, the Italo-Australian dialect came into note in the 1970s by Italian linguist Tullio De Mauro.
Western Australia is a state occupying the entire western third of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, and the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Australia is Australia's largest state, with a total land area of 2,529,875 square kilometres, and the second-largest country subdivision in the world, surpassed only by Russia's Sakha Republic. The state has about 2.6 million inhabitants – around 11 percent of the national total – of whom the vast majority live in the south-west corner, 79 per cent of the population living in the Perth area, leaving the remainder of the state sparsely populated.
Giovanni Falcone was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian Mafia. After a long and distinguished career, culminating in the Maxi Trial in 1986–1987, on 23 May 1992 Falcone was assassinated by the Corleonesi Mafia in the Capaci bombing, on the A29 motorway near the town of Capaci.
Williams took an extended break from journalism after reporting on the deaths of nine people in the Gracetown cliff collapse in 1996. Gracetown is a small coastal community on the south-west coast of Western Australia, near Margaret River. His piece was the only eyewitness journalistic account of the events following the tragedy, but it was his own involvement in the community effort to recover the bodies from beneath the sand that led to his disenchantment with media.
Gracetown is a small town in Western Australia. It is located 269 kilometres (167 mi) south of the Perth central business district, and 21.5 kilometres (13.4 mi) north-west of the township of Margaret River in the Augusta-Margaret River Shire Council area on the coast at Cowaramup Bay.
Williams pursued theological studies for some years and eventually earned a PhD. He took up an academic role at Laidlaw College, in Auckland, New Zealand, where he designed a new counselling degree programme. He left the college after some years and launched his own news magazine.
Laidlaw College is the largest theological college in New Zealand. The college offers tertiary courses in biblical, theological, historical and pastoral studies, as well as professional degrees in teaching and counselling. Laidlaw has around 1200 students and offers programmes at Diploma, Bachelors and Masters levels, as well as doctoral supervision. It is the highest ranked non-University research institute in New Zealand.
Auckland is a city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country, Auckland has an urban population of around 1,628,900. It is located in the Auckland Region—the area governed by Auckland Council—which includes outlying rural areas and the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, resulting in a total population of 1,695,900. Auckland is a diverse, multicultural and cosmopolitan city, home to the largest Polynesian population in the world. A Māori-language name for Auckland is Tāmaki or Tāmaki-makau-rau, meaning "Tāmaki with a hundred lovers", in reference to the desirability of its fertile land at the hub of waterways in all directions.
Williams continues to author books and consults in the areas of communication, human relationships, epistemology and theology, through his consultancy Other Wise.[ citation needed ] His latest book is on the life and death of Dr Jared Noel, a young Auckland City Hospital surgeon who succumbed to bowel cancer in October 2014. In the five or so years that Jared fought the disease, he wrote a blog about his journey of suffering, faith and hope, which garnered a large following. Williams interviewed Jared almost daily in the final month leading up to his death, and Message to My Girl, told in Jared's voice and from his perspective, is a reflection on a young person's submission to mortality, and an inspirational account of how to approach death with unending hope. [1]
The Auckland City Hospital is one of the largest hospitals in New Zealand, as well as one of the oldest medical facilities of the country. It is a publicly funded hospital, run by the Auckland District Health Board since 2001. Located in the suburb of Grafton, east of the CBD, it has 3,500 rooms and provides a total of 710 beds.
