User:EricTheRed20

My real name is Eric Schwerzel. I was born in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia), and came to New Zealand in 1987 where I still live now. My wife (Raewyn) and I have two children - Jessica and Anna.

My Favourite Movies
OK, I'm a bit of a softie. I like "Sound of Music", "Mr Beans Holiday" and "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels".

My Favourite TV Series
As a family we watched Little House on the Prairie - all nine series plus the stuff before and after. We love it. It teaches the kids great life lessons. We are now going through it a second time. We also enjoy "The Waltons" for similar reasons.

My Favourite Sport
I'm a tennis nut. I love playing it and love watching it on TV or at "The Heineken Open" in New Zealand.

Things I Would Like to Change in the World
I don't think that the way stuff is found on the internet is fair. I'd like to change that. Google has way too much power.

Things I Care About
I grew up in Africa, and Africa still has a special place in my heart. I don't like the huge discrepancy between us rich people in the West and the poor people in the third world. As a family we have four sponsored children.

I Think that Wiki's can Dramatically Change the World
I'm part of a group of people that would like to do for search what Wikipedia has done for the Encyclopedia. I'm hoping to speak at the Wikimania conference in August 2013 in Hong Kong. You can see more about my submission at [Bring On WikiSearchia - A Collaboratively Built Search Engine].

The Passing Away of One of my Daughters
In 2009 one of my daughters passed away after a long battle with a congenial heart defect. She died just before her twelfth birthday. The whole journey just seemed to be so unfair on her as a child, us as parents and on her sisters. I felt powerless to fix it (I'm a fix-it type person). No parent and no child should ever have to go through what we went through. You can see a video tribute of her life at [Emily Joy Schwerzel - YouTube] - every time I watch it, it makes me cry.