Remove blinkers
I wanted to scream in frustration and I did when I read that S W Easton views the poor people as the problem and not only wants to blame them but also wants to punish them by 'docking their benefit'.
Please can people like this writer wake up and remove their blinkers; look at the reforms of 1984 when the welfare state was dismantled under a Labour government with Helen Clark in the leadership position and look what that has done to creating inequality in our society. The gap between rich and poor continues to grow; the social issues we have like hungry children attending school is a consequence of this action taken by our government; not parents' and families' fault; look at our current National government pulling funding from agencies that are there trying to assist people impacted by poverty. Poverty is real, poverty is created by poor government policy and the uncaring neo-liberal government continues to put its own blinkers on about poverty, particularly child poverty. This is what I want people like S W Easton to critique and address; not the poor families of Aotearoa.
Kia Ora
KATHERINE CONAGLEN
Back to basics
The coverage on breakfast in schools raises more than just questions of hungry kids, it makes us as a society ask ourselves why these children are hungry. I believe part of the problem is that their parents are ill educated in basics such as nutrition and budgeting. With one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the western world, we are producing a country full of immature parents who have little idea how to care for themselves, let alone a child. Maybe schools need to spend less time on field trips, outings, watching movies in the classroom and other such pursuits and more time on learning basic budgeting, cooking, housework and other essential skills. It will not only equip that generation, but the one to come after them as well.
A COOPER, Stratford.
Thanks Stratford
To the people of Stratford
Thank you Agecare Central and the TET community trust for giving us local people such a fabulous facility for our dementia patients. My husband suffered with dementia for over a decade before he passed away and my experience of that time was absolutely awful, made worse by having to travel to see him in a facility I did not feel was perfect. How I wish my husband were here now to enjoy the comfort and luxury of living in the new dementia unit in Stratford. How much easier it would be for me, as a non-driver due to failing eyesight, to be able to walk up to see him several times during my day. I am overjoyed that now Stratford can truly boast that we look after our own.
Thank you.
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