A mobile screen was retrieved from the storage room next door for tourists and others requesting privacy.
My Kiwi psyche needed an explanation and I was told a Danish saying: 'If you can see anything that God didn't give me then you can scream'.
Another time I was taken to pacify a Danish woman whose seafaring husband had broken his leg and was hospitalised in New Zealand.
She wanted him flown home from this "primitive" culture and country.
I assured her New Zealand surgical and nursing standards were equal to that of the Danes.
Marian Jensen
Tauranga
Negative use of 'trust' offensive
I am disturbed by the growing use of the word "trust" in negative terms appearing regularly in our news.
To me, it has become offensive.
In a global pandemic that we are struggling to contain we need to support the thousands of people working to keep us safe.
Kindness, respect and trust are crucial. Ask yourselves some questions:
Who are the people looking after our health and wellbeing? Who is supporting businesses to keep staff employed? Who is paying the benefits? Who is paying for free vaccines? Where do much-needed food parcels come from?
Someone pays. It is not the person delivering to your door.
Margaret Downie
Pāpāmoa
Mandate may be the shove required
I fully support mandatory vaccination for teachers and health workers.
I also enjoy my freedom of choice. We must all have experienced times when we'd choose not to do something for a raft of personal reasons or just to be contrary but relent and do it, albeit reluctantly, for the greater good, or for others or to keep the peace.
Consider, also, those who have been drafted to serve in wars.
They have gone, not because they've wanted to, but for the greater good and a brighter future.
This time the enemy is a virus and the armory is a vaccine, not bombs and missiles.
A brighter future and economic recovery must take precedence over selfish, personal preference.
Yes, some employers may lose staff, but at the end of the day, just how many?
Those staff will still have rent, mortgages and other costs, and the prospect of another job especially in their chosen profession may be minimal.
What comments will referees make with potential future employers? Maybe a loss of income will be the shove required.
Paddi Hodgkiss
Rotorua
The Bay of Plenty Times welcomes letters from readers. Please note the following:
• Letters should not exceed 200 words.
• They should be opinion based on facts or current events.
• If possible, please email.
• No noms-de-plume.
• Letters will be published with names and suburb/city.
• Please include full name, address and contact details for our records only.
• Local letter writers given preference.
• Rejected letters are not normally acknowledged.
• Letters may be edited, abridged, or rejected at the Editor's discretion.
• The Editor's decision on publication is final. No correspondence will be entered into.
Email editor@bayofplentytimes.co.nz
