YOUR VIEW: Letters to the Editor

The Bay of Plenty Times welcomes letters and comments from readers. Below you can read the letters and texts we have published in the newspaper today.
TODAY'S LETTERS:
Be very afraid of 'expert' prophecies
Roy Edwards (Your View, October 20) is perfectly correct but the study does illustrate how horrendously expensive bottled water is.
However, what is surprising is that he considers this to be an unusual occurrence; that the average citizen is treated as dumb by "scientists"; that he expects unbiased "science" from "experts" in this day and age of competitive research funding.
Regrettably, there are a raft of obvious scares, warnings, pandemics, tipping points, and impending catastrophes daily prophesied by so-called experts. Whether it be flu (Asian, avian, swine), the ozone hole, lysteria hysteria, BSE (mad cow disease), peak oil or the biggest bogeyman of all, climate change, they are designed to make us afraid (See Scared To Death, Christopher Booker and Dr Richard North).
But with a largely scientifically illiterate public, it's relatively easy for the boffins to raise scares - and research funding - with mumbo-jumbo and pseudo-science. Witness the current faith of man-made global warming (now known as "climate disruption").
Beware, and be very afraid, of scientists and sundry experts trundling ordure-laden wheelbarrows in order to push political agendas (and maintain funding).
DAVE FINNEY Matua
Why teach?
At the age of 18 I was not noted for making particularly sensible decisions about my future but I was smart enough not to get into post-primary teaching. Of course, I knew they only worked six hours a day (short pause for cynical laughter) but at least part of that time would be spent trying to cope with those students who had no intention of learning.
You are a masochist and want to become a college teacher? Four years of successful study will be ahead of you and, unless you have a wealthy daddy, you can expect to be burdened with a debt of $30-40,000 at the end of it.
Possibly the most chilling remark in this debate is that the average age of maths teachers is 56. It seems likely that science teaching is similarly afflicted.
Politicians cannot grasp the concept that they have to pay for expertise, especially where there are shortages, yet they are prepared to pay salaries of half a million dollars to bureaucrats - especially ironic when one of them tells Papamoa students they must travel 7km to college instead of walking to the nearby one.
To those who criticise the PPTA, I can only quote a friend of mine who used to say, "Come and join us. Plenty of room at the blackboard."
(Abridged)
JOHN WIGHTMAN Tauranga
Don't blame residents
I read the comments from pupils of Matakana Island school, I just feel hatred coming through in these letters.
Omokoroa residents that I have spoken to are just as appalled by these actions of possibly two or three people in burning the cars.
There are a lot of people on the ridge who overlook the wharf but not many up at 5.30 on a Sunday morning, that is why whoever did burn the cars chose that time.
To the pupils, I have friends whose cars have been stolen and broken into in Tauranga, do we blame Tauranga people - no. People's houses and cars are broken into in Omokoroa but some of the time it is people outside of our area. Residents would also like cameras near the wharf but at a huge cost, Omokoroa residents pay very high rates now.
I love to see all the cars parked at the waterfront on Omokoroa and often wonder what is "on" the island. Like many residents of Omokoroa we have been to your island and what a great piece of paradise it is.
Please do not blame the residents of Omokoroa and let's hope the people responsible are found.
WENDY GALLOWAY Omokoroa
Golden goose
What a pity that Helen Kelly of the Council of Trade Unions and Robyn Malcolm of Actors Equity have obviously never read the story about the goose that laid the golden egg.
ROLY HAMMOND Matua
Terrible driving
Re 450 drivers caught speeding already.
This does not surprise me as I drive from Papamoa to Windermere every week day and there is a lot of terrible driving.
I was involved in a crash recently where another driver did not give way at a roundabout.
I phoned 111 but the police were not interested in coming to the crash site because no-one was seriously injured.
A police officer happened to drive past and stopped to check on us. He was happy to let us leave because we had exchanged details.
I feel that he should have tested us both for drugs and alcohol, because those two substances are having a big impact on driving behaviour.
In this story it encourages people to phone *555 to report bad driving, but how my crash was handled has discouraged me from doing so.
I would like to see police posted at the Maungatapu and Welcome Bay roundabouts with the traffic lights.
Not only do I see people purposely starting out in the wrong lane, ie. the one without a queue of cars, only then to recklessly cross over two lanes between the two roundabouts.
There is usually also a lot of running of amber lights; by taxis, school buses, truck and trailer units and standard cars.
The traffic lights for the pedestrians who are mostly school children is not serving a purpose at all, as they cannot cross safely even if their light is green.
If this type of behaviour were not endangering people's lives it would be better entertainment than most TV shows.
SYLVIA DOVASTON Papamoa
TODAY'S TEXTS:

TEXT VIEWS
* Wine is cheaper than bottled water ... so more kiwis are going to die
* Y r 2 new schools built in tsunami path
* The council pay THEIR WORKERS 2 do the POLICE JOB..Why shold they get ne at all? If they(police)r so concerned bot the money mayb they shod do the job THEMSELFS.!
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