Many happy returns perhaps, but how robust have our border and quarantine protocols been? Photo / Brett Phibbs
Reg Dempster (NZ Herald, September 16) compares our Covid-19 management with other nations and declares that we have done well. The truth is that our coastal border provides a distinct advantage while also being our key area of vulnerability.
Our Government has failed to prioritise and concentrate its
efforts into driving home that advantage.
After 100 days free of infection there can be no doubt that the second wave in Auckland originated from a failure at the border.
All of the sacrifices we made to achieve Covid-free status were put at risk by the early operational failures in quarantine and by the staggering revelation that frontline border staff were not being routinely tested. This reflects a poor appreciation of the fact that, above all else, robust border and quarantine protocols are the absolute priority.
The second lockdown has been hugely damaging and would not have been necessary if the Government's crisis management had been up to the task.
George Williams, Whangamatā.
Juha Saarinen's article "Grappling with our social media dystopia" (NZ Herald, September 16) was depressing to read for me and possibly others who have determined from the off to have nothing to do with social media.
As someone familiar with computers, the web and the internet, it was instantly obvious to me when Facebook, Twitter, etc appeared that their potential bad effects would far outweigh any good - simply because the vast majority of users have very little knowledge of how these things work and are incredibly naive in their acceptance of information which appears on their devices (one only has to overhear the chatter in the lunch room).
Unfortunately, there seems to be a whole couple of generations for whom the easy availability of these things has overtaken education in the basic technology supporting them and the prodigious output of applications of often dubious value.
Turn off notifications? Absolutely. More comp/tech education? Definitely.
Peter Rodriguez, Whanganui.
I was disappointed, on the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, with the lack of reference to Sir Keith Park, the New Zealander who won that fight, especially because on Sunday morning a memorial to him was "unveiled" at the Sir Keith Park Memorial Airfield in Thames, a replica of his personal Hawker Hurricane fighter.
Park is, without question, the most outstanding New Zealander ever, eclipsing more widely recognised heroes such as Sir Edmund Hillary, Sir Ernest Rutherford and Kate Sheppard, who are immortalised on our bank notes.
While they each achieved great things, Air Vice-Marshall Sir Keith Park is widely credited with saving Britain from invasion by the Nazi war machine, and thereby changing the course of history.
While Park's tactical genius is unquestioned, in many ways it was a more subtle, more nuanced skill that he brought to bear. Leadership.
Each afternoon after fending off multiple assaults from the air, Park would climb aboard OK1, his own Hurricane, and visit the airfields that had been under the gun that day. In the officers' mess he would mingle with his pilots, sharing a beer and listening to their stories.
Charles Upham won two Victoria Crosses. Keith Park won a war.
David Morris, Hillsborough.
I have just had a 20-minute echocardiogram, following heart surgery a year ago, to check that the procedure has my heart working well.
Although insured with Southern Cross at $600-odd monthly, it declined to pay the costs unless it led to another surgical procedure. So I paid the bill of $678. I will visit the heart surgeon in a couple of days for his interpretation of what the machine spat out, which will cost me another $250.
As I had to wait three weeks for the appointment, I assume that this machine is kept pretty busy and I acknowledge that it a valuable piece of equipment and that the operator is a professional.
However, on the basis of, say, two patients hourly over eight hours this annualises at
$678 x 16 appointments x 250 days - or $2.712 million per annum.
This must be considered excessive and emphasises the spiralling costs for health procedures.
Critics may say, well get on the public system and save yourself $7000 annually but, if I and everyone like me did this, the whole system would grind to a halt.
Robert Manson, Golflands.
Am I the only one disappointed? A breach of the public health requirements by a bible study group, a further breach at a bereavement gathering by the same organisation which spread Covid to many more outside their own community. An organised mass gathering of hundreds in Aotea square, and at that gathering the spreading of misinformation and a public call to ignore mask-wearing by conspiracy theorists and political aspirants. A Mongrel Mob tangi involving more than a hundred people.
There was a police presence at all of these events.
The police are charged with the responsibility of ensuring compliance with the law and public health requirements. Do these breaches continue to happen because the police fail to ensure compliance?
Breaches will continue and will put all of us at risk and further jeopardise the economy because the police are failing to act. We need more police but first let's get the police to start fulfilling their role as protectors of society.
Rubin Levin, Devonport.
Your correspondent who advocated a capital gains tax (NZ Herald, September 17) to reduce house prices is wrong. The GST tax on food certainly did not reduce food prices.
The very best way to reduce house prices is to build more houses and oversupply the market. This will boost the economy, increase jobs and lower unemployment.
This increase in work, more business activity and sale of materials to build and furnish the house will produce a lot more revenue. The next generation will be a lot happier. The Government will have more money to spend on the deprived.
David M de Lacey, Remuera.
Johanna Thornton's article "Covid in waste" in Viva (NZ Herald, September 16) is a difficult read. Thornton takes us through a very disturbing look at the destruction we are causing through our increased reliance on single plastics, like non-degradable synthetic wipes, plastic sanitisers, food-delivery-service wares and other catastrophic polluters.
We seem to feel we have been given the right to chuck - anywhere. Are we aware they are blocking up our waterways, polluting our rivers and seas?
What she has done is draw our attention to our declining behaviour on the use of these synthetics and, along with the heating of the planet and its consequences; fires, ice melts, harm to sea life and changing landforms, we are affecting the way people will live.
It is extremely hard to take it all on board, especially with the tight restrictions on our lives right now. Nevertheless, her argument should be roundly supported and action taken by us all, particularly by businesses and government who can make the greatest impact. Thornton rightly states "as we emerge from this pandemic, keep climate top of mind; the planet needs to be here long after the virus has left us".
Emma Mackintosh, Birkenhead.
Why do residential builders and plumbers push to have continuous-flow hot-water systems installed into new houses. Such systems can waste up to 20 litres per day of cold water just trying to get the hot water through.
When my husband and I had a new house built, we were compelled by Auckland Council to install an underground water-retention tank at a huge cost, plus the cost of a resource consent.
We now tip at least 10 litres of cold water into the tank per day, collected by waiting for the hot water to come through just to enable a shower. If we require hot water at the sinks we fill the hot water jug and boil it because we have to waste so much water before it even becomes warm.
Not only are we having to waste this water we are paying for it twice, once to come into the house and then go down the drain. Fortunately, we can recycle some of our water with having the tank, however we have spoken to many people who don't have the water storage tank.
Surely this type of hot water heating installation should be discouraged with the water crisis?
Anita Coltman, Karaka.
As Murray Brown points out in (NZ Herald, September 16) an "Aotearoian" - with or without the "i" - is an ungainly title.
We could end up calling the country Aotearoa (originally the name of the North Island) with the people still referred to as New Zealanders - an arrangement similar to our names for the Netherlands: Holland (a Dutch province) and the Dutch.
But if it's not broke, why fix it?
John Neave, Hamilton.
On te reo
The Māori name for New Zealand is Nui Tireni. Aotearoa is one of the Māori names for the North Island. There has never been a country called Aotearoa. And there never will be. C C McDowall, Rotorua.
Like Dover Samuels, my father was caned at school. Not for speaking Māori but for writing with his left hand which was regarded as "a sign of the Devil". L Mallon, Te Atatu.
Kia ora, Peter Clapshaw (NZ Herald, September 16). Your radio and television are wondrously clever devices which can "speak to you" in manifold languages – Spanish, Mandarin, Hindi, Urdu, Swahili, even Latin – as well as te reo Māori. Graham Mandeno, Torbay.
If Peter Clapshaw does not like hearing the Māori language on radio or television, why would he choose to live in Aotearoa New Zealand where te reo Māori is an official language? Charlie Haddrell, Maungakieie.
Peter Clapshaw's contribution to Māori language week deserves recognition. Ka pai to mahi, bro. Reg Dempster, Albany.
On cannabis
Curious how some would prefer a drug dealer on every corner over government-controlled cannabis stores. Drug dealers offer methamphetamine and synthetics as well as cannabis. They don't have quality standards, labelling or R20 age limits. Graham Gulbransen, Pt Chevalier.
On tangi
It is very disappointing for the vast majority of Aucklanders who are playing by the Covid rules, to read that a gang member's tangi was attended by over 100 people. Linda Lang, Henderson.
On trees
Auckland Council is happy to allow a foreign developer to destroy a stand of native trees but when an elderly neighbour of mine trimmed a few branches off a pohutukawa on his property he was taken to court and fined. Brian Cuthbert, Army Bay.
'What is a heartbreak for me is watching the pillars of our industry falling over.'