Heart of the Congo
Up the Congo River from Kinshasa is a boggy ecosystem under which lies the world's biggest area of tropical peatlands holding three years' worth of global emissions from fossil fuels. If left untouched, it is capable of mitigating global warming.
The government reckons underneath these peatlands lies 16
billion barrels of oil. For the Congolese government, whose priority is economic development (Congo is one of the poorest countries in the world ) the proceeds from the sale of such an asset would finance schools, roads and hospitals. It claims criticism from rich countries who prosper from fossil fuels is hypocritical, citing Joe Biden's visit to the Middle East and exhorting countries like Saudi Arabia to produce more oil as an example.
The Congolese minister of hydrocarbons, referring to the Congo's abundant resource, states categorically: "We will exploit it; we will extract it; we will sell it; we will commercialise it."
As with many other similarly poor and consequently corrupt countries, this is the political dilemma facing world leaders.
Currently, large slices of the peatlands are up for sale to international buyers.
Gary Hollis, Mellons Bay.
Law and disorder
There's been several "tough on crime" opinions in the Herald recently. Calls for "broken windows" style policing, with harsh punishment for slight misdemeanours, make for compelling reading when sprinkled between stories about ram raids and guns - I understand the appeal. Only, unfortunately, it just doesn't work.
People are complex but certainly will do what it takes to survive. When you surveil, disrespect, or lock up a community, they will simply disengage with society and law: Consider how much conjectural crime, such as sexual and domestic violence, goes unreported. Crime-riddled communities in aggressively-policed places – as in certain overseas cities – fear, but don't trust the police to treat them with basic humanity and respect, so simply don't engage.
You can threaten to cut hands off captured thieves and they will still risk it if the alternative is starvation. The need for belonging and possibility is powerful like hunger, so the high-profile crimes we see now result from years of social alienation.
If we simplify crime solutions as punishment, rather than addressing people with opportunity and respect, we might get fewer crime reports but crime won't be gone. The only guaranteed outcome is broken communities and a sadder Aotearoa-New Zealand.
T Barlow, Hillcrest.
Tax real estate
John Minto raises a legitimate concern about tax (NZ Herald, August 24) but removing GST on food is not a policy Child Poverty Action Group supports.
Tax policy is complicated but a "broad base, low rate" approach is ostensibly at the heart of New Zealand's system.
Expanding the income tax base by requiring all real estate to be treated as if it generates a return if invested in the bank, is an approach that should be discussed more widely. The Minority Report of the Tax Working Group (2020) favoured this.
Clearly, the country needs a whole lot more revenue to fix the many issues that have been exposed in recent times and which have been neglected for too long.
The net equity approach cries out for more intelligent scrutiny.
Janfrie Wakim, Epsom.
Wholesale savings
If access to supermarket wholesale suppliers is opened up to other, smaller, retailers it would lead to a reduction in prices in dairies, an increase in their sales volumes, and less reliance on selling cigarettes or other "undesirable" products to maintain profit.
A small loss of turnover for supermarkets but a win for convenience and the consumer pocket.
B Darragh, Auckland Central.
Mob justice
Has Brian Tamaki thought about a similar mock trial held over 2000 years ago when a Roman Governor called Pontius Pilate found the prisoner to be without guilt, but handed him to the mob for their verdict? Stirred up by zealots they yelled, "Guilty", and Jesus was led away to death on a cross.
"Just a bit of fun with a serious side," said Brian, of the mock trial at Parliament on Tuesday. Yes, it is serious when mob zeal takes over justice and common sense and yet he, a professed Christian, is the zealot stirring the mob. How sadly ironic. But luckily he can rejoice that he lives in a democracy that allows freedom of speech and peaceful protest, not like the dictatorships to which he is fond of aligning New Zealand.
Goodbye Brian. You've had your say. Enough, surely.
Christine Smith, Northcote Pt.
