Now that we have the capacity to obliterate humankind from the face of the earth with our weapons of mass destruction isn’t it time to concede that we all have differences and to accept and appreciate those differences as being paramount for the survival of mankind. We should not underestimate the uniqueness of human existence. If we don’t then the whimper of our own self-destruction may shortly one day echo through the dark recesses of the cosmos, signifying nothing.
Bernard Walker, Mount Maunganui.
Parliamentary theatrics
Seeing Te Pāti Māori MP Rawiri Waititi brandishing a noose in the House on Thursday was very disquieting. Everyone knows the symbolism of a noose, and to see the MP holding one aloft during his fiery tirade was not intimidating, as I suppose he thought it would be, but showed ignorance and a lack of respect.
I’d suggest that if Waititi stopped his theatrics he just may gain more traction, but this sort of carry-on makes him look foolish.
Lorraine Kidd, Warkworth.
Razor the redeemer?
There is a lot of conjecture about the make-up of this year’s All Blacks but very little on the coach.
Razor was supposed to be our great redeemer after the very average Foster regime but judging by his first-up effort he came up short. If [Jason] Ryan hadn’t done such a great job with the forwards it could have been a disaster as the backs were taken in the wrong direction.
Let’s hope the backs coaches have worked out that Reiko [Ioane] is not a centre and Jordie [Barrett] has learned some new skills in his term in Ireland as we definitely need to develop better attacking skills. At times last year our midfield backs looked like the proverbial headless chickens. Let’s hope Razor can show his coaching skills. Only time will tell.
Jock MacVicar, Hauraki.
Politicians playing blame game
The current Government continually blames the former Government of financial mismanagement to the point it has become a throwaway.
One learnt a number of decades ago that progressive companies and business discarded blame and used any such issue as a positive learning tool in their bag. Blame is a method of moving responsibility for one’s actions on to others but does not solve the problem.
Just to cast the stone is a well-used method in propaganda to influence the belief of large sections of the population. It is known that there is no need to quote actualities only to sow the seed.
One is finding it more difficult every day to believe what is put in front of them by politicians. They must have psychological training schools that convince them that we are mushrooms and need to be fed appropriately.
Reg Dempster, Albany.
No winners in nuclear war
Our planet is awash with guns. The companies that sell destructive weapons have never had it so good. At any moment a lunatic ruler in an act of madness could launch nuclear weapons.
There will be no winners in a nuclear war. We can only be certain that hundreds of millions will perish. The radioactive waste will poison much of our planet. The real concern here in New Zealand is that Aukus and China are on a collision course.
We need to reflect on the words often attributed to Winston Churchill, “meeting jaw to jaw is better than war”. The clock is winding down. There is so little time left. The leaders of Aukus must be persuaded to engage in meaningful talks with China so that conflict can be averted. We are now on the eve of destruction. This could well be our very last opportunity to save our precious planet from utter destruction.
Johann Nordberg, Paeroa.
