A female football coach has been left with a traumatic brain injury after being struck on the sideline at a kids' tournament by an opposing male parent.
No room for thugs in kids’ sport
I have just read the HoS feature article on the assault on the Ellerslie football coach (Nov 10).
In that article Papakura City FC says the identity of the offender has not been provided to them. Frankly, given all the details of the incident included in the article, that statement simply cannot be true.
The football governing body, the Northern Region FA or whatever other body might have jurisdiction, should stand down the entire Papakura City FC from all football activities until such time the club decides to co-operate with the investigation into this heinous offence.
Children’s sport is such an important part of our nation’s development and as such it is so very reliant on the goodwill of so many people who coach, administrate, support or whatever these activities.
They simply cannot be allowed to be jeopardised by the violent demeanour of a thug who purports to be a parent. And Papakura City FC cannot be allowed to support and shelter such a thug.
Phil Chitty, Albany.
Besotted with Trump
Heather Du Plessis-Allan claims “Trump should be better than Biden” (HoS, Nov 10).
Is this another case of a journalist becoming besotted with and drawn into the cult of Trump? I’m getting sick of journalists ignoring facts about Trump.
I ask her on what basis does she think this? About wars, well yes, in the sense that anything could be better than the status quo but if Heather is aware of what Trump’s policy is towards Russia she should let us know.
Likewise, she should share what went so dreadfully wrong with Trump’s non-achieving summits with Kim Jong Un. About America’s economy, emphatically not.
The record shows Trump had mild success with inflation at the cost of a $7.5 trillion deficit expansion on the back of a thriving Barack Obama economy, but Joe Biden added far more jobs (actually 2.4 million compared with a 1.2 million deficit); had higher wage increases; inflation went down steadily from 13% post-pandemic (mishandled by Trump, everyone agrees) to 2% today, and currently the highest GDP in American history (plus Trump never delivered at all an infrastructure bill promised in his first 100 days). Biden did, having the ability to work across the aisle, Trump never did in four long years. I could go on.
Heather accuses Trump of being a loudmouth and it’s hard to know what is bluff. I’m thinking the same is true of Heather.
Keith Burgess, Christchurch.
Questionable choice
Heather du Plessis-Allan asks why voters picked Donald Trump.
Why did they do that, we don’t really know? In which case the real winner of the US elections may very well be the mental health industry.
Psychiatrists, psychologists and neuroscientists could spend the next funded 100 years unravelling the enigma of how a candidate with a resume that reads like a rap sheet - 34 felony charges, two impeachments, and a trail of accusations ranging from racism to inciting riots - could come out a winner.
Academics will churn out research papers, and library shelves groan under titles like “In defence of questionable choices”. Scholars will debate endlessly what led millions to conclude, “Yes, that’s my guy.”
James Gregory, Parnell.
Hīkoi lessons
Those teachers who have encouraged their students to attend the hĪkoi should be congratulated and can ignore Associate Education Minister David Seymour’s displeasure.
After all I am sure that, like all good teachers, they have used this event as an opportunity to teach them research skills based on the issue so that their students understand the subject of the protest thoroughly.
Have the students been encouraged to gather information from credible sources that express opinions from both sides of the issue so that they can come to legitimate conclusions and not be swayed by the emotions of the moment? Did teachers set up activities like interclass debating competitions that help clearly define the issue from a number of perspectives?
Hopefully all this would prepare students to counter opposing arguments logically and respectfully. However, if none of these critical thinking activities were organised by the teachers prior to the event and the students just attended the hīkoi without prior consideration of the issue involved then David Seymour would be quite right in accusing teachers of influencing students to follow “their own personal beliefs”.
This is not education but indoctrination and those students attending the hīkoi will only contribute to something that is all sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Bernard Walker, Mt Maunganui.
Agreed destination
It seems as though we are now to endure six months of bitter and emotional debate over the Treaty Principles Bill.
Perhaps this heat and energy would be better refocused on a rational discussion around how the Treaty can be refreshed to fix the inequalities and injustices that are apparent in a range of current outcomes for Māori.
It would be very helpful if Te Pāti Māori clearly stated their views on this, defined what success means to them and how they see the grievance process being brought to a conclusion. Without a mutual understanding of the end goals, it is hard to see how real progress can be made and the suspicion will remain that maintaining the grievance industry is a higher priority than finding genuine solutions for Māoridom.
On the other hand, if we can all agree where we need to go we might have a chance of getting there.
Duncan Simpson, Hobsonville Point.
Kiwi music
We have a fabulously skilled and high-performing tranch of local musicians in NZ. Sadly they are starved of radio time by the networks in NZ, no matter how often they perform overseas or locally.
Thus we end up with large crowds trotting off to see elderly bands, for large ticket prices, as these are the bands constantly regurgitated over the airwaves. It saddens me to see local‚ skilled musicians struggling to fill small venues.
We went to Wellington Folk Festival over Labour weekend for a weekend of brilliant performance, the majority local musicians, for a little less than these overseas musicians charge for a couple of hours.
Two days and three nights of professional presentations equal to any imports. It must be time for a regulator to set a decent percentage of radio time to play local music. Australia does it and no one goes broke there.
Let’s give local a fair go.
Brian Dent, Pahiatua.
Valuing education
Correspondent Richard Cole writes on the subject of school exams, where he reminded us of the uproar that followed when students did not understand the meaning of the word “trivial” (HoS, Nov 10).
What is interesting regarding this word is its derivation. It comes from the Latin tri- (three) -via (roads).
In Ancient Rome the old women would gather at this junction of three roads and gossip, none of which was important, but trivial.
The appalling decline in literacy and numeracy in New Zealand is brought about by the failure of adults to appreciate the value of education, and get their kids off to school every day of every school term.
Failure to do so leads down the joint paths of increased poverty and prison populations.
Chris Parker, Campbells Bay.