Letter of the week: Larry Mitchell, Rothesay Bay
Simon Wilson"s Diary "Love Rises Up" (Weekend Herald, January 2) is a magnificent and beautifully crafted paean to the nursing and caring people who day after day show their compassion and love for those undergoing challenging medical treatment.
His observations apply to all
carers, the special people of enormous empathy and compassion whose collective humanity ease the burden of pain and anxiety.
Simon says also; "My family have been so great, looking after me, putting up with all that. Love rises up ... and it's pretty good".
Amen to that.
Evasive action
John Roughan's "answers" to the pandemic remind me of a joke. The air traffic controller radioed the aircraft: "Immediate turn 30 degrees for noise abatement."
The pilot queried the instruction: "There's no noise abatement procedure at this aerodrome!"
Controller: "Have you heard the noise when you hit a B747?"
Roughan misunderstands the crux of herd immunity and the efficacy of vaccines; queries the consensus view to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2, and blames standard procedures for combating a pandemic for damaging the economy.
No, Mr Roughan, time to turn. The problem is a very unpleasant disease and an airy-fairy economy. Tourism will never return to "normal", because what you refer to in quotes - "climate emergency" - is real, and air travel is yet to pay for its true cost to the environment.
Dennis N Horne, Howick.
Price controls
I am always amazed when people advocate increasing or introducing a new tax to control house prices, or any prices for that matter (Weekend Herald, January 2).
Just in case it has escaped Dominick Stephens of Westpac, or anyone else for that matter, any new or increased tax always causes an increase in costs. Either as an increase in costs to your business. Or a decrease in the amount you earn after tax, when you sell something.
Any such increase in costs is always passed on to consumers in the way of increased, not decreased, prices, in what people purchase.
One has to only look at the UK for proof. Capital Gains Tax and Stamp Duty has not controlled or forced prices down in that country. Quite the opposite.
I note the UK Chancellor has cancelled the stamp duty on house sales until April 1 this year. His stated intention is to decrease the cost of housing.
Michael Walker, Blockhouse Bay.
More Wilson
Any paper with writing by Simon Wilson grabs my attention. He excels himself in his cancer diary (Weekend Herald, January 2).
Those of us who have been there in those rooms - myself in 2008 - or those supporting someone can feel recognised, seen at a profound level .
What a tribute to those who work there.
As a 70-year survivor of TB of the spine, I wonder whether Wilson - when he has recovered sufficiently - could he do one of his opinion pieces on what's happening with the Laura Fergusson Trust and especially with its board?
Marilyn Woolford, Westmere.
Ad-miration
I would like to congratulate the creative minds and the conceptual masterminds behind the Kiwibank advertisement on your cover pages (Weekend Herald, January 2).
After months of Harvey Norman wrap-around ads, someone somehow decided it was time to replace the cover and give it a more Kiwi flavour, just like fish 'n' chips epitomises Kiwi culture. A worthy replacement by all means, even worthy of becoming recycled as fish 'n' chip wrap at the end of its day.
I can see the sparkle in Jim Anderton's eyes, when he looks back at how he visualised Kiwibank to become a worthwhile player in a world otherwise dominated by huge overseas corporate players. There will be a big smile radiating from one of the nation's most well-meaning political souls.
René Blezer, Taupō.
