Shane Jones says NZ First is backing the idea of a nuclear power plant in New Zealand. Photo / Getty Images
Nuclear not the safest option
What a strange man Shane Jones is.
One has to wonder where he has been over the past few decades as he preaches from a Muldoon-like pulpit on the want to build a nuclear power plant in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Well, Shane, that proposition did not please the adults at the time as fact after fact was given for them to decide. They didn’t like where radiation waste was stored, nor did they approve of the possibility of leakages into our precious land and oceans. So sensible when we consider the situation at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
Many nuclear reactor accidents have occurred since our decision (at least 56 in United States), including large ones like Five Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima.
With all that in mind, perhaps Shane Jones could wait for the safer option of fusion?
Emma Mackintosh, Birkenhead.
Jones the orator
Shane Jones is certainly a skilled orator, and a master at answering questions.
At the Warkworth public meeting on Sunday, when asked why he had abandoned the radical views he had when he was young, his response (Sept 1) was perfect: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
Lorraine Kidd, Warkworth.
NZ First’s last stand?
Shane Jones says NZ First will be discussing nuclear power at their upcoming conference (Sept 1). If they decide to go down that route, I would suggest the party considers a name change at the same time to NZ Last. That is because New Zealanders will never, ever tolerate nuclear in any shape or form. So if they make this policy, I predict that will signal the demise of the party.
Glen Stanton, Mairangi Bay.
An environmental threat
The wealthiest 10% of the Earth’s population is responsible for up to 67% of global environmental damage, which includes half of carbon emissions, most biodiversity loss and most exploitation of the Earth’s resources, while the bottom 50% contribute almost nothing to the crises (eg 8% of carbon emissions).
In a nutshell, it could be said that the wealthiest 10%, which includes several world leaders, has become an environmental threat for the remaining 90% of the Earth’s population and the human race a whole.
Gary Hollis, Mellons Bay.
Gaza’s Christian community
While the world rightly grieves the suffering in Gaza, there is a story almost no one talks about: the tiny Christian community still living there.
Today, there are believed to be only about 1000 Christians left in Gaza out of a population of 2.3 million. Once larger, their numbers have been driven down by war, poverty, and emigration. There are also around 45,000 Palestinian Christians living in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
These believers are not outsiders — they are Palestinian, Arabic-speaking, and part of churches that have been there for centuries. They worship at the Greek Orthodox Church of St Porphyrius (one of the oldest in the world), the Holy Family Catholic Church, and they run Gaza’s only Christian hospital, the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital.
Over the past two years, their suffering has been extreme. The compound of St Porphyrius was struck in October 2023, killing more than a dozen sheltering civilians. In December 2023, two Christian women were killed inside the Catholic parish. The hospital itself has been damaged during the fighting.
For Christians, these are our brothers and sisters in Christ, but many people are unaware they exist.
Whether one’s view of the wider conflict is political, humanitarian, or religious, surely we can agree that all civilians, including the forgotten Christian minority of Gaza, deserve protection and dignity.
I believe we need to speak, pray, and advocate — not only for peace in Gaza, but for the survival of this ancient Christian community.
Merv Cate, Greymouth.
Westlake on song
Congratulations to Westlake Boys’ High School and Westlake Girls’ High School. What a great weekend of inspiration and achievement they both had. Westlake Boys’ won three top prizes with their choir, Voicemale, at this year’s Big Sing secondary schools’ singing competition in Dunedin at the weekend. As well as winning the audience impact award, they won a gold singing with Westlake Girls’ High School. Westlake Girls’ High School won two awards, the second singing with the boys.
In addition to the Big Sing, Westlake Boys’ High School successfully reached the quarter-finals of the National Top Secondary Schools’ Rugby Competition, with the final played over the weekend.
How fantastic to perform so well in two such different arenas. Well done.
Andrea Dorn, St Heliers.