Letters: Bias in job search not new

THANK you to Therese Enriquez for highlighting a big problem in Wanganui — it's sadly not a new problem because it is more than 30 years ago I discovered I was overqualified, overweight and did not type.

When I did get into the very rare interviews to be met by my kids' contemporaries, I knew I was wasting their time and mine. No way were they ever going to hire a parent.

Their loss, as my employer found. To prove nothing changes and we all lose, I waited and waited in a local retailer while the two young things behind the counter enjoyed sharing with each other the travels, parties and boys of the long weekend — not something older staff waste their employers' time on.

However, my time was not wasted — while I waited I did enjoy rearranging the shelves unchallenged so the rest of the day would have seen those girls doing something other than chat.

For the record I never did find what I was looking for in that shop, though I have seen it in there since. Finding the item in the next shop I visited, I bought it, spending in excess of $100.

ELIZABETH STILES-DAWE
Whanganui

Drink to benefits

We shouldn't be hopping mad over a beer named "Wanganui" (Abe Leach's story, Chronicle May 16).

Instead, we should look at in a positive light — free publicity for our fair city. Imagine a few scotties sitting under a grey Scottish sky enjoying an ale or two, looking at the Wanganui label on the bottles and imagining being in beautiful New Zealand.

A few more beers and they'd probably rush to the travel agent and book a flight to Wanganui, NZ.

DOUG PRICE
Castlecliff

End of Life Choice Bill

It is interesting that Parliament's Justice Committee could not agree on "many substantial issues" in the End of Life Choice Bill, and stated that the bill "is not workable". The select committee was unable to agree on any substantive changes to the bill which would legalise euthanasia.

Yet Jay Kuten disregards this in his very regular articles heralding its so-called benefits. How can this be good for New Zealand?

JOAN SULLIVAN
Whanganui

Euthanasia message

When any person approves of euthanasia or assisted suicide like Bob Walker or Ann David in today's Chronicle (May 9) they should attempt to realise they send a message to their family members and close friends, suicide is okay.

When someone is in supposed difficulties so unrelenting suicide is contemplated, that person doesn't consider niceties such as euphemism to lock the closet, that person says "Mum and David say suicide is my right."

Same thing happens when parents tell their children a half-lie is fine. Stealing something worth $5 from the local shop is not a large amount. What's the message? Lying and stealing are not big problems.

F.R. HALPIN
Whanganui

Separate matters

Bob Walker began a letter to the Chronicle speaking about the End of Life Choice Bill and finished it speaking about putting "Do not resuscitate" on a hospital form. Now I do not know if Mr Walker was unintentionally confusing the two issues, or simply trying to fit two different things into the one letter, but they are two separate matters.

The bill is not about a patient refusing unnecessarily burdensome or unwanted medical treatment. It is about the direct and deliberate killing of the patient or giving the patient something to kill themselves with. As Mr Walker was apparently trying to say, a patient in New Zealand already has the right and ability to refuse medical treatment they do not want. Even 40 years ago my father-in-law was able to refuse medical treatment and face death as he chose.

The confusion around this bill is worrying, especially when it is being proposed that it could face a national referendum, and it is not helped by the confusion in some of the writings of proponents of the bill.

Another example is Ann David's letter that ends with "good assisted dying law is good suicide prevention." Think that one through. "Good assisted dying law", by which she means a law allowing euthanasia (killing of the patient) and assisted suicide (helping the patient kill themselves), "is good suicide prevention."

I am reminded of what George Orwell taught about the use of language in his novel 1984, where words were used to promote their opposites.

K.A. BENFELL
Gonville

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