Letters: Sickening, tragic parade of child abuse is the shame of our nation

Society needs to take a long, hard look at itself if is to break the child abuse cycle.

The latest abuse of a child by an adult has again sickened me to my stomach.
It's hard to believe in 2020 — it appears that the message is not getting through despite more awareness.

How totally shameful and disrespectful to those who are/have been affected by it. Shame on the perpetrator and shame on all those who were aware of the abuse and chose to ignore it.

I work in mental health, and while there's no perfect service, there certainly is a huge menu of services where one can find a starting place or a first step. But it has to start with a willingness and then a commitment to want something different for ourselves, otherwise all the services in the world won't cut it.

Those people who are so out of control, are themselves emotionally crippled, and probably have the EQ of a child themselves. I get that, but that is no excuse any more for not taking some responsibility to be the adult they are.

They have a developed frontal lobe now. Use it to its fullest potential.

It's time to grow up and realise being strong has nothing to do with bullying and who can punch or scream the loudest to get their own way, but rather the courage to take a long, hard look at their own emotions and stop blaming everyone else for how they feel.

Our vulnerable children need us to do that or all we are going to do is keep teaching them what we aren't prepared to learn ourselves.

CARLA LANGMEAD
Whanganui

Read also

One child killed every five weeks in NZ; what to do about child abuse?

Wet wipes problem

I am sure all of us are horrified at the amount of waste we have all helped to create all over our world. TV3 has just done two programmes in their Because it Matters series on the situation with the UK waste products. Both programmes were excellent, but extremely sobering, seeing the amount of illegal dumping going on especially in overseas countries, e.g. Malaysia.

One segment was concerned solely with the enormous problem relating to wet wipes, with billions used every year for every conceivable purpose, all of them containing plastic. The trouble wet wipes cause if flushed down the loo into our drainage systems is horrendous.

None of them (including those that say they are flushable) should be disposed of in this way.

I am a user of wet wipes, so felt very guilty (I have never flushed them down the toilet, I hasten to add) in the supermarket this week. I spent some time reading the information on all the various makes and, found a New Zealand made brand that was plastic free, it claimed.

I bought them and phoned the manufacturer to make sure this was the case and they assured me their wet wipes are made from bamboo fibre. They are called Earth Smart Aqua baby wipes.

I also asked if their range of other wipes was made in the same way, but sadly everything else contains plastic.

I congratulated New World on stocking this item and intend to ask the other supermarkets if they will do the same. Hopefully one small way we can help our country's waste problems.

FIONA DONNE
Aramoho

Toilet tissue pollution on a beach. Wet wipes, which mostly contain plastic, are a major source of pollution and should not be flushed down the toilet.

Hypocrisy

I find it hypocritical that a number of right-wing commentators and politicians are lambasting our Government for lack of speed in dealing with the numerous, difficult problems that beset our country when the previous National Government, through neglect, was the cause of them all.

I believe our present Government, under a very caring and inspirational leader, has achieved a lot in just over two years and will continue to do so if given another term.

KEN CARVELL
Durie Hill

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