Reflect on lockdown lessons
It surprises me that not a single councillor has opposed the cover over the bike racetrack.
Well, of course the whole project only costs about $24 million, with some $10 million going to the roof.
Yes, someone tells me that money is cheap to buy just now, so
let's buy some more and splurge it. I hope our borrowing will not be going through the roof.
I object to the whole entertainment centre for several reasons. First, the cost to a town already burdened with debt. Then the fact that this roof will no doubt be made from the same artificial material that is poisoning not only the oceans but the whole planet Earth.
Bicycles were made for healthy exercise in the open air for everyone and not for pointless racing round and round a covered track.
That great, wonderful entertainment centre is just another facet of a society which is more and more occupied with entertainment of all sorts, rather than with people who like one another because they live with a purpose and know how to make their own fun.
NICK PYLE
St John's Hill
No change under Muller
D'you know, when I saw Māori setting up their checkpoints to protect their own as the lockdown began I yearned to be part of Māoridom. To experience that level of commitment as a kaumatua, to watch them protecting their tamariki was mind blowing. We saw that kind of dedication on our own front lines, many of those workers being Māori and Pasifika as well. But we did not have the same faith in our bureaucratic system.
Many of our bureaucrats are so immersed in their own egos, ever so important job titles, perks and a 9-5 mentality that they have long forgotten why they are paid their healthy salaries; that they are employed for the greater good of their society seems to elude them. We suspected that many have never had to work with the intensity required to ensure all tasks were carried out to the letter. So many of us held our breaths and waited for the blunders to occur.
Many, many of our elderly were alone, forced to go out and shop with no social interaction available to them. They waited it out in fear and loneliness, while hundreds of, mainly, wealthy and self-entitled roamed the country in their campervans, yachts and caravans, visiting and endangering other communities.
I wonder if those who whinged about the checkpoints were a little envious of Māori, crying out for the authorities in their own rohe to provide the same level of care, or perhaps those who were noted passing through the checkpoints, proving they hadn't stayed at home as requested.
My praise goes out to Tupoho and the others. Thank God someone gives a rat's backside for their own.
DENISE LOCKETT
Castlecliff
