DARRELL GRACE
Whanganui
Great care
Recently a friend became ill at Cleveland Funeral Home and needed emergency hospital care (which, incidentally, was wonderful).
The Cleveland people, Jonathon in particular, could not have been kinder or more helpful at what was a frightening happening at a very sad time. Not only that, they also paid for the ambulance.
Thank you, from us all.
M HANNAY
Whanganui
Ukraine in frame
Fred Frederikse (Chronicle, June 9) is correct: America did not shoot down MH 17. Neither did Russia.
I am biased? Perhaps. I went to school in the US and Malaysia. My mother was born in Dnepropetrovsk.
In 2014, the governor of Dnepropetrovsk province was Ukrainian billionaire warlord Ihor Kolomoiski. His private army, Pravi Sektor, has committed many atrocities and were the snipers that shot both police and rioters at the Maidan.
Ukrainian Sukhoi 25s and Polish Mig 21s were stationed at Dnepropetrovsk. The Sukhois hid behind passenger planes on their way to bomb rebel towns.
Russia claims that their primitive radar at Rostov showed a fast-moving blip behind MH17. A nearby Air India pilot alleged that Ukrainian air traffic control ordered MH17 to go left and descend over the war zone.
A day after the crash, an American fighter jet followed a Russian airliner across western Russia. When challenged, it fled to Sweden.
An hour after MH17 crashed, US Senator John McCain said that a Russian fighter jet had shot it down.
A Buk missile does not hit the plane, or blast it out of the sky. It peppers it with shaped shrapnel from about 100 metres away, to cut control lines. The plane could stay airborne for a while.
There is no Buk damage on the wreckage: the panels behind the cockpit are clean.
No one reported the Buk flare, normally seen for 50 miles around, or the radio/TV static.
Ukraine has provided Mk 1 shrapnel as evidence. Ukraine has Mk1 Buks, while Russia only has Mk 2 and 3.
I imagine that MH17 was intended to crash inside Russia, but it U-turned, and crashed in Donesk province.
Ukraine littered the crash site with hundreds of cluster bomblets, destroyed the nearest village, Grabova, killing the witnesses, and bombed the railway town Torez.
The hard evidence is "classified". The "independent," international inquiry relied on rubbish provided by the Ukraine. We will never know the truth.
ALAN DAVIDSON
Gonville
Numbers tell all
The figures coming out of Australia said it all: 78 per cent would prefer to die at home. Only 14 per cent made it, the great majority dying in hospital. Let us achieve real choice for NZ.
I made it to the big meeting, looked around and saw people of all ages. It looked very much like a branch stacking job to me. If the end result had been restricted to people of pension age and over the vote would have been about 90 per cent in favour of choice and a mere 10 per cent against.
Going to sleep peacefully at the end of one's life in one's own home is a choice widely and very wisely to be desired. All strength to your arm, young David Seymour. I was very proud to shake your hand.
F G ROSE (aka Father Fred, ND)
Whanganui
Oath to be obeyed
In the current debate concerning euthanasia, a frequent contributor in favour of the practice describes himself as an American-trained forensic psychiatrist.
When he graduated medical school in the US (1959), he probably took the Hippocratic Oath, which includes "I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked, nor suggest any such counsel."
The oath concludes: "While I continue to keep this Oath unviolated, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and practice of the art, respected by all men, in all times! But should I trespass and violate this Oath, may the reverse be my lot!"
TEDDY MARKS
Whanganui
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