Whanganui letters: Community living the way forward for Whanganui

Whanganui needs more community living, writes one reader. Photo / Bevan Conley.

Since land is becoming almost unaffordable and also to avoid more buildings on arable land, I applaud the building of apartments (on the corner of Great North Rd and Parkes Ave).

I was, however, taken aback on reading the proposed sizes of these (140s qm-180s qm).
Seeing that the number of individuals living alone has been increasing, it doesn't make sense and certainly isn't necessary.

What is necessary is an overhaul of many of our ways of living, housing being only one of them.

The only way forward to me is living in communities (they can come in many different forms, shapes and sizes), with the intention of supporting each other and sharing resources and skills.

Two examples in Whanganui are Delhi Ave community in Aramoho and the Quaker settlement.

Communities are springing up in many countries because they are a way of living more independently from the system, enabling members to grow food, look after each other's children, share cars, and older people can stay in their own homes.

I hope the Whanganui council is setting aside land to pursue this option, instead of selling to developers, who usually build large houses and sell them for a profit.

ANNE MOHRDIECK
Whanganui

Honest numbers

"[Dr Ashley] Bloomfield said Delta posed a significant risk. Around 2 per cent of people with Delta would die," he said, reported in the Chronicle on September 28.

Two per cent will die? Really? What planet does he live on? Does he have a calculator?

We've just had a community outbreak with 1185 cases of Delta. Seventy-eight per cent of the infected were unvaccinated. The only death was a frail woman in her 90s.

If 2 per cent mortality were a reality, we would be talking about more than 22 deaths.

Elsewhere in the world, the death rate for Delta is well below 1 per cent. In the UK, for example, they are currently reporting 1-2 deaths per 1000 infections (0.1-0.2 per cent).

Globally the current mortality rate for Covid is around 0.5 per cent.

I will have more faith in our Government's Covid management and advice when it starts sharing honest, realistic numbers and factual information with the public instead of a daily diet of fear-mongering statements.

SUSAN THRASHER
Otamatea

Looking forward

As [the Chronicle] celebrates 165 years, you look back, and so do we. Our Matarawa School also dates from 1856.

How the media change! We look back, but also must look ahead.

Even you lead the change. For how much longer will we pick up the paper at the gate?

Another first thing in the morning is to think of God. Many people seem to do without him.

To some, the very name is an offence. Yet for those who take time to consider a flower or the hills or the sky, he declares "Here I am".

We all have times of need, even times when we may despair of the future. Who really knows what Covid or climate change will bring?

Scientists ponder and politicians promise. We all may proclaim, in prayer or profanity, God knows — and if he is, indeed he does.

JOHN TRIPE
Matarawa

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