Whanganui letters: Freedom and Rights mayhem and the state of world events

Members of the Freedom and Rights coalition disrupt traffic as they march along Auckland's main roads. Photo / Michael Craig

I am afraid that I must have my say about the stated intent of the so-called Freedom and Rights Coalition to create mayhem in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch on Saturday (July 23).

It seems to me that this is a group of agitators who feel the need to s*** stir over any issue that floats their boats regardless of the impact on other law-abiding/respectful citizens.

Who or what gives them this right? Yes, it is lawful to protest but surely the intent to specifically disrupt the lives of others is not. The fact that we see the same flags, placards and faces at these events is perhaps indicative of professional agitators and protesters.

These people take advantage of the fact that the police are unable to intervene due to the numbers involved and the likely escalation to violence. That walking on a motorway is an offence matters not to these people in a group, but individually they lack the courage of their convictions.

D PARTNER
Eastown

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Current values have the day

Ben Farmer (Chronicle, July 25) rightly assumes, I believe, that "to many"... we seem ..." to be living in the opening scenes of a post-apocalyptic movie", with regard to the apparently escalating deterioration that we witness in any state-of-the-world overview of global events.

He quotes Indrajit Roy, lecturer in global development at York University, who presents a brighter view of modern global life, itemising areas where humanity has made improvements in comparison to past decades and centuries.

In conclusion, he states it is a luxury to just talk about the apparently declining state of the world without doing the hard work of seeing what people are doing to resist that decline. I am less than convinced that circumstances in today's global picture warrant a more favourable evaluation than in previous generations/centuries.

I agree that the very evident decline, as I see it, the world over, is at the hands of politics and politicking. The question I ask Ben Farmer and those of similar view is, will the "hard work" of seeing what people are doing to combat such a decline halt a worst-case scenario, which in my view could come about on any of a number of fronts.

Short of a grand-scale change of perspective on what actually matters in this life and achieving a global consensus on that, it seems that the current values, as represented by politicians focused on dollars and popularity, will have its day.....or night.

PAUL BABER
Aramoho

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