Letters to the editor: Donald Trump, Kim Jong Un, oil exploration and Welcome Bay mangroves

Donald Trump is being conned, says one reader, if he thinks Kim Jong Un will change the status quo. Photo/Getty Images

Donald Trump's backflip
After a year of calling Kim Jong Un everything under the sun, Donald Trump now says he is "honourable"!

Having recently spent three weeks in communist North Korea, from DMZ to Russian border, witnessing a medieval collective rural industry (where the workers get the last food, after Kim, his cohorts, military) and where the roads, buildings, kindergartens and schools are littered with anti-US (the Imperalist) and Japan (the enemy) posters and playground equipment, sorry Trump, you are being conned.

Kim won't change the status quo and only wants the embargos lifted as he knows the country is in dire trouble.

D Holland
Tauranga

Our own resources
I am appalled at the grandstanding recently undertaken by Labour and the Greens' leaders in deciding to prohibit new permits for oil and gas exploration.

Don't our leaders realise simple economic principles? If oil demand goes down oil companies won't want to search for oil. They should be the deciders, not the politicians.

Governments should concentrate on reducing the demand by consumers. Our leadership's hypocrisy is clear to anyone who thinks things through and, even worse, this applies to New Zealand's international reputation.

Jacinda Ardern needs to establish herself as a stateswoman among the thinking western nations, and this and other events highlights naivety and inexperience. Otherwise she will come to be regarded as a lightweight just as New Zealand suffered under David Lange.

Overseas trips and reputations are more than smiles and handshakes, though on the surface Jacinda has done well on her recent trip. It's what our significant allied nations really think of New Zealand which is important.

In regards to the oil move, it's our jobs and economy which will suffer in the future. Is it not common sense for New Zealand to endeavour to depend on our own resources?

Bill Capamagian
Tauranga

Welcome Bay mangroves
In response to letters written by Dr Rebecca Stirnemann (Bay Times, April 11) and Ann Graeme (Bay Times, April 13) on the subject of mangroves I would like to commend Dr Meg Butler for her work in surveying the birdlife of the Welcome Bay estuary.

Her findings, referred to in her earlier letter, accord with the observations of long-time Welcome Bay residents, namely that in this estuary the rapid spread of mangroves from the late 1970s resulted in a sharp decline in native fauna, with the banded rail and the bittern being among the main casualties, while the recent removal of an area of mangroves is contributing to a gradual but significant recovery in the native bird population.

Her evidence-based research is more enlightening than the misleading generalisations on the subject of mangroves that have been offered through your newspaper over many years and vindicates the efforts of those in the Welcome Bay community who work to achieve the best outcomes for this largely neglected estuary.

R Rimmer
Welcome Bay