Making our own luck
New Zealand is an island nation but exists in a world awash with coronavirus. So far we have acted well and been lucky.
But with the new more virulent strains there is a significant probability that our defences will be breached. The virus works
in mysterious ways.
If our defences are breached, what should be our reaction? Should it be blame? Blame Jacinda, blame the government, blame Ashley, blame the army, blame the workers at the quarantine facilities, blame the cleaners, blame China, blame Boris Johnson, blame… Fat lot of good that will do.
If an outbreak does occur, our tracers need to know where you have been. In that way, they can quickly ring-fence the outbreak and eliminate it. It is not rocket science.
We must keep signing in and using Bluetooth and the tracer app. It is no hardship, even if we continue to be lucky.
Jim Colvine, Mangawhai Heads.
Maybe not
With the impending mass vaccination roll-out it would seem appropriate to add two more categories of people in between the anti-vaxxers and pro-vaxxers, those being the "maybe-vaxxers" and the "delayed-vaxxers".
These two groups could cause the government the most problems in the quest for herd immunity as they would be a significant chunk of the population.
Dave Purcell, Ōrākei.
Phonic flawed
I totally agree with your correspondent, teacher Mark Bracey (NZ Herald, January 12).
I'm neither a linguist nor someone trying to teach anyone to read, but surely, English is not a language where we could rely on phonics?
Anyone can come up with examples where there is total confusion and as there are more words in the English language than any other. How does a learner of any age cope with the pronunciation of "though, through, cough, rough, plough, ought, borough" as classic examples?
Ray Green, Birkenhead.
Screened out
I agree with Mark Bracey's comment (NZ Herald, January 12) that "phonics won't cure all our reading problems" and that teachers must use all appropriate methods available to deliver a successful reading programme
I am a retired primary school teacher and spent the last 20 years of my career teaching Years 1and 2. I consider one of the major reasons for our falling reading achievement rate is that young children are not engaged in verbal communication enough to give them the basic language needed for learning to read.
Both in the home and in public places, children are often occupied by a screen and have little interaction with their carers.
Sheila Mickleson, Mt Wellington.
Siphoned off
A letter writer (NZ Herald, January 12) claims that Auckland beaches are polluted because ratepayers are reluctant to pay for the upgrades required to infrastructure.
He concludes "no more roads, monuments" etc until wastewater and runoff is taken care of.
I believe that Auckland ratepayers are only too willing to pay for essential infrastructure, the problem is that we have been paying for it, for years. The problem is that the money is siphoned off by our elected councillors and bureaucrats into other, less important, pet projects.
We look in from the outside and we can all see waste and unnecessary expenditure. We are expected to believe our politicians when they announce increases to our rates and say monopolies like Watercare are required to maintain or upgrade services but we know this is not true. Increases are required to maintain and increase their budgets, that's all. There is absolutely no guarantee that increases will reflect in better outcomes. History proves this. They just need more money to feed the machine. Ratepayers need to see efficiencies and how this money is to be spent, before it is collected. Then maybe, just maybe, we won't feel ripped off every time money is going out from our bank accounts.
Quentin Miller, Te Atatū.
