Letters: Estrangement, education, tax loading and cyclone season

Once-busy airport facilities are silent as families are unable to reunite during the Covid 19 coronavirus pandemic. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

Separate lives

The night's cool breeze touches, I pull up my feet back into the quilt and search for my wife's warmth to cuddle, and wake up to find the bed empty. The sleep is gone, as is the hope of a warm Christmas with my family, thanks to the virus and politics in the air.
Kiwis thronged to the managed isolation allocation portal, though they felt disappointed, there is still hope for them this Christmas.
Covid-19 revealed how incapable most world leaders are in testing times. One nation refused to close its borders and allowed the world to suffer when the pandemic broke. Families across the globe separated, loved ones passing away, yet you can't see their face one last time and many more moving instances. Ironically, leaders talk about compassion.
One humble request to whomever wins this election: show a bit of empathy to families stranded.
To humans in general, please don't discriminate between citizens and immigrants. Let them hug the loved ones and have a good Christmas. A bit of goodness can thrive in this virus-infested time.
John Suresh Thangappan, Massey.

Education focus

Stop treating public education as a political football or money-spinner.
Our Post-Covid learners need a free high-quality holistic public education system that is easily accessible to learners of all ages. This means sufficient well-resourced and highly trusted teachers who reflect the cultural, ethnic, language, and socio-economic composition of learners. Learners need sufficient skilled staff to stimulate their passions and support their diverse needs.
For every citizen to be able to reach their potential, learners and their families need to have a high standard of living that eliminates the distractions of poverty and austerity.
Anna Lee, Pt Chevalier.

Tax havens

No surprise both house prices and the share market are rocketing up. These are the ways to avoid being taxed.
Can we vote for any party likely to get in that would spread the load of paying for the rapidly building debt? No way. Great country we live in, eh? The power and the glory. Amen to that Collins. Shame on you Ardern.
What principles, religious or moral, allows this inequality?
Something has to change sooner or later or we end up like Trumpland. That is our vision of the future.
Steve Russell, Hillcrest.

Bridge expertise

I take exception to the views (NZ Herald, October 9) regarding the validity of Andrea Williamson's response on behalf of NZTA about corrosion on the Auckland Harbour Bridge.
I have known and worked with Ms Williamson as a peer for almost 15 years. She is a qualified and highly experienced engineer and competent to respond with authority to Dr Lannigan's letter. She is supported by an excellent team of engineers who live, sleep and breathe the harbour bridge.
It is disparaging and offensive to write her off as "middle management."
Peter Brooks, Mairangi Bay.

Speaking of art

Karl Puschmann (NZ Herald, October 9) was impressed by the "great quote" delivered by Chaka Khan when she said, "artists are the dreamers of society. Without us, it would be a pretty flat place to be, and very dull indeed".
I couldn't agree more and quite understand Puschmann "finding himself thinking about it a lot".
In October 1912, Sir Edward Elgar's The Music Makers was first performed, a work of introspection for choir and orchestra that reflects on '"artists who feel the tremendous responsibility of their mission to renew the world".
Elgar set the words of a poem by Arthur O'Shaughnessy to his rather haunting music, the first two lines are as follows, "We are the music-makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams..."
So nothing new, same sentiments, different times, we need the arts as much as ever.
Murray Hunt, Morrinsville.

Maritime motives

I wish to explain the reasons why cruising yachts want to come to New Zealand.
It is not just to get away from those dangerous cyclones, as surely there are Pacific Islands not usually in the path of cyclones?
They also want to get away from the heat. The cyclone season from December to March brings with it very high humidity, as well as higher temperatures.
The next reason is all yachts need basic to heavy maintenance on a yearly basis. This is well provided for at several North Island ports, on a reasonable cost basis, as well as our reputation for thorough, trustworthy workmanship.
Finally, crews can come ashore to relieve "cabin fever" and enjoy shore entertainment and socialising. Crews spend many months on board their yachts , closely confined often with many days of bad weather.
Eric Strickett, Henderson.

Reconvene classes

I totally support Jo Bowler (NZ Herald, September 23) in her call for the reinstatement of night classes.
Given Dara McNaught's comments on the Government's return on investment for running the classes (NZ Herald, October 6) it is difficult to understand why the 2009 Key Government saw fit to cancel this 100-year-old institution.
During the 1960s I attended a night class in car maintenance, for which we purchased Mechanics of the Motor Vehicle by NZ Technical Correspondence Institute. The book contains lots of useful diagrams and is still relevant today, especially if you own a 30-year-old car with no computerised electronics. How else would an 80-year-old female know what a blown head gasket looks like, or appreciate the difference between a flat battery and the final demise of a 30-year-old alternator? Of course, having an excellent mechanic helps.
With a large number of workers currently seeking new jobs and skills, there could be no better time to re-establish night classes in local communities.
With summer drought threatening, perhaps some clever night class teacher could demonstrate how to siphon bath water up out of the window and down on to the ferns.
Pauline Faiers, Torbay.

With gratitude

I have recently undergone surgical procedures at Middlemore Plastics Unit and Manukau Super Clinic. I had a large part of a lower eyelid removed and reconstructed as cancer had taken hold.
The efficiency of the treatment was a great comfort to me. I was consistently treated with humility, kindness, and compassion throughout the procedures.
I would like to thank my amazing surgeon Dr Sophie Dewael and the wonderful team who supported me. I am grateful for their abundance of precious knowledge, expertise, and their obvious commitment to their patients.
We are fortunate to have such a valuable group of highly skilled practitioners working in our public health system. The Plastic Surgical Unit at Counties Manukau DHB is to be treasured.
Suzanne Corlett, Drury.

Religious tool

When President Trump posed for photos in front of a church, waving a Bible, some time ago, I thought it was in very bad taste to use a church as an advertising background and a Bible as a prop. Watching his body language, it looked as if he didn't quite know what to do with it (the Bible is a book, after all, and he once confessed that he never read one). When he declared recently that he thought that getting Covid-19 was "a gift of God", I was absolutely speechless. It doesn't happen very often.
I would like to see what happens when he tells that in-person to the thousands of Americans who have lost family members to this dreadful disease. I have to admit, I am trying to suppress some very un-Christian thoughts when I think of this.
Marian Stolte, Ōrewa.

Second serve

Like many others, I am disappointed that there will not be any tennis at the Stanley St courts in January 2021. So I have a suggestion.
Why not have a youth tournament? Gather those young tennis players who are showing promise and create a tennis tournament at Stanley St.
Those of us who love the sport would be intrigued to see the skill of the young players and I am sure it would be an event that would be supported. It would also give the young players an opportunity to play on the lovely courts at the ASB Centre and maybe excite them to continue in the sport.
Stanley St would be used and we would all get the opportunity to see some tennis development and the venue would not be wasted.
Rae McGregor, Mt Eden.

Short & sweet

On sanitisers

A word of warning as barbecue weather comes into effect: Some hand sanitisers are highly inflammable. Hung Yu , Pakuranga Heights.

On inspiration

If you have enjoyed being entertained by artists who used cannabis in their creativity process, like Dean Martin, the Beatles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jerry Lewis, etc, but then argue that cannabis is bad and should not be used, is this not hypocritical? Graeme Lindsay McLaren, Forrest Hill.

On absconding

A woman is likely to face charges after attempting to abscond twice in two days from a managed isolation facility in Auckland. She tested negative. An IQ test would have come up the same. Peter Culpan, Te Atatū Peninsula.

On Trump

Mr Trump is acting more and more like Dr Strangelove every day. Alan Milton, Cambridge.

With President Trump in mind and, with my seventies now behind me, I can personally confirm that there's no fool like an old fool. John Hampson, Meadowbank.

On rugby

This was a better Australian team - better selected, better prepared, better coached and better motivated. David Bennett, New Plymouth.

Isn't it time the coaches told Rieko Ioane how to score a try? Tony Wickens, Devonport.