'At 87 I look at the sad greed now with managers seeking large payments and destroying the game I love.' Photo / Photosport
Greed is killing this great game
Gregor Paul reports on payments to the English Rugby chief executive of $1.5 million plus a bonus of $700,000 despite the RFU losing over $80 million, causing large numbers of staff to be made redundant (NZ Herald, Dec 3).
Whatever has happened to the game I played and loved as a schoolboy? I played for the local rugby club, paid the match fees as well as membership to the club and just loved the game, as well as meeting so many friends who have made my life so enjoyable.
In the 1950s there were 47 clubs in Leicestershire and some fielded six teams on a Saturday - no one got paid, older members helped with committees and the game progressed, clubhouses were built with fundraising efforts and the kindness of older members to provide a platform for new players to enjoy the game.
At 87 I look at the sad greed now with managers seeking large payments and destroying the game I love. No longer does there seem any love for the game, just seeking rewards or TV fees. It’s all so very sad and I wonder if my views are shared with any old All Blacks who have always managed to bring life into the game.
A sad reflection on today’s rugby and greed.
Ken Shelvey, Whitianga.
Road toll realities
Shayne Currie raised the question of whether drivers are now less likely to use their lights to flash warnings in a “positive” way (Weekend Herald, Nov 30).
It could be that positive engagement between drivers has been in general decline for years, and that drivers are increasingly less engaged with the actual driving task.
Passengers – especially the next generation of drivers – typically cradle smartphones, which does nothing for the development of their road awareness. And while it’s encouraging that there have been fewer fatalities on our roads, compared with the corresponding period last year, focusing too hard on the road toll obscures the true extent of road trauma.
This headline figure doesn’t account for the social and economic burden of thousands of road accident injuries, many of which are life changing. We still have a relatively immature driving culture in New Zealand and mediocre vehicle compliance made worse by a cost-of-living crisis.
If driver engagement levels are also in decline, the need for innovation in our driver education space remains critical.
Andrew Kerr, Milford.
Church loophole
Thanks to Murray Jones and your paper for exposing the extent of abuse-in-care within the Church of Latter Day Saints (Weekend Herald, Nov 30).
That the organisation continues to cover up the abuse and to see the issue not as of urgent moral concern, but as a risk to be managed, reflects the church’s “doctrine, norms, [and] beliefs”.
It behoves us all to push for law reforms that change this situation. Exposure of abuse in care? Forget it until this appalling loophole exists.
Glennys Adams, Waiheke Island.
Over the past few days there have been reports on the state of the City Rail Link project. Delays and cost over-runs are significant (NZ Herald, Dec 2).
The CRL essentially consists of 3.5km of tunnelled railway with two new underground stations, taking 10 years to build and predicted to cost over $5 billion. It is interesting to compare this project with a couple of other similar ones.
The city of Thessaloniki in Greece has recently opened the first stage of its underground railway. It is 9.6km long with 13 stations and cost €3b (NZ$ 5.5b). That is over twice the infrastructure for the same price compared with the CRL. The railway took 18 years to build, but this was largely due to the extensive archeological structures and artefacts requiring preservation encountered during tunnelling.
London opened its first underground railway (also the first in the world) in January 1863. It ran from Paddington to Farringdon, was 5.6km long, had seven stations, took under three years to build and cost, then, around £1 million (equivalent to about £100m, or NZ$215m today). That is one and a half times the infrastructure built in one-third of the time and for a fraction of the cost of the CRL.
These comparisons raise serious doubts that the citizens of Auckland, through their rates and taxes, are getting good value for money.
Neal Henderson, Bucklands Beach.
Pity Labour
Labour is going to need to do a hell of a lot to win back voters’ trust and confidence.
During its six years in office it allowed the most divisive of candidates to infiltrate and permanently change our society to the detriment of all. Police power was watered right down and incredibly, we saw significant money handed out to gangs, defence was neglected yet unlimited resources were splurged on a lockdown scheme that cost so many their jobs.
Fortunately now some of that damage is being reversed, but I for one certainly lost any trust I might have had with them. The Labour leader of that era has also showed that she cared very little overall about the country and has skipped out to blow her trumpet overseas. Pity them.
Paul Beck, West Harbour.
Counting credits
The Education Review Office, in its report on NCEA Level 1, says one of the problems is that some subjects are “harder” than others.
I have never been able to understand how, for example, you can compare the “hardness” of art compared to physics, but the argument continues to exist simply because of the requirement to “add” subjects together to reach the arbitrary requirement of 80 credits.
Because of this an importance has been given to Level 1 that was not intended by the board of NZQA back in 1991. NCEA Level 1 was meant to be open and flexible for students and schools, acting as a stepping stone to the more important levels 2 and 3 and beyond.
Get rid of that 80-credit requirement and the problem disappears (as it would at Levels 2 and 3).
David Hood, Hamilton.
Direction deficit disorder
Recently I went to a public meeting in Auckland city at an obscure building I had never heard of in Customs St.
Getting off the bus in downtown Queen St, I certainly knew where Customs St was, but on arriving at the intersection, there was nothing to tell me whether to turn left or right, as all the buildings I could see were not numbered.
Naturally, there was no point in asking passers-by where to go, as they would never have heard of this obscure building either. So I took a guess whether to turn left or right. I guessed wrongly and spent about 20 minutes wandering around trying to find some numbered building to help me get my bearings but found none.
Eventually I did find my way to the given address, and arrived only a few minutes late, but I felt like screaming, “Why the hell don’t they number the buildings clearly in this city?”.
Of course not every building needs to be numbered to help visitors to town find their way, but at least two have to be visible on the same side of the road to tell if one is heading in the right direction or not, and of course, only one (odd or even) to let one know if it is the right side.
But I must have walked at least 500 metres before coming across any building with a number on it. Surely it is not too much to ask that buildings be clearly numbered, without having to walk such a distance.
John Austin, Grey Lynn.
The Government has re-prioritised the Marsden Fund to fund research with economic benefit. This is a disastrous, counter-productive move. The Marsden Fund previously targeted basic research, which is the roots of the research tree. The major, unexpected insights it gives are the lifeblood from which major advances flow. CRISPR gene-editing is a recent example - an obscure discovery in bacteria led to it curing diseases. Cutting the roots kills the tree. The New Zealand research pipeline will wither and die.
Austen Ganley, Greenhithe.
Chris Hipkins has stated that should a Labour-led government come to power in the next election the plan to rebuild Dunedin Hospital at a cost of some $3 billion will be resurrected. Nobody even bothered to ask where the funding was to come from, presumably because we already know the answer - borrow the money and bugger the consequences. This was the only activity the last Labour-led Government was good at, and they obviously intend to continue.
Rob Peterken, Auckland.
The incongruity and pomposity of cricket authorities fining New Zealand and England cricketers for a few minutes alleged “time-wasting” is over-reach when their first test match concluded a day and a half early. Our rugby union mandarins are bad enough, but it looks like their cricketing counterparts are challenging them as top dog boofheads.
Larry Mitchell, Rothesay Bay.
Full credit to the Browns (Mayor and Minister) for listening and acting to bring back Auckland Transport control to Auckland Council and local boards. Long overdue but very welcome.
Gary Carter, Gulf Harbour.
The National-led coalition has been 12 months in Government, succeeding a past Labour government. The changes in the new direction of our economy are slow but evident, although not without some pain for many. Previously our economy could be likened to a large ship that was on auto-pilot heading directly for the reef and no one thought or understood how to turn it off. Fortunately the ship is now turning and heading out to open sea again and away from the rocks.
Geoff Maunsell, Cambridge.
I’m an elderly woman living in Henderson. Yesterday cars whizzed past as I waited at a couple of pedestrian crossings. At my last crossing, the only person who stopped, and held up traffic to let me cross safely, was a burly, wild-looking man in leathers on a big loud motorbike (non-patched).
Elena Inta, Henderson.
The weather people are already predicting a long, dry, hot summer. Watercare is already making noises about saving water, so why not be proactive and start putting restrictions in place now - why wait? Are they worried about loss of income rather than guaranteeing a continued supply?
Jock MacVicar, Hauraki.
The Prime Minister recently justified the disbanding of the Māori Health Authority by saying it had not improved outcomes for Māori within 18 months of establishment So when are we going to see the disbanding of Health New Zealand, which has produced worse outcomes for all New Zealanders in an even longer period.
Peter Gow, Auckland.
I wonder if the ugly fence around the base of the Christmas tree at lower Queen St is designed to protect the million-dollar edifice from the chainsaws of angry ratepayers?
Stewart Hawkins, St Heliers.
I can’t say I have seen any change in the pothole situation - just saying Simeon.
Greg Cave, Sunnyvale.
The Mongrel Mob member's skull was shattered 'into minute pieces'.