Life-saving funding
The Herald is to be congratulated for its recent articles on surf life saving and water safety in New Zealand.
A key focus has been the huge voluntary contribution made by the thousands of volunteers and the number of drownings prevented each year.
In one of the earlier articles, I believe the annual cost of providing the current level of surf life saving in New Zealand was quoted as $22 million, with approximately half of this being the cost of putting lifeguards on the beaches each season. Articles have highlighted the annual fundraising burden to each club.
The 2019 annual report of Surf Life Saving New Zealand records zero fatal drownings between the flags and 702 rescues from potentially fatal drownings (approximately twice the number of people killed on our roads annually).
Also, the 2018 annual report for Water Safety New Zealand records the cost to society of drownings and injuries over the previous 10-year period as $4.79 billion.
Purely from an economic perspective, the return on investment to society in preventable deaths brought about by having these essential services fully Government funded should not take much decision-making time by our political leaders. In fact, these figures show an enhanced level of funding would make very good economic and social sense.
Peter Huggard, Waiheke Island.
Alternative fact council
We live in an absurd era of alternative facts, managed reality and deceptive imaging. Influencers such as the Kardashians have made an art of the practice. Is it too much to expect local government institutions to know better?
Isn't tweaking reality and truth called lying and propaganda any more? Apparently in our brave new world perfection stumps fact and authenticity and veridicality are negotiable details.
From the world that recently gave me the term "parking product" comes "pre-programmed" imaging.
This is muddying of a reality in itself; bureau-speak for lining up a perfect image at leisure that does not reflect a reality, and presenting it as fact. This from an institution that we might expect to be a paragon of truth and accountability.
Good on social media and astute journalists working together to call out Auckland Council's false imaging of fireworks announcing 2020 over our city.
This isn't a job well done; it was lazy, patronising and deceptive.
This image "of the night" that went around the world was almost a decade old. It was programmed to be released at midnight by a perfunctory marketing department on holiday. Auckland Council should submit its antiquated perfect images for calendars, not as current newsworthy items.
Russell Hoban, Ponsonby.
Gender-neutral role
It is disappointing that some commentators continue to describe women who choose to take time off work to raise and care for children as making sacrifices. Combining a career and motherhood is difficult as the expectation is that women will do both rather than these being shared responsibilities.
Now that there are visible examples of men operating in a domestic space, maybe more value will be placed on this, not split by gender.
Whether women or men undertake the childcare role we know that children's early experience deeply affects their future physical, cognitive, emotional and social development. Optimising the early years of children's lives is the best investment we can make as a society.
It would be good if we could reframe the narrative so that work, inside and outside the home, is considered gender-neutral and decisions made according to family circumstances.
Glennys Adams, Ōneroa.
Pine needle risk
In light of what is happening in Australia, wouldn't it be wise for Government to rethink its plan to cover New Zealand farmland in pine tree forests which have forest floors of tinder-dry pine needles?
J. Leighton, Devonport.
Beef tea nourishes
Professor Schofield has my support for his views on hospital nutrition (Herald, January 4). I am an 84-year-old who was recently in hospital for a four-hour vascular operation, followed by an eight-hour operation the next day.
Having not eaten anything for two days, I woke from the anaesthetic feeling hungry, but too late for dinner. What I really wanted was old-fashioned beef tea.
I have always made it for myself (after a stomach upset) by boiling some stewing grade beef and bone and then drinking the stock which is very gentle on an empty stomach and full of iron and vitamin B12.
The nurse did her best to find me something to eat, but nothing really appealed.
P.A. Tobin, Waiheke Island.
Stub those butts
I say to all smokers who flick a cigarette out of the car window — please think before you act. Our countryside is very dry and we don't need another Australia.
Gary Stewart, Foxton Beach.
West wild about telcos
It is time the Government put a little more pressure on the telcos to fix mobile phone reception and internet speed in some areas in the hills of West Auckland.
The Government sold off the phone network to the private sector, saying a lot of new investment was required. When high-speed broadband was first mooted the Government then had to pay because the private sector wasn't sorting the problem.
In West Auckland the internet speed has got slower and sometimes grinds to a halt. We have no mobile phone coverage inside the house and internet banking is very difficult to sort. Our supplier increased our cost because we still use copper, but we have no choice as we been told it's going to be two years before we see high-speed broadband.
One person in the street paid Chorus a huge sum of money to run a new cable from the school about 3km away, but that didn't help anybody else in the street. How many others have had to fork out hundreds of thousands to a phone provider to get something that works?
You phone Spark and they tell you to purchase a new modem or new filter, but nothing alters. They tell you wireless would not work in your street, then you discover a neighbour has a wireless system that is working.
You go to another mobile provider and when you tell them where you reside, they never come back to you. You buy new phones but that does not fix the situation and when you get a text from the phone provider you must walk off the property to receive it. It is time the telco providers sorted the problems affected by the hilly terrain and bush.
Barry Birchall, Ōrātia
Blow me down!
Serena is in town. Quick, switch off the wind, someone!
E. Bax, Auckland.
Questions, questions
Loving the NZ Herald letter debate defining a decade. It seems whether 2020 is the start, or not, of a decade depends on your point of view.
The lightness of the letters was a welcome contrast to others on the page that took a broader stance.
Is 2020 a new beginning or an ending? What will unite or divide us? Will we join with our neighbours to fight fire? Will they join the fight against climate change? Will we fight to retain global institutions like the WTO, NATO, the UN or retreat into nationalism? Will we join old allies to fight the remnants of ISIS? To fight the growth of white supremacist terrorism? Will we be asked to fight new wars against Iran or Iraq? Will we fight to uphold the right of all people, especially refugees, to have the human rights we enjoy in NZ?
Including, naturally, the right to write. So appreciate living in NZ right now.
Lori Dale, Ōpōtiki.
Be fair to ScoMo
If you are going to write a scathing editorial about the Aussie PM and compare him with ours, could you be fair and even-handed about it ?
ScoMo could have shown himself in a better light to be sure, but our PM's handling of the gun buyback has been an expensive shambles and a complete failure.
Their PM has a good handle on the general Aussie economy and has a huge country and populace to govern. Our PM wouldn't have an economic clue let alone any idea of driving the country forward.
Her idea of progress is opening prison doors, more people on benefits, a wrecked housing and rental industry, collapsed businesses and a management team based on race and gender rather than achievement and experience.
Giving ScoMo a hard time really is the pot calling the kettle black. I would trade leaders with them any day of the week.
Rod Kane, Henderson.