No justice for teen rapist's victims
What a sad and tragic outcome for four young women at the hands of rapist Jayden Meyer (NZ Herald, September 6).
Look no further than the article on page A11 the same day (Gloriavale women seen as 'modern-day slaves') to realise it's not surprising that
these victims have been re-victimised by the justice system. Women are collateral damage and it's incomprehensible that in 2022 a woman's sovereign right to her body and her sexual behaviour can be trampled and discarded in the most callous way.
The offender has little comprehension of the seriousness of his offending and I wonder how a psychologist could deem him a "medium" risk of re-offending. It's doubtful a sexual violence prevention course will be effective for someone who doesn't believe in a woman's right to say no. So what of the victims who have suffered so much?
The stats are bleak and potentially they may suffer acute physical and mental health problems for the rest of their lives. To add insult to injury, why is one of the victim's family's almost bankrupting themselves to provide counselling for their daughter?
There is no justice for these victims.
Mary Hearn, Glendowie.
Power play
The European energy war is already affecting electricity and fuel prices in New Zealand (NZ Herald, September 5). It can only get worse.
We have huge increases in petrol and diesel prices and electricity prices will follow. High overseas prices for fertiliser and methanol mean our ammonia urea and methanol plants can afford to pay more for gas. To compete, gas-fired generators must pay this higher price and increase their power price. Power from Huntly is also more expensive because the international price of coal has more than doubled. The $85 per tonne carbon tax further increases the Huntly price by about 8 cents/kWh.
Unfortunately, our electricity market pays all generators the price set by the most expensive generator. When Huntly sets the price, hydro generators reap windfall profits and the consumer effectively pays the carbon tax on hydropower. Crazy.
With a rational electricity market, a substantial increase in the cost of power from gas and coal would not have a great effect on the retail price.
Much of UK and EU industry will be forced to shut down this winter because of high power prices. We must reform our electricity market to avoid a similar risk of economic disaster.
Bryan Leyland, Pt Chevalier.
All ceremony
What a waste of taxpayer money sending the PM, and no doubt her entourage, to an international convention - or a politicians' version of the Academy Awards. Their record speaks for itself.
International tensions and co-operation between countries have never been worse.
Russia's dominance over Europe threatens world peace as does China's dominance of all Asian countries and expansion into the Pacific.
A billion of the earth's citizens are suffering from malnutrition, many face a slow death from starvation with the world running out of food from overpopulation by 2050.
Accelerating catastrophic out-of-control climate events claim thousands of lives almost on a daily basis with already 50,000 species becoming extinct per annum.
Ten billion trees are lost from deforestation every single year. The very real threat of a nuclear holocaust in Ukraine. Corruption in African and South American countries is running riot. A cold war between the US and China is imminent.
The Pollywood extravaganza is just so much hot air and political posturing. Oscars should be handed out to world leaders, not for what they have achieved, but what they haven't.
Gary Hollis, Mellons Bay.
Life goes on
Home detention for bashing an elderly man; home detention for raping and filming four girls.
What is the point of having a court case when the offender's life goes on as it did before?
I have always wondered what the police feel when such a sentence is handed down.
After all, they have spent so much time getting the cases to court.
Wendy Galloway, Ōmokoroa.
Testing rigour
On reading Denise Hansen's letter (NZ Herald, September 5), I thought surely some medical practices are not still doing it.
In 2019 I had my two-yearly test for licence renewal. The practice nurse set drawing tests for visuospatial/executive expertise, naming illustrations of animals, memory test for words and numbers, subtraction, tap the table each time the nurse said the letter A from a list of jumbled letters, repeat two sentences from memory, name the maximum number of words in one minute beginning with F, an abstraction word test, delayed recall of the words in the first memory test. And finally orientation; did I know the date, month, year, day, place and city?
Fortunately I passed, but was somewhat disturbed that this test should be for the renewal of a driving licence. I was assured the same test was given to everyone.
I would have thought a question or two about the road code should at least have been included. This Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test (note the Canadian connection) indicated it is to assist health professionals in detecting mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. Apparently, the test result goes on your medical file and cannot be erased.
Peter Norwood, Devonport.
