Letters: Queen Elizabeth, Youth crime, accountability, Vladimir Putin, Plunket, and sports writers

An image of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II projected outside a London Underground station. Photo / AP, File

Letter of the week: Emma Mackintosh, Birkenhead
In a simple home, in a small country, I heard of the death of Queen Elizabeth. A little part of me felt sad. My sister and I grew up with the teenage girl, we learned of her work during the war, met the handsome man she wanted to marry, thought him quite nice, and watched her coronation on the big screen weeks after the event.
We weren't ones to stand up for the anthem during movie times, taking great pride, instead, of being stared at, and we certainly didn't think she was supreme in any way, just another human being. But she was a woman of outstanding courage, pride and demeanour.
She showed us all how to gracefully accept criticism, mingle with different personalities and how this worked for the betterment of humanity. She was an extraordinary leader, the second Elizabeth to show that, in a woman's hands, leadership becomes more about others than themselves.

Instilling pride
There seem to be two divergent schools of thought on the youth crime epidemic. One school subscribes to the "lock them up and throw away the key" approach, and the other a wringing of hands, more working groups and reviews about the present system, and then throwing more funding at that same system.
Clearly neither is a viable solution. An unassailable fact is that the 14-year-old out at 2am participating in a ram raid has been let down by their family, their school environment, or the mental health system.

The remnants of a failed ram raid attempt at the Caltex in Mangere. Photo / Hayden Woodward, File

So how to prevent that 14-year-old turning into a 24-year-old career criminal? There are no short-term or easy fixes but start by being inspirational instead of aspirational. Aotearoa, across many disciplines, has successful and creative minds, both Māori and Pākehā. They can form a sphere of influence along with other successful colleagues, and with existing social and government agencies create "mentoring modules" to provide cohesive wrap-around services. Start with the fundamentals: food, clothes, basic literacy skills and demonstrate to that 14-year-old what achievement looks and feels like. That child will get what is needed most - pride. It can be done. It just requires courage and inventiveness.
iMary Hearn, Glendowie

Who's responsible?
Re the article (Weekend Herald, September 3) about the woman dying in her car in Remuera. I counted in the article the following council staff: the CEO; Customer Services Representatives; compliance team leader; a second team leader, general manager licensing and regulatory compliance, director of regulatory services, customer and community services director and an untold number of "senior managers".
Not one of these employees owned up to owning the problem, none of them took any action before the woman's death, and all of them, no doubt, are on very good salary remuneration paid in the main by long-suffering ratepayers.
Is it not time the CEO acknowledged there is a culture permeating council employees of not taking responsibility for their actions or lack thereof, and does this not make the organisation totally dysfunctional?
Nick Fraser, Whangaparāoa.

Worse than Putin
Contrary to the opinion of John Watkins (Weekend Herald, September 3) third-party Kremlin watchers, e.g. Norwegian Professor of geopolitics Glenn Diesen, state that Vladimir Putin is the restraining force stopping the Russian military going "full Nato". He is under heavy political pressure to allow them to do so.
Remember that the Nato bombing of Baghdad resulted in an estimated half a million children killed and that the American Secretary of State said "it was worth it".
That is the bar that we, the collective West, have set.
Those third parties with military competence consider that Russia is using, at most, 20 per cent of its forces in Ukraine.
If Putin falls, a hard-liner will certainly take over and Ukraine will cease to exist in short order. Declassified US State Department documents indicate that the war was engineered in Washington and London to force Russia to fight. Well, we, the Collective West, have our (leaders') desires met.
G. N. Kendall, Rothesay Bay.

Plunket's plight
I was delighted with your "letter of the week" (Weekend Herald, September 3) in that it highlighted the importance of providing the best care possible for all babies and that Plunket is one of the best organisations to help in the production of that care. The letter then highlights news from Plunket that it has insufficient funds to carry out that task.
I find that news from Plunket rather misleading when it was discovered that in mid-2018, 11 senior managers in Plunket were paid more than $180,000 per year and, in the year preceding, Plunket had spent $2 million on consultants. These figures are outrageous and suggest the problem is within.
Plunket used to provide all the help needed to all mothers and babies almost entirely based on volunteers and community fundraising. This should serve as a wake-up call.
Peter Malcolm, Tauranga.

Doom postponed
The All Blacks' brilliant performance on Saturday against Argentina has made certain sports writers look foolish.
Some of their headlines last week and prophecies of doom for the All Blacks - "Staring into the abyss" and "Scaffolding around AB's in danger of collapsing" - were probably a factor in the All Black's magnificent response to the relentless, sustained media negativity that has dominated the news in the week between games.
Even Steve Braunias joined the pile-on against the All Blacks and their coach (Weekend Herald, September 3) quoting Einstein in relation to Ian Foster's decision to play the same team again.
Maybe it is time to get back to being sports writers and stop trying to be soothsayers.
Braunias has the licence to indulge in a little prophecy and fantasy, but the others should put their respective crystal balls away.
Barbara Graham, Tokoroa.

Short memory
Last Saturday night I went to the farewell concert of Australian band Midnight Oil at Spark Arena. Lead singer, Peter Garrett, now 69, sings about the environment, love, tolerance and indigenous rights and is a former Australian Labor MP.
There was a problem with ticket scanning at the doors and the queues were lengthy with frustrated people. Two middle-aged men were standing behind me.
"This wouldn't happen overseas," said one. "This is a dumb country," said the other. "Our Government is dumb, Jacinda is dumb, look at all those ram raids. They should have more police, police with machine guns. Shoot them dead."
"They are Maori kids," the other one said. "Shoot them in the legs then."
I wonder what they thought of Peter in his, "Stand with Ukraine" T-shirt, praising Aotearoa for increasing recognition of te reo Māori?
Sarah Beck, Devonport.

A quick word

When you also were around when the Queen was Princess Elizabeth, and a young girl, her passing is like losing a highly respected member of the family. Reg Dempster, Albany.

The sun's warmer rays are welcome; however, daylight makes the days too long. Could we try just half an hour time forward, anyone agree? Tony Ward, Eastern Suburbs.

What an ignominious start from Liz Truss. Proudly announcing that there are no white males in the top four Cabinet positions. One wonders what the requirements are. Karl van de Water, Maungaturoto.

Perhaps Willie Jackson could tell us what his new type of democracy looks like so we can vote on whether we want it or not? A. Seal, Mt Albert.

Disappointing that 80-year-old Joyce Hood (WH, Sept 3) was unable to get from Remuera to a function only a few kilometres away due to unreliability of public transport. Imagine how difficult it is for any South Auckland patrons to attend such functions in Auckland City. J McCormick, Gisborne.

An editorial masterstroke with Steve Braunias appearing in the sports pages (WH, Sept 3). What a refreshing and hilarious read about the art of losing in rugby. William Black, Remuera.

The British pound has fallen to its lowest point against the greenback since Margaret Thatcher crashed the economy there. It doesn't matter whether they call themselves Republican, Conservative, Liberal, National or C&R... confusion and economic mismanagement always follow them. Mark Nixon, Remuera.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences" - P.J. O'Rourke. A growing part of our population has no understanding or acceptance of "consequences". Derek Paterson, Sunnyhills.

The present Government absolutely does not agree with the premises of personal responsibility or consequences. Gary Andrews, Mt Maunganui.

We know the buck stops with the Government that makes policy but we have an army of public servants who are supposed to implement it. If there's a perceived failure to do so, place the blame where it belongs. David Howard, Pakuranga.

Why does Dane Coles have to bring so much niggle to the game? It is usually a sign of a player getting old and slow. Jock Mac Vicar, Hauraki.

The Association of Tennis Professionals should make this new rule for tantrums:
A $50,000 fine, and banned from the next three official tournaments. Warren Prouse, Papakura.

It is obvious that no members of the present Government are familiar with Greek mythology, otherwise, they would know the abhorrence the Greek gods had for hubris and how severely they punished it. TMP Stevens, Pukekohe.