When considering a retirement village move, the very elderly should factor the possibility of needing rest home, hospital or dementia facilities. Photo / NZ Herald, File
I wish to add several important points to your article about retirement villages (NZ Herald, July 2).
Firstly, when initially choosing a retirement village, people over 75 or 80 should consider the chances of eventually needing continuing care – rest home/hospital/dementia facilities. It can be costly to have to leave one village for another which does offer these facilities.
Secondly, ensure that lawyers involved with approving contracts are fully conversant with both the Retirement Villages Act 2003 and especially the Code of Practice 2008 which is "enforceable as a contract by a resident and prevails over any less favourable provision in his or her occupation right agreement".
Lastly, with respect to the time taken to return capital after a contract is terminated, operators normally wait until an occupation licence is resold before paying up – using part of the new payment to repay the outgoing resident.
A reasonable time to repay outgoing capital would be, say, 28 days after the return of keys so the outgoing resident has the capital in good time to use elsewhere.
Robin McGrath, Birkenhead.
Safe return
I am a New Zealand citizen currently in Turkey, planning to return to New Zealand in October. My wife and I currently have had two vaccinations each of the Pfizer vaccine, and have a very formal official Turkish government certificate to prove it. By the time we travel in October, we both will have had a Pfizer booster. We will have had a pre-flight Covid test, and apparently another on arrival in NZ.
Why then do we need to spend two weeks in an isolation hotel at some cost to the government, and ourselves? Surely it is time to move forward? We would accept 14 days self-isolation at our home, like the UK and others now.
Our government needs to move forward and plan for life with Covid. We can't put this off, like King Canute instructing the tide to not rise.
Will Menzies, Waiheke Island.
Stifling hatred
A good, logical opinion piece from Prof Natasha Hamilton-Hart (NZ Herald, July 5) on prohibition of hate speech.
The groups of people that you can't discriminate against are sensibly based on attributes you can't change such as sex, age, disability, sexuality. Once you start adding in attributes that you acquire or can change, where does it stop? Who decides which attributes are okay to discriminate against or not incite hate and which aren't? Religion seems to be the first off the ranks. If you're going to add religion in then shouldn't it be belief, not just limited to religion? Who decides whose religion or belief is a valid one? What about discrimination against non-believers or atheists? What about the existing hateful and discriminatory speech in just about all religious texts such as the Bible, Talmud, Quran? What happens when someone takes a case to court against the hate speech in such texts?
Like Dr Seuss, should we remove them from our bookshelves? Madness.
Bernard Jennings, Wellington.
Curtains for us?
In the 1960s my job regularly took me behind the Iron Curtain. I would often spend three weeks at a time in Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria.
The totalitarian nature of the existence there, the fear of officialdom, the suppression of free speech, the poverty and lack of free association with any foreigners was evident. Friends who have visited since the collapse of Communism tell me that both countries now have lives no different from those which we now enjoy.
I am very concerned that we appear to be moving towards centralisation and governmental control, removing the ability for local areas to determine the regulation which suits them. This is the first step to Socialism, which is a short step closer to Communism.
With such a weak Opposition, who seem more interested in internecine strife, how can we contain the Government's move towards the extreme left and control of free speech?
David Anning, Auckland Central.
Solar glare
When solar panels enter landfill, valuable resources go to waste and toxic materials such as lead are leached out as they break down, creating new environmental hazards.
The working life of solar panels is approximately 25 years, which means those introduced in numbers 25 years ago are now ready for landfill.
What is desperately needed is to increase the use of hydro dams on our rivers and tidal power along our numerous estuaries, not only as a renewable environmentally-friendly source of energy but, once built, as an investment that will last a hundred and maybe even up to two hundred years.
Gary Hollis, Mellons Bay.
Weight, there's more
Predictions are that China will overtake America as the world's leading economy in the next few years. This doesn't surprise me, given the news from Coney Island, New York yesterday. Joey Chestnut set a new world record eating 75 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
This is just crazy stuff and adds to the reason why so many Americans are morbidly obese. Sadly, here in Aotearoa New Zealand, we have been influenced by America and all their fast foods. McDonald's, KFC, Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, etc, etc.
The result is that our Pasifika people in South Auckland are now clogging up the bed space in Middlemore Hospital with diabetes.
People in America are so fat that they can't walk around Disneyland; people in China are doing tai chi in the parks of Beijing to keep fit and healthy.
Glen Stanton, Mairangi Bay.
Life of pie
Whoa, young Mr Heath (NZ Herald, July 5).
Pasties do not come from England. They come from Cornwall, which is a different land altogether and they never, ever contain "peas".
A grovelling apology to the Cornish who live in New Zealand would be appreciated.
While I am prepared to concede that New Zealand meat pies are indeed very good, a real Cornish pasty will knock spots off even the best of New Zealand pies.
If you would like to put this to the test, pop round to Duffy Rd and we will show you just how good.
Ross James, Waitākere.
Hard to fathom
Many decisions made in this country defy basic common sense. For example, on one hand, the Government states its absolute determination to stamp out smoking, but then allows vaping. And today (NZ Herald, July 5) we learn of the donation of public money to the Mongrel Mob, of all people. Just how crazy can you get?
Paul Beck, West Harbour.
Bare cheek
I often wondered about the American label for vagrants as "bums". Last Saturday afternoon, I found the perfect example.
Driving through the two-lane vehicle part of the Quay St roadway, almost opposite the Ferry Building, looking at the (underwhelming, at great cost) improvements of extended footpaths, planter tubs and street furniture, I saw a man lying on one of the new bench seats with pants pulled down to expose most of his buttocks to the north-facing sun.
Horseshoe-shaped dividers in the middle of the benches should be installed fast to prevent such sleeping and sunbathing antics becoming a popular pastime with undesirable individuals disrespecting other people enjoying the area.
Coralie van Camp, Remuera.
Recycled ideas
Washing containers that have had foods and liquids in them is hygienic and therefore necessary. It stops bags/bins from smelling and helps keep away insects, rats and mice, especially in the summer. I have always done this, even before recycling was thought of.
As for separation of paper - place all clean paper and cardboard in a paper rubbish bag and label it "paper only'. This, also, I have done since recycling began.
Saving water can be achieved by collecting cold water runoff in buckets before the shower runs hot. It can water plants, be put in the washing machine, clean the car, flush the toilet etc. Every little bit helps.
Rosemary Simmons, Papatoetoe.
Gulf queue
Perhaps the NZ Herald could help to highlight NZ's problem by printing the number of ships waiting in the Hauraki Gulf to be serviced by the Ports Of Auckland on a daily basis? Although it is obvious to those in the East Coast Bays, this is a problem for the whole country and we, as port owners, have a right to know.
Murray Deeble, Mairangi Bay.
On vaccine
I am a 74-year-old widower with underlying health conditions. I must be part of the PMs "odd exception", because I have not been contacted by anybody about anything. John L R Allum, Thames.
On Trump
Donald and clan appear to be going down bigly, and primally screaming. The ugly spectacle is far more watchable than The Apprentice. Rob Buchanan, Kerikeri.
On Warriors
Although different codes, surely our All Black coaching gurus, fitness experts, and the players themselves, could offer some of their time and tricks to our hapless Warriors. Glenn Forsyth, Taupō.
On gangs
I learned on the radio this morning that, should I ever visit Flaxmere (as one example), I mustn't wear anything blue or red in case I get "the bash". Can our "transformational" Government transform that please? B. Watkin, Devonport.
Clearly the Human Rights Commissioner believes criminal gangs are Māori organisations
similar to iwi, hapū or whānau. Otherwise, why pay them koha? Robin Kelly, Milford.
Koha is a gift in return for something. The gangs contribute nothing to our society,
they only take. C Keeling, Napier.
On drugs
A medical solution to the use of methamphetamine would be successful only when users admit to being addicted and want to be cured. Gary Andrews, Mt Maunganui.
Who will Labour try and blame now? No immigration, so it can't be buyers with foreign-sounding surnames. It can't be landlords, given the war on landlords. It can't be National, they've been gone four years. The answer, Labour, is to take a long hard look in the mirror. David S
The most reliable evidence says Labour is well on the way to ending - once and for all - the eye-watering house price growths that we saw begin under National. And the property investor's tax break? They'll never - ever - get that back. Timothy T
Did the Government's ill-conceived, poorly thought-out, knee-jerk reactions to a perceived issue not work out for them? I am so surprised. David Q
All the cheap money that the Government lent to the banks is going to put prices up. Plus, overseas banks are making a fortune out of us. It's a joke. Chris B
The only way to stop it is to build more houses. Focus on decreasing land and building costs. This tax, tax, tax rhetoric from the Labour Government is just weak politics and doesn't work. James C
There's only been one way in the short term to curb prices and that's to raise interest rates from the current artificially low levels. Supply takes time to feed through. While the borders are closed the thousands of overseas returnees aren't going back. Once inflation goes rampant all prices join the bubble, not just housing. Steve S
It will be interesting to see what happens to house prices once interest rates start to rise. Anna K
A quick solution to help would be to ban auctions. If you track the rise in house prices, it's linked to the arrival of auctions becoming the trend in property sales. Glenn H
Given the poor infrastructure Auckland is suffering from, the desirability to live within a 5-10km radius of the CBD and exploit all the benefits that it brings will be enough to continue to drive prices further north. Houses around those areas still have a long way to go price-wise. Nick M
Put a temporary ban on investors purchasing existing properties. Patrick H
Source of the "really unpleasant" noise has been identified, but a fix is some time away.