Classic children’s books by author Roald Dahl have been partly rewritten to remove language now deemed offensive. Photo / Supplied, File
Rewriting wrongs
Human beings are being exposed to more violence on screen than ever before. Yet we are obsessing over political correctness. Roald Dahl was one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century. But now anti-Semitism, racism and misogyny feature in his books. Suddenly “ugly” and “black” are evil words. Yet our sports teams are named All Blacks, All Whites, Black Sticks and so on. In an increasingly uncensored world, why are we censoring a historic masterpiece? Because of a big, fat fear of offending. Gauguin painted really young, bronzed, Tahitian girls and Norman Lindsay depicted women as nymphs. Yet no one is censoring these brushstrokes. Instead, they are censoring books written by a literary great who said: “A person who has good thoughts cannot be ugly. You can have a wonky nose … a crooked mouth … stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams…” Don’t like it? Don’t read it. Fetch another classic. Like Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss. Oh no, hang on, that’s “inappropriate” now, too. I know what I’ll be reading to my daughter tonight.
Victoria Keenan, Belmont.
Spent force
It’s time the Government got real with its spending aspirations. In 2003 Helen Clark said she wanted to mobilise the army. We bought 105 Canadian-made light armoured vehicles for $650 million. Most of them have never been used. We even refused to supply any to Ukraine in their hour of need because they weren’t “operational”. Imagine if that money had instead been used to buy some decent Cook Strait ferries. The Government is still planning to spend $20 billion on light rail from Auckland CBD to the airport - to service a few thousand commuters. More wasteful spending? Fortunately, the fanciful $800 million bike bridge was canned, even though $50 million was wasted on planning and cancelling the contract. The priority right now is to invest that $20 billion earmarked for light rail where it’s needed - in the productive regions of New Zealand. Northland and the East Coast are desperate for Government assistance. Now is the time.
Mark van Praagh, Hobsonville Pt.
Counted out
As a result of the utter devastation some areas of NZ have suffered, you have to wonder if the government statistician has lost the plot regarding this year’s Census. The letter that arrived today telling you to fill the forms online now, then advises you to fill in a section of the form on March 7. The question has to be asked how is NZ Post expected to deliver these letters to the thousands of addresses that cannot be reached or, in fact, no longer exist? You would think some degree of logic might be applied in this case and the Census postponed at least until next year as the possibility of contacting every individual in NZ would be impossible and any results from the returned forms so inaccurate as to be worthless. But then, it’s a government department that’s asking. That says it all.
R Hoy, Riverhead.
Make it count
When visiting Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, a few years ago, I met a fellow traveller from Ireland in a cafe. Over a pleasant few hours of sharing a meal and chatting about various countries visited, he made a remark that I have never forgotten. He said: “Never forget that both our countries are amongst those that are ‘the counted’.” On inquiring what he meant, he explained that he thought being counted when you are born, whilst you are living and when you die, are all privileges which many in the world do not experience. During the imminent Census and the forthcoming General Election, I urge all people in New Zealand to value this privilege and ensure that you do not waste your opportunity to participate - without armed soldiers standing alongside, without fear of retribution for your choices and with the knowledge that you will, indeed, “be counted”.
Andrea Boyd, Freeman’s Bay.
Sitting petty
Parliament has resumed and immediately both Opposition parties sought to make political capital from people’s misery. There is no magic wand. In 2020 during the pandemic, the same thing happened. I guess the two opposition parties would be happy to be trounced again in the next election so that they would not have to make any real decisions.
Greg Cave, Sunnyvale.
Withered hills
I have been travelling this country for about 17 years, 30-odd weeks a year, seeing dreadful clear felling. I grew up in Blenheim, right underneath the Wither Hills. There was a documentary even then about the fact they were among the most eroded in the world. When I see these big tracts of mountains annihilated, I remember the Wither Hills and hate the sight and the effect of it. The Wither Hills are still denuded by the way.
Hamish Walsh, Devonport.
Source of amazement
It continues to astound me that the forestry industry leaves so much slash lying about the forest floor when we have been importing dirty high sulphur coal from Indonesia (instead of cleaner NZ coal, but that’s another stupid Green policy). Now Genesis has discovered black pellets biomass fuel that it is going to ship all the way from Canada. Why is it that these bureaucrats have not connected the dots and forced the forestry companies to collect the slash in the forest and turn it into pellets or chips to burn at Huntly to generate electricity to power all the green electric cars? Especially as so many of these forestry companies are only here from overseas to collect the subsidies from our gullible Government. Even a child could think of a sensible solution to both problems.
Michael Cotter, Pāpāmoa.
Damp dream
The Independent research group Climate Central Predictions published a map of Auckland harbour compared with data of predicted sea level rises all around the world by 2050, which showed the entire Wynyard Quarter, currently all of Parnell’s area lower seafront region and Point Chevalier will be underwater by 2050 which makes a mockery of Tāmaki Makaurau, Wayne Brown and Auckland Council’s vision of residential retail and recreational areas along central cities waterfront that will then only be accessible by boat.
Gary Hollis, Mellons Bay.
Drain storm
Ratepayers in Auckland will by now know that they are solely responsible for clearing the berm gutters and drains outside their residential addresses. A job that was regularly performed by the council is not any more. If you experienced flooding during the last lot of bad weather, it would be sensible for you to check what any drain close to your property is blocked with. My recent clearout of a “council-maintained drain”, prior to the recent weather events thankfully found packaging from fast food outlets, plastic milkshake-size drink cups, beer bottles, and drink cans. Along with grass clippings and leaves, there was no way water could drain in. Having performed the council’s job for it, I believe saved my property from flooding. The council is dropping the ball all over Auckland.
Brenda Barnes, St Heliers.
Paper trail
I have just received a reply from Tūpuna Maunga Authority who received 1551 submissions from the public. My submission opposed the removal of 345 exotic trees from Ōwairaka (Mt Albert) because it would directly contravene the Auckland Council-declared Climate Change Emergency. Replacing a mature tree with a new tree has an adverse effect on climate change for 20-40 years depending on how fast the new tree grows. The authority has now amended its Integrated Management Plan (IMP). However, no summary of the changes was supplied. I would have had to examine their 110-page attachment of the amended IMP and then compare it with the original IMP. I find this absolutely arrogant. Is this co-governance at its worst? If Wayne Brown needs to reprioritise council spending, he should look at reducing the approx $12m of ratepayer money given to the authority each year. Perhaps the removal of exotic trees is a “nice to have” policy that pales in comparison to stormwater infrastructure upgrading.
Stuart Broome, Castor Bay.
Thank you for the letter of Paul Kenny (NZ Herald, February 22). We all know that at times many politicians say stupid, unthinking, rash, ignorant, ill-informed, half-truths and misleading things. Most we excuse as they are flawed and fallible ordinary people. But sometimes a totally obnoxious and odious remark is made which needs to be challenged. Such was the comment made by David Seymour in Parliament last week which is now in Hansard and beyond dispute. It was: ”Just like Jacinda. Labour loves disaster politics”. What a totally shabby, disgusting even, thing to say. Seymour was trying to score political points from the great distress and hardship of other people.
Russell Armitage, Hamilton.
On rugby
With the farcical handling of the All Blacks coaching situation, the NZRU need to be reminded, in line with their salaries, the sport is now in the professional era. Alan Johnson, Papatoetoe.
On sentence
Five months home detention for killing a partner with a single punch to the head. I sincerely hope the Crown appeals this ludicrously light sentence. C. Tompkins, New Plymouth.
On poverty
I listened recently to an address on child poverty in New Zealand and it became very clear that, despite the amazing work that some agencies are doing, very little will change until it becomes socially unacceptable to produce more children than you can care for, in every sense of the word. Robyn Larsen, St Heliers.
On climate
Climate change is making North Island cities tropical. Should we all be investing in Invercargill, the next place to be desirable, as it will become subtropical? Rosemary Balme, Howick.
On phones
All cell phones sold should come with a solar power pack and all cell towers must have solar or generator power back-up. It is ridiculous to have two major survival infrastructures totally reliant on each other and both failing during a disaster. Marie Kaire, Whangārei.
On fuel
Surely the time has come for retail price maintenance for fuel to be imposed by the Government when it so directly affects the mushrooming inflation? Chris Penny, Kerikeri.
Reserve Bank bumps OCR up to 4.75 per cent
Adrian Orr printed billions and helped create this inflation mess. There are no free lunches in the real world. Tap on a socialist woke Labour Party with feel-good policies wasting hundreds of millions on feel-good projects and inflation is the result. Cycle to nowhere anyone? Liz C.
Liz, I believe Sir John Key had most to do with cycleways. Warren P.
Fifty basis points increase has got to happen or the cost of living this time next year will be 30 per cent higher than what is now. Just listening to Hipkins address in the house, Three Waters, light rail and a lot of the policies we cannot afford are still on the books as well as co-governance. There’s so much internal inflation that has been created by this Government and their policies are only going to make the situation worse in the coming 12 months. For Grant Robertson to say the books are in great order is a line that’s wearing very thin with a majority of people. David S.
The world actually needs high inflation to erode the debt, rather than pay it back, otherwise, every government would be broke... oh wait. Simon M.
Due to the inadequacy of the way we do our reporting, the inflation rate at 7.2 per cent is the average over 2022 and is only reviewed quarterly. We need to have monthly reporting of the rate, along with other measures, to improve the quality of decision-making. So far, Mr Orr has not filled us full of confidence that they are making the right decisions for NZ. Kerry H.
'The contribution they’ve made to ballet in this country ... has been immense.'