Mike Allsop (right) and son Ethan on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. File photo / Supplied
How refreshing to read (Weekend Herald, August 3) about the "world's coolest dad" and how disturbing to read the comments of the Coroner regarding children walking to school supervised by older children - well, actually walking home just a
few hundred metres. My heart goes out to the parents concerned in the latter story and I believe that the Coroner's comments were ill considered and ill advised.
Long may parents and schools be supported to make decisions for children based on the risks available at the time.
Leighton Smith is quite right (Weekend Herald, August 3) to draw attention to CO2 from aircraft. It is why Greta Thunberg is sailing to America to attend the UN climate summits.
Long-haul flights for holidays are a particular problem, and the New Zealand tourist industry may well be devastated. The tobacco industry managed a stay of execution for many years by lying and misrepresenting the science, and the oil industry has used exactly the same techniques. But it too is running out of time and credibility.
In the meantime, it's worth remembering the essential conclusions of climate science are irrefutable and unaltered by lifestyle choices.
Every time we wealthy fly, poor people will suffer and possibly die. I can live with that. I don't need to lie to myself or anyone else.
Dennis N Horne, Oxford, UK.
Trevor Elwin notes that 41 per cent of people preferring Jacinda Ardern as Prime Minister means that "a significant majority" of 59 per cent did not (Weekend Herald, August 3). Switching between emphasising a percentage and emphasising its complement is a popular game, especially in the MMP era. After the election of the current Government, National supporters complained that their party had won the greatest percentage of votes with 45 per cent, as if this should be sufficient to return them to government. Of course MMP doesn't work like that - the complement of 55 per cent was the significant number because it was able to be consolidated. In the preferred Prime Minister poll though, the complement is irrelevant because it cannot be consolidated. If the 59 per cent who did not prefer Jacinda Ardern is a significant majority, the 94 per cent who did not prefer Simon Bridges must be an even more significant majority.
Rowan Hill, Mt Eden.
The thrill of low interest rates needs to be balanced by the reality of extremely high personal debt. Since the 2008 financial carnage it is obvious that most western countries are on track for another financial calamity. The reasons are clear. There has been no alteration in the economic model that perpetuated the last crash. Personal debt is once again at an extreme high. The mantra of home ownership is so ingrained that most cannot think of alternative ways to live life without massive debt.
Interest rates follow market sentiment, not the other way around. Lowering interest rates to stimulate spending is an economic absurdity taught at nearly all levels of education yet there is no empirical evidence to support these claims. People don't spend because they cannot afford to. To dangle a carrot like a lower interest rate will lead to financial ruin for many as the next day of reckoning approaches.
Kiwis have too much personal debt. The next crash is not too far away as all the signs are there. Just like the last one.
Mark Lewis-Wilson, Mangonui.
Thank you Simon Wilson and Lizzie Marvelly it was so good to be able to read informed accounts (Weekend Herald, August 3) that provide us with the disturbing background to the current occupation at Ihumātao. Both of you made no bones about the way the law has been manipulated to create this tangled situation that is simultaneously both very complicated and very simple with neither of you mincing words about the awfulness that the Crown and other Pākehā actors have created. I liked the way you both placed this baby gently but firmly on the government's doorstep, challenging Jacinda and her ministers to do what needs to be done so this story has a future that has not been built over.
Raymond Nairn,Mt Roskill.
Oranga Tamariki does not have a safe facility in the Waikato for absconding children with complex needs.
These children's brains are impacted because their mothers drank alcohol while they were in the womb. Consequently, they have problems with impulsivity and put themselves (and others) at risk.
In the absence of a secured facility, the alternative is to pay for a personal care-worker to stay with children or young people at risk - up to 24 hours per day. Although the care-worker can counsel the child or young person not to abscond, they cannot restrain him/her. This leaves them free to run away in plain sight.
They are then reported missing to the police, picked up and either taken to the emergency department for assessment and sometimes to Auckland's Starship Children's Hospital or they are returned to the placement to abscond again. Eventually, the placement won't/can't take them back.
There are hundreds of young people living in motel rooms with rostered care-workers 24/7. Many are not attending school so they watch a lot of TV during the day and are often given medication at night to stop them absconding.
The collective cost (per child/young person) is many thousands of dollars per month.
Without effective intervention, our vulnerable young people will continue to be statistics in our mental health and criminal justice systems.
Paul Evans-McLeod, Hamilton.
Many of Simon Wilson's comments (Weekend Herald, July 27) about his brief visit to America are painfully accurate. However, I suggest that his analysis is somewhat simplistic after visiting only two cities. It would be comparable to me arriving in Aotearoa, going to a rugby game, having a feed of "fush and chups" and declaring I now know everything that defines New Zealand. Two Broadway shows does not a democracy make, and ours, to quote Simon, isn't rubbish in any formal or informal sense of the word. In Trump's America, our cherished democracy is wounded, but not dead. Yes, the USA's vulnerabilities are cruelly exposed, partially because of the unrelenting rubbish spewing out of the White House and we are feeling the embarrassment of international derision. But America will recover because our people are resilient and courageous, and above all, we passionately love our country too much to see it sink into division and dysfunction.
Mary Hearn, Glendowie.
I nominate Pania Newton for New Zealander of the Year. Bruce Tubb, Belmont.
How many of the "protectioners" have been anywhere near the Otuataua Stonefields Historic Reserve before now? How many will be back after the hoo-haa and free kai is gone to pull a weed and lend a hand with maintenance? Marie Booth, Rotorua.
Ihumātao symbolises the single most important unresolved issue in 21st-century Aotearoa: Pākehā/Māori relations. Ken Findlay, Island Bay, Wellington.
To the Māori King: Would it be possible if you could get your people to hikoi on down past the imported fruit pickers of Micronesia and possibly waka over to the Fox River and help clean up that landfill debris? Mark Holms, Piha.
In 2011, privately owned land at the Ngunguru sandspit passed from Landco (latterly Todd Property) to public ownership under the Department of Conservation after a long community campaign to stop private housing being built there. I don't think the sky fell in. Charlotte Fisher, Westmere.
The history of the Ihumātao land should have been a red light for Fletcher Building. Selwyn Irwin, Glen Eden.
Re: Will Connolly. It is disappointing that you chose to give coverage to a teenage boy who committed an assault and portray him as some sort of new age hero. Ken Maclaren, Napier.
The present coalition government is trying to influence the outcome of the 2020 Cannabis Referendum. You would think that the experience of John Key trying to influence the outcome of the flag referendum would be a lesson learnt. Neil Hatfull, Warkworth.
The Greenies want people to buy electric vehicles, okay, but I guess they can't tell anyone how long a battery will last, the cost of a replacement and how to dispose of the old one. A J Petersen, Kawerau.
What an inspiration to read the double-page spread about the Allsop family and the challenges the father encouraged his children to pursue - a real role model for all young people to follow their dreams, take more risks and broaden their horizons. Katherine Swift, Kohimarama.
Twenty weeks seems to be an extremely long time to decide whether or not to terminate a pregnancy. Maxine Samson, Whakatane.
Watching the footage of the Asian woman at the university being allegedly pushed over, I feel she has taken her lead from footballers. Adrian Wilson, Northcote.
‘This is about a bigger sort of commitment that we have to te reo Māori.’