A family runs over rail tracks trying to board a Lviv bound train in Kyiv, Ukraine. Photo / Vadim Ghirda, AP
New Zealand has a proud history of welcoming a modest, but meaningful, number of refugees in response to natural and man-made disasters around the world.
We are not in a position to provide military assistance to Ukraine, and joining the chorus of condemnation in the United Nations is appropriate, but barely impactful. We could, like Australia, contribute by offering immigrant refugee visas to a number of Ukrainian families – particularly those with a connection to New Zealand or those with skills we need.
My parents, in common with many others, were infinitely grateful for their resettlement here after the 1956 Hungarian uprising. They and many like them felt a real commitment to repay that generosity with their contribution to the country and support for the community.
While we have our own issues to deal with as a nation, these timely opportunities for humanitarian investments in people should be grasped. They have the potential to make a meaningful positive difference to people's lives and to society.
Rest home funding
Your article on rest homes, nursing, and care (Weekend Herald, February 26) reveals that Health Minister Andrew Little needs to sort out his priorities.
He is quoted as saying that more money is available but he's concerned about large retirement village operators receiving funds that may end up being paid out as extra dividends. He accepts the money is needed by small-time operators.
Why should the big operators subsidise hospital care for those aged who qualify and need it? Little also forgets that where any money that could end up as dividends, the Government reaps around 40 per cent of that dividend in tax.
A lot of (borrowed) money has been wasted on populist and vote-catching causes but when real need is demonstrated, Labour frequently fails.
Little needs to sort out his ideological crap so that the residents that need such care don't have to wallow in their literal crap.
Bill Capamagian, Tauranga.
Fronting up
Many have worked hard to serve us as we have navigated the dangerous, anxious, and unknown waters of Covid.
Many work long hours on little more than minimum wage. They include flight attendants, retail and supermarket staff, healthcare workers and bus drivers, cleaners, and security staff. They include small business owners who work the counter in corner dairies and retail outlets.
They can't "work from home". They serve us face to face every day and they want to go home at night without taking risk of the virus to their families.
Armchair warrior John Roughan (Weekend Herald, February 26) suggests vaccination passports and masks are irrelevant and that we shouldn't bother with them.
In the real world, it is very stressful for those workers, many of them vulnerable themselves, to have to ask us to show the basic dignity and respect of wearing a mask in their workplace, only to be met by indifference or hostility.
Please, on behalf of those hard-working Kiwis, show your vaccination pass without needing to be asked, and wear a mask. I promise you it won't hurt you, and you won't hurt them.
Bill Newson, National Secretary, E tū
Sense and sensitivity
Thanks for the story on "sensitivity readers" (Canvas, February 26). I hope that, for writers, readers, and publishers, this extraordinary phrase will put them on red alert. George Orwell would probably have been pleased to have invented it for use in one of his classic portrayals of a dystopia. As a euphemism for one who may be prepared to carry word suppression to morbid and micro-managed lengths, it's hard to better.
I was the representative for the NZ Society of Authors (PEN) for 13 years in fronting issues of freedom of expression. Because of the 9/11 Twin Towers attack, governments were quick to introduce draconian measures to help track down would-be terrorists. They passed some pretty suppressive laws; but I never encountered a situation where even the word "fat" was being suggested for morally "sensitive" surveillance. A new dimension indeed has been added to the meaning of "sensitivity", and it's not one that augurs well for what was once called freedom of speech.
I confess I am a little fat, unusually short, and, at 76, definitely of fading physical beauty. I don't give a damn. Nor do I want the protection of a "sensitivity reader".
Denys Trussell, Newton.
Evenly split
I loved Zoe Hawkins' letter (Weekend Herald, February 26). It conveys the natural division in any society - a 50-50 split on many issues, which might even have a genetic basis: the risk-takers versus the cautious, the aspirational pushers versus the conservative resisters of change; a society needs both, so it's in our DNA.
Our voting patterns reflect the fundamentally balanced split between left and right. It takes a major arrival - a war, a pandemic, a natural disaster, a very appealing political personality - to sway the body politic beyond the half-n-half divide.
Now, will collectivism win over individualism? In my opinion, yes.
I could be wrong.
B Darragh, Auckland Central.
Hopeful view
Your editorial on the pandemic (Weekend Herald, February 26) was a refreshing read.
This comparatively brief and positively hopeful article was a welcome respite after the deluge of "horror stories" on the subject this week. Thank you.
Susan Wann, Milford.
Smells wrong
Laboratory staff in NZ, along with other healthcare professionals, have been repeatedly denied a pay rise for many months. It would appear that their contribution to the ongoing health needs of all New Zealanders has not been considered worthy enough of adequate remuneration to keep up with the escalating day-to-day costs of living.
But just as 10,000 of these undervalued workers are about to strike (as a last resort), an injunction is issued at the last moment to prevent the strike, as it would now appear that they are now too invaluable, and necessary. A piscatorial odour is in the environment.
Brian Millar, Titirangi.
Our precious rights
On my travels, a few years ago a met chap who hailed from Libya and he told me the price of democracy is blood. Watching it being spilled now, by Ukrainians trying valiantly to protect theirs, I am very much reminded of what he told me.
When we think of our own Government here and the mistakes they have made in battling Covid (which pales into insignificance), at least we can complain, at least we have the freedom to protest and the freedom to remove the Government in due course.
Brett Hewson, Parnell.
Following Putin's example, Boris Johnson should invade Scotland. There are still some Conservatives north of the border who need protection from the Scottish National Party. Martin Ball, Kelston.
De-nazifying a country which has a Jewish president. That must be a first. C C McDowall, Rotorua.
The value of the Russian ruble has crashed to less than one cent. Maybe they could rebrand it as the rubble? Andrew Montgomery, Remuera.
With regard to the incumbent Government, if you have to tell people you are open and transparent, it proves you aren't. Ian Brady, Titirangi.
Professor Rod Jackson's advice to Russell Coutts has proven Steve Braunias may need to share the satirist honours with the epidemiologist should he decide to expand his career options. Luit Bieringa, Wellington.
I suggest the demonstrators wearing tin foil hats fully avail themselves of our free psychiatric services. Brian Kay, Remuera.
Our Prime Minister, and all of Parliament, knew very early on that the protest had no solid core or spokespeople, so any dialogue would be meaningless. They made the right choice not to engage. Murray Reid, Cambridge.
The anti-vaxxers with their "demonstrations" are demonstrating nothing but their profound ignorance. Derek Smith, Remuera.
The full-page discussion (Weekend Herald, February 26) on possible candidates for the upcoming Auckland Mayoralty had a glaring omission - Craig Lord. Larry Tompkins, Waiuku.
Thank goodness we have a PM who has remained resolute in the face of childish tantrums. Peter Kelly, Glendene.
It is dismayingly evident that the one emotion that united the disparate group is misogyny - a visceral dislike of our Prime Minister, who has been subject to crude abuse and violent threats no male politician is likely to encounter. V M Fergusson, Mt Eden.
It staggers me how anyone could think squeezing 17 people, and a dog, into a small car designed to carry only four people, is a good idea from a road safety perspective message to save lives. John Oliver, Remuera.
The Government gave $4.5 million to a rugby team and $500,000 to the storm and flood-ravaged farmers on the West Coast. Wayne Heissenbuttel, Howick.
Hilary Barry suggested on Seven Sharp sending 5000 chocolate fish to the post-protest cleaning crew in Wellington. I suggest sending Brian Tamaki with half a dozen fish and he will do the rest. Peter Coleman, Sandringham.
Dr Maia Hetaraka: 'Cultural competence' should evolve into genuine cultural understanding.