Letters: What makes a healthy society? Trump’s win, crime crackdown raise fundamental questions

A young person on the roof of the Korowai Manaaki youth justice facility in South Auckland in October. Photo / Alex Burton

What makes a healthy society?

The column “Gang’s path to healing is inclusion” by Haami (Sam) Chapman (NZ Herald, November 12), put alongside Simon Wilson’s column about the phenomena of Donald Trump, raises some very important principles of what is needed to create a healthy society.

Only 63% of eligible people participated in the American election. Maybe the 37% who did not participate felt excluded by what was being presented. A book by Alison Sutherland, Classroom to Prison Cell, raises the same issue, as many of the youths she interviewed who resided in youth justice facilities for several reasons felt excluded from what was being offered by our school system. Their voices were not heard. Their disappointments and pain were not heard. They felt put down and rejected and so lived out an alternative lifestyle and gravitated to crime and towards people who would accept them.

I worked for 28 years as a priest in the Clendon community of South Auckland and I experienced and heard the same voices crying out for acceptance and love. Like Sam, I believe that if we are to move forward as a country, “it’s about restoring the memory of spiritual, practical, loving relationships and exchanging this for the brokenness in our everyday lives”. A healthy society is the one that listens to the marginalised.

Rev Mark Beale, Wattle Downs.

Shameful delay

That the official apology to survivors of institutional abuse is not being accompanied by some form of redress is shameful. All of these people are getting older, many are in need and some will die before anything is done. There has been plenty of time to decide what should be done, so if the Government is going to drag it on for another year, it should immediately give everyone an advance of, say, $50,000 and there should be no deduction for legal or other expenses which are not the fault of the survivors.

Bob van Ruyssevelt, Glendene.

Diabetes ‘myths’

I am a New Zealand GP with a special interest in reversing type 2 diabetes. An article from Diabetes NZ (NZ Herald, November 4) discusses five “myths” and in my opinion has done nothing more than increase confusion for people with diabetes and prediabetes. Clear messaging is needed.

Discussing “myths” one and two. There is no place for sugar in the diet of someone with type 2 diabetes. It is that simple! We should only have one teaspoon of sugar in our blood. One teaspoon of sugar in your coffee doubles the blood sugar. In addition, all carbohydrates (bread, rice, potato, pasta) are digested into blood sugar. Carbohydrates, especially ultra-processed carbs, need to be significantly reduced.

Discussing “myth” three. Being overweight is not the cause of type 2 diabetes. Both being overweight and type 2 diabetes are consequences of insulin resistance. Correcting the hyperinsulinemia and consequential insulin resistance results in both reversal of type 2 diabetes and weight loss.

“Myth” four. We are seeing type 2 diabetes in younger people. This is related to high consumption of ultra-processed foods causing insulin resistance.

“Myth” five. Type 2 Diabetes and pre-diabetes are both serious as they are indicators of insulin resistance, which is responsible for the majority of chronic health conditions.

I support Diabetes NZ in acknowledging the stigma and stress of type 2 diabetes, but they are not helping by blurring the facts. I would love to rename type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes as “processed food disease” to clearly identify the cause. This condition is simply preventable and treatable by removing the cause – sugar, sugary drinks and ultra-processed foods. Let’s use simple and clear messages and not blur the science.

Dr Glen Davies, Taupō.

Populism v fascism

Correspondent Sue Rawson (NZ Herald, November 11) has a bad case of Trump derangement syndrome. Trump is no fascist; he is a populist politician, with, admittedly, some serious character flaws.

In fact, the United States has a federal system of government with “checks and balances” that mean the powers of a President are surprisingly limited. He can only make treaties with the approval of the Senate and, while a President can veto bills, that veto can be overridden by Congress, and there are similar limitations. Pardons can be granted and he can nominate Cabinet members and Supreme Court Justices.

A President cannot make laws, declare war, decide how federal money will be spent, interpret laws, or choose Cabinet members or Supreme Court Justices without Senate approval. So it is nonsense to say Trump is set to become a dictator.

Bruce Anderson, Christchurch.

Trump’s record

It’s concerning and embarrassing to read the recent opinion articles from Heather du Plessis-Allan (NZ Herald, November 10) and Paul Henry (November 11) regarding Donald Trump. Do these people know anything about the facts?

Trump incited an armed rebellion on the Capitol which resulted in four deaths, not to mention all the top-secret documents he stole from the White House and refused to return. Then there are the sexual assault cases and talk of going after political foes.

There’s a reason many of his former staff – including his former chief of staff, Attorney General, generals, chief of homeland security, national security advisor and Vice-President (plus many others, including eminent US legal scholars) – have declared him unfit for office.

Robert Howell, Onehunga.