Letters: Wokism, Covid-19 coverage, ageism, productivity and rugby

Should the famous sign be changed to Hollywoke? File photo / supplied

Opinion

Letter of the week: Gavan O'Farrell, Lower Hutt

In her article about women's continuing difficulty reaching executive positions in Hollywood, Nicole Sperling reports (Weekend Herald, February 29) progress when an HBO showrunner described a pilot's ethos as: "You will not have a room without people of colour and diversity of gender and sexual orientation."
Apparently, "the room" doesn't need diversity of age, world view, personality, IQ, EQ, imagination, articulation, extraversion/introversion, sense of humour, beauty, body shape, health or any of the thousands of available characteristics. Just those three. Why? Because their advocates are all in the woke club.
Woke says: "You are only your colour, gender and sexual orientation; nothing else about you matters."
Each of us is unique and dazzlingly complex. Woke insults everyone.

Not warranted

The first line in the lead story (Weekend Herald, February 29) was: "New Zealanders are being urged to remain calm ..." The front page, 40mm high letters in red confirm our first case of Covid-19.
Headlines like that at a time like this are sheer sensationalism and not warranted, given that, on average, 10 New Zealanders die every week from common flu.
Headlines like this are what do engender panic.
Robert Burrow, Taupō.

Over-response

I am saddened by the front page (Weekend Herald, February 29). This headline strikes fear into people and does nothing to inform a calm, sensible, educated response to the coronavirus spread.
After wading through the entire article (as most don't) there was some sensible advice in the final paragraphs. There is already an over-response to the virus, as commented by health professionals.
I'm having a breakfast meeting in Auckland and many people have commented how inappropriate your heading was. The cafe owner said she even removed the front page of the free editions to customers.
Dr Logan Muller, Opua.

Well prepared

It's great that many people have been prompted to store emergency supplies for the next natural disaster. We never know when the next earthquake might occur. Perhaps the rush in Christchurch is less because many residents are already well prepared.
Ken Morison, Christchurch.

Computer age

So, ageism is alive and well I see.
Did it not occur to Wendyl Nissen (Weekend Herald, February 29) that the technology she refers to was largely created by people of my generation (I am 87) and my father's?
The creation of "apps" and "social media" platforms could not have happened without the sophisticated computer operating systems and programming languages developed over the last century and a half.
I would suggest that the vast majority of cellphone users have very little knowledge of their underlying technology, merely acquiring by rote the ability to press the right buttons.
To infer that most people of my age need to be treated like children when it comes to operating modern electronic hardware is demeaning and inaccurate. I still frequently have to help out much younger people with "computer problems".
Peter Rodriguez, Whanganui.

Productivity

Your correspondent Derek Smith ( Weekend Herald, February 29 ) ascribes New Zealand's abysmal economic performance to low productivity. Not so.
There is no universally agreed definition of the term productivity. Economists refer to labour productivity and total factor productivity, the latter notoriously open-ended and difficult to quantify.
New Zealand is an agricultural export nation with a large service sector, notably tourism, and a small industrial/high-tech sector. All nations in the developed world are industrial nations with small agricultural sectors.
New Zealand's farmers are the world's most productive. Productivity is inapplicable to the service sector. A waiter can only serve so many drinks, a nurse attend so many patients and so on; otherwise service quality rapidly deteriorates. But the labour productivity ( or output ) of a typical New Zealand industrial sector worker given the same capital equipment would easily match if not exceed any foreign counterpart.
A far more indicative economic metric is export income per person. All the tiny, high-income nations are super-exporters. Hence their extraordinary wealth. New Zealand simply does not have the massive productive sector (relative to population) that those nations have.
John Gascoigne, Cambridge.

English rugby

As a Scot who would support a team of Antarctic penguins against England, I still must take issue with Phil Gifford (Weekend Herald, February 29).
He takes aim at the English but could just as easily have pointed the finger at Scotland, Wales, Ireland or France because they also keep their home-match takings. What's unusual about that? Does New Zealand Rugby share the gate money from Eden Park or the Cake Tin with visiting nations? Does Aussie cricket, Manchester United, New York Yankees, Oklahoma City Thunder, etc?
His next gripe is that some "blazer" from Twickers suggested Auckland should build a bigger stadium to increase their revenue but bemoans the fact that London has a population of eight million compared to Auckland's 1.4 million. Dublin, Cardiff and Edinburgh have smaller populations than Auckland, but they all have national stadiums superior to Eden Park.
I too welcomed Pichot's appointment and would be happy to see some form of Nations Championship every year and I take onboard that the Scots, Irish and Italians didn't vote for it. But do you really think the big-money men who own the clubs in England and France would agree to their top players taking even more time off to play for their countries?
David Douglas, Glenfield.

A quick word

My chances of winning Lotto and becoming ill with coronavirus seem to have reached the same precipice. Bev Owen, Mission Bay.

Pontificating to the Aussie prime minister produced little more than a smirk, rightly so. A J Petersen, Kawerau.

Australia's PM Morrison would understand that a criminal's behaviour is learned from his family. It has nothing to do with the country he is living in. H Robertson, St Heliers.

The fact is, these people are not Australian citizens despite having had opportunities to change that. If only our government would take a similar stance against criminals here. Maxine Samson, Whakatāne.

You don't threaten a political ally to make yourself look in command. It is a case of blowing someone's candle out to make your own's glow brighter. AD Kirby, Papamoa.

Why put a large, bolded front page title in Saturday's paper, including a splash of red implying danger, when health authorities are saying very clearly that we should not panic? Frances Brown, Papakura.

Your job is to inform, not inflame fears to boost your sales. David Willetts, Narrow Neck.

Eighty per cent of those who contract the coronavirus are only mildly affected with symptoms no less threatening than the common cold. Gary Hollis, Mellons Bay.

If no one else, supermarket owners and shareholders will certainly be happy with trade that took place over the weekend. Rose Panidis, Silverdale.

People who queue on roads are doing exactly as sheep do when they wish a change of diet or scenery. Now they are at it again: Queuing at shops. Richard Steele, Retaruke.

Please stop over-stocking up on food and toilet paper, us rational folk also need to eat and wipe. Brian Cox, Pakuranga.

India and Nepal have known about transmission of diseases through hands for millennia, which is why Hindus greet each other with "namaste" and hands kept to themselves but together - and facing upward as respect. Rob Buchanan, Kerikeri.

TV news says a global recession could be looming. Talk like that and we will get a global recession alright, and it will be sooner than later. Bob Wichman Botany.

I see a brilliant career on the stage for Jami-Lee Ross when he leaves Parliament after the next election. His "poor, naïve me" diatribe in the Chamber had me almost in tears. Glennys Adams, Oneroa.

"We have a runner!" The advertisement on TV showing the wee boy running for his dear life really is a winner and raises a smile each time. Judith Bouwman, Torbay.