Letters: Dairy farming programme sensationalism

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And I thought Sunday was a well-balanced investigative programme!

In my view, the programme on dairy farming was just sensationalism, taking two extremes and taking the 90 per cent of dairy farmers in between completely out of the picture.

On the one hand they showed the intensive, dirty farm with piles of rubbish and no attempt to clean away the slush and slurry and even the effluent irrigator wasn't working properly. On the other was the greenie version towards which we all would like to lean.

In reality lower stocking levels, once-a-day milking and mixing herbs in with the sward for pasture is becoming much more mainstream but this was not mentioned.

To add horror and sensation they showed the "home kill", a term I still, as a relative newcomer to New Zealand, find disturbing and the little girl apparently revelling in the slaughter. But, in reality it is a far better way for an animal to die for the freezer, alive one moment then, without fear of wonder, suddenly dead than to be transported, queuing up and fearful.

Unfortunately the rush to attract immigrants and populate our overflowing cities in order to increase tax revenue requires more meat and dairy products in the supermarkets at reasonable prices. We can't have our cake and eat it too but there can be a balance. The cost is perhaps higher prices, fewer exports and no milk for schools which we dairy farmers are providing.

Sensational, polarising journalism for the sake of viewer ratings does not help.

[ABRIDGED]

RICHARD KEAN
Ngongotaha

Jesus' resurrection

This Easter Sunday is the annual remembrance of Christ's rising from the dead, arguably the greatest event in human history.

When Jesus was crucified (around 33AD) his disciples hid. Yet within a few weeks, thousands in Jerusalem became Christians. By 68AD Christianity had spread across the Roman Empire and the Emperor Nero was persecuting them.

According to the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, the resurrected Jesus was first seen by the women at his tomb. He was then seen by the 11 remaining Apostles on various occasions, by James the brother of Jesus (who opposed Jesus), by the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and by Saul the Pharisee - who hated Christians but was converted to become Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles.

Paul, writing around 53-54AD in 1 Corinthians 15:58, also said the resurrected Jesus appeared to more than 500 people at one time, most of whom were still alive at the time of his writing.

Despite scepticism, there is plenty of evidence to support these accounts. For example, Peter, Paul and almost all of Jesus' Apostles were reportedly martyred for proclaiming what they witnessed.

Another example is Luke and Acts. These books of the Bible were written by the same person and are recognised by scholars as being historically extremely accurate. For instance, archaeologist William Ramsay said that the ancient author of Luke and Acts "should be placed with the very greatest of historians".

BOB BOARDMAN
Ngongotaha