Dental data
Ken Perrott (Letters, June 20) states Pasifika children are concentrated in fluoridated areas and yet still have notably poorer dental health.
It is invalid to correct data for differences in ethnicity, as fluoride may increase dental risks, and the real reasons for decay are still not being properly addressed.
These include: poor nutrition and brushing habits, sugar-laden diets, baby bottle rot caused by sugary drinks drunk from sipper cups or bottles (rotting top teeth) and, ironically, over-fluoridation, which causes fluorosis and other negative health effects.
"Fluoride exposure has a complex relationship in relation to dental caries and may increase caries risk in malnourished children due to calcium depletion and enamel hypoplasia, while offering modest caries prevention in otherwise well-nourished children." (Peckham and Awofeso, 2014).
LUCY McDOUGALL
Whanganui
(Edited)
Tribalism truth
The Thought for Today by Stuart Goodin (Chronicle, July 6) purports to quote Jesus speaking against tribalism. I very much doubt the truth of this. It is a matter of interpretation, and I am positive that Jesus was not that ignorant of the truth. Tribalism as lived and practised by Maori is a very positive force.
Through whakapapa I can connect myself to all the iwi of Aotearoa and indeed many of the islands of the so-called Polynesian Triangle. We were one people long before colonisation. And I have to laugh when any European talks about warlike, feuding tribes.
I must also address this talk of historical lenses and views of history. The real problems for Maori began with that treaty of 1840. From then on the only correct lenses were, and still are, English law and the Magna Carta.
What was cunningly referred to as "the settler government" was, in reality, a government made entirely of recent immigrants.
Just try that today, people, and imagine the uproar. This "government", within a couple of decades, had declared war on the tangata whenua, confiscated millions of acres in Taranaki, and then deliberately set about the destruction of the Maori culture and social structures.
The worst breaches of the Treaty, English law, and the Magna Carta were yet to come.
It was deemed that Maori had first to prove that they had not fought against "the Crown", and if they wanted some land to live on they must demonstrate that they had "cultivated that particular land". All the rest of Aotearoa was then deemed "waste land". I kid you not.
By 1874 vast amounts of some of the best lands on the planet were up for grabs in every province. This is, in fact — and through the lenses of English law and the Treaty of Waitangi — the theft of a whole country. And the deliberate destruction and bankrupting of a bonafide nation that was created by the Maori declaration of independence.
Today Treaty settlements are labelled "full and final". Really? Dream on, people.
POTONGA NEILSON
Castlecliff
