Are these poor people being set up to fail? We are told they will have a job and a house to come to before moving to Whanganui. How is that going to happen when the local population has trouble getting housed and employed? What tensions will that cause if it is seen that refugees will get preference over locals in the job and housing stakes? Is this another pipe dream of Lees-Galloway, up there with his Sroubek debacle?
Do not get me wrong; I would welcome these refugees any time. It would be heartless of anybody not to, bearing in mind their backgrounds, but is this being done right?
As a cynical afterthought, how many of these nominated towns are held by Labour MPs?
ROB RATTENBURY
Whanganui
Key details missing
The recent Chronicle article on the Venezuelan leader Maduro blocking aid from the US "out of refusal to relinquish power", while preferring to starve "his own people" leaves key information out.
First, as FAIR, a US media watchdog group pointed out that it's not just Maduro — as the Western media are presenting it — who opposes the US aid convoy; it's the UN and Red Cross. Why do none of the above reports note this rather key piece of information, instead giving the reader the impression it's only the stance of a sadistic, power-hungry madman?"
The Red Cross has long been working with local authorities inside Venezuela to deliver relief, and just last week doubled its budget to do so.
Despite dozens of media outlets giving the impression (and sometimes explicitly saying) that the Venezuelan government shut down an otherwise functioning pathway into the country, the bridge in question hasn't been open for years. It's true the Venezuelan government appears to have placed an oil tanker and cargo containers on the bridge to prevent military incursion from the Colombian side, but the other barriers, as writer Jason Emery noted, have been in place since at least 2016. How can Maduro, as the BBC suggested, 'reopen' a bridge that was never open?
Additionally, the Venezuelan government "has an entirely rational reason to suspect the US would use humanitarian aid as a cover to smuggle in weapons to foment armed conflict". Trump's envoy to Venezuela, Elliot Abrams, literally did just that 30 years ago.
An August 17, 1987 AP/New York Times article on Elliott Abrams revealed that Abrams authorised a shipment of weapons on a humanitarian aid flight to Nicaraguan Contras.
Without getting into Maduro's blunders, the forged drama continues of an evil "socialist" government against the "free" Western World. Socialist? Venezuela's economy is 70 per cent in private hands ... including the same people who have helped make their economy scream by withholding investment and intentionally sending money overseas to devalue the peso. Real fake news.
BRIT BUNKLEY
Whanganui
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