Letters: Team reached economic goals

Your letters.

Having been part of the successful team at Whanganui and Partners, I can concur with what Lyn Cheynne has said (Chronicle letters, December 16) about Wanganui consistently out-performing other regions in terms of economic performance.

While I was involved, all of the statistics we monitored supported this as well.

Lyn has done on outstanding job in promoting this region and changing the perception - as a team we all worked well together.

With all due respect, Mark Hughes is in charge of council infrastructure and has had no involvement in the economic development role until very recently, so would not be aware of the success of the unit.

To all intents and purposes, we did meet our targets and, in some areas, exceeded them, so the strategy worked well for us.

There is a perception out there that as the governance side of the organisation was battling to get started, the operational side was sitting around waiting.

This is not true because we continued doing our job with a very clear strategy in place, embarking on new projects to support our work.

We are all committed and passionate economic development professionals with considerable experience and networks.

We adopted the River City as our home, and it was a privilege to be part of such a successful operation.

I would like to thank the business community for their support during my time at Whanganui and Partners and always am still happy to assist where I can.

As a ratepayer and member of the community, I wish the new team all of the best in their endeavours in this very challenging role.

Your success is our success as a community. CHRIS HEYWOODFormer Whanganui and Partners - Lead Business Love for fairytalesIn regard to Barry Hodson's "godly killings" rant, you bring up the difference between killing and murdering, also comparing Canaanites to Nazis.

Now you say they were similar, despite, and I quote, "would have committed similar atrocities to the Nazis had they not been killed".

As the term Canaanites is a broad term for indigenous peoples and God's reasoning for attacking was because of sin (having other Gods, incest etc - though you could argue about Noah and his family re-populating), it sounds more like God was doing a cleansing. Sound familiar?

Now I'm going back to my shrine of the mighty Flying Spaghetti Monster to indulge in some light cannibalism, just as Christians do. But, seriously, at the end of the day I love fairytales, don't you?

CAMERON TAURI
Whanganui

River's legacy
A river is a river, it can't be a person.

The larger part of my whanau, Tuwharetoa, we live and breathe the spirit of the Whanganui River every day. We have a saying: "We are the river, the river is us."

When I held a peaceful protest at the River Traders market on Saturday, I wasn't surprised, from the conversations with citizens from all parts of the Whanganui River area, it was 100 per cent agreement with the views I put down for all to read.

Many agreed we, the people of the river, are handing management a "please-explain" card. These organisations have all worked so hard for so long for so few results.

At the market people were asking me to continue to speak for them and so, as an experienced advocate, I humbly accept the task.

Often people are confronted with needing assistance to resolve legal, medical, bureaucratic or social issues. Advocates are sworn to do nothing that could cause any loss or harm to a client. So next year I will work towards the creation of an independent advocacy agency.

Our messages are simple: "Water is life. No water, no life".

Our river is showing signs of severe stress due hugely to the headwaters of the Whanganui being diverted. Here is another simple message: "Stop diverting it right now". Let it regain its vigour and bring its vitality back.

Our river is low on spiritual energy from the impact of Maori war parties, steam vessels, farming and now techno man. We have all been depleting her energy.

At the moment, our iwi trusts and government incorporated entities have somehow managed to get some aspects of our river into a hell of a mess. Nga Tangata Tiaki, Department of Conservation, Awa Tupua and now a new player on the field, Ngati Rangi, try as they may as self-appointed guardians to conserve for us this beautiful legacy, I cannot help but feel slightly disappointed.

I don't think they have achieved our goals. We citizens command better results.
ALLAN TAUREREWA TUWHARETOA
Whanganui

Synthetic food
We had an article in our Chronicle quoting Jacqueline Rowarth on what she sees as dangers in this new fad for synthetic meat and milk.

Jacqueline has a worry as to micro-nutrient deficiencies, minerals and vitamins - what she calls unintended consequences. Margarine all over again, eating chemicals - I thought we had decided natural was best.

This push for synthetic food is coming from the vegan movement, their leaders morphing out of the animal rights group. These people don't like domestic animals and want to rid the world of them to grow plants. They don't even want sheep for wool - a very cruel practice shearing sheep, they say, so let's get rid of them so farmers can't hurt them.

We are having plenty of sunshine, so the slip-slop-slap brigade are in full swing. British scientists, after a 10-year study, and Norwegian scientists, after a 20-year study, came to the conclusion the sun is not the cause of melanoma and probably not most skin cancers because the people with the most sun damaged skin had the least cancers and the best cure rates.

Their announcement is too late - the commercial boys have got hold of it and there is too much money to be made out of sun blocking products, hats, screens and dark glasses (bad for your eyes, the scientists told us some time back).
G R SCOWN
Whanganui