Whanganui letters: Where's the residents' association?

A reader is surprised that Whanganui does not seem to have any residents' associations.

I am a relatively new boy on the block, moving to Whanganui about four years ago. One of my surprises about Whanganui is that there appears to be no residents' associations or lobby groups to work with the district and regional councils in order to identify concerns of the residents and to ensure that councillors make sound financial and practical decisions.

In Porirua, a comparable city where I came from, there were at least five residents' associations, practically one for every suburb. By using the term "resident" everyone in the city was included. People tend to forget that renters pay rates, indirectly with the rents they pay.

All have a vested interest in the facilities and services provided by the local councils, particularly the level of rates. The rates I pay in Whanganui are as high as those levied in Porirua, which was the highest in the Wellington region.

The residents' associations of Porirua were more than just lobby groups. There were sub-groups interested in preserving the history of their suburb. There were groups who would work with a dedicated council officer to prepare "village" development plans. Others were interested in beautifying their environment, establishing local children's sport and play facilities.

In Pukerua Bay where I lived, the residents' association took democracy to a higher level. Every household was deemed to be a member of the association. This meant that there was no exclusive group of residents making decisions that any household did not have an opportunity to have input. The association was funded by donations, grants and even an annual administration grant from the council. [Abridged]

BRIAN MOSEN
Whanganui

Woke politics 'absurd'

When most of us hear the term "woke" we relate it to waking up in the morning. Of course, it has gained a different meaning to do with supposed awareness of racial or social injustice.

As Shane Te Pou points out (Opinion, October 15), "woke" or "wokeness" comes from the "progressive politics" of the left wing, and is now used to identify and even deride those same politics.

While Mr Te Pou says these politics have grown out of the belief we all have the same rights irrespective of factors like our race, often these woke politics actually applies factors like race to separate, delineate and segregate.

Increasingly, thanks to these woke politics, white people are being told they are racist simply by being white, and in the US major universities are segregating things like their graduation ceremonies by race and colour.

We hear of "white privilege" thanks to these woke politics, where someone living on or below the poverty line is somehow privileged while multimillionaires like Barack and Michelle Obama are somehow downtrodden victims of racism living on their expensive beachfront estate.

In fact, Mr Te Pou points up the absurdity of the position of woke politics as he makes his request that we all stop labelling each other and have a conversation.

He asks that you stop calling him woke and he will stop calling you racist.

And that is the extent of the divide.

He tells us that political conservatives "ignore the substance" of issues deemed motivated by "wokeness" while "progressives dismiss and demean anyone considered to be motivated by racism", but progressives tend to call anyone who disagrees with them "racist", no matter how moderate they or their ideas may be.

KA BENFELL
Gonville

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