I do, however, hold my own columnist colleagues to a different standard, that of journalists who need to get their facts right. Terry Sarten, whose columns I often admire for their humour, claims (Chronicle, January 28) that Fred and I were offering solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
I can't speak for Fred but, as for my letter, Terry must have read it in his hammock and got twisted up in his scolding.
If I had a solution to that incredible mess I would be offering it to frenemies of mine in the US State Department, not just keeping it to myself or the letters section.
Terry does have a point about keeping a focus on the local scene.
As he evidently misread my letter, maybe he should have gone to SpecSavers.
JAY KUTEN
Whanganui
Not genetic
Jay Kuten appears to be on shaky ground in disputing Fred Frederikse's view of Jewish genetics.
While studies have shown that many Jews have common genetic lineages, that would surely be expected, as Jews have tended to marry within their own religious communities.
A 2016 joint study by universities in Russia, the Czech Republic and the UK found that there is no genetic hallmark for Jewishness, which turns out to be socially defined, determined by non-genetic factors.
The indications are that, perhaps, Israelis and Palestinians are genetically linked. Both communities seem to be equally pig-headed.
STEPHEN PALMER
Bastia Hill
High horses
Some people have mounted their high horses again, looking down on our Maori ancestors and reciting spurious tales about them. Bruce Moon (letters, January 19) harks back to the mythical intertribal wars and the supposed slaughter of Maori breeding stock.
It's all a colonial dream.
If South Taranaki was bereft of Maori people in 1840, why did a powerful central North Island tribe come to Waitotara looking for a scrap?
They found several, but were eventually defeated and the survivors sent home. So who were these South Taranaki tribes who defeated the invaders?
Were they ghosts? Maybe they were walking dead or zombies? No, they were a combination of several Taranaki tribes, including the tribe that takes the name of that mountain.
Another clue to the exaggerations of the colonials in their interpretations of NZ history is the fact that Nga Puhi only had four muskets when they came here in 1819, hardly enough to wipe out the majority of the occupants of all of Taranaki.
The most sensible strategy was to take to the bush and return later to reclaim the land.
That strategy is still practised today. And it ain't over yet, people.
Mr Moon is way off the mark when he proposes that our Maori history is beyond the competence of any historian he knows. Ngati Ruanui: A History by Tony Sole (2005) does a damned great job of shooting him down in flames.
(Abridged)
POTONGA NEILSON
Castlecliff
Other gods
The voluble Potonga Neilson, who writes in your columns about the "mythical Heaven or Hell that Pakeha rave on about", is clearly of Scandinavian descent.
One presumes therefore that he raves on about Valhalla and worships Odin and Thor.
MIKE LALLY
Te Puke
