Councillor O’Malley and his lost anatomy
Poor Councillor Jim O’Malley.
He’s facing a life ahead of him without an important part of his anatomy, his backside, having "worked his arse off" on the Albany St cycleway committee, only to have people, God forbid, disagree with him.
Spectacularly tone deaf to the pleas of the business community’s complaints of more disruption, the loss of 68 valuable parking spaces on campus, and the cycling community stating they don’t need or want it, Jim seems mainly offended by the suggestion that his conclusions might just be wrong.
He is so aggrieved he’s threatening to give up politics. Yeah, right.
It may be time for the councillor to realise that committees alone don’t make a bad idea good, and that the everyday operation of the city may be more important than costly and damaging leisure and vanity projects for a tiny minority.
Ian Pillans
Dunedin
Stand up
Wars may be far away, but their repercussions will affect us now and into the future.
New Zealand’s mild remonstrances on the Gaza genocide do not reflect our strong stances in the past, where we stood up against South African apartheid, nuclear armed ships and the white supremacy of the mosque attacks.
We are allowing Israel to destroy a people and a culture.
It is conceivable that a Trump-like character might arise in Australia in the future, who fancies a bit of choice agriculture land across the Ditch.
Who will protect us — not the US, whose leader covets Greenland among other places?
There are alternatives. The Hague Group is standing up for international law with real action. BRICS is an alternative non-aligned trading group that is trying to bypass the extractive US dominated WTO and IMF.
These countries are not perfect, but why are we following the US which continually dabbles in regime change and endless failed wars around the world?
Peace and diplomacy are rhetorical flourishes at the moment. Building trust is a hard road which requires listening to the perspectives of others, especially when they are in danger of annihilation, and not pattern-matching our own misconceptions.
Ann Mackay
Oamaru
[Abridged — length. Editor.]
Take the offer
Cole Martin lists many reasons why there’s no peace in the Holy Land (14.7.25) but omits the most obvious.
Solely blaming a supposed "system of domination," he ignores critical historical context, ongoing Palestinian violence, and Palestinian leadership’s refusal to recognise Israel.
The West Bank was occupied by Jordan from 1948 to 1967. Israel gained control of it in a defensive war. Large portions of it are governed by the Palestinian Authority (PA), created through the 1990s bilateral Oslo Accords with the goal of establishing a Palestinian state.
Those hopes were dashed when Palestinian leaders rejected generous Israeli peace offers that would have given them control over most of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. Instead, they launched the Second Intifada, a wave of terrorism that left thousands dead and hardened attitudes on both sides.
The violence and restrictions Martin laments largely stem from these actions.
Palestinians were offered more opportunities for sovereignty than other Middle Eastern minorities. Yet, they squandered each one, attempting to destroy Israel rather than pursuing statehood.
Real change can only come when Palestinians choose to stop the violence, recognise Israel, and build the state they were repeatedly offered.
A. Levy
Dunedin
[Abridged — length. Editor.]
A full-scale copy of the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor at the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia. PHOTO: MARINERS MUSEUM
Historic tale of ironclad ship battle questioned
Tuesday's Today in History (8.7.25) describes in 1862 the use of the novel gun turret on USS Monitor being used "to good effect in a decisive battle with CSS Virginia".
Wrong on both counts — the ships fought at close range for three hours, inflicting minimal damage on each other, then returned to their bases. Ineffective and indecisive, black-powder muzzle-loaders firing solid shot achieved little in this historic engagement, the first between ironclad vessels.
Richard Lea Clough
St Leonards
[Today In History is based on old ODT files and is updated annually. We welcome reader feedback on omissions and possible inclusions.]
Debt and Covid response
RE R John Wilson’s letter (15.7.25), what would he have done different so as not get into debt? Remembering every other country spent their way out of Covid.
Henry Schakelaar
Dunedin
Saving our species but losing land
Wonderful to read of the "Tireless work to save our native central species" (Central Otago News 3.7.25).
Sad then to also read of the proposed Santana Minerals Open cast gold mine with its blasting, digging, trucking and carting away of hillsides to leave "open pits a kilometre wide and hundreds of metres deep" across a swathe of our outstanding natural landscapes (Opinion ODT 9.6.25).
Sad as we’ll lose the stunning landscape many thousands of tourists fly in to admire or millions of people view on TV.
Expecting a second series of the murder mystery drama A Remarkable Place to Die to be shot here from November till the end of April, will be so incongruous with the noisy polluting open-cast gold mining and the arsenic and cyanide that’ll leak from the unlined toxic sludge dam it leaves.
Or maybe they can incorporate this and the waste of native habitat for native birds and lizards in the series for the German, American, Australia and New Zealand audiences?
Lynne Stewart
Earnscleugh
Overseas plunder
RE Gavin Dann's letter (18.7.25), His points re jobs, boost to local economy etc, are valid, to a degree.
However, if one is to google Tui Mine Tailings Dam, there is a prime example of the perils of an overseas company mining in New Zealand.
Since the days of flax and kauri, we have allowed Australian interests to plunder our resources with little return and no regard for the consequences.
By all means, allow mining but not at the expense of our environment, and pay well for the privilege.
Jerry Lynch
Mosgiel
