Today's Letters to the Editor from readers cover topics including care at ED, bank building in Port Chalmers and wearing of T-shirt defended.
Everyone should get care in an emergency
I was sorry to read about the woman who presented to ED with an ectopic pregnancy - a life-threatening medical emergency - and waited more than six agonising hours to be seen (ODT 13.12.25).
Health New Zealand’s Simon Donlevy missed the mark with his gaslighting apology, which acknowledged the patient’s ‘‘upset’’ and ‘‘distress’’ but not the unnecessary danger faced and pain endured. The patient has now been invited to meet HNZ to discuss her experience.
The same offer was extended to me following bungled miscarriage after-care.
During the conversation it became evident that our fantastic hospital staff work in impossible conditions. We must keep the pressure on Health Minister Simeon Brown and other MPs to prioritise investment in the health system.
Private health insurance or not, in an emergency we all end up in ED.
No-one should lose two litres of blood in the waiting room before getting the care they need.
[Name withheld for medical privacy reasons. Editor.]
Port landmark fine
I am the co-owner of the BNZ Bank, Port Chalmers. In response to Ian Davie’s letter to the editor (12.12.25) I make the following comments:
1. First and foremost Mr Davie doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
2. He has never spoken to me or the other owner, nor to my knowledge has he stepped inside the bank since we purchased the property.
3. Contrary to his comments the exterior of the building is in good condition which any passerby can observe (which is neither ‘‘sad’’ nor ‘‘run down’’).
4. The building is not ‘rapidly falling’’ anywhere let alone ‘‘into disrepair’’.
5. Mr Davie says ‘‘it is a disgrace and shows a lack of respect for the community’’. I think he should refer these comments to himself for shooting his ill-informed and critical mouth off.
I find it difficult to understand why people such as Mr Davie think they can write such a diatribe with zero knowledge and therefore zero credibility.
At the very least I would expect Mr Davie to check his facts with the owners of the bank - who just might know more about the state of the building than he purports to know.
Rhona Daysh
Port Chalmers
Wrong way
Reckless endangerment is driving drunk while banned from driving the wrong way round the Octagon, or any way (ODT 8.12.25).
As an out-of-towner years ago I drove sober as a judge the wrong way off Stuart St, to cheers from Big Daddy’s, a takeaway joint. I concluded that Dunedinites were of an excitable, Latinate disposition.
Alan Beck
Dunedin
Killing not a compassionate conservation approach
Is the culling of 10,000 goats really something to be proud of? (ODT 15.12.25). How many dependent kids were left to starve after their mothers were shot, and how many animals were wounded and left to suffer?
‘‘Conservation’’ is increasingly used to justify practices that many would reasonably consider cruel. Referring to large-scale killing as a ‘‘sport’’ is disingenuous.
Compassionate conservation is an internationally recognised approach that seeks balance between environmental protection and animal welfare, and it deserves serious consideration here.
While goats are browsers. Human behaviour - land clearance, deforestation, farming and development - has been responsible for far greater forest loss. That context is often missing.
It is also troubling that mass culling is promoted while conservation land is simultaneously opened for economic exploitation.
True conservation should not rely on normalising killing or ignoring human impact.
Tony Robson
Waipawa
Policing what someone wears
I am writing in regard to your article ‘‘Counsel chided over T-shirt’’ (ODT 11.12.25).
As this article concerns me, as the defendant, I would like to clarify a few points.
It seems extremely dystopian that a court case which was fundamentally about policing what someone wears starts by policing what someone wears.
I did not refuse to leave the airport on the day I was trespassed. I went there with nine other people, all wearing ‘‘It’s a Climate Emergency’’ T-shirts. I was singled out from the group and arrested when I asked to stay a bit longer to take some more photos for an art project I am working on.
Judge Robinson asked my counsel to leave for wearing the same shirt, saying it carried a ‘‘protest slogan’’, but the airport is jointly owned by the Dunedin City Council and the government, both of whom have declared climate emergencies. How is holding a small A3 sign saying ‘‘It’s a Climate Emergency’’ or wearing a T-shirt saying the same thing a protest, when it is merely affirming the airport owner’s own stated policy?
Is there no climate emergency anymore? Did I just dream it? I know I didn’t.
Over 40 countries have declared climate emergencies encompassing more than 2000 local jurisdictions and representing over a billion citizens and this country pledged to more than halve our emissions by 2035 at Paris.
There is still a climate emergency and it’s getting worse every day.
Bruce Mahalski
Dunedin
Floating options
If or when the ferries are replaced, what a golden opportunity to have them sail down to Dunedin Harbour. The ferries could be renamed Annex One and Annex Two for the hospital.
They could be moored to the wharf or swing on the pick (anchor to the landlubbers). If at anchor, then those on board would have a different view of Dunedin twice a day. It could solve the issue of an increase in beds.
Ted Corry
Cromwell
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: letters@odt.co.nz
