Fine with fireworks but not over the Octagon
So the Dunedin City Council have proudly announced the resumption of a fireworks display in the Octagon.
I have no problem with a display, but I’m utterly incredulous that they would choose to return to the Octagon.
Granted, it’s been almost 10 years since the displays were stopped, following a serious incident.
Are our memories that short? Or is 10 years long enough to conveniently ignore it?
The reality is, this isn’t (sky) rocket science. What goes up, must come down.
Fireworks don’t magically disappear in a whiz-bang and sparkle, there’s debris that falls. For larger pyrotechnics, that debris may be significant.
So let’s gather many thousands of people in a fairly tight space, where they can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their faces turned up in joyful expectation, and launch pyrotechnics directly over their heads. What could possibly go wrong?
This is utter lunacy. Surely the DCC and Worksafe can’t keep buying more whitewash for a quick cover-up?
The danger (and history) is known, and if there’s further injury, hard questions will be asked.
There’s countless better ways to have a fireworks display. Perhaps start with the Chinese New Year as an example?
Power drunk
The world has come to something when the leader of its mightiest nation blunders so badly he becomes an international laughing-stock.
Last year Trump fantasised being the new pope. Now he has promoted himself still further, to be the second Christ — the healer and saviour of human race (ODT 15.4.26) — while conducting his murderous campaigns around the planet.
There are, of course, terrorists aplently, but the unholy triumvirate of Putin, Trump, and Netanyahu (all convicted felons) towers head and shoulders above the rest. The harrowing legacies of their regions will haunt the world for generations.
Wrong vehicle
The Helen Clark Foundation Social Cohesion report just released: isolation, disconnection are now widespread (ODT 24.5.26). Yet Clark’s government shifted councils away from roads, rates and rubbish and into social wellbeing through their Local Government Act 2002.
Two decades later, after plenty of ratepayer money spent on wellbeing, social cohesion is apparently still poor. Maybe councils were never the right vehicle for this work?
Railway wrongs
I could not believe what I was reading in your recent article about the rebranding of Dunedin Railways (ODT 24.5.26).
The rationale of the current CEO was confused and made no sense.
Also isn’t Dunedin Railways yet to complete its last rebrand? Admittedly Covid halted that, but wouldn’t it be far more sensible to finish that than to waste even more money on this idiocy and spend it where it is needed most, i.e. on the track and rolling stock — the latter currently being a mismatch of different eras and liveries.
Even their fleet of the Dj class of locomotives don’t even look the same. In marketing, presentation is everything.
Maybe it’s about time the council got actual railway people back in to run the business, or at least people who come from a railway family and know what they are doing.
The value, and added benefit, of NZ rooftop solar
To Ross Alexander concerning Dunedin’s solar electricity generating capabilities (16.4.26).
We have a rooftop solar PV array in Belleknowes that is 60% smaller (6 v 15 kW) and generated 66% less electricity than yours in Brisbane (daily average of 22 v 65 kWh).
Considering Dunedin has about 40% less sunlight hours, I reckon ours did quite well.
Our system saves us about 45% on our electricity bill and should pay for itself over 15 years at current prices and feed-in tariff (we don’t have a battery).
The system cost more than it would have in some places, but that’s the tyranny of distance and lack of government incentive in New Zealand.
As prices inevitably rise, our savings will increase and payoff time will shorten. Your saying that "the savings will never cover the initial cost" for solar in Dunedin is clearly hyperbole.
There are of course reasons other than purely economic to choose solar. Near the top would be power conservation to minimise the need for additional centralised generation, particularly carbon-based.
That we don’t have to live in Australia to enjoy it is a bonus.
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: letters@odt.co.nz
