Raise awareness and back our local birds
We should be voting the yellow-eyed penguin as Bird of the Year, not to win a competition, but as a way of awareness raising that it is very likely to become extinct on the mainland during our lifetime.
From the first Bird of the Year won by the tui as winner of a popularity contest, increasingly the birds proposed by different groups have been put forward to highlight their plight.
We should vote the hoiho in order to show concern that we may no longer take it for granted that when we take the children to the beach, penguins will also be coming ashore.
We should use it to raise awareness and celebrate that fishermen are closing the local feeding grounds during the breeding season, to increase the penguin chicks and breeders’ chances of survival.
Similarly if you also want to vote for the red-billed gull, whose numbers nationally are in decline, vote to acknowledge that it is not declining in Dunedin because of the predator control efforts of the albatross colony that have allowed a large breeding colony at Taiaroa Head to achieve outstanding success.
This is less about competitiveness than awareness raising.
Donkey dramas
We have all seen pictures from Gaza of donkey carts. Given the Israeli blockade petrol is scarce and donkeys have become essential to survival, especially as the people are regularly being ordered to evacuate.
Many donkeys have been killed or wounded and the barley on which they exist has become very expensive.
Donkeys are being forcibly removed by Israel and shipped off to Europe on the pretext of being "saved". The real reason is to restrict the mobility of Palestinians during wartime. Israel will "save" your donkey but not your child.
Palestinians rely on and care for their donkeys. They even decorate them for donkey festivals.
A more appropriate intervention is that of the British charity Safe Haven for Donkeys, which supplies a mobile veterinary clinic in Gaza.
Absurd behaviour
Jacqueline Athanasatos (Letters 18.9.25) castigates the Christian clergy protesting the massacre of Palestinians and total destruction of Gaza Strip, with the terrorising and starvation of children, demanding "does Jewish blood not matter?"
I have nieces in Paris who are observant Jews or married to Jews.
I am not Jewish myself, and speak as a committed atheist when I paraphrase Voltaire: You need to believe in absurdities to commit atrocities. Irrational behaviour is going to lead to man’s extinction — and none of man’s gods will care.
Moral courage
Jacqueline Athanasatos, what about the suffering of thousands of Palestinians hostages held by Israel without a voice or any chance of freedom or justice?
Since 1947 hundreds of thousand times more Palestinian blood has been spilt by Jews than Jewish blood spilt by Palestinians.
As for theatrics, watch the Israelis and their leader with their justification for what is happening in Gaza.
But you are right on one thing: our leaders show no moral courage, but not for the reason you propose.
Compare, contrast
It was ironic that the 22.9.25 ODT featured letters promoting the virtues and values of Charlie Kirk as those of just “another evangelical Christian republican” while on the Opinion page Jean Balchin’s piece so clearly detailed why he was not that.
Details which should be of concern to all sides of the political and religious spectrum.
Ironic also that Charlie Kirk was so blatantly antisemitic in his rhetoric when we have the same US commentators who seek to confuse disagreement with his messages with support for his totally indefensible killing also seeking to confuse opposition to actions of the Israeli state with antisemitism.
I am happy to support any number of excessively detailed accounts of life in Edinburgh in exchange for this excellent analysis of all dimensions of the Charlie Kirk tragedy.
Shameful attack
Once again we witness people use inflammatory rhetoric and terminology they don't understand. Hayden William's letter (19.9.25) about free speech and the assassination of Charlie Kirk in which the former refers to the latter as a "white nationalist" and a fascist was patently false.
Real fascists do not engage their political opponents in open and free debate. Indeed, Kirk both embraced and encouraged debate with all. Much of what Kirk said was deliberately taken out of context so his opponents could label him as a "deplorable’' member of the far right. He was not on the far right. Kirk leaned towards Christian nationalism, not ethno-nationalism, a big difference. Kirk once hosted a Black Leadership Summit, encouraging black people to attend.
Academic aspirations
"The academic division [of the University of Otago] is reviewing its papers and programmes to ensure best fit with market demands and future workforce needs" (ODT 18.9.25).Once polytechnics aspired to become universities. It seems now that universities aspire to become polytechnics.
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: letters@odt.co.nz
