Today's Letters to the Editor from readers cover topics including new councillor, the English language and reporting history.
Time to rein in rodeo rider of a councillor
I was a university lecturer for many years and, every now and then, I would encounter a student, typically male, with a pronounced chip on the shoulder.
This category of student had a particular problem with authority, typically female authority. It is challenging to focus on one’s lecture with the distraction of a young man at the back ostentatiously reaming out his nostrils and examining the content.
Methinks one of our newest councillors may well fall into this problematic category. Methinks also that we are in for a rough rodeo ride over this election cycle unless someone can rein him in.
Pat Duffy
Opoho
Cease and desist
Could we please get a break from the reporting on Cr Benedict Ong? I think the readership is roughly split into two: those who didn’t vote for him and feel vindicated in their choice; and those who voted for him and continually wonder whether that was a mistake.
From here on in, it is ‘‘what for the love of fruitcake has he done now’’ click bait.
Ina Kinski
Dunedin
Legalise it
I believe the ODT editor (editorial 24.2.26) is mistaken to think there is no need to legitimise the English language as an official language of New Zealand and he derides Winston Peters’ proposed Bill as pointless.
The current situation with te reo taking precedence in many situations with the reasoning it is the only “official” language of New Zealand (excluding sign language) needs to be rectified. This would certainly do that.
Why would the editor be against this? He asks why does English language need the recognition as it is already the de facto language? My answer is because some areas already place English secondary to te reo in their signs, place names, directions, salutations etc when only such a small percentage of New Zealanders speak/read let alone understand it.
It makes complete sense to have that formal recognition it deserves considering it is the most used language in our country.
With the world becoming a much smaller place with immigration and emigration at all time highs, why shouldn’t English be our official language?
Joyce Yee-Murdoch
Cromwell
Solving nothing
It is all very well to move homeless people on from the CBD but where do they go? What does this solve? It seems to me rather than fixing the problem we are just putting it out of sight.
This is not an easy problem to fix. It needs a collaborative approach from health (especially mental health), housing, social welfare, police and extended whanau. It is not going to be fixed overnight but I think we can do better than what is proposed.
Carmen Houlahan
St Clair
[Carmen Houlahan is a candidate in the upcoming Dunedin City Council by-election.]
Tips and tipping
We should express our warm appreciation to Marion Poole and her colleagues for the thankless task of picking up fly-tipped rubbish. The temporary closure of a section of Queens Dr will no doubt prevent tipping there but will simply shift it elsewhere.
Closing roads cannot be a solution. Perhaps the use of a movable surveillance camera at hotspots would help to identify the fly-tipping lowlifes in our community. Certainly a better use of that spare $15,000 the council found for an experiment benefitting few.
Philip Temple
Dunedin
The rush to correct someone on their own history
Nothing strikes me as more ironic than a Māori academic discussing the impact of colonisation, before readers write to the editor attempting to correct the Māori academic on his own history.
They will inevitably bring up the Musket Wars, stating colossal numbers of deaths using emotive language, in a bad faith argument designed to invalidate the points the academic has made.
Is it so hard for these correspondents to believe that Māori had literacy, international trade, technology, and peace before the signing of Te Tiriti?
After all, English history is full of civil war, savagery, and conflict with other nations, and yet we do not doubt that England also had literacy, trade, technology, and peace.
When Te Tiriti was signed, Britain was experiencing the Pax Britannica (‘British Peace’).
This is despite the fact Britain was enacting “inordinate savagery” against indigenous people around the globe.
J. Eunson
Hataitai
Be careful what you wish for, next is worse
Paul Jeffery’s letter (24.2.26) accurately ticked off the major talking points in the achievement list of the current president of the USA and ended with the hope that the 25th Amendment might soon be applied.
That, unfortunately, would not be the end of America’s problems because look who would be taking over. In fact, looking at the list of office holders on the succession list after Vice-president J. D. Vance, there is not a single name on it that does not make the blood run cold.
B. A. Thompson
Weston
The Dave and Don corner
I would like to reply to the letter from Duncan Connors (21.2.26) in which he tries to walk back the idea that his opinion piece was not a hit job on President Trump, but an attempt in a reasoned manner to explain the errors that Donald Trump is making in international relations. Yeah right.
We live in a world where some countries do not abide by Dr Connors’ international relations rule book.
We know from history that appeasement and pandering have the effect of emboldening these countries to take liberties.
Trump’s first term as president was very poor as he had no focus and seemed to just be happy to have reached the heights of the most powerful person in the world.
Now he is focused and has intelligent and driven people around him.
Unfortunately, academics and other ideologically compromised people cannot get past their tribal hate and see what is self-evident to most ordinary people.
As I have said many times I am focused on the results of his actions not on whether he is involved in some unproven criminal activities or has an arrogant attitude.
Unfortunately, the left of the political divide is selling the Western world out, with their ridiculous, stupid, and immoral policies which do not stand up to factual and intelligent scrutiny.
Dave Tackney
Fairfield
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: letters@odt.co.nz
