‘A good newspaper is a nation talking to itself’

COVID-19 testing

Narayan Reddy, Lautoka

Why is it that the Ministry of Health and Medical Services will not give a COVIDtest to a person leaving the country?

I have asked two doctors and both have said that the ministry will not certify or standby their tests and will not give it to general practioners to conduct.

This may be why our New Zealand and Australian counterparts will not open a bubble with us as we do not trust our own testing and doctors.

This has been confirmed by two doctors in the private sector that I checked with.

Stop chasing yesterday’s normalcy

Dharmendra Kumar, Suva

The first way a pandemic ends is medically; it happens when a vaccine or cure is found.

The second way, socially, is where we learn to live with the disease by making adjustments in life and following the COVID-19 restrictions.

Social distancing is here to stay for much more than we first anticipated.

The world has changed many times, and it is changing again. All of us will have to adapt to a new way of living, working, and forging relationships.

But as with all change, there will be some who lose more than most.

One can also be hopeful about the way some habits might change for the betterment of all. Less carbon, more local supply chains, more walking and biking.

We need to stop chasing yesterday’s normalcy because it will take a long time to get things to where it was.

Gender based violence

Pranil Ram, Votualevu, Nadi

The stark reality regarding gender based violence is staggering.

Reading and listening to the ways in which these crimes are committed makes us sometimes wonder and raises serious questions that; Do we live on the same planet?

Has mankind lost its status of the most intelligent species? It is the man that are usually in question.

Hence, it requires authorities to put in appropriate measures to ameliorate this culture of domestic and gender based violence. Men need to step up and open up spaces where more meaningful dialogues could take place pertaining to why men behave like this.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this and authorities are already reporting an increase in gender based violence. Feeling depressed, experiencing psychological trauma and substance abuse could be some of the reasons why men commit this act.

A lot more needs to be done to uproot this phenomenon from our society.

I deeply believe that It requires heightened awareness on this issue and authorities working with some real sense of purpose to find solutions.

However, it cannot be done alone.

What is needed is a multi-sectorial and multi-faceted approach to successfully combat this issue of gender based violence.