No inoculation against crank beliefs

My extended family has had its share of crank beliefs. I still have my grandmother’s copper bracelet, once expected to ward off arthritis, as was swallowing cider vinegar. Other ailments were covered by the colour man.

She must have tossed away his kit, purchased in Palmerston North, probably soon after buying it. It consisted of a smallish wooden box containing multicoloured strands of knitting wool that, correctly positioned and pointing in your direction, would cure you, by emanating colour waves I expect, of whatever you fancied. Pregnancy? Maybe not.

She got crippling arthritis in spite of such useful aids. But what a great entrepreneur the colour man was. He sold his kits to her sisters, too, and they were, in most ways, sensible country women.

A scintilla of doubt in their GPS led them into nonsense, but I don’t blame them for wanting to avoid their inherited tendency to arthritis.

On the other side of my family they were more suspicious, in general, of ideas that didn’t come naturally to them, or that emanated from experts, who were distrusted unless their point of view ran counter to the norm, in which case they were warmly embraced and their words were gospel.

As a result, even in the midst of the 1950s polio epidemic that crippled so many children, they stood firm against inoculation, and none of their kids caught the awful disease. They would have got it, you see, from the vaccine. Or something.

In other words they were as disbelieving as the otherwise sensible people who today refuse the MMR vaccine for their children on the basis of fake research by a now unregistered doctor whose socalled ‘‘findings’’ were published in The Lancet of all places, then retracted. Which is to say it should never have made it into print.

Andrew Wakefield, the discredited ‘‘researcher’’, would appear to be to blame for the many parents who now fear their children will become autistic if they are inoculated against measles. Their numbers are rising, in defiance of logic, causing the disease to spread.

Wakefield has been rewarded for his trickery by true love with former top model Elle Macpherson, who is also a crank – about diet. What happy times they must have at the dining table.

I had the measles more than once when I was a kid. We talked airily about German measles and English measles, and one year most of the boarders at my school came down with one or other of them. We slept side by side on mattresses on the floor of what I think was a large staff room. Then we all recovered, as we were expected to. There was no MMR vaccine yet. Perhaps the eternal hymn singing did the trick.

Wakefield owes the people who’ve been sicker than we were an apology, but such people never back down. The Germans do, though. Their president, Frank-walter Steinmeier, this week asked Poles to forgive Germany for starting World War II with its invasion of the country 80 years ago. ‘‘I bow before the victims of the attack. I bow before the Polish victims of German tyranny,’’ he said, not actually bowing, but promising Germany would not forget the millions of people who died as a result of German war crimes. Good for him.

A fellow student, years ago, used to play Hitler’s speeches loudly, affecting to be a fascist. He couldn’t make any more actual sense of the staccato din than I could, but that’s another kind of crank again, who does it only to get attention.

How we all yawned.

My topic is about how people shouldn’t feel uncomfortable/embarrassed about showing their tattoos. I think they should feel comfortable with what they do with their body.

I know a lot of people with tattoos that feel uncomfortable when showing them in public.

My dad’s girlfriend is an example. She has tattoos down her arms and in the summer when it’s really hot she likes to show her arms.

She hates when elderly people give her dirty looks for her tattoos. That’s why she is always covering up. Also people with tribal/cultural tattoos should be able to show them with joy but people will make them so uncomfortable that they don’t want to show their culture.

Everyone should feel comfortable in their own body and should be glad to show what they have changed about their body. Thank you New Zealand for saving me and my family. Thank you for a safer life and future.

I am a 15-year-old South African boy that was privileged enough to be able to emigrate to New Zealand. I write this letter with a lot of emotions and a broken heart. Back in South Africa most of my family and friends are not able to emigrate due to various reasons. And I am missing them every moment and wish there is something I can do about their circumstances. Unfortunately there is not much to do except to hope for the best.

Five months ago, I arrived in New Zealand for the first time. When I stepped off the plane in Auckland I knew this place would be my new home. I was overwhelmed with all the new and interesting things happening around me. In the air I felt no hate and lots of unity. Everyone was doing their own thing but still there was a friendly atmosphere wherever I went.

The following might be all new to you and the information will be strange to you, but I’ll try my best to explain. Let’s begin with the statistics. There is an average of 57 murders each day in South Africa. Then there are farm attacks which comprises of robbery, rape, cruel assault and malicious damage to property. And this is just a drop in the bucket, there are still heaps of corruption, abductions and vandalism and going ons in South Africa. But at the end of the day we can just be thankful for what we have and how privileged we are to be safe and to know we will have a brighter future. I feel in this current day society, schools such as Queen Charlotte College and their canteen prices are becoming unaffordable.

I have stopped spending money at my school canteen as the food isn’t worth the amount of money. Also, many students can’t afford to purchase food from the canteen and have