Letters Plus Caption Competition, Quips & Quotes, Life in NZ and 10 Quick Questions

It’s good to see the Listener giving space to people like Johann Hari who question the long-term efficacy of antidepressants (“The blues battle”, March 3). But the more serious problem of side effects also needs attention.

For many patients, the antidepressants become gateway drugs to lifetime dependency on mood stabilisers and antipsychotics, drugs that are toxic, addictive and likely to cause more side effects. The options to reduce the dose or employ alternative therapies are sidelined and become increasingly risky.

Meanwhile, the patient is told that s/he has developed an incurable condition with a label such as “bipolar” or “schizoaffective disorder”, which can at best be managed by further medication.

It’s difficult to honour the “do no harm” principle or allow “informed consent” when prescribing something with a long list of side effects for a person already befuddled by previous doses.

The pattern is well documented by questioning psychiatrists and researchers such as Peter Breggin, Robert Whitaker, Will Hall and Gary Kohls in the US and Joanna Moncrieff and David Healy in the UK. In New Zealand, Julia Rucklidge is adding to nutritional research by William Walsh in the US and Patrick Holford in England.

All of this complements what Johann Hari is saying and offers brighter prospects for mental health sufferers once the dependence on medication is reduced.

Peter Vogt (Tauranga)

Marc Wilson, my favourite Listener columnist, left me deflated – ironic, given the topic – by his choice of words when writing about depression treatment (“Cause and effect”, March 3).

In a generic reference to females, he wrote of “Jill”, whom he mentioned after “Jack”, and the pair of them as a “sad boy (or girl)”.

Instead of the sexist cliché, and the infantilising “boy” and “girl”, he could have used s/he, which is more appropriate for the 21st century.

CR Barnes (Dunedin) CTV BUILDING CULPABILITY

I don’t understand why the police do not appear to have considered charging the engineers who designed the CTV Building with criminal nuisance (“Force majeure”, March 3).

The Crimes Act 1961 says: “Every one commits criminal nuisance who does any unlawful act or omits to discharge any legal duty, such act or omission being one which he or she knew would endanger the lives, safety, or health of the public, or the life, safety, or health of any individual.” The Act goes on to say that the maximum sentence for this crime is one year in prison.

Maybe the police felt that there was greater need for accountability because of the death toll. But surely the acts or omissions of the engineers should be tested in court and, if they are found to be accountable, they would not get away with it entirely.

The Government, in the meantime, might consider amending the Crimes Act to permit longer sentences when someone is found guilty of criminal nuisance.

David Hay (Epsom, Auckland)

Surely those who made the decision to allow the CTV Building to be reoccupied after the initial September 2010 earthquake are just as culpable in its subsequent collapse, if not more so, than the original designers?

John Northcott (Warkworth) ANCESTRAL PUZZLES

Edna Tait ( Letters, March 3) has obviously not studied much history in relation to Jewish ethnicity. The Jewish people, as a distinct race, originated in

Palestine and then, through various causes, left the region and settled in groups in various countries in Europe mostly.

Either voluntarily or otherwise, they lived in certain areas and not others. Marrying outside the religion was not encouraged. Some did, which is why it is possible for someone who does not belong to the Jewish religion to have some Jewish ethnicity in their DNA. Also, there are people who are brought up in the Jewish religion who become secular or non-believers. Adolf Hitler decided that these nonbelievers were also eligible for the gas chambers.

In other words, just like Greeks, Italians and Irish, etc, Jewish ethnicity can be traced through DNA.

Elizabeth Urry (Devonport, Auckland)

“DNA discovery” (February 24) omitted any reference to the NZ Society of Genealogists as a source of information about one’s ancestry. The society is

based in Panmure, Auckland, and has branches and interest groups throughout the country.

Its Panmure library is open daily and has permanent staff and trained volunteers to help with enquiries. Library visitors and society members have free access to all the main commercial genealogical websites. Research days are held regularly at weekends, concentrating on English, Scottish, Irish, European and Māori ancestry.

Often, relatives are found, and, yes, it is obsessive and

most enjoyable.

Beverley Mosley

Convenor, Scottish interest group, NZSG

(One Tree Hill, Auckland) BYE-BYE BILL

Thanks for the Editorial in praise and recognition of Bill English (February 24). Thanks, also, to Joanne Black, who obviously, and rightly, has the highest regard for him ( Back to Black, February 24).

It’s a sad departure for English. He did, after all, win the 2017 election votewise, and in most other places in the world this would have seen him reestablished as prime minister. I object to a system that allows an ageing, resentful politician for whom few voted to dictate who forms our government.

It’s sad, too, that David Carter is no longer Speaker of the House. He brought dignity and purpose to the role. The one time I have seen Speaker Trevor Mallard in action, he was lounging in the chair holding aloft some hapless infant. Is this the seat

of government and power or a glorified crèche?

C Keane (Whakatane)

The letter writers opining on Bill English’s legacy (March 3) clearly know little about the economy or they would have mentioned that, according to OECD figures, from 2009 to 2016, we had higher GDP growth than all of Western Europe, the US, Canada and Japan. That is an impressive achievement in anyone’s book.

Paul Wilton (Albany, Auckland) POETRY IN MOTION

“Pull up a stool” ( Books & Culture, February 24) makes some good points. We’re all grown-ups here. To refer to bodily functions with prudish euphemisms, stool pidgin, if you will, gives me the what’sits. However, the next time the Listener has a bowel notion, perhaps it should give the more delicate reader wind of it on the front cover.

Dean Donoghue (Papamoa Beach) PUSHING PEDALLING

In Wellington’s Island Bay, there were months of consultation on its cycleway, and people there and elsewhere have heard about the coming of bike paths for years (“Bikelash”, February 17).

But as Kathryn King of Auckland Transport kindly puts it about its cycleways, “We didn’t perhaps hear from all the people who now have concerns.”

Indeed. The catalyst for the Island Bay bikelash was, to use the vernacular, the council finally getting around to building the bloody thing.

As Kirsty Wild says in the Listener, “cycle lanes present fundamental challenges to existing power relationships within cities”.

Richard Keller (Lyall Bay, Wellington)

I recently visited Copenhagen where cycling is, indeed, the norm. However, “Bikelash” omits to mention that the Danish capital has an integrated public transport system that includes excellent and frequent bus, tram and train routes. And with apartment living the norm in Scandinavian cities, cycling or catching a tram or train is standard.

Christchurch City Council, while hell-bent on installing cycleways and reducing car parking spaces, is not providing readily accessible, frequent public transport services. Until this is resolved, cars will still dominate on the roads.

Madeleine Price (Christchurch)

LETTER OF THE WEEK