North Shore Times (New Zealand)
MUSIC WORTH THE MONEY
Rob Stock’s column focuses on ‘‘Money Matters’’, and it is fair to say that ‘‘music lessons are not an investment that will lead to work and wealth’’, as he does (23 Jan). But learning to dance, to train in martial arts, speak all our national languages, read and play music: all of these create a person, not just a worker. The things children learn create adults, and adults are not just accumulators of money. There is a tone in Rob’s column that can really harm a family’s openness to considering opportunities they might be able to afford for their children. Rob writes of ‘‘guilt-induced belief’’ and warns that ‘‘Extra-curricular activities can kill a family’s ability to save’’. Such wording can do its work on readers: as though one simply ‘‘believes’’ in a ‘‘syndrome’’ that learning music expands one’s mind and life, as though spending on a child’s development equates to ‘‘lessons that are going nowhere.’’ That kind of wording – as though we’re simply optimising our offspring for future worker status – is damaging to read when it concerns education in knowledge, beauty, and civic participation. Lisa Samuels
Birkenhead
ENVIRONMENT CRITICAL
So we stagger from a housing crisis (more of a speculation crisis, my physio aspired to own ten houses) to a traffic Crisis (not just Lake road) to a pollution crisis (un-swimmable beaches all around the city) but the elephant in the room is an environmental crisis. Nearly all North Shore estuaries are polluted with zinc, copper, lead and other nasties.
The Council have announced that all 13 construction sites on a single street at Flat Bush had compliance issues including rubbish and insufficient sediment control with the associated risks of polluting local waterways. Warnings to clean up their act had been given by the Council but had just been ignored. This sounds like a similar story to the warnings given not to destroy the few protected trees that we have too. Zoom in on Google Earth to see the huge pock marks of development all over this city with trees and bush destroyed. On the North Shore including the scarred hillside above the bus station in Oteha Valley Road, visible from the motorway. Add these together and this is our equivalent of rainforest clearance in PNG or the Amazon. With rising emissions and no adequate tree protection then maybe it’s time that International observers questioned New Zealand’s ‘green
RUBBISH LAWS LAX
A John Key legacy. New Zealand now a fourth world country with rubbish being left everywhere. Most new New Zealanders haven’t a clue of how to be a tidy Kiwi because they still live in their birth country status. I have witnessed young adults taking a couch to the tip refusing to pay the small charge and were clearly overheard saying we will just drop it on the roadside. Bags of rubbish piled up at properties because people are too lazy to meet the rubbish collection day. Take a look around and you quickly see who is creating what shortly will be a serious health matter. Add the freedom campers to the problem and we have an epidemic waiting to happen. Time to bring in Singaporean laws. Noel Pryce
Birkdale
HAVE YOUR SAY
Letters should not exceed 250 words and must have full name, residential address and phone number. The editor reserves the right to edit, abridge or withhold any correspondence without explanation. Letters may be referred to others for right of reply before publication. Email: nsnews@snl.co.nz Mail: North Shore Times, PO Box 79, Orewa.