Toxic to ratepayers’ pockets

What is it about Wellington City Council that it cannot solve the council’s ‘‘culture problem’’ (Sept 6)?

Is the council, and presumably its chief executive, so bereft of any intelligence and decision-making ability that they cannot handle this issue by themselves?

Councillors were voted in on the basis they said they could run the city. They are in their positions as paid decision-makers – and some get paid very well indeed for what they appear to do.

Even their highly paid CEO was presumably appointed on the basis of having a skerrick of good local government experience and decisionmaking ability.

But when something like a ‘‘culture problem’’ comes along what do they do? They appoint a consultant. Why? And look at the tens of thousands of dollars that has cost since 2013. Why can they not get to grips with this ‘‘toxic’’ problem themselves?

Of course, if the ‘‘culture problem’’ issue isn’t resolved satisfactorily I imagine Wellington City Council will claim it is blameless, and no doubt say it acted on the poor advice of some consultancy firm.

Robin Watt, Miramar

Religion in schools

Lee Pomeroy says Christians should not teach values and morals to schoolchildren because it might ‘‘give young minds a false impression . . . that only religion can provide these’’ (Letters, Sept 3).

Secularists in the West forget they are post-Christian secularists, standing on Christianity’s shoulders. We used to ‘‘love our neighbour’’ because they are made ‘‘in God’s image’’ – which gives them enormous (and equal) value regardless of other characteristics and circumstances.

What do ‘‘evidence and reason’’ tell me about my neighbour? That they are a mixed bag of sweetness and malice, dignity and fear, beauty and horror – whom it makes equal sense to hate as to love.

Also, according to the evidence, people are not equal: some of the differences are socially derived, but some are innate (intelligence, strength). You can’t reason your way to equality from there.

Little wonder atheist ethicists just assume people are valuable, or say that pretending value is the only way to survive: even then, though, they don’t explain why we ‘‘should’’ survive. Gavan O’Farrell, Waterloo It’s ironic that a state school in one of New Zealand’s wealthiest, and presumably best educated suburbs, should allow a fundamentalist religious group on to its premises.

One would have expected that school would realise and appreciate the benefit of a secular education untainted by religious superstition and conservatism.

It’s the religious Right that consistently opposes the human rights and liberal legislation one might expect it to support. After all, Christ must have been one of the first liberals we are aware of to oppose the strictures of his Jewish tradition. Rome, of course, soon put an end to that when it took over Christianity.

Religion and education/knowledge will always be mutually exclusive, and the state must never be seen to be promoting or facilitating religious teaching or propaganda. Ethics and values are not exclusive to the religious Right and should be taught in a neutral situation.

Murray Eggers, Paraparaumu

Thought-provoking play

The context of the bed in Circa’s Modern Girls In Bed provides possibly the most original set ever. Kate Sheppard, Katherine Mansfield, Heni Pore and Helen Hitchings tumble on stage and their courage, brilliance, suffering and legacy are laid bare in finely drawn sketches and razor-sharp dialogue by the cast. The play balances humour and pathos as life and death unfold.

Well done to the group of young New Zealand women who wrote, produced and performed this thoughtprovoking play that reflects on the lives of women past and present.

It rightly produces more questions than answers as modern women acknowledge those who went before them and grapple with today’s issues.

I’ll be looking for more work from writers Cherie Jacobson and Alex Lodge.

Roseanne Jones, Auckland

Unconnected to gender

Re Gender-balanced zeal? (Letters, Sept 4), glibness is a poor substitute for intellectual analysis. Clare Curran and Meka Whaitiri have been demoted because of alleged mismanagement of their ministerial responsibilties. Were they male managers, I believe the outcomes would have been the same and their levels of competency questioned to boot.

Gender balance is about equal representation and participation in both democratic and political processes.

The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Report states: ‘‘Gender parity is a useful tool for assessing gender inequality in specific areas, in setting goals and in assessing change and progress under specific indicators and of gender equality. Achieving gender equality is about making a real difference in women’s lives, participating in labour contexts. It involves a substantive shift not only in the proportion of men and women under specific indicators, but in the deeper dimension of societal norms and sense of identities – to be valued and respected equally, regardless of gender.’’

Please put the gun back into the holster on your hip, Mike Williams, and put on your thinking cap. Margaret Taylor, Te Aro

A post pick-up service?

Because of the gradual decline of post boxes, posting mail has become an increasing problem for people who no longer drive or are unable to walk to the nearest shopping centre. I wonder if posties could adopt the service provided by the rural delivery operators, whereby a red flag is placed on view on the letterbox to signal that the resident has mail in their box to be posted. As the posties now have a mobile delivery vehicle I feel they could accommodate a bag to carry the mail to the nearest post box when they have finished their run.

Elaine Garbett, Taita

Population pressures

Patrick Smellie’s predictions for what New Zealand will be like in 2050 are probably not far off the mark (Sept 6). I think he missed one theme that must also be addressed by then: that of our constantly growing population and the pressures such expansion place on our living environment and the natural environment. Hopefully by 2050 we will have realised the folly of growing simply for the sake of it and found a way to enjoy wholesome lives without destroying the planet and especially this heavenly part of it. Enough is enough?

Stuart Reid, Lower Hutt

Our value as a food producer

Global warming is a serious threat and New Zealand must play its part, but to say we need to reduce the number of animals is madness –and not just because of the damage to our economy.

By 2100 the world will be home to an extra four billion people, all of whom will need food. New Zealand has the most carbon-efficient agriculture in the world. If we cut production here, it would inevitably have to be taken up somewhere else, probably at twice the carbon cost. Purely for the sake of looking good, we would have contributed to a substantial increase in greenhouse emissions.

Meat and dairy are far more nutrient-dense than any plant-based foods, can be produced on land not suited to growing crops and in combination with growing crops are far more sustainable than the massive monocultures of plant-based crops needed to feed the growing population.

Global warming is a complex problem; it needs solutions based in science, not poorly thought-out emotional responses that make the problem worse. Jonathan A Depree, Palmerston North

Thanks, councillors

I’m appreciating Greater Wellington regional councillors for their (out)standing experience. Phillippa Martin, Manakau