Brothers in arms, unfortunately

Recent commentary in the media suggests that President Trump has good cause over the Jamal Khashoggi assassination incident to cancel recent arms deals with Saudi Arabia.

However, a closer look at just how many other nations conduct big business with Saudi Arabia reveals just how many other countries have similar interest in preserving their relationship.

As one commentator said, if the US cancelled their arms contract with Saudi Arabia, there will be plenty others lined up to take their place, and only the US business and working people would really suffer.

The arms industry is one of the biggest and most profitable enterprises in the would. The global trade of heavy weapons systems has now reached its highest level since the end of the Cold War in 1991.

The world’s top five major arms exporters are the US, Russia, Germany, France and China. Together, they account for 74 per cent of the total volume of exports.

In the Middle East, major arms imports have surged over the past few years, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says. Between 2012 and 2016, imports by countries in the region skyrocketed by 86 per cent. India, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates were the most prolific importers of major weapons.

Brian Main, Hamilton (abridged)

Tailgated? MeToo

Verity Johnson, you are so right girl! Your experience behind the wheel of your VW Beetle (Maybe I’m tailgated so much because I’m a girl, Oct 19) exactly mirrors my own, in a Honda Jazz.

I thought it was because I have white hair, the hallmark of the invisible people. I do think that a lot of women also drive hulking, invariably black, SUVs, because they perceive them as ‘‘men’s cars’’ too, and therefore think they will be less likely to be hassled. Or that they will be safer in an accident, which is not the case; high centre-of-gravity vehicles are much more likely to roll. My personal theory is that New Zealand’s preponderance of these ugly big cars, which look like the CIA was selling them off cheap, is because the world is full of very frightened people. They try to look brave or macho by driving enormous off-road cars (that are never used offroad) to show the world they are tough, when they are feeling anything but.

The tragedy is, now, when we need more small cars (or fewer cars altogether) to give our planet any chance of surviving our love of fossil fuels, we are getting more and more ridiculously over-sized ones. Same goes for our houses. How ironic.

Sue Smith, Waikanae Beach

Battle for identity

I was very interested to read the article ‘‘Identity theft and fraud web taken apart’’ (Oct 19). I have had fierce trouble this year trying to prove my identity, to prove that I am Rose Hudson.

When Spark pulled the plug on my telephone and my computer in mid-June after a mystery woman told them that Rose Hudson was dead, I was left without any form of communication with the outside world, and I was finding it very difficult to prove to Spark that I was Rose Hudson and it was necessary for my telephone and computer to be reconnected ASAP, as I live alone. No effort was made to check the truth of the mystery woman’s statement.

I went to the Spark offices in Wellington. The shop assistants would not listen. As far as they were concerned Rose Hudson was dead, and unless I left their shop immediately the police would be called. Very upsetting in a packed shop . . . a mid-day nightmare trying to prove my identity and get my life back to normal.

Proving I was myself was almost impossible. I returned with my passport. Still difficult to prove I was ‘Me’. It was nearly two weeks before Spark accepted that the person nagging them daily was Rose Hudson.

Four months have gone by and both telephone and computer still have problems. I have the feeling that it would have been quicker and easier for Spark not to accept my plea that I was Rose Hudson, and demand the police take the supposed identity theft victim off their hands. I discovered the hard way that it is important to have, on hand, identity documents proving you are who you say you are, so escaping the problems I had.

Rose Hudson, Karori (abridged)

Runs on the board for youth

I was most impressed when I met up with a student of St Pat’s Town who ran from Karori to Kilbirnie to sit his NZQA test.

The bus stopwork meeting may have been the cause, but the saved student bus No 3 fare should be a decoration on the chest of this dedicated student. It reinforces my confidence in the youth of this town and this country.

Well done, I salute you.

Paul Franken, Strathmore Park

A less-than-royal decision

Jobs for relatives and for mates is nepotism. Such practice is corrupt and unacceptable, and should have no place here.

Religion and superstition too have no place in a modern system of law and government. A secular state allows us all to meet as equals and participate without domination of the beliefs of any particular group.

These are precious treasures handed to us by previous generations, basic features of good government of a united people. Both these principles must be honoured and protected. But the proposal that both should be overturned and replaced by the very opposite has been rewarded. Carwyn Jones has received the Royal Society Te Aparangi Early Career Research Excellence Award for Humanities for his proposal that tikanga Ma¯ ori be recognised as a system of law and written into New Zealand law. He has told us what he means by tikanga. It includes whanaungatanga, the centrality of relationships – in the whanau or extended family. This opens the door to nepotism.

Then there is mana, the importance of spiritually sanctioned authority and respect for the spiritual character of all things. This relates back to old Ma¯ ori superstition and breaks with the principles of a secular law.

The Royal Society must be condemned for their stupidity; the rest of us need to step up and argue for the basics of a decent society.

John Robinson, Waikanae Climate change, naturally Chris Chapman’s letter (Oct 20) tells us that Britain has lowered emissions by 43 per cent since 1990. Britain’s energy emissions would be 100 times greater than New Zealand’s though a similar land mass and still the world keeps getting warmer. What is overlooked in all this talk is that the world has been going through cycles of Ice Age and warm climate for the last five million years and has been gradually coming out of an Ice Age for the last 10,000 years. If it reverts back to Ice Age we might be glad of a bit of greenhouse gas to slow the process.

Chris Bowen, Lower Hutt Bridges’ leadership lacking ‘‘What we do expect from whistleblowers is solid evidence.’’ And that is what we expect from Simon Bridges as well and we did not get that. All we got was mudslinging: ‘‘I think he is a liar, I think he is this or I think he is that . . . ’’. I think this was a poor performance of a party leader surrounded by yes-nodders.

Adrian Moonen, Eastbourne