It’s good to lose occasionally
Regarding the story about Steve Hansen (Oct 3), the pursuit of excellence is good, but winning can become obsessional, almost pathological. Test match losses can elicit grudging churlishness, and national grief.
It’s actually good for the All Blacks to lose occasionally. Rugby tests with the All Blacks were becoming boring, with cricket score wins, which does nothing for rugby.
When the All Blacks lose, it reminds us all that players are mortal, that celebrity is shallow and overrated and that rugby is just another game.
For the sake of the game, it’s good that other teams win sometimes. It gives it an edge, not the boring procession it was becoming.
David Pierce, New Brighton
Kiwi observers
Addressing the UN, the Prime Minister reminded us that not long ago we were people who ‘‘didn’t just observe international events, we challenged them. Whether it was apartheid in South Africa...’’
This year is the centenary of Nelson Mandela’s birth. I have just visited an excellent Mandela exhibit in Melbourne. It brought back memories of what apartheid was really like, and of the Sharpeville massacre, which outraged New Zealand activists who ‘‘didn’t just observe international events’’.
But today? South Africans today are horrified by the apartheid situation in Israel and the Occupied Territories.
Last Friday was the single bloodiest day of the Gazan ‘March of Return’ protests since May 14.
South Africa has suspended relations with Israel. But here? Are we ‘‘challenging events’’? Are we even ‘‘observing’’ them?
Or are we playing safe and looking the other way? What has changed?
Lois Griffiths, Strowan
Prosperity
Most will vote heartily for prosperity, as the alternative is neither comfortable nor cheerful. Prosperity has enabled multi-car families and, globally, the jury remains out as to whether the automobile brings blessing or bane.
Before prosperity, there was the bicycle, and many can remember when a family had only one car, and children universally cycled to school. How wretched we must have been.
Citizens in Merivale are currently rejoicing that school is out, and their streets no longer impassable with parents delivering their daughters to school. Parents will claim that they drive their children for safety reasons, but the congestion they create in Merivale streets is an actual hazard. Or bane.
Rangi and St Margaret’s are schools for the uber-prosperous but their automotive prosperity renders the streets a nightmare, the more so as these old streets are narrow, laid out long before the car. What a pity that holidays are so short.
Michael Goodson, Carlton Mill
Strikes
For the life of me I fail to understand why our striking professionals chose to wait until a fragile but sympathetic government came into office and not at a time when the real culprits should have been tackled.
Do they have neoliberal trolls infiltrating their ranks as a previous Labour government had with Roger Douglas and his sidekicks? Are they deliberately fouling their own nest or are they too naive to know what they are doing?
C Hadler, Rolleston
Airline emissions
Cheap trip? Mortgage the grandkids!
Air New Zealand CEO Christopher Luxon - ‘‘In 2019, we will offer more than 2.9 million seats for travel in New Zealand for under $100". Can the Earth afford to indulge the pollution caused by massive air tourism? In view of climate change how does a $100 ticket work? Air NZ’s annual emissions are rapidly heading for 4 million tonnes CO2. But stand by for the spin on ‘‘reduction’’. It is coming. These people are masters at selling an increase as a reduction. I guess that’s how they earn the big bucks.
Warren Begley, Christchurch Central