Hoping for change
My apologies to correspondent Edward J Lye (February 1). My letter of January 25 was not meant to be a red rag. Rather, it was a sincere attempt to be reminded of the principles of progressive politics and of the progressive parties I have voted for in the past, to balance the conservative principles supplied by Sir Roger Scruton.
Although my letter was clearly looking for abstract principles, I thank Mr Lye for reminding us of many of the wonderful concrete advances achieved by progressive parties in the past.
While I would like to be free to vote left or right again, I find a weird absence of that high-mindedness in many left-wing parties around the world today, including in New Zealand. I think those parties need to re-examine how they got caught up in anti-life policies over the last fifty years – was it semi-accidental and not thought through fully, or was there an evil impulse coming from some source? The ever-divisive and ever-insidious and everGodless neo-Marxism springs to mind.
There are many voters who put an allinclusive ethics at the top of their checklist on election day, and skirt by a wide margin the quicksand of taking lives to solve problems. We are in a rapidly awakening world, and there may soon be more votes in pro-life policies than in anti-life ones.
Perhaps it won’t be long before large numbers of voters like myself will be able to once again remove our restrictive ‘‘rose coloured Right wing glasses’’ and vote with Mr Lye.
Tony Molloy, Morrinsville
Virus prompting change
With the luxury of a very wide moat and robust border checks, health officials should be able to intercept any spread of the coronavirus into New Zealand. It is likely that this virus will impact more on the New Zealand economy rather than the health sector.
China is now New Zealand’s largest trading partner and there are also strong tourism and education links. In the short term, there will be economic hits to our food exports to China, tourist numbers and student enrolments at tertiary institutions. If the outbreak continues unabated for longer than say a month, then there is the real likelihood of serious damage to the New Zealand economy and a contraction of GDP. This will not be good news to the Government in an election year.
Perhaps it is now prudent to set a limit on Chinese trade, tourism and education links to New Zealand so economic risks can be spread more evenly should there be a major future downturn in the
Chinese economy. The obvious analogy of this scenario is the impact that occurred on the New Zealand economy when the the United Kingdom joined the European Union 47 years ago.
Murray Dear, Hamilton
Time for more labs
Great article , ‘Coronavirus: Dont panic ’, by Alison Mau .
Many will agree that it appears that the greatest damage from the Chinese outbreak will be an economic one and therefore those of us who cautioned during the past decade against ‘putting all of our trade eggs into the Chinese basket’ were right . . . this virus outbreak, or the next to come out of China, trade wise will ‘bite us on the bum’, in that regard.
While China has not attempted to hide this one, if the outbreak does result in too many trade borders being ‘put up’, China will punish trade partners if they feel it is necessary to recoup trade losses caused to them by the counter measures other countries will put up.
Although the fatalities from the coronavirus are starting to ramp up, medical science seems confident that once there is sufficient serum to inoculate the most at risk populations this outbreak will not be too difficult to control.
However, with the likelihood of future more frequent viral threats breaking out around the world in line with climate change, and the apparent increase in viral ability to jump from animals to humans, surely with some of the best medical scientists in the world, New Zealand needs its own serum labs able to quickly engineer serums to fight such outbreaks on our home soil, and to enter the lucrative market for vaccines, as a hedge to losses to our own economy.
Dennis Pennefather, Te Awamutu
Loving the lake
Lake Rotoroa, Hamilton’s central lake is becoming increasingly popular and a tourist attraction in its own right.
It is heartening to see the throngs of people now using the facilities, which incidentally are kept immaculate by the City Council.
A stroll around around the perimeter is extremely cathartic. Especially poignant is the increasing numbers of waka on the water.
Seeing dozens of young children learning the art of paddling from supportive parents and coaches is memorable and suggests community involvement is alive and well.
Richard Cain, Hamilton