Rod Emmerson’s view
If Waikato river is one of cleanest, I pity the rest
According to recent research, the Waikato river is one of the five cleanest rivers in the world. The rest of the world must be in a bad way.
I have lived near the river for over 90 years. When I was a child the river was blue and the sand white. We swam from a white sand bar just above the Tuakau bridge. The swamp on our farm was full of toi toi, flax and sphagnum moss. There was a chorus of frogs in the evenings and we children caught tadpoles in the ponds and watched them change into frogs.
In the 1990s we took our boat down to the river for a run. It came out with a brown, slimy watermark and we never took it on the river again. The Franklin District Council had established a dump on what had been our swamp. Sewage ponds had statement has come from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff, who has publicly warned the US that certain of its proposals for Syria will be a declaration of war against Syria and by extension a declaration of war against Russia. Russia is taking this all very seriously. This month it had a 3- day civil defence training run mobilising 40 million people, and equipment. What is New Zealand’s plan for dealing with millions of irradiated refugees from the Northern Hemisphere racing southwards? While its commendable that Clair Deeks is trying to improve the standard of children’s lunch boxes, I question the pricing of her ingredients. Strawberries are at $ 2 only at the very peak of season, same with mandarins. Organic chicken drumsticks and gluten and filler- free sausages and free range eggs are much more expensive than stated. Why advocate gluten- free ingredients for children who do not have coeliac disease? Is it fair, right or sensible to serve vegetarian food only to growing, active children? already been established on adjoining land.
All the water courses on my farm have been fenced and planted with natives. If the water in the river is improving it is probably thanks to them, not to the people who live in towns and expect their rubbish to evaporate and their wastewater to disappear down the plug hole. It is much easier to blame the farmers. picking up rubbish. So it takes three vehicles and four employees to collect motorway rubbish. Only one of whom is actually doing the main task. Yes, I am being simplistic, and motorways are dangerous places but . . . in China last year, I noticed that this same job was being done by an elderly woman in a high- viz vest and with a bucket.
A quick word
If Donald Trump is elected president, I am sure the election is rigged. Wordsmith sends a word a day to those on their list. Yesterday’s offering was particularly apposite: trumpery, meaning 1. Something showy but worthless. 2. Nonsense or rubbish. 3. Deceit; fraud; trickery. From French tromper ( to deceive). Earliest documented use: 1481. The Queensland Criminal Code 1899 Section 355 has this to say about deprivation of liberty: “Any person who unlawfully confines or detains another in any place against the other person’s will . . . is guilty of a misdemeanour and is liable to imprisonment for three years.” When established dairy farmers are forced by unco- operative cooperatives and greedy supermarkets to pour milk down drains and sell their beloved herds, one realises why big business is seldom better for the farmer. Both Dr Jan Wright, Commissioner for the Environment, and Paula Bennett, Minister for Climate Change, have said “there is no silver bullet” for emissions from animal agriculture. There is a silver bullet and it is called veganism. It is not surprising two disenchanted Chinese cannot get the ear of Foreign Affairs when boosting trade is far higher on the minds of ministers visiting China and India. Kashmir’s genocide will not get a mention either as they talk business. What a shame the editor should choose to highlight Mr Claessen’s situation on the front page when there is so much information available about the serious dangers of following the euthanasia path of the Netherlands. On whose instructions did the police visit and intimidate six members of the Euthanasia Society? This action received scant coverage by the media. I thought Trump performed quite well in the last debate. Then I saw reports that he had performed very badly. It makes you wonder whether some of the reports had been written before the debates took place. Trump correctly stated the election is being rigged, among other things because the media has poisoned the minds of the voters. We see evidence of it here in New Zealand on TV news and in the papers day after day.