Letter of the Week

Have strong opinions, write in an engaging way? You could win our Letter of the Week, and with it a book from our friends and sponsors, the publishers HarperCollins. This month’s book prize is Those Other Women by Nicola Moriarty. Rivalries and resentments between mums and child-free women spiral wildly out of control in this compelling new book by the bestselling author of The Fifth Letter.

MOST restaurant owners rely every year on the Easter and school holiday trade to offset the many very quiet times on the GoldCoast. Many of these business owners pay extremely high rents every month and need these peak times to survive. All they wanted really was to have this trade as usual.

However since the powers to be told them that they were going to be unusually busy and that because they would have problems with deliveries they put on more staff at the expense of pre training them and ordered extra supplies only to find that trade was almost non-existent.

Gone was the usual peak trade and they were left with additional wages and suppliers to pay. And to top off the insult they were told “look at your product”, this to those who usually have a great trade of loyal customers.

Keep a look out in the next few months and you, I am sure, will see many of these restaurants close the doors. SUE SMITH WHAT a complete disappointment the Games closing ceremony turned out to be!

Firstly we have Beattie hogging the centre stage yet again. Instead of listing A,B,C,D,E and F for special thanks all in the one go, what do we get – A thank you and the hand wave, B thank you and the hand wave, and so on for what seemed an eternity, and then President Martin follows thanking many of the same people.

Bbut the saddest part was the non-involvment of the athletes.

The athletes have all given their utmost over the past 11 days of competition, and it is a tradition which should not have been changed, for all of them to be part of the closing ceremony to mingle with each other, and for the public to have the opportunity to acknowledge them as one.

Whoever was responsible for this disgusting lack of empathy should be publicly named and shamed, and could take a few lessons from Kurt Fearnley – what a wonderful example that man is! JOHN CHAMPNESS CONGRATULATIONS Gold Coast. As both a spectator at five different events and as a Games Shaper driver, I had the opportunity to have many different experiences – and the Coast shone.

Why the media has to constantly criticise and report negatively on any problems that arise defies belief. It was a mammoth event for a small city and the organisation was fantastic.

For any of the businesses that suffered due to road closures or the lack of customers caused by the many Gold Coasters who chose to leave rather than support their City, I hope they can get back to normal soon. We should be so proud of our City. LYN KIRWAN, PARKWOOD WHAT a poor Commonwealth Games closure.

This is what you get when organised and controlled by politicians. No athlete entry and crowd adoration. And at the end, 45 minutes of screaming female vocalists singing songs that nobody knew.

You would expect them to learn after disappointing opening ceremony. GEOFF REEVE, BURLEIGH WATERS

Memo to the NRL.

Under Mr Beattie’s dynamic Labor leadership, first as Premier of Queensland, secondly Chairman of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee and now a position of leadership with the NRL, please make sure the two teams competing in the NRL Grand Final are

(a) Invited to participate.

(b) Not left outside in a paddock while he makes yet another speech. BILL KIERNAN, NERANG

I would hazard a guess and say that the musical organiser for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Gold Coast Games, Katie Noonan, won’t be invited in the very near future to repeat her efforts. Both were abysmal.

Peter Beattie might have loved

the opening but there’s no accounting for poor taste. At least he had the diplomacy to say “well done” to the performers.

And what is there to say about Sunday night’s entertainment? “Crass” comes to mind. Australia has wonderful entertainers and yet again Ms Noonan chose second rate performers, apart from a few such as Anthony Callea and Dami Im. Even Kate Cerebrano failed to impress.

Song choices during the “girls’ concert” left a lot to be desired, as did the performances. And why a girls concert’? Virtually the entire Opening Ceremony was a girls’ concert so am I missing something here, Ms Noonan?

By George, Katie, it was one big stuff-up! KEN JOHNSTON, ROCHEDALE SOUTH

The Gold Coast has been on the World Map for 30 years and did not need the Commonwealth Games to put it there. The Tourism Bureau has been filling our accommodation houses 52 weeks a year whereas the Games struggled to fill them for just two weeks. Maybe its efforts will gain greater respect now.

Our population exceeds three quarters of a million when including Tweed, which is only separated from the city by an imaginary line. The much-vaunted TV exposure will not have been noticed in our major Asian tourism markets and was always part of the hype designed to persuade our businesses to put up with the inconveniences they have experienced.

To suggest otherwise was irresponsible and unrealistic as this always happens at these major sporting events.

Heaven forbid we should use the current euphoria to bid for the Olympics. We have nothing to gain and lots to lose. ALAN MIDWOOD, BUNDALL