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 Return to

Rosalee Station. Bestselling Australian author Mandy

Magro returns to the world of her debut novel, Rosalee

Station, with a tragic and harrowing story of love and second chances. After eight years of marriage, Sarah and Matt are dealt a cruel blow with a fatal accident. Can they find the path to forgiveness and healing, or will grief keep them apart forever?

Rules: Best letter competition runs until January 19 next year. Entries close each Thursday at 5pm. The winner is selected by 2pm each Friday. Book of the month valued up to $49. Entrants agree to the Competition Terms and Conditions located at www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/

entertainment/competitions, and our privacy policy. Entrants consent to their information being shared with HarperCollins for the express purpose of delivering prizes.

IN response to Ed Donovan (GCB Letters, 3/12) who states what a great a job China is doing in reducing coal-fired power stations around the world while Australia is doing nothing. What utter rot.

China is currently building 259 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired capacity. This is almost equivalent to the total installed coal power capacity in the US of 266 GW.

Even CoalSwarm (a socialist green group) states hundreds of coal-fired powered stations are under construction in China.

China seems to know that cheap, reliable energy is essential for economic development.

This hysterical nonsense about global warming is a laugh. Climate change is a natural occurrence.

Australia’s total contribution to the world’s man-made greenhouse output is a grand total of 1.3%.

And Shorten’s Labor, with Greens, support want to push Australia to economic ruin just to “lead the way” on cutting emissions.

But shutting down all coal-fired power stations won’t do one bit of good. We would have to cut deep into the agricultural sector as animal output makes up the majority of Australia’s greenhouse gases.

So what’s the Labor/Green solution. Slaughter all cows and sheep?

What really is their socialist plan? DARRYLE KNOWLES MAIN BEACH

MICHELLE Keeble (GCB 1/12/18) wrote, ‘the Gold Coast has lost its soul and sadly the “laid back” vibe has disappeared’.

Michelle points to the lack of jobs, infrastructure, too many events and traffic congestion creating frustration, stress and road rage. “It was a wonderful place to live 20-30 years ago” she says.

Those who visit us for the first time today will think it a wonderful place to live.

Moving here permanently requires readjustment. It is no longer the holiday you paid for.

You are now a part of a city that caters for the expectations of tourists and will come to understand what that requires of you.

The natural assets are still here. So is the added tourism infrastructure and, may I add, the city’s soul.

But the difference is that you are part of it, no longer a disconnected spectator.

The frustrations and stress that Michelle refers to are part of every large city.

I’ve watched the Gold Coast grow since the 1950s. Sure, it has changed, it has matured, become busier and will continue to do so.

But its spirit and soul remain, as do the natural assets that brought so many here to visit or live.

It is a matter of perspective, objectivity and appreciation of what we do have, for nothing is exempt from time and change.

Life is what you make of it and the Gold Coast offers the environment to make that life enjoyable. BOB JANSSEN

THE word ‘radical’ comes from the Latin word for a plant root.

It has come to denote those who seek to change society from the ground up.

It is probably inappropriate to refer to Islamic terrorists as radicals because they simply wish for a return to a theocratic and feudal society.

Conservatives may see any possible change as radical because they are against all change, even reversion. I see that a growing trend among young people for protest action a good thing although again, not very radical.

It is likely that just as through the history of Western civilisation, the elites (or ‘guardians’ as Greek philosopher Plato called them) will instigate the next major change in society.

The era of the technocrats will pose the biggest threat to capitalism, more so than mass movements of workers has ever done.

The economic relations between employer and worker will be forever changed by the inability of humans to compete in the workplace with AI robots. ED DONOVAN LABRADOR

I AM sick of the dictatorial social re-engineering that politicians at all levels are inflicting, sequentially and surreptitiously, on our culture and lifestyle.

We have the unbalanced and uneconomic drivel of imposing renewable energy sources on consumers and industry; business-wrecking ‘political’ infrastructure projects; the illogical and pathetic party line suggesting that we have no coal-fired power stations to ‘reduce’ C02 emissions to benefit climate change; it’s OK to have minors demonstrating against our Prime Minister on climate change.

I say the average Aussie has lost control of the agenda. Our vote for mainstream political parties isn’t worth a cent. JIM WILSON TALLEBUDGERA