Thought for today
Patti Rizer Nelson, April 25 Mary Glaisyer Nelson, April 25 Paul Lunberg Nelson, April 26 John Moore
Cyclists need space
It was extremely distressing to read of Tom Clendon’s fatal bike crash (Nelson Mail, April 20) which could have been so easily avoided had there been a bike lane instead of car parking on the side of the road.
Until proper provision is made on busy Nelson streets, we cyclists should either ride in the main line of traffic, which in my case would slow it down considerably, or ride on the footpath. Why the council gives preference to empty cars over living, moving human beings on bikes, only they can answer. And answer they must as they are endangering our lives.
I’ll be looking very critically at Nelson City Council’s draft parking strategy, out for consultation until May 16, to see if cars can be put in their place.
I’ll also be joining the Rally for Travel Justice on 1 May to call for a fair allocation of space on our roads. Kate Malcolm
Nelson, April 21
Pharmacist saves day
My husband and I were leaving for an overseas trip on a Sunday, departing Nelson at 4.05pm to see our daughter in the USA. The final document we needed to board the plane was a negative Covid RAT test taken one day before our flight.
We arrived at Life Nelson City
Pharmacy for our test; however, they closed at 4pm on Saturday, not 4.30pm as I had thought. They were not open on Sunday. Concerned!
I called my travel agent from the pharmacy. She told us our RAT test had to be 24 hours, not one day, before our flight. Worried!
She called a pharmacy in Richmond; they were fully booked for RAT tests on Sunday. She called a Motueka pharmacy; they were closed. We asked an employee if Nelson Hospital did the tests. She didn’t know. Panic!
We were about to call the Nelson Hospital when the compassionate pharmacist said, ‘‘If the Covid test was marked 4.05pm, would that solve your problems? We can stay a little later.’’ With tearful eyes, I said yes.
Thank-you pharmacist Alister Perry for your empathy and understanding. We are grateful for your kindness.
A reporting star
Hats off to Skara Bohny. Not only does she sit through mind-numbing council meetings she writes articles that let us know exactly what is going on.
Her ‘‘Goldilocks and the Three Options’’ (Nelson Mail, April 23) is a masterpiece of journalism. Skara can write about anything and make it interesting. From keas’ problems to council deliberations she is just great.
Is there a better way?
Most of us agree with Winston Churchill who opined : ‘‘democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried.’’. We are lucky to have MMP, but it is still not enough to cope with the challenges which face us.
Should any government decide to load the price on hydrocarbons they would become so unpopular that they would lose the following election. Likewise if they tried to clean up our environment with meaningful costs on waste ‘‘disposal’’, they would be out!
It is silly to think that all the people in any one party believe exactly the same as each other, indeed there will be some whose views are more closely aligned to other parties.
So are ‘‘parties’’ forcing us into poor decision making? If parties were banned then representatives would have to think for themselves!
Does any country have such a system? In Bahrain and Kuwait political parties are banned so all candidates are independent. Alternatively countries such as China and Cuba have one party systems, which is effectively the same. Can readers see how we could better our system?
Burning for travel
There is a climate crisis caused by us burning fossil fuels, future generations of humanity are at serious risk, as is the rest of the natural world.
The tourism and aviation industries still pretend this is not the case and are busy persuading us to celebrate the end of a brief pandemic by resuming behaviour that we must stop.
Each 10 litres of fuel burnt produces about 25kgs of permanent pollution of the air and oceans. The same fuel burnt at high altitude produces triple the climate effects as at sea level. This is called climate forcing and is well established. You will never hear this from the travel industry. Flying is the worst thing an individual can do except perhaps starting a forest fire - words from a climate scientist.
If we are stupid enough to celebrate the return of international tourism, at least as it was, then we probably shouldn’t survive. It would be rather like arms companies celebrating global destruction. We must learn to find happiness close to home.