More education is not necessarily the answer
ASK any woman who’s been bashed by her educated husband if she thinks, like Kalliopi Mingeirou, that education is the key to ending violence (ODT, 9.10.19).
Clearly, Dr Ang Jury (in the same article) also dismisses this idea. As she says: ‘‘You’d have to have been a hermit living in a cave for the last 10 years not to know that violence is not OK.’’
It is not more education that is going to stop men bashing women. Whether they are educated or not, it is the emperorlike beliefs and attitudes of violent men that have to change.
They can change, either through long terms of imprisonment coupled with growth and reflection, or, rarely, with a religious conversion, which amounts to the same thing, really. Some, of course, will never change. It is useful to consider how we as societies changed our attitudes and beliefs, about slavery and prejudice against black people and homosexuals, and women, for that matter.
Yes, education and awareness played a part, but not for everyone, not for the problematic group that appears to be immune to society’s best efforts to educate them. We still have racists and homophobes and men who feel entitled to treat women as slaves.
How do you get these people to change their attitudes and beliefs about violence?
You don’t, because it has to come from within. And that being the case it’s either lock them up until they do change or carry on thinking education will do the job some day. Christopher Horan
Lake Hawea
Climate house
MARK Brown accuses the DCC and ‘‘climate change evangelists’’ of hypocrisy and, by implication, religious zealotry (Letters, 7.10.19).
I suspect polystyrene panels actually have a low carbon footprint in terms of the thermal capacity they have and the resulting reduction in heating within the homes.
Carbon neutrality does not mean zero carbon. Carbon is a necessary part of life and energy on this planet.
Absolutism and essentialism betrays an ideological view of how the world should and does work. That is a completely unrealistic and unscientific view of the issue.
Stuart Mathieson
Palmerston
Cook’s 250th
THERE has recently been controversy over the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of Cook’s voyage to New Zealand.
I would like to see this day commemorated annually, but not specifically as a commemoration of Cook.
Repurposing it as an annual Explorers’ Day would allow us to commemorate all New Zealand and New Zealandconnected explorers of all descent, from Kupe to Brunner to Von Tunzelmann to Hillary to Pickering.
New Zealand has always punched above its weight in the history of discovery, and having an annual day to celebrate these achievements would be a fitting addition to the calendar. James Dignan
St Clair