Letters to the editor
Hospital visit
AFTER a brief altercation with a wood jointer in my workshop, I had the occasion of having to visit Dunedin Hospital’s Emergency Department.
As we arrived, with two fingers having been nicely manicured by the sharp rotating blades, my first encounter was with the very pleasant security person at the entrance who directed us to the next station.
There, we were met by another pleasant young guy who went through the list of questions to ensure I was not carrying any symptoms of the dreaded virus and was directed into the Emergency Department waiting room, where I was attended to by another very pleasant young guy and quickly sent through the doors to a waiting cubicle.
There, I was attended to by numerous health professionals, and after the usual health monitoring was taken down to Xray by another very pleasant lady, and after the pictures were taken by another pleasant young lady.
On returning to ‘‘my cubicle’’, I was attended to by a tremendous doctor who, with expert flytying experience, had me stitched, bandaged up, arm in a sling and out of there in less than two and ahalf hours.
I have nothing but admiration and respect for all the people who work in the Emergency Department, and in fact for all departments within Dunedin Hospital that carry out their duties with good humour, compassion and complete professionalism.
What a great bunch of people you are. Thank you for an experience I will not forget in a hurry.
Neville Williamson
Mosgiel
Musical murals
I RECENTLY was back in my home town of Dunedin for work. While looking around old haunts with new eyes, I felt a real sense of pride in the work and improvements in the ‘‘warehouse district’’ and Dunedin generally.
The commissioned murals also were a highlight and I enjoyed searching them out. However, I was surprised to see a mural of Ed Sheeran in a prominent part of the city.
I'm not against him but was amazed to see his face up there and not one, or some, of the many extraordinary musicians who have lived and breathed there: Chris Knox, David Kilgour, Robert Scott, Michael Morley, members of the 3Ds, LBGP and myriad others since then.
Provincialism can get rather tiresome but when you have a wonderful history of artists and musicians that Dunedin does, it would be good to see the council being more supportive of them.
Seumas Cooney
Auckland
Retraining workers
IS it possible to retrain unemployed tourism workers in Queenstown?
Nearly 10 years ago, I wrote a feature for a local publication labelled ‘‘Can forestry workers be trained into wine waiters and bedmakers’’. Native bush logging had been banned.
Now it could be reversed — retraining wine waiters into forestry work.
Queenstown has some 4500 unemployed workers cooped up around the resort. The Queenstown area is surrounded by forests, mostly selfsown. These are considered wilding conifers, and millions of dollars are being spent to try to control the spread.
Why not train those out of work in a basic forestry silviculture course? Many of them are young and fit. They basically need to know how to handle chainsaws, backpack sprayers, slashers, grubbers and pruners.
Let them loose on the fringes of the mature forests and knock out the spread. Also, thin out existing forests for future production — that is managed forests, which could lead to setting up a sawmill and chipping plant to go hand in hand with boiler conversions.
Forty years ago, I cut up tonnes of wood (deemed unproductive wildings) with a portable mill. Much of this timber was bought by local builders.
A twoweek course set up by the likes of
Johnson Forestry Services’ qualified trainers would suffice. A similar horticultural course could generate further employment and openings for food production.
Jim Childerstone
Hampden
Neoliberalism
RUMOUR has it that a New Zealand company, called Progressive Vaccines, is developing a mixed vaccine like MMR. It will be marketed as ‘‘Colib 19N’’ and should be available in 2021.
Not only will it generate antibodies against Covid19 but it will produce antibodies against neoliberalism as well.
While the ravages of Covid19 are there for all to see, the virus that causes neoliberalism has a slow and insidious onset. It produces few symptoms, leaving individuals infected and carriers for life. It has spread through Western nations to the extent that citizens live, for decades, with a condition called ‘‘austerity’’ without question.
Austerity does result in death in the more vulnerable. Politicians, who have been infected, become confused and slow to respond. Their will to eliminate ‘‘austerity’’ is missing and this is thought to be a consequence of the infection.
A spokesperson for Progressive Vaccines has claimed that this opportunity to rid the planet of both infections comes but once in a lifetime. New Zealand could lead the world in eliminating both threats with a government vaccination programme.
Colib 19N could be the way ahead for us, as individuals, and for our planet. Daniel Phillips
Invercargill