Dental School is great — and we don’t know how lucky we are

IF you, like me, feel you have to take out a second mortgage in order to visit a dentist and that starts the gnashing of the teeth then stop and think how lucky we are.

Here in Dunners we have a worldclass dental school courtesy of the university. It is really a great place to visit and get treatment done at a fraction of the cost.

The new facilities are amazing, as is the building. Above all, I have found the treatment received, professionalism and competence, of not just the trainees but the supervisors, to be of the highest standard.

My current clinician, Sandra, epitomises all that is good about the process, treatment and personal attention needed to achieve a great result.

Fred Dagg had it sussed when he said ‘‘we don’t know how lucky we are’’ (in Dunedin). Graham Bulman

Roslyn

Gaza conflict

ON the latest topic of Israel and the Palestinians, it is very frustrating to see the many letters in the Otago Daily

Times leaning in favour of Israel and their place in the Middle East.

The same tired catchphrases appear ad nauseam: ‘‘Israel has the right to defend itself’’, or nonsense like ‘‘Hamas are recognised as a terrorist group by the United States of America’’ (Letters, 4.10.21). But for those not enchanted by the US/ Israeli narrative, the reality is Israel leader Netanyahu needed a distraction to take the heat off his corruption and unleashed his security police to invade the Al Aqsa mosque in an unprovoked attack against the Palestinian people in East Jerusalem, using stun grenades and tear gas against people who were celebrating Ramadan.

At the same time, Palestinian people living in East Jerusalem were illegally being thrown out of their homes by Jewish settlers.

The combination of these events triggered the Gaza response of firing crude rockets into Israel as a show of strength.

Some people on the outside ignore the evidence before them and choose to believe the feelgood lies propagated by Israel and the US.

Of the 219 people who have been killed in Gaza, at least 63 are children, according to its health ministry. Of the 10 people killed in Israel, two children are among the dead, the country’s medical service says. Ike Nitis

Mosgiel

Nurses

A VERY appropriate cartoon from Yeo (ODT, 10.6.21).

The Government can so easily hand out funds for bungy jumping

($10 million), and for a bridge cycle/ walk ($780 million), yet hasn’t made the connection that nurses will be some of the first to treat anyone who gets injured using these, and many other, facilities.

Wake up, Government — pay our nurses. Kathleen Baff

Stirling