Graffiti on Portobello Rd will not be tolerated

OTAGO Peninsula residents driving to the city last Friday would have noticed swastikas painted on the new 40kmh signs on Portobello Rd. The use of that symbol is utterly unacceptable to the Otago Peninsula Community Board in any circumstances. It is not a symbol of protest but one of hate and violence that has no place on the Otago Peninsula.

Everyone, including the community board, is frustrated with the new speed limits and how they have been implemented, but wilful damage is not the way to go about venting that frustration. Channel your energies into lobbying the Dunedin City Council and its councillors to make change. The police have been notified and the offenders could be charged with wilful damage if they are caught. Council contractors were to be on site immediately removing this odious message.

The community board takes this very seriously as an affront to our community and its real values. It will not be tolerated or accepted as protest in any way. You have been warned. Paul Pope

Chairman Otago Peninsula Community Board

Disposable masks

THEY are sold in boxes as disposable face masks and boy are they disposed of, all over the place.

One legacy of the Covid pandemic has been the amount of these face masks littering the roadsides alongside the usual cans, bottles and fast food packaging.

It seems that being part of a team of five million helping keep us safe is not the same as being a tidy Kiwi charged with keeping New Zealand clean and green.

Come on Kiwis, we can do better. Terry Lake

Oamaru

Palestine

CATHARINE McGrath’s letter (ODT, 23.5.22) makes some valid points.

There is no question that the Israeli actions she mentions were excessive, even brutal.

There is also no question that criticism of brutality is not antiSemitism.

However, one must wonder why she chooses to single out Israel for such criticism in her letter while ignoring the much greater brutality on the part of the Palestinians, who reward those who murder Israelis. Rodney Brooks

Silver Spring, Maryland, USA (former Wanakan)