Covid complacency a worry

Between 2.20pm and 3pm on Wednesday, 13 people (including me) entered Countdown Te Atatu South. Only one person besides myself used the QR code. The other 11 did not scan the code or sign in at the desk set aside for that purpose.

If this is an example of Aucklanders’ complacency, we will have no right to complain if we get belted with another lockdown.

Signing in should be mandatory and if this means a price increase to manage the process, so be it.

Wayne McNeil, Auckland

Regarding Maria Thomas’ vaccine hesitancy (Letters, May 30) – in the clinical trial of 43,661 volunteers for the Pfizer vaccine, 170 subjects developed symptoms and tested positive for Covid-19. Of those, eight had received the vaccine. That is, 95 per cent of those who became noticeably ill had not been vaccinated.

If you have the vaccine you might still become ill but you will not require hospitalisation or die. That’s one aspect. Another is that it’s not the vaccine that stops the pandemic, it’s the vaccination programme – the development of herd immunity.

Sadly, a significant proportion of people overseas, including young people not vaccinated, seem to be on the road to recovery but are left with long Covid. That’s the third reason we should have the vaccine if we can.

Dennis N Horne, Auckland

Te reo on radio

Several correspondents complain that there is too much te reo on RNZ programmes, because many people wouldn’t understand the language. There may be various segments on radio that one doesn’t understand too well. I don’t always ‘‘understand’’ some pop songs, nor some of the arguments that guests make about their favourite topic, nor some of the questioning or attack that some radio hosts employ. And I wish I could say I understand the te reo that goes with RNZ programmes.

But I do understand that after decades of New Zealand rejecting and excluding Ma¯ ori language, culture and plain existence, a public institution is making a small step towards acknowledging the Ma¯ ori world in New Zealand society. Putting te reo on public radio is a gentle move to building an inclusive society that recognises diversity, in a world that is only too keen to abuse and demonise outsiders. David Cooke, Auckland

Response to hacking

Perhaps it’s time to bring back the role of a chief technologist for this country, a position scrapped early in the Labour Government’s first term due to a mishandled recruiting process.

Given the number of government departments hacked during the past few months, it’s evident that they are poorly equipped to handle these attacks on their own.

Kushlan Sugathapala, Auckland

Cancel culture

Andrea Vance (Sunday Politics, May 30) is right up to a point: Cancel culture can be satisfying, but shutting people down does sometimes work. It can bring people to their senses.

Humanity has been around long enough for us to know we are not the ultimate rational being and, in the last resort, after having exhausted all seemingly reasonable avenues of persuasion, there is the peaceful option of cancel culture.

For a wider good, one must sometimes contemplate shunning, removal or cancelling, whether it is satisfying or not.

What is there to be gained by reasoning with those who would not only deny you your democratic rights, but would deny you also the option of countering their arguments, would ridicule you and in the final analysis would subject you to orchestrated violence?

John D Mahony, Christchurch

Boomer not OK

I searched through ‘‘A retirement warning: Super isn’t enough’’ by Rob Stock (Business, May 30) – in fact I read it twice – but nowhere did I see mention of the income one would derive from savings.

In my thirties, I borrowed money on my first mortgage and paid 17.5 per cent per annum under a Labour Government. Now my savings in bank term deposits attract a princely 0.8 per cent p.a. before tax – again under a Labour Government.

I’m sure Chloe Swarbrick is eagerly looking forward to my upcoming book: My life as Boomer. Not OK.

Rob Harris, Dannevirke

Ties with China

The prime ministers of Australia and New Zealand have caused China, our largest trading partner, to complain about their comments on internal Chinese political policy.

Both leaders are on the taxpayer payroll and fear little from the offence caused by their great diplomacy.

On the other hand their economies will suffer when China buys commodities from other countries.

Jon Philip Smith, Hawke’s Bay

June 4 marks the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square slaughter in Beijing in 1989. More than 3000 democracy protesters (mostly students) were murdered by the Communist government, which remains in

power. It does not permit publicity of that event. The mothers of those unfortunate youngsters are still not allowed to visit the scene or grieve publicly.

The English language uses the word ‘‘genocide’’ to describe the wanton killing of large numbers of culturally-different political or philosophical adherents. What are the words that would best describe the organised killing of thousands of a nation’s youngest and brightest citizens by the government in charge? Filicide? Paedocide? Eating its young? Lorne Kuehn, Christchurch

Thank volunteers

Re volunteer firefighting sirens in the ‘‘Down’’ column in Sunday magazine (May 30) – if the writer lives in a community which relies on volunteers then they should think about the people getting out of their beds at 4am and going out to deal with accidents, tragedies or, in some cases, may be exposed to personal danger.

Get over yourself and think of how lucky you are to have volunteers around you. Better still, get off your high horse and become a volunteer.

Roger Bale, Pukekawa