Think of the greater good

In 1967, I took my first overseas trip clutching a yellow booklet entitled ‘‘vaccination record’’ or similar.

Based on World Health Organisation advisories, I was vaccinated with all the requirements of the seven or eight countries I was scheduled to visit. None of these included vaccination for yellow fever.

I was therefore surprised to be stopped by local health authorities when I arrived in Peru late one night. The reason being that my vaccine record didn’t show one for the aforementioned yellow fever. The Peruvians were polite but firm and allowed me to go to my hotel provided I went to the public clinic the next morning. On schedule, a Peruvian public health official took me to get vaccinated and my documents updated.

I took no umbrage at the unexpected event and was happy to participate in Peru’s campaign to eradicate that horrible disease with its 50 per cent mortality rate.

The group occupying the parliamentary lawn are loud in their condemnation of vaccine mandates as curbs on their ‘‘freedom’’.

Surely what my experience showed was that freedom lies beyond our Covid vaccination programme and is not impeded by it.

Fifty years after my visit, the WHO still advises a yellow fever vaccine for Peru. Case numbers are minuscule compared to what they once were and I’m happy to have done my bit.

Rob Harris, Dannevirke

Who can possibly say our Government has not done a fantastic job fighting Covid? Just look at our number of deaths as a comparison.

Queensland just had a record of 24 deaths from Covid in one day. That is almost half the number of our deaths here in two years. A huge success. Thank you.

Murray Hunter, Auckland

Unemployment help

At its best the role of the media is to inform, educate and entertain. Damien Grant’s opinion piece on unemployment insurance (February 13) is great on the third criterion, but misses badly on the first two.

These tripartite proposals have unfortunately been widely misrepresented. The following should be noted:

New Zealand and Australia are almost the only countries in the OECD without a scheme for unemployment insurance.

The income replacement rates received by New Zealanders losing their jobs are among the lowest in the OECD, at about 40-50 per cent of previous income versus 80-90 per cent in many European countries.

Yes, those losing work due to health or disability would have time-limited cover, but they would be required to be tested for work capacity and undergo rehabilitation and training (as currently for injury under ACC).

It may be an inconvenient truth, but these unemployment insurance proposals, far from being just grubby politics as depicted in the column, actually bring New Zealand into the mainstream of productive OECD economies.

Peter Davis, Emeritus Professor of Population Health and Social Science, University of Auckland

Healing te reo

The Sunday magazine article on Michele Wilson, who left her job as a corporate lawyer to study rongoa¯ (traditional Ma¯ ori healing), was extremely interesting.

Being Ma¯ ori myself (Nga¯ ti Mutunga) I know that my ancestors used many plants for healing purposes. I was taught by my parents and grandparents to respect our tu¯ puna (ancestors), not only those who have passed away but those still with us. Some of our young people today don’t do this.

We were not allowed to speak te reo at school but we did without our teachers knowing. Even as a 4-year-old I could converse in teo reo with my parents and grandparents. And now I am slowly once again beginning to speak in te reo to my relations.

I wish Wilson all the best. I am always interested in seeing young Ma¯ ori speaking te reo and discovering their hidden talents. Tom Stephens, New Plymouth

On what grounds does Aaron Smale base his assertion that ‘‘It was government policy’’ that Ma¯ ori who didn’t give their language up ‘‘were physically thrashed until they did’’ (‘‘The faultlines of shared Ma¯ ori and Pa¯ keha¯ heritage’’, February 6)?

After studying European education policy for Ma¯ ori for many years I never found any evidence of such a policy. What I did find was considerable evidence that the initial attitude among probably a majority of Ma¯ ori for several decades was that they would look after their language themselves. What they wanted from the schools was the strong emphasis on English to enable their children to participate in \employment.

It was much later, when signs began to appear that the Ma¯ ori language was weakening in some areas, that more Ma¯ ori began to realise that the schools had a vital role to play in its retention.

Sadly, I have no doubt that, as has been recorded in oral histories, some individual teachers did hit pupils for speaking Ma¯ ori. But I have never found any evidence that it was ‘‘Government policy’’.

John Barrington, Wellington