Why not ping pong?

Another thoughtful editorial (Game over, April 17), this time in regard to the Commonwealth Games and its place in celebrating excellence in sporting competition, especially by providing opportunity for smaller nation members to compete against world champions.

Indeed, the occasional champion arises from the smaller nations.

Your editorial laments, though, the attitude of many professional competitors, for whom the Games is just another event at which they choose to compete briefly before zipping off to their next event. Indeed.

Complicit in this has been our ministry for Sport and Recreation, which, at its inception, had the purpose of providing community sports facilities and encouraging participation by the “couch potatoes” amongst us. The idea was taxpayer-funded improvement to general health. Good show.

But it took only a few minutes for the ministry to become a funding medium for elite sportsmen/athletes, and the couch potatoes stayed on their couches.

Perhaps it’s time for citizens to harass their MPs with a view to having the ministry finance more community venues, in many instances by subsidising local ping pong, squash, tennis etc. initiatives. How much more healthy would our community be if many of the couch potatoes were playing ping pong and/or tennis regularly at little or no cost to them? Much more healthy than sitting back and watching elite sportsmen/ athletes funded by the ministry. their holidays. Would these be seriously inconvenienced by a simple measure to help the few who have problems?

Simple, as in no language test, no eyesight test, no driving test, and just a minor change to the law. Simple, as in they do not drive a motor vehicle until they have been in this country for seven days. A week getting in and out of buses and taxis, and walking across the street, should show them not only which side we drive on, but also some of our particular road conditions and driving habits.

Some rental car companies do fit a card to the steering wheel explaining the meaning of our important road signs and markings, in at least English and Chinese. But nobody has a God-given right to totter off an inter-continental flight and slump behind the wheel of a car or campervan.

And this includes New Zealanders coming home.