We get sport but nothing on the arts Colour-blind column

If we can have almost 15 minutes every night about sport on TVNZ1’s news, why can’t we have at least five minutes about the arts?

Previews, reviews or comments about such things as the theatre, opera, ballet, films and outstanding television programmes (if there are such things) would interest many people, maybe even some who are also interested in sport.

Jo Horton, Southgate

Valuable time wasted

I have been to the cinema three times since the lockdown and each time had a very enjoyable experience.

I am annoyed to read a long and positive review by James Croot of the film Motherless Brooklyn (May 30), only to read at the end that this film is not available for viewing at a local cinema. Surely this should be made clear at the beginning of any review. Your readers can save valuable time by not reading reviews of films they cannot see.

We are encouraged to buy local and support local businesses but how can our cinemas compete when the local newspaper is headlining and promoting films we cannot see unless we subscribe to some extraterrestrial medium whose profits go offshore.

Many of us do not subscribe to Lightbox, iTunes, or YouTube and nor do we have Netflix. We like to go out to the local cinema.

John Whitty, Aro Valley

Store water

Well, we are over our very dry summer, and nearly over our dry and beautiful autumn. Hopefully winter will replenish the vast amounts of water that farmers in the Wairarapa have drawn from the aquifers to irrigate the land.

Year after year it seems summer dry periods arrive as a surprise for farmers and councils alike. Why are farmers not making any provision to store their own water?

And why is Wellington City Council, and all other councils, not promoting the installation and use of rainwater tanks, as councils in the Wairarapa are doing?

It makes no sense to treat water to drinking quality, only to have it used to irrigate gardens, and wash cars, boats, houses etc, and run out of water every year.

Alan Wilde, Greytown

Martin van Beynen’s In the real world, Muller’s first week wasn’t so bad (May 30) was an attempt to throw a lifeline to a drowning National leadership team. Unfortunately, his blue colour-blindness has combined with his rose-tinted glasses to produce a monochromatic opinion piece – and that colour, as usual, is white and probably middle-aged.

He referred repeatedly to the silent majority, and I guess he means ‘‘people like him’’. White men have been privileged in Aotearoa since the first Pa¯ keha¯ colonisers sailed up, first through the law, and then by habit. Just like Donald Trump’s voter base in the US, as this privilege is wound back these men get angry and hanker for the good old days.

The bad news for Trump, van Beynen, and most Rotary clubs in this land is that even before Covid-19 changed the world, the demographics were changing. The majority is downsizing; it will be the minority before long and all of the other New Zealanders will have their chance to make this a better place.

And as for ‘‘silent’’, I wish they were. Hosking et al, with the encouragement of their corporate handlers, are pounding our senses in the mainstream media every day. I sincerely hope the Dominion Post, with new ownership, will embrace the new New Zealand.

Keith Simes, Hastings [abridged]

Hair colour irrelevant

I’ve followed Rosemary McLeod for decades and am an admirer. So I was disappointed to read her column Todd, if the cap fits, hide it (May 29), in which she

describes three of Todd Muller’s close political associates as ‘‘blondes’’. What on earth has the colour of their hair got to do with anything?

Helen Carver, Dannevirke

Let’s face it

I hate to tell Verity Johnson (Body positivity is such a weight on my mind, May 29) a simple truth. Some people are better looking than others. Who decides? Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? To some extent. But not really. The standards are determined by many millions of years of human interaction. A decade or so of social media only reinforces these timeless ideals.

The conflicted self within Verity is a measure of the scrutiny, some might say tyranny, women are routinely subjected to.

Men not so much because let’s face it they don’t look as good. Of course we pretend that all this isn’t so. Just like people pretend about racism or any number of isms. That what isms are – things we pretend we don’t do.

I offer Verity good news. She’s youngish. In the head shot above the byline she appears to be anyway. Mind you, I’ve no idea when that was taken. Not post-Covid lockdown, I suspect. Anyway she looks all right.

And here’s the good bit – when you’re young you look much better than when you’re older. Usually. There maybe the odd exception but mostly that’s the rule.

So enjoy looking good or even just OK because compared to what you will look like later on you’re hot. Whatever that means.

John McIntyre, Karori [abridged]

Our own Supreme Leader

Reducing the number of MPs in government has long been discussed. Jacinda Ardern has solved the problem by monopolising media coverage and owning all vote-grabbing information supplied to her ministers, herself.

Comments such as ‘‘I have led the country through the Covid-19 pandemic

. . .’’ etc make other Labour ministers irrelevant. They are occasionally useful when the ‘‘not so good stuff’’ has to be revealed.

She has become the Supreme Leader like a not-too-distant leader of a trading partner of ours. The ideology of her youth is coming to fruition.

Christine McNamara, Wellington

The meaning of M¯aori

Many years ago at a management lecture at Massey University, Matene Love, a leading academic, gave a presentation on the Treaty of Waitangi.

He was asked how many full-blooded Ma¯ ori were in New Zealand and what constitutes being Ma¯ ori. Matene replied that there may not be any full-blooded Ma¯ ori any more but being a descendant or having the spiritual belief of a Ma¯ ori makes you one.

I understand that in the past few months, this Labour-led Government has given nearly a billion dollars to Ma¯ ori organisations to help them through the Covid-19 pandemic.

In Covid-19 fallout hits Maori health (May 29), Professor Denise Wilson claims that equity is not the same as equality and that Ma¯ ori and Pasifika have bigger mountains to climb when looking at things like access to services.

So who’s getting this billion dollars and how is it being spent? If this is regarded as equity and it still doesn’t give equality, then what does it do?

There’s been much made of Todd Muller’s shadow cabinet not having as many Ma¯ ori as under Simon Bridges, but if we agree with Matene Love’s definition of what constitutes a Ma¯ ori, then how would they or anyone else know?

For that matter, why is it important what ethnicity they are as long as they have the skills and ability to perform their duties commendably?

Rayward Chung, Broadmeadows [abridged]

Open the doors

Prime minister, if you do not drop to level 1 this coming week you won’t have a show of staying in power come election time.

For the eighth consecutive day there has not been one new Covid-19 case to report, so open the doors to freedom now and let our business people get back to work or you are a gonna, Jacinda.

Gary Stewart, Foxton Beach