Letters

Santa Jones a worry

Government minister Shane Jones must be enjoying his job as Santa.

He is sitting on a war chest of $300 million to spend per year which he seems to be able to give out nilly willy to good and bad causes.

His latest fanciful giveaway is allocating $5.6m to a budding plant nursery that employs a mere five people and is projected to reach 91, according to Mr Jones. The money is to be spent to achieve the Government’s much-vaulted project to plant a billion trees in 10 years.

It seems like a lot of people to employ in a seedling nursery, so it looks like jobs for the boys at the taxpayers’ expense.

I wonder if minister Jones’ various projects will need business plans, projected cash flows or profit/loss estimates. It is a great worry that $300m of the taxpayers’ funds are allocated to his various pet projects, so I would hope that necessary fiscal controls are in place to monitor these greenfield projects. Unfortunately I do doubt that will be the case.

Hans Andersen

Ilam

Tomorrow’s SUV

It seems New Zealanders are their own worst enemies. Last week’s Press SUV magazine extolled the merits of an extraordinary variety of large, heavy vehicles that guzzle fuel like there was no tomorrow.

Since the toughest territory most of them are likely to meet will be the judder bars at the mall car park, the other reason to justify their purchase is to protect young Nigel and Fiona in the event of a prang. Yet the most serious existential threat to all the little Fionas and Nigels is the SUV itself and the tonnes of greenhouse gases it will pump into the atmosphere.

If we don’t get our collective act together on actually dealing with this threat, the time will surely come when there won’t be a tomorrow.

Ian Orchard

Papanui

A different divine doctrine

Flying over Christchurch recently I received a revelation reconciling cathedral symbolism with 21stcentury spiritual needs – a Darren Saunders atheism with good news:

1. Scriptures are of their time and place and only useful as wisdom traditions that preserve values.

2. Disestablish the Anglican Church of England so the contradictions of a head of state being the head of a church are removed. Much better for one being the conscience of the other.

3. Use only metaphorical language for communion with Jesus. It will aid in focusing on readings to prepare receptive hearts and minds to commune with others.

4. Regard any Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit as the wholeness of ‘‘divine’’ knowledge – reason, revelation and inspiration – with reason crucial to critique all wisdom revelations.

5. Realise atheists’ gods are ‘‘values’’. How they preserve them is their church.

6. Agree with Jews ‘‘to sing is to pray twice’’ and ensure up-to-date tunes and words so attendees can be inspired to recommit to truth, goodness and justice.

Steve Liddle

Napier

Disinformation and deception

We should for one moment stand still by the fact that 15 years ago the United States illegally and without any mandate from the United Nations invaded Iraq with its ferocious ‘‘Shock and Awe’’ bombardment of Baghdad. The war, as we all know now, was based on the blatant lie that Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction.

The Iraq war was probably one of the most serious war crimes of the 20th century. Sanctions, starting a decade before the war, had already cost the lives of half a million children, of which Madeleine Albright remarked: ‘‘We think the price was worth it.’’ The war itself killed more than a million people and later gave rise to Isis. The incidence of cancer and deformed babies in Fallujah is staggering due to the use of depleted uranium and phosphorous ammunition (chemical weapons).

The US provided Saddam with chemical weapons for his unsuccessful war against Iran in the 1980s.

It’s sad to realise that the lies, disinformation and deception are continuing unabated and that the US and its allies have learned nothing from the past.

Tom Van Meurs

Bryndwr

Bring out the bully boys

I watched yet another item about harassment (mostly sexual) and bullying on Newshub’s The Nation. All the participants were women. The law firms have had women spokespeople and it seems that, every time it comes up on or in any media, it is women explaining, discussing and even, as was the case this morning, defending, albeit weakly , processes in response (or lack thereof) to complaints of bullying and harassment in law firms and the Law Society.

Where are the blokes? It is mostly them, leaders in business and law, who harass and bully. Just for once I would like to see them on the grill with the fire being lit under their nether regions.

Karolin Potter

Spreydon