PHOTO: ODT FILES
Remembering who, and how much is enough?
RSA national president Sir Wayne Shelford wants another national day to honour all veterans, particularly those of conflicts since World War 2 (ODT, 18.4.23).
How much remembrance is enough? Anzac Day, Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day are culturally entrenched, World Peace Day much less so. Matariki enfolds a time to honour people we have lost in the past year.
Thirty-three thousand military personnel died in conflicts from the Land Wars onwards, 149 in conflicts post-WW2. Road deaths from 1921-2021 took 40,476 Kiwi lives, 36,504 of them since 1946. Should we also gather as a nation to mourn the victims and survivors of that other battle?
Carnage of the car age lacks public memorials, nation-wide ceremonies or the panoply and prominence of an Anzac Day. Although health workers and police who pick up the pieces are publicly respected, surely it is now time to honour the legion of New Zealanders who defend kin and country as road safety engineers, researchers, educators, enforcers or defensive road users.
Lest we forget to remember.
Warwick Brunton
Waldronville
Elephants and hospitals
I am dismayed to see our Government attempting to sidestep their way out of adequate funding of the new Dunedin hospital. They do not deserve Dunedin’s vote at the next election, but we all know they will get it.
It is disappointing to see our leaders led around by the nose by Treasury, particularly when $100 million is a relatively small amount in the context of the economy.
I suggest there is an elephant in the room. It is keeping very quiet. Its name is ACC.
The elephant has learnt some clever tricks, and I think its best trick is to wait until someone else pays for the infrastructure, then to leach on to it, in much the same way as convolvulus is climbing up and strangling the fruit trees in my garden.
Essentially ACC rents out space and services in public hospitals, but it does not appear to pay anything towards the enormous cost of building new ones.
Contrast this with the private health system, where Southern Cross and Intus for example fund the building of their own facilities. I suspect that any independent health economist would conclude that ACC is significantly freeloading on the public system all over New Zealand. This might explain why the elephant has $45 billion in managed funds as of June 2022.
Rex Baxter
Queenstown
[Abridged]
Management, step up
The University of Otago management has clearly seen an opportunity to finally take complete control of that institution. This follows recent convincing demonstrations of skill at hiring external business consultants. An associated strategy will involve getting rid of irritating academic and administrative staff who do not share the "vision" of their university as a parochial, commercially branded, business corporation marketing "products" to "clients".
Sandra Grey, then national secretary of the Tertiary Educational Union, provided a more appropriate alternative vision when, in October 2016, she stated: “The university is not a business selling products to customers; it is a public institution providing higher education to its citizens, research for the public good and service to the community. A university is a community of scholars, students and support staff; it is a living body of knowledge.”
The first to step forward for redundancy should be those who have spread commercial managerial disease throughout the institution.
Tony Reeder
Kuri Bush
Hanging on the telephone: the struggle is real
The Rev Dr Peter Matheson (ODT, 21.4.23) spent 25 minutes hanging on the phone waiting to make a simple request.
Luxury. In my time I have waited on the phone for 48 minutes to get through to the right human in a government department. The answer to this is stamina and fortitude.
When I knew I had to make that call, I mentally prepared as if for battle: I would take no step backwards; I would not hang up that phone until I had what I wanted; I would always be nice and courteous; I would win.
Dr Matheson was taken by surprise as he was going about his business, so I understand his desire to flee. I used to do just that, until I realised that's what they want you to do. The struggle is real.
Susan Grant-Mackie
Mornington
Solar solution?
The ODT recently printed a brief article on the uptake of roof-top solar systems in Australia. This article highlights how New Zealand energy authorities ignore the enormous potential of roof-top panels to meet a large percentage of our energy needs. There seems to be a “think big” attitude from the Muldoon era to building new capacity such as the Lake Onslow scheme to meet our future energy needs. Australia apparently produces 14% of that country’s electricity from roof-top solar whereas New Zealand produces a mere 0.57%. Would not roof-top generation be the most environmentally friendly system — especially east of the main divide here in the South Island ? Or is that solution too obvious for our Government to seriously contemplate.
Gerrard Eckhoff
Alexandra
Fight back with smiles, hellos, gidday, kia ora
Reading in the news (Stuff, 20.4.23) about Daniel Faitaua, an overseas journalist for TVNZ, I was saddened by his comment about how Kiwis had changed over the last three years.
He was of course referring to locals, not the actual birds, who are probably also not faring too well, but that’s another story.
Faitaua mentioned how less friendly people were, after his recent return to New Zealand. This resonated, as I feel we have become so divisive recently, with so many polarising issues that have made ordinary conversation almost obsolete. Are we too frightened to engage?
My pride in this city is further rocketed by random acts of violence, which seem on the rise.
The only answer is to fight back, with smiles, hellos, gidday, kia ora, or an uplifting nod. Don’t pretend to see through people, recognise your neighbours, because it really is those tiny waves of humanity that cumulate and grow. People need people, more so than ever in this time.
Whiria te tāngata. Weave the people together.
Alison (Sally) Spittle
Caversham
Le Débâcle
Gauging from the concepts/impressions you post online, it seems to me the designers of Dunedin’s proposed hospital place far too much emphasis on style, architectural excellence and landscaping.
That’s just fine except when the construction budget is unlimited. Not the case here; it has already been slashed.
Unashamedly, MPs and architects lining up for awards. No less.
Seems to me there’s room for a multi-level car park, thus mitigating one of the design inadequacies.
What goes on inside the building is the imperative.
What it looks like is secondary.
Graeme Chesney
Kakanui
