Foundation of a new facial tattoo policy
I am no Mafia moll, but I chuckled to hear that Mark Mitchell, National’s likely minister for police, wants gang members to cover their tattoos with make-up, or face arrest (ODT 26.10.23).
Will the government subsidise these insanely expensive cosmetics? If not, gang members might ram-raid department stores for their daily fix of foundation.
I foresee an army of TikTok influencers eager to show how to apply it evenly, then rub on a bit of blusher to highlight the cheekbones and make the eyes sparkle.
But why stop there? False eye-lashes, eyebrow pencils and lipstick do lift an ageing face.
In the fable, the mice resolved to bell the cat, but no-one would volunteer for the job. Human police are quite busy these days, so I call upon my fellow citizens to nab bare-faced offenders and lug them off to court.
Thanks, Mark Mitchell. Your bright idea has cheered me up no end.
Check parks
I, like a lot of disability space parkers who have their disability cards on display on their windscreens, are heartily sick and tired of drivers who use their parking spaces at supermarkets and hospitals etc, who are fit and able-bodied to park elsewhere.
Disability parks should be better policed by the parking wardens and the fines should be of a minimum $200, no exceptions. How often do we see these areas being checked? Hardly ever.
Questions asked
I am a ratepayer with the Clutha District Council and have been for 45 years. Concerning Taylor Park Huts (ODT 21.10.23) and the attitude the Clutha District Council have towards Milton people, we deserve more communication instead of railroading their ideas onto us.
Since when is asking questions negative and aggressive? I am not against the huts, just where they are.
Who gave Councillor Dean McCrostie permission to apologise for me? I didn’t.
Pack your bags
John Hobbs MA and peace studies professor Richard Jackson don’t tell the full story in their recent article on the conflict in the Middle East.
I would have thought supposed academics would have given a balanced view ... or is it just an opinion piece (peace?)?
They should immediately pack their bags and book the next available flight to Teheran, and seek an audience with Ali Khamenei. They should ask him for the Islamic leaders manifesto related to Israel and the Jewish people. To save your costs of flights and accommodation ... here it is briefly ... to wipe Israel off the map and drive all its citizens into the sea.
That’s where John and Richard’s noble ‘‘demand for a ceasefire and talks to find a peaceful and just way forward’’ needs to start.
The pros and cons of dry year energy strategies
Your editorial (ODT 24.10.23) presented only part of the dry years national electricity supply. The usual mantra of wind and solar power is mentioned to boost the extra 20% to make up the 100% of renewable energy above hydro. Where were the other alternatives, from wood-based biomass and tidal energy production?
My recent ODT opinion page article outlined latest trials using torrefied wood pellet to fire up a couple of Huntly Power Station’s coal-fired boilers. These were capable of producing roughly 240 megawatts of power each. The pellets used were imported from Canada, which can be processed in New Zealand.
The result was given the thumbs-up by both Huntly and government funding agencies and would create new plant, opportunities and jobs. According to Scion Research, which has worked on the project, it would take little comparative investment to set up a torrefaction plant to supply the volumes required to replace coal to generate the bulk of required electricity. And with huge savings in greenhouse gases.
Reasons for canning the Lake Onslow project should have been economic, environmental, or for engineering reasons. Not for political reasons.
The idea was to create a lot of storage, and then release water at peak times, and to cover the whole country for dry periods. The power company would have recovered windfall returns, so long as there was a shortage.
In an economic sense a scheme at Lake Onslow would scrape the cream off the electricity market. This would reduce returns from other power providers. All things being equal, the new government has removed the possibility of competition in a vital market. Not a great precedent to set.
Are the courts out of step with the times?
I was a probation officer for some years and I understand the difficulties faced by judges when sentencing offenders. I also understand the reality of imprisonment. Despite what many people think, six months in prison is not a slap on the wrist.
Yet a recent court case reported in the ODT made me think the judiciary has lost touch with community wisdom, particularly about violence against women.
The offender, ignoring police instructions to stay away from his partner, visited her, damaged her property and punched her in the face. When he visited her again, the woman suffered a fractured eye-socket, multiple fractures, grazes, bruising, nine stitches and needed surgery.
Not reported was the terror, the pain, the emotional turmoil, embarrassment and, of course, the considerable inconvenience the woman must have experienced. Yet further pain would come from the judiciary.
The offender was sentenced to four years, 10 months imprisonment. (In fact, because of misleading sentencing rules, this meant three years and two months).
One might assume he would have spent this time with head down in remorse, but no, he thought he had been treated harshly. He appealed and had a year erased from his prison term, yet another nightmare for the victim to endure.
According to the appeal court judge, the offender should have been given greater concessions for his guilty plea and that his turbulent upbringing, which the appeal judge said was largely overlooked. These included his gang affiliation, cultural isolation and the death of his grandparents.
Given these comments one would assume the offender to be an adolescent, but no, at the time he was 41 years old.
How long do women have to wait before men such as this are made to fully account for their violence? Imprisonment is the best response for men who use violence to get their way.
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