Resourced-strapped oncologists praised
Five years ago my husband was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer picked up by the ‘‘poo’' test.
He had no symptoms and was very fit and was given a 1 to 1½-year life expectancy.
Due to the care of medical Mr Woodfield and oncology Prof Chris Jackson and his team, Syd has had five good years so far.
We know they have limited medicines to work with but they have used their knowledge and available resources to keep him on this earth.
Jackie Fogden
Broad Bay
Blinkers and minds
Concerning Dave Tackney’s letter (ODT 8.5.24). I agreed with the heading, ‘‘Open minds needed not blinkered ideologies’’.
So can Mr Tackney say when was the referendum held for the people of Palestine (which no longer seems to exist) to vote on the partition of the lands they lived on?
And how would you feel if the city council wrote saying that the ‘‘Smiths’’ had no house so it was decided that they move in with you.
Terrorist has become a term of ‘‘abuse’’; can they not defend themselves?
J. Fincham
Mornington
In my universe
Ah, some agreement at last: Dave Tackney (Letters 6.6.24) lives in a different universe.
Mine houses the International Criminal Court, which will issue an arrest warrant for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, and the International Court of Justice, which will likely find Israel guilty of genocide.
Then Dave Tackney goes off half-cocked, writing that I am ‘‘quite happy for [Hamas] to nibble away at the Israeli population 1500 people at a time’’.
He insults his own intelligence not mine - I never suggested any such thing. I just don't like what I see.
As regards the terrorism perpetrated on Israelis by Hamas on October 7, while it's possible the specifics of the attack were not known beforehand, it has certainly suited Netanyahu to have an excuse to execute the war on Gaza.
He gets to stay in power and avoid a probable jail sentence.
By the time he's finished he'll have slaughtered and starved hundreds of thousands of Gazans and completely destroyed the lives of those unlucky enough to be left alive. Defence? Yeah, and I'm the Queen of Sheba.
Dennis Horne
Oxford
Correct war
To correct your letter writer Dennis Horne (ODT 21.5.24) and his historical changes claiming Jews created Israel by act of war. In fact it was created by the UN on May 14, 1948. It was just the next day that five neighbouring Arab countries invaded the nascent state. It was possibly that monstrous act of war Mr Horne mistakenly remembers.
D. Crooks
St Clair
Thank you
I tip my hat to Catharine McGrath (Letters 4.6.2,24) for that information and salute your superior knowledge of the workings of the world court. I must have been taking a short nap at that time last year and missed that item when it hit the news.
Mel Hollis
Mosgiel
A plea for greater recognition of the arts
While I am in general agreement with your expression of the mind-numbing, promise-breaking stupidity of the coalition's Budget, I have to remonstrate with your condemnation of the arts.
Not funding the creative spirit deafens society to social issues, silences those who have the keen and gifted eye necessary to both illuminate and mirror society's functioning. The arts help ease mental illnesses: depression is alleviated by music and dance.
Comedy and theatre allow society to laugh at itself.
Arts are an expression of the human condition as essential as the sciences. For all our God's sake, we need artistic levity now.
Marian Poole
Deborah Bay
Rental issues
The latest edition of The Economist reports that New Zealand renters pay proportionately more of their income to their landlords than their peers in at least eight other comparator nations.
While it disdains the idea of capping rent until the supply of rental property increases, it approves the effort of the Ardern government to intensify the density of inner city accommodation in Auckland, which it did by passing law that resulted in rents in that city being almost 30% lower than they would have been.
It then tried to extend that law to other cities but, naturally, the current government promptly curtailed it so that landlords could raise rents, resulting in increased hardship among tenants
Michael Gibson
Dunedin
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: editor@odt.co.nz
