David Seymour samples one of his $3 school lunches. Photo: RNZ
Carving up Europe remains distasteful
The recent Munich Security Conference stunned the world by the bombshell pronouncements of the new US administration about "peace" and the new world order.
Iain Reid’s letter (18.2.25) rightly draws parallels with another conference concerning European peace and security held at Munich in 1938. The so-called European great powers were there but Czechoslovakia was not invited. While Chamberlain crowed about peace in our time and Goebbels boasted of Germany’s restoration as a great power, Czechoslovakia was obliged to accept dismemberment as a fait accompli.
"About us, without us", a common Czech reference to Munich, undoubtedly will prompt a Ukrainian version if the US and Russia persist with a Saudi Arabian replay of Munich.
Cartoons in my school history textbook remain vivid in my mind 60 years later. Brilliant cartoonists like New Zealand born David Low got it right, and offer today’s international leaders and politicians a refresher course in history if they will but learn.
Is it also time to update James Gillray’s cartoon of the "Plumb-pudding in Danger" that was inspired by talk of peace of 1805? The caption "The great Globe itself, and all which it inherit, is too small to satisfy such insatiable appetites" is timeless. Thank you cartoonists past and present for your mordant perceptiveness and commentaries.
Warwick Brunton
Waldronville
Trumping Trump
Thank goodness for your honest, courageous editorial on Saturday (23.2.25). We can but hope that the great American rank and file will rise against this obnoxious apology of a dictator before it is too late. Well done ODT.
John Alderson
Dunedin
Miserable fare
The unappetising sight of David Seymour trying to stomach his own miserable school lunch (ODT 19.2.25) reminds us who these people are. Government by the shamelessly heartless, driven by cruel ideology.
Sam Neill
Earnscleugh
Meal mates
I have a suggestion for a cost saving measure at the Beehive. The Beehive bar, restaurant and other onsite eateries could reduce their menus so they only serve the same school lunches that are sent out each day to schools in the Wellington region. David Seymour has assured us the food is nutritious and filling.
I am confident the Speaker can find a use for any leftovers.
Greg Carson
Waikouaiti
Leader a reminder of effect of poverty on health
Your editorial today (21.1.25) reminded me that in July last year UN special rapporteur Olivier de Schutter reported to the General Assembly on the results of his investigation into the links between extreme poverty and adverse mental health.
De Schutter’s investigation and report, which followed a resolution by the UN’s Human Rights Council, identified the mechanisms that expose people in poverty to a heightened risk of mental health conditions, and examined how, despite the extraordinary resilience of many people in poverty, mental health issues can perpetuate poverty. He called upon states to move from a biomedical approach to mental health, which treats it as a problem of the individual, to an approach that addresses its social determinants.
In order to combat the global tide of depression and anxiety, more should be done to fight poverty and inequality, and to address economic insecurity.
In addition to increasing investments in mental health care, the Special Rapporteur recommended addressing the psychosocial risks caused by the casualization of labour, strengthening social protection by providing an unconditional basic income, destigmatising mental health conditions and facilitating access to green spaces in order to reconnect with nature, as priority interventions.
The report said that vicious cycles connecting poverty to mental health problems are the price we pay for our current focus on stimulating competition and performance. In a society obsessed with increasing total economic output, these cycles can be broken, provided we put wellbeing above the endless quest for economic growth.
Michael Gibson
Dunedin
Theological, evolutionary conversations
Thank you for articles published on page 21 (Opinion ODT 21.2.25). Throughout history mankind has made the error of personifying everything, even God, in his own (perfect?) image.
Surely everything and everyone in the universe was designed in the image of the creator?
I have no trouble with the knowledge that we were designed by evolution. And are presently imperfect.
Our last adventure will be relinquishing this life for infinity.
Brenda Taylor
Lake Hāwea
Charles Higham is obviously cynical about belief in eternity (21.2.25), yet he gives no reason why his potted version of evolution necessarily precludes such a belief.
He claimed he had a series of questions for any reader who may believe in eternity but effectively asks only three: Will we be able to see our deceased relatives and friends again? Is eternity for all living things? Surely one doesn’t have to be a Christian to be caring and compassionate?
Charles will appreciate that no-one can definitively answer his first two questions, so why did he ask them, except to sling mud?
He used just over half of his article as an evolutionary preface to his second question — to achieve what of relevance, one might ask.
The answer to the third question is an obvious no. If so, it begs an as yet unanswerable question that Charles avoided, whether or not caring and compassion (altruism) has been satisfactorily explained by the evolutionary process he described.
Lynne Taylor (also page 21) observes that ‘‘our world is crying out for justice and mercy’’. In reality, caring and compassion are equally treasured, but as hard to find.
If so, Charles owes ODT readers not his own beliefs but his own explanation for how humans can realise these scarce values that he clearly believes are important.
Ron Adams
Dunedin
