Three stikes, wind farm, council money

I've a way to cut spending

Wellington ratepayers are funding a free shuttle service to ferry fat cats from cruise ships into the city.

Wellington City Council funds Positively Wellington Tourism, which funds these shuttles for cruise ship passengers, despite some shuttles being provided by cruise companies, according to a recent article (News, Feb 18).

Through its Long Term Community Plan consultation process, the council is asking us to suggest how it might reduce some of its services in order to keep rates down and respond to the economic downturn.

I, for one, will be recommending that the council-funded cruise ship shuttle service be stopped.

BARBARA MITCALFE
Kelburn

New approach is required

Thankfully, the Sri Lankan cricketers touring Pakistan were not critically injured in this week's terrorist attack.

The International Cricket Council has sensibly cancelled all upcoming matches in that tour. However, the incident highlights serious ICC shortcomings in dealing with its whole itineraries programme to regions of risk, be they Pakistan or Zimbabwe.

The council is willing only to allow tour cancellation or suspensions after serious incidents occur. It acts as an ignorant bully in trying to force tours to go ahead, even when high underlying risks exist to touring teams, by imposing crippling financial penalties on the cricket boards of touring teams, if those boards withdraw from a tour.

International cricket boards don't withdraw from tours lightly, and the ICC needs to take a less punishing, more commonsense approach, rather than merely look at lost television revenue.

KEITH ALDERSLEY
Island Bay

Time to condemn the Tigers, too

Though no group has yet claimed responsibility for the dastardly attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan (March 4), the perpetrators probably represent the same fanatical strand of virulent Islam behind the Mumbai attacks last year.

Though Western governments, including New Zealand's, have been quick to condemn such terrorism, many still remain ambivalent about the actions of the Tamil Tigers. This is total hypocrisy.

Credited with pioneering suicide bombings, the Tigers have waged a brutal campaign of terrorism in Sri Lanka for more than 25 years in a futile effort to carve out an apartheid-style Tamil homeland. Disturbingly, the Tigers have relied on parts of the Tamil community in the West, including New Zealand, to plan, lobby and fund-raise for their terrorist campaign.

The Sri Lankan cricketers have lived through horrendous terrorist attacks in Colombo that have killed and maimed hundreds of innocent civilians. It is time for the West to stop treating the Tigers and their supporters with kid gloves.

The New Zealand Government should follow through on its pre-election promise to proscribe the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as a terrorist entity.

To not do so is tantamount to condoning terrorism.

ROSHAN MENDIS
Ngaio

Lock 'em and leave 'em won't work

Harder prisons, three strikes or longer sentences, don't and have never worked with human beings.

They are all based on that age-old human tribal concept "Gather around, guys, kick him some more, he'll come right in the end." Prisons are a simple "bully them into behaving" idea.

This treatment has never made any human being I know "come right in the end".

It mostly adds to the already large reservoir of anger deep down inside them, where it quietly waits for someone else to experience it later on.

How long will it take us to learn that certain things work with human beings and certain things don't, such as the ideas of a "socially beneficial commercial banking system" or the idea of "lock 'em and leave 'em prisons"?

Engaging our lost sons and daughters by becoming the stable parent in their lives is the only way a society can ever make something good where there was just bad before. It simply takes time and commitment not more concrete and wire to change these people's lives for real.

PAUL McGREAL

North Shore City [abridged]

Jimmy Carter had it right

James Hider's article, Single state solution edges nearer (World, March 3), might be revolutionary but it's by no means a new idea, dating back to the MacDonald White Paper of 1939. Raising it again now does, however, expose the dilemma facing Israel.

Under military occupation, the Jewish State has laid claim to much of Palestine, built extensively on it and secured its hold over its West Bank settlements by force. Huge steel walls and military checkpoints honeycomb much of the landscape, leaving only disparate pockets of land entirely dependent on Israel's goodwill for the provision of water, electricity and sewage disposal.

Not much of a bargaining chip to offer Palestine by way of compensation.

Maybe it's time for Israel to grasp the nettle. Separated development did not work for South Africa and will not be any more successful for Israel. To quote former United States president Jimmy Carter, "Unless both sides win, no agreement can be permanent".

JOHN MULLIS
Waterloo

An independent inquiry needed

I find it unbelievable that the Conservation Department or any government agency is using the Resource Management Act to extort money from organisations seeking resource consents. It doesn't matter how DOC spin doctors spin this tale, it is still extortion.

If DOC has serious concerns about environmental impacts, then how does money make those concerns go away? The department's actions require an independent inquiry or is this extortion a common DOC practice that has government approval?

DOC needs to be completely restructured and, if this isn't the first time that it has extorted money for not objecting to a resource consent application, sackings are in order.

STEVEN ROBERTS
Rotorua [abridged]

The beginning of what's to come

Since last week, there have been two intensely bright, steady red lights shining all night on Quartz Hill in Makara (about 8 kilometres distant from my house and bright enough to glow inside my lounge).

These lights are just the beginning of night illuminations from the West Wind industrial estate as the towers are lit only when they reach a predetermined height.

If like me, others enjoy the night sky, the silhouettes of the hills as they merge into the sky at dusk, and watch for the first stars over the western horizon, now is the time to look their last on these sights.

The proliferation of these aviation lights will happen quickly now, and when Mill Creek (Ohariu Valley) is built, more lights will appear.

This time the intense red lights will flash 20 to 60 times a minute and all those prone to epilepsy will have to retreat behind blackout curtains and evening barbecues will become a distant memory.

The blatant trashing of our precious landscapes to the detriment of the whole of Wellington will soon become very visible to all as Meridian Energy continues on its money-grubbing path up the west coast of the Wellington region.

PATRICIA SEARLE
Ohariu Valley

Council needs to explain

You've devoted quite a bit of coverage recently to Wellington's proposed Golden Mile development, but we're yet to see mention of where Wellington City Council will find the money.

The developments are expected to cost more than $6 million, yet as recently as last week it wanted to dump our recycling bins and sack librarians for lack of funds.

Where will this money come from?

IMOGEN WILSON
Brooklyn

TO THE POINT

Thank goodness for United States President Barack Obama and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Without these two writing National Party policies for it, our Government would completely lack direction. Will our prime minister ever come up with an original idea?
JEREMY COLEMAN, Manukau City

Much of columnist Graeme Davidson's "overwhelming scientific data" pertaining to evolution does not stand up to close scrutiny (Religion and Ethics, Feb 28-March 1). Scientists are prone to "discover" data that supports their preconceived theories. It would seem that Davidson himself qualifies as a "religious nutter" since he blindly worships the "god" of science.
ALLAN MITCHELL, Levin

I was astonished to hear that South Africa might scuttle a Springboks-Maori All Blacks match on the grounds that the New Zealand team was racially segregated. At last South African has grasped the meaning of apartheid.
RON BLAIR, Te Aro

For a few years now you have been able to buy day-old bread in Melbourne supermarkets. They are marked as such and sold for $1 a loaf instead of being dumped. In these economic times, surely this would benefit families here, and make extra revenue for the shops willing to do it?
VIVIENNE GRAHAM, Berhampore

Kathleen Annett (Letters, Feb 26) wants to know why her Gold Card has an expiry date. This is because some old people expire before their card runs out. A younger family member might use a stick and put on a wig to gain a pecuniary advantage by fraudulent use of grandma's card.
ARNOLD BLADES, Karori

I trust that The Dominion Post will send a reporter to cover the Wellington mayor's much publicised trip overseas. It would be great to learn of all the positive outcomes that will benefit Wellington going forward.
PAT GLEESON, Johnsonville

Mayor Kerry Prendergast says that Wellington is too young for a car-free CBD. Does she really believe that the age of a city determines its readiness for a pedestrianised city centre? Following this logic, Wellington would then still need a couple of centuries to be old enough for the automobile.
ULRIKE NEUMANN, Lyall Bay

- © Fairfax NZ News

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Ganesh   #1   08:07 pm Mar 07 2009

Though no group has yet claimed responsibility for the dastardly attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan (March 4), the perpetrators probably represent the same fanatical strand of virulent Islam behind the Mumbai attacks last year.

Like Western governments it is good that New Zealand is not in a hurry to proscribe Tamil Tigers. Thank god that NZ has not shown hypocrisy. Tigers are fighting a protracted war for the liberation of the Tamil Homeland against the essentially chauvinist sinhala srilanka. To call them terrorist is list not knowing the difference between an apple and an orange.

The Sinhalese have waged a brutal campaign of terrorism (state sponsored) in Sri Lanka for more than 25 years in a futile effort to wipe out the ethnic Tamils from the island. Disturbingly, the Sinhalese have cleverly used the mask of Terror to plan, lobby and execute their genocide against Tamils.

The Sri Lankan cricketers have lived through horrendous terrorist attacks in Colombo that have killed and maimed hundreds of innocent civilians. It is time for the West to stop treating the racist Sinhala government with kid gloves and support the effor to establish an independent Tamil Eelam.

The New Zealand Government should put on hold any efforts on its pre-election promise to proscribe the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as a terrorist entity as they are rightfully freedom fighters.

To not do so is tantamount to supporting the genocide of Tamils.

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