Tamaki-led protests<\/p>\n
Most Kiwis can easily recognise anti-Semitic hate speech and our laws and authorities seem ready and able to prosecute anti-Semitism should it be clearly identified. I believe that Sikhs and Jews have a lot in common in that they have an ethnicity, a language, a culture and a faith that are so intrinsically bound, as to be almost inseparable.<\/p>\n
For Brian Tamaki and his followers to target a Sikh group who are celebrating their faith and culture is every bit as vile and reprehensible as it would be if they did it to a Jewish group.<\/p>\n
Every word and action they said and made should be reviewed under our hate speech laws, and prosecutions made if deemed appropriate.<\/p>\n
John Christiansen, Mt Albert.<\/p>\n
\u2018Children mourned\u2019<\/p>\n
Under a two-word heading, \u201cChildren mourned\u201d, in the Herald\u2019s World section (Dec 22) are 115 words on children killed in Gaza due to recent shelling by Israel. Unicef reports two children are killed in Gaza every day due to the fragile ceasefire signed in October. Before that, the conflict cost 18,000 Palestinian children their lives. <\/p>\n
We are right to denounce anti-Semitic groups and any form of terrorism but we should not dismiss the deaths and ongoing suffering of others.<\/p>\n
Reg Dempster, Albany.<\/p>\n
Economic yin and yang<\/p>\n
Regarding Fran O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s \u201cCan a weaker Kiwi really power doubling export targets?\u201d (Dec 20), what for exporters is possibly the yin of a pathetically weak dollar is definitely the yang for the rest of us. While our farmers may be getting good $NZ returns, most of the things they and everyone else can spend it on have significantly increased in price.<\/p>\n
New Zealand\u2019s paucity of manufacturing renders us especially vulnerable to imported inflation. The vast majority of goods, from inputs such as petrol and diesel to cars and farm tractors to T-shirts and ballpoint pens, are imports whose prices are inflated by a weak NZ dollar.<\/p>\n
While we have been partially shielded from price rises by Chinese overproduction searching for markets, increasing exports while simultaneously rendering many goods for the domestic consumer unaffordable seems a dubious economic strategy.<\/p>\n
Peter Jansen, Mission Bay.<\/p>\n
Thanks, Simon<\/p>\n
I wish to express my appreciation and thanks to former Herald journalist Simon Wilson, for his always interesting and informative contributions to Herald readers, covering local and world politics in his unbiased and level-headed style. <\/p>\n
May he continue to contribute his honest and pragmatic opinions on issues which concern us all.<\/p>\n
Diana Simpson (94 years), Great Barrier Island.<\/p>\n
Bewildering Seymour<\/p>\n
I am bewildered by David Seymour\u2019s arguments for persisting with his Treaty Principles Bill. <\/p>\n
He stated (Dec 17): \u201cI\u2019ll never move on from the idea that we are all equal. Our universal humanity trumps any superficial differences in relation to race or culture\u201d.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not aware that existing law prevents us from demonstrating humanity in treating others as we would ourselves be treated. But then, I am just another ancient P\u0101keh\u0101 still trying to learn more about Te Ao M\u0101ori and the responsibility of care it implies for this beautiful land we are privileged to inhabit and for those with whom we share it.<\/p>\n
Jo Bowler, Torbay.<\/p>\n
Tiny house trends<\/p>\n
If governments really want to address the issue of affordable housing, then they need to be innovative and follow overseas trends.<\/p>\n
Not everyone wants a big house, for financial, or eco-friendly reasons.<\/p>\n
And more and more people, young and older, are building tiny homes.<\/p>\n
But, with more and more private property owners wanting ridiculous lease rates with virtually no investment, it\u2019s become simply not viable for tiny home owners. <\/p>\n
And approaching any council about consents is definitely not viable.<\/p>\n
The costs are stupidly astronomical, with one woman reportedly being given the price of $60,000.<\/p>\n
New Zealand \u2014 the land of the greedy and the long red tape.<\/p>\n
Margaret Dagger, Whenuapai .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tamaki-led protests Most Kiwis can easily recognise anti-Semitic hate speech and our laws and authorities seem ready and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[192,246,37367,305,29546,5829,6722,3556,111,43,139,20484,69,18481,17509,20420,4276,792,102],"class_list":{"0":"post-198309","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-are","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-frustrated","11":"tag-have","12":"tag-letters","13":"tag-many","14":"tag-minister","15":"tag-national","16":"tag-new-zealand","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-newzealand","19":"tag-nicola","20":"tag-nz","21":"tag-politicians","22":"tag-so","23":"tag-supporters","24":"tag-why","25":"tag-willis","26":"tag-with"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}