Absurd comparison
Regarding the comments in "Call to boycott Bali over death penalty divides opinion" (BDN, 17/2).
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Some of your correspondents describe the death penalty as murder.
This is as absurd as saying that imprisonment is kidnapping, or that fines and taxes are theft.
It is also as absurd as saying that soldiers are murderers, or that there was no moral difference between Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler, since both of them used military force to achieve their objectives in World War 2.
Furthermore, if all killing is murder, then it follows that abortion and euthanasia are murder.
Is that really what opponents of the death penalty believe?
Malcolm Brandon
Merimbula
Proud parents
Regarding the “Best of the web” (BDN, 10/2).
I was quite amazed to see the replies in the Bega paper to the article4 about Associate Professor AJ Collins and his impending trip to Madagascar.
I was amazed by the kind and generous comments about Dr AJ and his treatment of patients and I thank you all who took time to write.
We have seen the kindness and generosity of our son over the many years and we are very proud of him.
Jill and Allen Collins
Tathra
Open to only a few
In response to your advertised “open” day for the new hospital, it appears an “open day” is silently qualified by a new form of English.
My wife and Margaret Sly, being locals, together with two friends from Canberra all attended wearing appropriate shoes, suitable for walking around a building site, but were disappointed to find that an “open” day means only open to some.
The rest of the visitors were left at the top of the hill on a hot day to admire the edifice from afar.
Not a very good start to what we all hope will be an asset (that is if the bureaucracy will let it).
If it had been made plain it was only for the few, they could have stayed at home.
Peter Rogers
Bega
Yes Minister
The ghost of Sir Humphrey of Yes Minister TV fame stalked the paddocks around the new Bega hospital last Friday.
Remember? Sir Humphrey assured his Minister, Jim Hacker MP, it was obviously the best hospital in Britain – because it had no patients.
It follows that the new $187million South East Regional Hospital (SERH) near Bega must be the best hospital in NSW, for another 12 months - until it gets some actual patients in 2016.
And if the culture of the new Bega hospital is going to be just the culture of the old Bega hospital transferred, things are going to go downhill pretty fast.
I mean transfer of the staff culture, not the bacteria.
For all the newspaper colour advertising, PR and “community consultation” it’s proving really hard for we (the people) to get a good look inside our new hospital we’re spending $187million of our hard-earned dollars on.
We were all invited to the Community Open Day last Friday.
Standing under a tent in the hospital paddock we could see the splendid new building containing, we were told, as much reinforcing steel as one million blocks of Bega cheese.
Remarkable.
But were we going to actually inspect the building ?
Well, no…not really – a draw was conducted from entry tickets and a mere eight people out of the hundreds present were selected to inspect inside the new hospital – but only if they waited 2.5 hours in the paddock in a sweltering 28C until 4.45pm.
The rest of us were left standing 200 metres back in the hot paddock while the Governor and the pollies and assorted VIPs got their red carpet look inside at 2.30pm.
Forlornly, most of us realised this had been a Clayton’s Open Day with the only thing “open” to us being the hospital paddock.
So we made the common sense call to climb back in our cars and depart back to the real world.
But at least we’d had a glimpse of the “best hospital in NSW” – temporarily.
Jon Gaul
Tura Beach
Pools’ value beyond money
Bega Shire pools were built often by community/service clubs as safe supervised facilities, where children and adults could learn to swim, train or simply enjoy hot summer relief and healthy activities.
Having seen all five shire pools built for our “spread out” communities, they have saved drownings in dams, creeks and rivers and overcome the non-existent public transport that made travel to Bega and beaches impractical.
I would like to draw attention to some non-financial considerations!
As a regular Bega (Apex built) Pool user (for 55 years), I would like to emphasise that a key factor is the on-site pool operators, who over many years have continued to not only be a friendly welcoming face, but have shown personal interest and actively promoted participation, by organising training and activities that draw individuals and families, creating a very wide age group of swimmers.
When you find four to five swimmers in each of five lanes on a wet grey early morning, something is working well!
The need to carefully assess the needs of existing and future users, before making decisions, based predominantly on financial reasons is critical, because I believe ratepayers expect to subsidise true community services, some of which, like toilets, were never expected to be run at a profit!
Accessibility and continuing needs have the local communities support.
Each community needs to be informed of any problems, financial or management, and their preferences assessed before any major changes are made at each of these community initiated facilities.
If users are surveyed, I am sure in Bega we would have strong support for the existing popular management style to continue.
Warren Page
Bega
Shock and surprise
I would like to thank those locals and visitors who spoke to me at the Narooma Streetscape Official opening.
They were surprised and shocked that our local council would allow the sale of guns in a public building.
This was in addition to their disbelief that Narooma would hold a “festival of hunting”.
I am not a “lunatic fanatic” or an “urban guerrilla” as I have been portrayed through letters to the editor.
I am but one of many concerned ratepayers in the Eurobodalla Shire who object to these decisions taken by our council.
To those who thought our passive demonstration on Saturday was a “hijacking” of a public event, I would say it was a last resort.
Not since my university days have I felt a need to demonstrate publicly about a cause that I am passionate about.
However, when all formal processes of protest appear to be exhausted, it is time that the general public deserve to know how these council decisions will not only affect them, but the town of Narooma and the whole of Eurobodalla Shire.
To the mother who thought our signs were frightening for the young children, what is more frightening?
A printed sign with a rifle on it or the real thing on display and being sold alongside photographs of dead animals hunted for sport?
Please show your support by liking and sharing facebook.com/SAFEFarSouthCoast and facebook.com/GunControlAustralia.
Heather Irwin
Narooma
Who’s represented?
People are becoming aware that for many politicians, the mantra is "it's all about me".
Politicians and potential politicians need to remember, that they are the messengers representing and carrying the interests of various philosophies and interest groups in Australia and that it's really about us, the people of Australia.
Hopefully, in the coming NSW state elections, the candidates all remember this and keep faith with the electorates by including the community in their processes before, during and after the election.
Elizabeth Blackmore
Kalaru