Letters: Shane Christie’s story highlights need for rugby rule changes
Time for changes to rugby’s rules
The front page story in Saturday’s Herald was a heart-stopping read.
I’m sure readers outside and within the rugby community must feel appalled at the destruction of young players’ lives through traumatic head injury, but also full of admiration for former Māori All Black Shane Christie, who, in the midst of his own suffering from CTE, was intent on letting other rugby players know of the dangers of knocks to the head causing concussion.
Surely, the rugby rules need to be changed to avoid any more tragedies.
Lucy Lamb, Royal Oak.
Get Carter
Gregor Paul has done a great job of analysing the future captaincy of the All Blacks (Apr 4).
I think that there is another recent ABs weakness to look into – goal-kicking. If about a quarter of all points come from the boot in rugby, we must improve the success rate of our goal kickers. Successful kicks are often the difference between winning and losing a game.
I see that Daniel Carter is helping the Australian AFL Sydney Swans improve their kicking. Can NZ Rugby please employ Daniel Carter to help the All Blacks’ kickers increase their success rate? Some drop goal skills would be helpful, too.
Gary Carter, Gulf Harbour.
The shame of bottom trawling
We should be ashamed. We are the last country bottom-trawling in the South Pacific high seas.
It’s just too lucrative in the short term for our greedy Minister of Oceans and Fisheries, even as the heavy trawl nets scrape the sea bottom, destroying the structure of an ecosystem, which is the habitat for fish now and in the future.
We are the pariahs of marine conservation and the piranhas of the high sea.
Ann and Basil Graeme, Tauranga.
Humanity and technology
How prophetic, your headline “Humanity has once again shown what we are capable of” (Apr 4). The headline editor was, of course, referring to the Artemis rocket as supposedly a wonderful technological advance for the positive benefit of humanity.
But in the past couple of months, those wonderful rocket-inspired technological advances have been showing how advanced the capability is for lobbing high explosives further and further into innocent people’s back yards.
What advanced rocket technology is really showing is how “humanity” is capable of technologically inspired “inhumanity” to its fellow citizens.
Neil Anderson, Algies Bay.
What about Trump?
What a pity the Supreme Allied Commander Donald Trump is not on board Artemis. The world might then return to a sense of peace and a sea of tranquility.
Bruce Tubb, Ngataringa Marine Reserve.
High cost of conflict
It is disappointing to hear on the news of people in New Zealand, and around the world, struggling to get by with the increase in fuel costs brought on by the war in the Middle East.
But beyond this is a much more serious consideration.
Every weapon used by the combatants involved costs money – a great deal of money.
Every building destroyed will need to be rebuilt, costing huge sums in the Middle East, and in Ukraine and in Gaza.
Our planet is facing a disastrous future due to our inability to deal with the problem of climate change.
These enormous funds currently being spent on totally unnecessary conflicts could make a huge difference, used sensibly, to the future we face.
What will our grandchildren think about the decisions made today?
Linda McGrogan, Taupō.
Retirement decisions
I’m not too sure which universe Hamish Walsh (Letters Apr 4) occupies in his criticism of retirement villages, but after initially having misgivings about whether it was a good move or not, my wife and I have come to the conclusion that it’s been a no-brainer.
Going into our second year of occupancy last year, we were confronted with a life-and-death situation that was averted because of the quick actions of the Emergency Response Medical Team in our village. Had we been in our own home when this happened, the result would have been disastrous.
As for feeling lonely and isolated, this really hasn’t happened. An individual would have to look closely at themselves if this was the case. A wide range of indoor and outdoor activities are offered and well patronised throughout the week, with the weekly bar probably the most popular and profitable. As for retaining a property to pass on, then presumably it is to children who should have been well established in their own right at that time of their lives.
In some ways, you owe it to your children to make the move so as not to be a burden on them in your later years.
Finally, if you’ve benefited from capital gain on property all your life and your ultimate destination is six feet under, then it’s time not to care anymore.
Bernard Walker, Mt Maunganui.
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