The Star: March 04, 2021

The Star Thursday March 4 2021
22
LETTERS
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Readers respond to former newspaper editor Karl du Fresne’s column on New Zealand and
responses last week to the column
It looks like this ageing white
Marxist, PC, vociferous
socialist/communist, left wing
looney “cancel culture”, hate
speech opposing, woke leftist,
Maoriisationist (if that is even
a word), “Comrade Ardern”
supporting hard-left Marxist
who clearly lacks common
sense (sorry I may have missed
a few) is clearly outnumbered by
eminently sensible enthusiasts
for Karl du Fresne’s lament.
My liberal bleeding-heart
gushes volumes at the thought
of those poor souls who are terrified
of speaking their minds
for fear of being labelled a racist,
which of course they clearly are
not.
Not even a little bit!
Some will even have best
friends who are Maori and or
Pacifica or maybe even Chinese,
Somali, Indian or Eritrean.
I am proud of the labels you
bestow on me for they are the
only titles I am likely to achieve.
They give me the courage to
contemplate me and my male descendants’
losing our automatic
entitlement to a life of heterosexual
white male privilege and
being forced to stand upon our
own feet. – David Marra
How refreshing was it to read a
brilliantly written article regarding
the Labour Government.
We are all expected to jump
on the bandwagon regarding
climate change, without looking
at both sides of this argument.
Most of what is written in our
daily newspapers and TV1 and
TV3 news items are only one
part of what is actually happening.
No wonder people are agreeing
that we need to pay billions to
the Paris Agreement for climate
change. They only see one side.
We believe we need to look
after our planet and have always
believed in recycling and growing
fruit and vegetables as much
as we can.
It was not the plastic supermarket
bags , that are now
banned, they didn’t throw
themselves in the rivers and seas.
It was humans.
We feel left out by this Labour
Government.
And why pick on the farmers.
They have been the backbone of
our country and are now being
encouraged to grow trees instead
of raising animals. –Joanne
and Roger Nicolson
Karl du Fresne does seem to
have struck a chord with many
of The Star’s readers although I
don’t see many of the changes as
being derived from communist
traditions, more historical revision
which may or may not be
valid.
What does disturb me is the
random spread of Te Reo. Suddenly
dual names are appearing
everywhere, whether or not they
are relevant.
Otautahi, superglued to
Christchurch, is particularly
irksome.
I gather Otautahi was the
name of a small locality, presumably
a Ngai Tahu eeling encampment
near where Kilmore St
meets the Avon River. It’s a
stretch to transfer that name to
everything from the sea to Sockburn
and from the Port Hills to
the Waimakariri River.
Which begs the next logical
question. If, like the Welsh, we
are to dual name every locality
and service, how are we to manage
all the current Maori/Te Reo
names? Will the Waimakariri
River, road, district and electorate
revert to the Courtney River
etc?
What suggestions are going
to be forthcoming for Tai Tapu,
Aranui, Mairehau, Wairakei,
Papanui, Wairarapa, Turanga,
Wharenui, Opawa, Wainoni
or He Puna Taimoana? – Ian
Orchard
I could have done myself
real damage when I fell off my
chair laughing at the ridiculous
comments in the letters over the
current Labour Government.
Socialist, Marxist’, I wish!
What a joke, I would vote for
them if I had any inkling they
might actually do something
about child poverty and numerous
other things that make
inequality such a deal.
As for our history, sure include
the Onawe massacre and all
the other massacres that were
carried out most of them in the
name of colonisation and the
subjugation of Maori.
I am looking forward to the
day when this city is called Otautahi
and our country Aotearoa,
why on earth would we keep a
Dutch name conferred on this
country in 1642. – Bronwen
Summers
The tsunami of support for
Karl du Fresne’s article demonstrates
the dearth of conservative
opinion pieces in our main
stream media which is dominated
by journalists who are left
leaning and sycophantly support
an increasingly incompetent
government which has run out
of excuses and diversions, for
their obvious failures.
Trivial, nebulous matters, such
as inclusiveness, diversity, wellness,
gender studies, colonisation
(move on; it has happened)
dominate the narrative and
distract from things that matter,
like housing.
Endless inquiries and new
drones that destroy value and
add none. Maori Health Authority,
more bureaucrats, do Maori
We want to hear your views
on the issues affecting life
in Canterbury
Send emails to:
barry@starmedia.kiwi
Letters may be edited or rejected at Star Media’s
discretion. Letters should be about 200 words.
A name, postal address and phone number should be
provided.
Please use your real name, not a nickname, alias, pen
name or abbreviation.
people get sick differently? Do
Maori have different issues at
local government level?
The woke wallies of the left,
supported by a complicit mainstream
media. who, instead of
ridiculing these cancel culture
warriors, say so and this is some
of the things Karl is trying to
highlight. – Paul Grainger
Karl du Frense did an excellent
job in uncovering the real intentions
of our Government and
specifically our prime minister –
comrade Jacinda Ardern.
It is quite obvious that the
Government is doing everything
that it can to erode the freedom
of speech under the guise of
“hate speech” law. We can
rephrase this new law as the “restrictions
of freedom of speech”
law.
This is the first classic step
of any totalitarian regime and
you just need to read the history
books.
Independent media has long
gone – the news became alternate
reality that doesn’t reflect
the real intentions of the government.
This is not a surprise considering
that the Government gave
$50 million dollars to “support”
the media just a few months ago.
You need to be blind not to see
that the Government literally
bought the media.
The media became a state
sponsored propaganda machine
– Pravda in disguise. – Micheal
Edwards
•Correspondence on du
Fresne’s column is now
closed
Covid leadership
The prime minister when
asked what repercussions be
applied to the individual who
has caused such chaos within the
whole country calmly passed the
buck to the New Zealand Police.
Over the 12 or so months since
the outbreak of Covid-19 world
wide every country has been
caught off guard about how to
handle the situation. We are in
most cases in uncharted waters
with new variant strains cropping
up periodically and how we
deal with this problem.
Being New Zealand’s prime
minister in these uncertain
times she should be showing
some extreme leadership and
state quite forcefully that charges
should be laid against this individual
as a lesson, so we do not
have copycat further events. –
Cyril Smith
Stalker sentence
Yes, the police should appeal
the lax sentence given to stalker
Jason Knowles (The Star, February
25), and his lawyer Simon
Shamy should be censured, and
blacklisted by all fair-minded
people.
“Lower level offending”
he says? Short of rape and
murder this offending is the
nastiest, scariest most menacing
behaviour a woman could
experience.
My heart goes out to her.
I say put Knowles away
for a long time and move his
unfortunate wife and children
to a place of safety before he’s
released. – June Peka
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