Letters, May 12
Privatisation
Privatisation of water is neither a sustainable model nor a way to rejuvenate community water systems. Research by Food and Water Watch concluded that privatisation is “expensive and irresponsible” offers no protection for water systems and is unable to equitably distribute water to everyone at a reasonable cost. Vandana Shiva calls water privatisation “ecological terrorism”. Water belongs to everyone, is part of the commons essential to life and hence it should be provided as a public service and not for profit. Inevitably, in corporate hands this element essential to all life would be available only to those who could afford it. The recent law change increasing the number of public utilities which may be privatised certainly has the potential, with our water resources, of removing restraint from the heartless! (to re-phrase Martin Luther King).
Liesma Vasbenter, Wellington.
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It was interesting to read in your last News & Views (Capital Times May 5), that the Wellington Power Lines company is Hong Kong owned.
The daunting problems with the electricity industry are now often referred to in that industry as the “Max Factor” after its architect.
Wilson Parking, that dominates the Wellington parking scene is also Hong Kong owned.
I was amused to see on a website that the American owned very large historic Ngamatea sheep station in the North Island high country where we regularly hunted deer in our younger days, is now advertised to tourists as ”never been privately hunted” doubtless to attract unfit townies from America to fly in by helicopter and shoot trophies at a zillion bucks a pop so they can get their pebbles off by hanging the antlers on a wall back home.
Without getting into the seabed and foreshore debate, I think Maori could well be our only insurance against this insidious foreign takeover of New Zealand.
If I ever have to get permission to snorkel for a few paua, I would rather ask my Maori mates than some obnoxious tobacco chewer from Texas, or a foreign owner in Hong Kong. As to water metering, I reckon metering is essential to minimise waste, but privatisation? Never. It would be in foreign hands before you could down a glass of it.
Gary Lewis, Lower Hutt.
Classical coverage
I’d like to say “Well done!” to Charlotte Williams, for her recent “Opinion” article concerning classical music and its coverage by the print media in Wellington. She rightly praises the work of Capital Times in providing critical reportage of local classical music events, specifically the series of March Concerts at St. Andrew’s Church which ran in parallel with the recent Arts Festival. Such coverage is an essential artistic and community function, one, which the city’s daily paper seems unfortunately to have all but turned its back on. Evidently, our “daily” regards most local classical music events as hardly worth bothering about, because it now crudely applies a blanket “bums-on-seats” formula regarding potential audience numbers for such concerts, and therefore doesn’t report on any classical music-making in a venue smaller than the Town Hall. Thanks to this extraordinarily myopic stance, based on market-place economics, inverted snobbery, and plain ignorance, classical musicians have had to look increasingly elsewhere for support and recognition of their public efforts. I’d certainly like to join with Charlotte in congratulating Capital Times for its advocacy on behalf of the majority of the capital’s performing classical musicians.
Peter Mechen, Roseneath (abridged).
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I agree with your correspondents who say that your attention to providing reviews of music events leave bigger newspapers to shame. I am impressed that you manage to provide a review of a classical piano concert at Expressions in Upper Hutt. Expressions have (since one year ago) a brand new Steinway D concert grand piano, which has a most distinctive tone. Pianos, especially concert grands, do tend to have their own character. It would be hard for concert goers to experience a better sound for much of the repertoire that is presented on the Expressions piano. The Upper Hutt community was rallied by Silverstream music teacher Claire Derby, into raising the $250,000 price of this piano, in the form of private donations from hundreds of individuals, some of which were for as much as $1,000. There is a lesson in this. Your council does not have to waste ratepayers money on things that the people who will appreciate them most, are quite happy to contribute to privately. If little Upper Hutt can do this, imagine what Wellington could fund privately, and how much fairer this would be to most ratepayers.
Philip G. Hayward, Naenae (abridged).
Alcohol
If it helps WCC’s Wendy Walker understand why there are only 160 submissions (out of 300,000 residents) including mine to the proposed city wide liquor ban here is my opinion. I sent the submission page from WCC website to 416 email addresses in the greater Wellington area. Those that did phone or write back, said things like, “good for you but they don’t listen”, “why bother they have their plan to follow”, “we don’t go to the beach so it’s a moot point”, “they won’t fine families at the beach”, “yeah so it’s lazy thinking but that’s what bureaucrats do Duh!”, “it won’t fly they are not that stupid”. One said “if that’s what Newtown wants then let them”.
When I remonstrated that if we allow lazy thinking and poor law to be the norm we shouldn’t complain later, the refrain was “when have they ever listened? we voted on a park and they did their own thing anyway, they make up their minds and then manage the PR afterwards!”. People mustn’t moan later if they haven’t taken part. That said, most of these people are contributors in their own communities, so maybe these comments do represent a ground feeling about WCC and/or this issue.
Mike Mckee, Seatoun (abridged).
Privatisation of water is neither a sustainable model nor a way to rejuvenate community water systems. Research by Food and Water Watch concluded that privatisation is “expensive and irresponsible” offers no protection for water systems and is unable to equitably distribute water to everyone at a reasonable cost. Vandana Shiva calls water privatisation “ecological terrorism”. Water belongs to everyone, is part of the commons essential to life and hence it should be provided as a public service and not for profit. Inevitably, in corporate hands this element essential to all life would be available only to those who could afford it. The recent law change increasing the number of public utilities which may be privatised certainly has the potential, with our water resources, of removing restraint from the heartless! (to re-phrase Martin Luther King).
Liesma Vasbenter, Wellington.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was interesting to read in your last News & Views (Capital Times May 5), that the Wellington Power Lines company is Hong Kong owned.
The daunting problems with the electricity industry are now often referred to in that industry as the “Max Factor” after its architect.
Wilson Parking, that dominates the Wellington parking scene is also Hong Kong owned.
I was amused to see on a website that the American owned very large historic Ngamatea sheep station in the North Island high country where we regularly hunted deer in our younger days, is now advertised to tourists as ”never been privately hunted” doubtless to attract unfit townies from America to fly in by helicopter and shoot trophies at a zillion bucks a pop so they can get their pebbles off by hanging the antlers on a wall back home.
Without getting into the seabed and foreshore debate, I think Maori could well be our only insurance against this insidious foreign takeover of New Zealand.
If I ever have to get permission to snorkel for a few paua, I would rather ask my Maori mates than some obnoxious tobacco chewer from Texas, or a foreign owner in Hong Kong. As to water metering, I reckon metering is essential to minimise waste, but privatisation? Never. It would be in foreign hands before you could down a glass of it.
Gary Lewis, Lower Hutt.
Classical coverage
I’d like to say “Well done!” to Charlotte Williams, for her recent “Opinion” article concerning classical music and its coverage by the print media in Wellington. She rightly praises the work of Capital Times in providing critical reportage of local classical music events, specifically the series of March Concerts at St. Andrew’s Church which ran in parallel with the recent Arts Festival. Such coverage is an essential artistic and community function, one, which the city’s daily paper seems unfortunately to have all but turned its back on. Evidently, our “daily” regards most local classical music events as hardly worth bothering about, because it now crudely applies a blanket “bums-on-seats” formula regarding potential audience numbers for such concerts, and therefore doesn’t report on any classical music-making in a venue smaller than the Town Hall. Thanks to this extraordinarily myopic stance, based on market-place economics, inverted snobbery, and plain ignorance, classical musicians have had to look increasingly elsewhere for support and recognition of their public efforts. I’d certainly like to join with Charlotte in congratulating Capital Times for its advocacy on behalf of the majority of the capital’s performing classical musicians.
Peter Mechen, Roseneath (abridged).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I agree with your correspondents who say that your attention to providing reviews of music events leave bigger newspapers to shame. I am impressed that you manage to provide a review of a classical piano concert at Expressions in Upper Hutt. Expressions have (since one year ago) a brand new Steinway D concert grand piano, which has a most distinctive tone. Pianos, especially concert grands, do tend to have their own character. It would be hard for concert goers to experience a better sound for much of the repertoire that is presented on the Expressions piano. The Upper Hutt community was rallied by Silverstream music teacher Claire Derby, into raising the $250,000 price of this piano, in the form of private donations from hundreds of individuals, some of which were for as much as $1,000. There is a lesson in this. Your council does not have to waste ratepayers money on things that the people who will appreciate them most, are quite happy to contribute to privately. If little Upper Hutt can do this, imagine what Wellington could fund privately, and how much fairer this would be to most ratepayers.
Philip G. Hayward, Naenae (abridged).
Alcohol
If it helps WCC’s Wendy Walker understand why there are only 160 submissions (out of 300,000 residents) including mine to the proposed city wide liquor ban here is my opinion. I sent the submission page from WCC website to 416 email addresses in the greater Wellington area. Those that did phone or write back, said things like, “good for you but they don’t listen”, “why bother they have their plan to follow”, “we don’t go to the beach so it’s a moot point”, “they won’t fine families at the beach”, “yeah so it’s lazy thinking but that’s what bureaucrats do Duh!”, “it won’t fly they are not that stupid”. One said “if that’s what Newtown wants then let them”.
When I remonstrated that if we allow lazy thinking and poor law to be the norm we shouldn’t complain later, the refrain was “when have they ever listened? we voted on a park and they did their own thing anyway, they make up their minds and then manage the PR afterwards!”. People mustn’t moan later if they haven’t taken part. That said, most of these people are contributors in their own communities, so maybe these comments do represent a ground feeling about WCC and/or this issue.
Mike Mckee, Seatoun (abridged).
Have Your Say
1 Comment
Linda at 11:12 p.m. on 24 May said
I just wanted to more to people to notice how filthy our wellington streets are becoming and that the wcc should work on maintaining what we have before digging up and building new ones which they will then leave to become decrepit. you can not walk anywhere in our capital city with out standing on gum or puke or rubbish and filth. PLEASE clean our streets...im sure some of our rates could go towards having clean streets right??