Time For Some Plain Talking
Illawarra Mercury
Monday April 5, 2004
WHY is it our federal leaders can't see the value in disclosing sound policy well in advance of elections?
For Sydney, it would be a win-win situation if both major parties could put together and spell out exactly their intentions and timetables for facilities such as the so obviously needed overflow airport well out of the Sydney basin.
Federal Opposition Leader Mark Latham's Wilton option is neither practical nor serious. The tripling of passengers, doubling of aircraft and road trafficand the noise levels make the Government's 20-year plan to retain Botany Bay as NSW's only international airport even more impractical.
We know there's a certain dishonesty factor with politicians.
What we are in need of is a little more democratic input from them, assuring us their future plans for our facilities are genuine and hold priority over their own determination to stay in their well-remunerated positions.
-BRIAN JOHNSON,
Gymea.
An agonising wait
MANY weeks ago, the State Government announced increased funding to reduce waiting lists in public hospitals.
Among those targeted were patients with crippling arthritis who have been waiting years for joint replacement.
There has been no increase in joint-replacement surgery.
Each orthopaedic surgeon at Wollongong Hospital has been restricted to one joint-replacement a week.
This is a situation that has remained unchanged for years.
I wonder where the money goes - into bureaucratic meetings I suppose.
-DR ROBERT S ELLIOTT,
Wollongong.
An issue, a tissue
I OFTEN wonder when there is a local, state or federal election how many old-growth forests have been razed to the ground to provide all the junk that is thrown in your face as you run the gauntlet of the political party pimps.
Do the Greens or any other political party know if their material is printed on recycled paper? Do they even care?
Surely it makes sense to print these how to vote cards on actual toilet paper, at least then they would be useful for something. Plus that's probably where they would all end up anyway.
-GARY MAYER,
Corrimal.
Dangerous allies
IN a time of creeping McCarthyism, the letters (Mercury, March 16) by B Oehm and Barbara Witte are oh so predictable.
Take, for instance, portraying Clare Short as ``treasonous" because she had the guts to ``blow the whistle" on Tony Blair and company. As for bugging, it's been going on for decades and the US has almost certainly been keeping a close ear on the UN, Britain, Russia, China, France, Germany, Spain, and - let's not forget - Australia, through Pine Gap.
It's a ridiculous question, but which is worse: suicide bombing or assassination squads, bulldozers, tanks and snipers?
Is B Oehm seriously suggesting that no Iraqis have been killed by US troops? There have been several ``mistakes", followed by apologies, and, of course, the Orwellian ``collateral damage".
Ms Witte refers to ``the butchers of Baghdad and Cambodia". Would those be the same ``butchers" that were armed and backed by the US in the war against Iran and in the Indochina conflict (specifically Saddam Hussein and Pol Pot)?
Let's not forget that the largest possessor of weapons of mass destruction is the good old US, with Bush jnr a religious fundamentalist hawk, who shows little concern for the environment, and is deeply concerned with, and a part of, the oil industry.
I refute the idea that to criticise Bush and company equates with being ``anti-American". I, and many others, are anti US foreign policy, present and past.
-RON HERBERT,
Wentworth Falls.
My punctuation
GOOD Morning Vietnam. Hello Dolly.
After reading the reply to my March 23 letter concerning my problems with English as she is spoke, Brenda Chatterton sounds rather frustrated as if I blamed her for things that bug me.
If the cap fits ...
I used real quotation marks once in my letter, Brenda, but I did highlight some words by using the ubiquitous inverted commas, very stressful.
Aren't I pleased that my computer already knew about the acute accent!
If something is now acceptable does that mean that at one time it wasn't? Why is the comma accepted in the instance that you claim?
A comma is the smallest interruption in a sentence, a breather in other words.
And and but also give pause for thought so why do we need commas and conjunctions close together in a clause or sentence?
I still think it's a case of common usage being acceptable whether it is correct or not.
Please note, Brenda, I haven't used quotation marks or inverted commas.
Question marks and exclamation marks yes but your problem with my letter needed some reaction.
I won't say please explain as your usage of idiom left me lost for words. I try to use it as little as possible, is that acceptable?
Time gentlemen - goodbye Mr Chips. What would you call my collection of four examples of two words each, could they be classed as sentences? There are no verbs that I can see so could they be called solecisms?
-BARBARA WITTE,
Barrack Heights.
Now, letters play
IN response to barbara witte and allan brown's letters, (Mercury, March 26), i kant agree moore that english skils are bein ovalooked. i fink our skools have a lot to xplane for the unda edumacated peeple, wat a shame they kant apreciate tha english lanuage just like owl obveeus like mynded selfs.
-JONATHAN BAHR,
Albion Park.
© 2004 Illawarra Mercury
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