Letters To The Editor

Good oil

Congratulations to those businesses that have organised the local petrol discount scheme (Echo, Aug 4). You have taken on the national companies and you have shown that local businesses can better them. You deserve the support of all of us. Shop locally and you will make a difference!

Cr Graham Meineke
Lismore

Darcy returns fire

Well Rod (Echo letters, Aug 4).

You're either deaf, dumb or stupid not to see the writing on the wall and what's to come to the "battlers" from this dishonest Government.

Wake up boy and start looking into what is proposed in the industrial relations area. Be frightened Rod. Be very, very frightened.

I doubt whether Mungo would consider he is writing a column of humour - more like a warning of things to come.

Darcy Mckee
Alstonville

Cyclepath dangers

Ballina Council's new and courageous GM has to find a way through the Angels Beach Cyclepath dispute. It's a shame his minders can't feed him information that bears scrutiny. Their falsehoods make his task much harder - take safety, for instance.

A July report to Council defended the "sand mining trail" route as "maintaining safety". Nothing is further from the truth. His minders know that but won't admit. That route is a direct recipe for future accidents, possibly fatal.

In this precinct everyone lives west of the Coast Road. It's 80kph throughout but de facto 100kph. To reach the future cyclepath, riders must first cross the road, then again cross it when they leave. This isn't rocket science - it just doesn't compute!

Two safe crossings exist: an underpass and an overpass. But they're at either end of the zone. Between are three customary crossings, used by all ages: Beachfront Pde, Barwen St., and Bayview Drive. Taking their life in their hands pedestrians persist in crossing at these "illicit" points - because it's easier.

With a beach cycleway, kids (impulsive and impatient) will obviously ride straight across the road to reach it. As a parent and grandparent I cannot fathom the mentality that believes this is the "safest" way to get people from one end of the beach to the other. It's by far the most hazardous. The cyclepath belongs on the west of the road - where the people live!

I entreat residents to petition Council to give a serious thought for our kids' safety. I hate to say it but I foresee an innocent child dying in an encounter with a speeding vehicle some day if the cyclepath is ever built through the dunes. I'll personally do anything in my power to stop it. How about you?

Lee Andresen
Angels Beach

Please explain

An open letter to Lismore Council.

I refer to the brochure, "Your rates at work", in which the expenditure of $28 million is listed under the heading of Enforcement and Street Lighting.  Obviously Street Lighting would not be under any enforcement orders, so for those of us who cannot comprehend the meaning of that expenditure, could you please itemise where the expenses were incurred?

On another matter, the demise of the mother of all fig trees on Invercauld Road (the 'Lighthouse of Goonellabah') brought great disappointment, to say the least.  It also raises the questions - Who? How?  Why?

Any answers forthcoming?

Germano Pagura
Goonellabah

Heartfelt thanks

Thank you for publishing, the story on Heartfelt House (Echo, Aug 4) at Alstonville. It should have been on the front page! It is sorely needed in the Northern Rivers! For many survivors of sexual abuse such as myself, it's a day-to-day challenge to get through each day.

If you can't afford to see a psychologist etc for counselling in the Northern Rivers, one is basically up that well known creek with out a paddle! Unless you can get into Lifeline or Indigo House which has free counselling. These services are stretched in Lismore. Statistically it has been shown that many recipients of Centrelink benefits are on them due to past abuse. Left undealt with it can impede one's ability to function on a day-to-day basis.

In an area that contains over 100,000 people, the Lismore and Ballina areas are badly under serviced in sexual assault services.

I am a survivor of physical, emotional, mental and sexual abuse. I also have post-traumatic stress disorder. Right now I am in a good space within myself. When people begin healing work they will find it takes a lot of work, there will be lots of tears and anger will be expressed. One will learn what the triggers are and how to deal with them. So often survivors have to carry the burden alone. Out of all of this can come the miracles of great healing.

I know for a fact that if I hadn't had the will to survive, my faith in God, my friends support, church, Mayumari Healing Centre (outside Cessnock), Lifeline, ASCA (which meets at 6pm on Mondays in Lismore) and my friends at Breath Connection Life Centre at Lillian Rock I would be dead. I must include my second oldest sister's support as well and my best male friend in Melbourne. Right now I have been able to sleep in my own room for the last three weeks without feeling triggered, which is very good for me. The healing I have done has given me hope for a better future.

Sexual abuse is strongly linked to depression (which I also suffer from), drug abuse, alcohol abuse and prostitution, as well as other mental health issues such as self-harm and suicide.

This centre, Heartfelt House will go a long way to breaking the silence surrounding these hideous forms of abuse if it is supported by the community here.

The country has less services available to access than the city so don't waste this new service and get behind Heartfelt House as a community!

Helen Coyle
South Lismore

Orwell not

So with the National ID Card on the table and with John Howard's new found knowledge (particularly in Britain) about the value of surveillance cameras. I feel it's my duty to reassure any paranoid people who think its 1984 - 21 years late. It is not social engineering, it is defence against terrorism.

Marcus Davies
Lismore

Levee follies

"The proposed levee scheme would ensure that floods with peaks up to 10.95 metres AHD at the Rowing Club Gauge (RCG) do not result in flooding of Central Lismore or any other houses in South or North Lismore" - Objectives and Justifications, EIS, Lismore Levee, page 10.

The levee was duly constructed with a designed low point of 20.95 some half a kilometre upstream of the RCG.

Incredibly, for the number of experts involved, no allowance in the high of the inflow was made for

a. the gradient of the water between the two points, and

b. the effect of the levee itself on the level of the water.

a. gradient is the difference in the level between two points of a flow. When the 2005 peak was 10.2 at the RCG, it was (as advised by SES) 280mm below the levee top (10.95) at the police station, This equates to 10.67 metres. The gradient is thus 470mm.

b. when the natural flow of water is restricted and confined, the level rises. (That's why most of the levee wall is at 11.8 metres) Preliminary figures from the recent flood show that the effect of the construction of the levee was to increase the level at the RCG by at least 200mm. ie this flood would have been, without the levee, just 10 metres.

Whatever the split between gradient and levee effect, for the levee to fulfil its objectives the inflow point at the police station would therefore need to be at least 670mm higher than the 10.95AHD of the RCG. As it stands, the levee will be topped at what would have been, before construction of the levee, 10.28 metres at the RCG.

The effect of the levee and gradient on North Lismore is similarly dire. Hard to imagine why the flurry of self-congratulations about the levee success - the only success is that it kept out a minor flood and didn't fall over. On the criteria mentioned in the opening quote above (its reason for being) it is a failure.

Easy with hindsight of course. Yet we pay our experts for foresight. Can they now admit fallibility and allow a margin for (shudder) possible error?

Can the CBD people get the level of protection they are paying for? And for those of us caught between and/ or upstream of the levee walls, can we be given at least the margin of freeboard we had previously in the event of a 1-in-10 flood?(Regulations require at least 300mm; but somehow this was also overlooked when determining which houses were to be raised) and will those homes which will be inundated be raised?

Then, as the EIS for the levee promises, "no one will be worse off".

David Wallace
North Lismore

Misogynist enemy

I was dismayed and disappointed by the attitude of some women at the Byron Bay Writers Festival last Saturday. Admittedly I was probably a little optimistic, being male stating my opinion during question time at a session about feminism, when the attendance was 95 percent female.

I was trying to express my belief in equality and this should not have been received badly.

However, I was hissed and heckled before I could finish the first sentence. Obviously some were not interested in hearing any male views. Even the facilitator was shaking her head - though she'd said that "in the interests of equality" she wanted to hear the opinion of a male member of the audience.

I find it depressing that during the last 30 years certain elements of the Feminist movement apparently have not moved beyond the moronic man-hating stage. I was shocked that there are still many women who are not seeking equality but superiority, not interested in listening but in haranguing, not open to encouraging the equalities but focussing on the inequalities. 

Incidents such as these turn people (both men and women) against the feminist movement.

I empathise with the thousands of women in this country who are genuinely seeking a balanced and equal society and I thank the women who spoke to me afterwards to say that they were equally dismayed at my treatment. I will continue to champion the cause of equality, but it's harder to feel committed to this when some women are so aggressively anti-male. This sort of behaviour gives ammunition to those who prefer their women barefoot and pregnant.

I believe equality will occur if we keep chipping away at conservative belief systems with concerted lobbying. When we people who are willing to listen and to think (both male and female) on the same side, we will have progress.

Rik Dillon
Alstonville

Ridgeline policy

When will Ballina Shire Council establish a solid, ridgeline planning policy?

Obviously it needs one, as more and more ugly buildings displace vegetation on shire hill-tops.

Lennox Head Residents' Association has been seeking such a policy for many years.

Such intrusive buildings destroy natural beauty for tourists and locals alike. Mountains and ridgelines are part of visual environmental amenity as much as beaches, waterways and other vistas.

Unfortunately some of the new dwellings often are large, set close to boundaries, and minus gardens or other greenery.

A hopeful sign is that some developers are pointing out that they do not want to build on ridgelines.

Decades ago politicians, bureaucrats and civic leaders assured us that ridgelines, scenic corridors, escarpments, and other natural features, would remain pristine.

Property owners can still gain superb views by building below ridgelines. The 360-degree view mansions can be a reflection of the owners' ego or greed, at community expense.

Outlines of old hilltop farmhouses often are softened by large trees. Their high location probably was a colonial security hangover.

The need to build on crests in ancient times was to enable distant views of invaders, and a vantage point from which to kill them. We don't do that anymore.

Or, like the sublime Parthenon on the steep Athenian Acropolis, such buildings were to praise or placate the gods.

Ballina Shire still contains an abundance of natural beauty, which should be protected, not obliterated. 

But I haven't seen any built equivalents of the glorious Parthenon around here, worthy of being on a skyline pinnacle, for all to admire.

Marelle Lee
Lennox Head

Fluoride in water

I feel a need to respond to Ros Irwin's letter (Echo, Aug 4) on her concerns about fluoridation.

The science in favour of fluoridating our water supply is very convincing and comes from many decades of respected research from institutions throughout the world. These findings have been extensively publicised in the local media over the last few months.

My greatest concern is for the people who most need this intervention. They are the most disadvantaged people in our Northern Rivers community, many of them children and whose dental health is often nothing short of appalling. This means they are doomed to a life of ill health, pain and suffering relating to this and the best of dental care won't do much to improve their long-term situation.

The great thing about fluoridation is that it is a preventative health measure that will benefit everybody in our community. I am not surprised that there is opposition. Just like seat belts, crash helmets, drink driving controls, smoking in restaurants etc this is another public health measure where 'big brother' takes control and we quite rightly should scrutinise these measures that may infringe on our freedom of choice.

However common sense and balancing the arguments of benefits versus risk must ultimately prevail and the case for fluoridation is clear cut.

Dr Andrew Binns
Goonellabah

PM's Freudian slip

Prime Minister John Howard stood in front of the cameras of the world's major TV channels in London (July7) and expressed himself, as he put it "on behalf of all Australians".

Now wait a minute. Is this the same Prime Minister who has repeatedly refused to apologise to the Aborigines of Australia, on grounds that he "has not been granted the authority to speak on behalf of all Australians"?

So what has changed now? Because I don't remember him seeking permission from the Australian public to speak on our behalf in London.

Also in his speech, John Howard stated that "London is a city closer to the hearts of Australians than any other city beyond our own". He then went further on the ABC 7.30Report (August 4) claiming that England is a country "with which we still identify probably more than any other country in the world".

All right then. Let's do a quick survey: How many Australians of Irish descent identify with England more than they do with Ireland? Also, how about all those Australians who came, or whose ancestors came from continental Europe? From the Middle East? From China? From South America? Or the Australian Aborigines? How many of you agree with John Howard's claim that you probably identify more with England than with any other country in the world?

I've met Australians of many different descent in my life, to know the answer to the above question. But you don't need to be a professor of sociology to realise the answer, because it is blatantly obvious. It is, to use the PM's favourite phrase, just plane commonsense.

So how can then John Howard still make such ridiculous claims repeatedly?

Could it be, that he regards Australians of English descent as the only true Australians?

He would no doubt vehemently deny it, if he was confronted with the question publicly.

Too late Mr Howard. The dreaded Freudian slip of your tongue has already given your true thoughts and feelings on the matter away.

You don't see all Australians as equals. In fact, you don't even regard many of us as Australians at all. In your eyes, Australia and the world is fragmented into a kind of caste-system of peoples, with the born-to-rule Anglo-Saxon (some would say Agro-Saxon) on top, naturally.

Your incessant clinging to the monarchy (ie. mummy's skirt) is also just another attempt to maintain that archaic notion of the born-to-rule, the concept that some are more equal than others.

Tom Koo
Alstonville

Goulburn orphanage reunion

A joint reunion for the ex-boys and ex-girls of the former St John's Orphanage and St Joseph's Orphanage of Goulburn NSW, will be held over two days at the Rooty Hill RSL Club, 55 Sherbroohe Street, Rooty Hill, NSW on Saturday and Sunday, September 10-11.

All ex-boys and ex-girls are invited to attend - rally to the reunion call. The organising committee is hoping for a big roll-up. It has planned two days of fun, friendship, entertainment, music and an overall happy event - a rekindling of childhood bonds and a big warm homecoming welcome to all who attend. Please come and join in the celebrations.

For further information, please contact the Programme Co-ordinator, Ken Doyle, on 4733 7332.

Ken Doyle
Goulburn

Govt dysentry

The chronic constipation in the bowels of various NSW government departments (rail, hospitals, courts, etc) might be relieved by an enema, flushing out and identifying the causes of the troubles which tend to give the public users "government dysentery".

An enema is also usual before major surgery for any such problems. Can an Iemma work as effectively? The club industry also has potentially fatal "government dysentery" from the exorbitant pokie tax. It could be fatal to the government, or the clubs, or both.

Ken Macdonald
Lennox Head

Bugden story

As an occasional visitor to your fair city, I read with considerable interest your recent correspondence surrounding the Bugden story.

Two points revealed in this correspondence require further comment:

1. Your correspondent Helen Coyle (Echo, July 7) might like to know that Bugden was not the only North Coast born resident to win the Victoria Cross. The other was, of course, Frank Partridge - born in Grafton, educated at Tewinga Public School and a long time dairy farmer and banana grower in the Macksville district. Frank won his award in Bougainville in July, 1945 and tragically died in a road accident near Bellingen in March 1964.

2. Alstonville RSL Sub-branch might wish to note for their records that Paddy is not buried in the Polygon Wood - Zonnebeke - Cemetery but some 6 kilometres away at the Hooge Crater Cemetery, Zillebeke. A photograph of is grave and a description of the Cemetery may be found in John Laffin's "Guide to Australian Battlefields of the Western Front" pages 45-46.

Alan McConnachie
Killcare

Penguin knits

A letter of thanks to all the ladies of Lismore and Byron Bay who kindly knitted over 200 little jumpers for the Fairy Penguins at Phillip Island.

The efforts of Gail Doggett of Lismore and Rosemary from the knit shop at Byron Bay, along with their band of ladies, are very much appreciated.

A penguin party was held today at our church (The Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints). All the ladies present helped to tie the jumpers into bundles of ten. At the final count of what we had at the church, was 1,750 with more to come yet.

Lindsay's Transport has offered to transport the jumpers to Victoria.

Jenny Allen
Coffs Harbour

Be nice

I for one have had it with this system. I believe we are at a critical stage of our human evolution; if we keep going down this current path we are in serious danger of self-destruction. The whole leadership concept is old and outmoded. It is the one thing that stops us from having a true form of democracy.

I would like to see a new system created and controlled by the common man of the world. By this I mean everyone would be instilled with absolute power - equally, and the majority would rule, based on information that was true and accurate. This is the sort of democracy we could and should strive for.

The three stooges of politics have created an absolute disaster in this world. What is worse is that we don't even have a system that recognises the mass murdering, oil thieving criminals that they really are.

We need to stop all wars now! No one in this world should have to die of starvation ever again.

Education is a right for everyone, and should be accessible to everyone.

The justice and rehabilitation system needs to be reviewed.

There should be no such thing as cutbacks on the health system - people before money!

Only we, the people of the world can make this happen. United and working as one we can have a real democracy. We all deserve better than this.

F_KEITEL@hotmail.com.au