Feedback: Readers Thoughts On News From At Home & Abroad
In This Issue: Appreciation - Carbon Taxes - Judith Tizard's Music Quiz for MPs - 9/11 Investigation - Ariel Ben Attar
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Appreciation
Hello Scoop team,
I am an international student (from India) at the uni of canterbury doing B.A. (Hons.) in Journalism. I deeply
appreciate your "Raw news" format.
Really it could be a great waste of time when reading about some latest news development from a newspaper. One is forced
to go through all the tortuous paths of the writer/ Journalist that he weaves to convey the message.
But you make information available in a fast and fair manner. The news as it is rather than news as edited. Many thanks
for this invaluable portal of news and information.
Sincerely,
Rajiv Thind.
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Carbon Taxes
Sir,
While I make no claims to fully understand the intricacies of the Kyoto Protocol, on carbon taxes and carbon "sinks", I
do have a modicum of understanding.
Therefore, I find it quite illogical for New Zealand to be boldly forging ahead with its proposals to ratify the Kyoto
Protocol when our key trading partners are still mulling it over and the United States has already refused to ratify.
Perhaps the most confusing aspect of the Protocol is that developing countries such as China and India will not have to
meet initial greenhouse emission targets.
China, a developing country? Excuse me!
China is outstripping almost every other country in the world in its industrial and domestic growth and, in the process,
has become one of the most polluted countries in the world.
Recent World Health Organisation figures show that five of the world's 10 most polluted cities are in China and the
pollutant levels are reported to be 2-5 times above the organisations recommended levels.
In addition, China's forests (the carbon "sinks" referred to in the Protocol) once covered some 776,000 square
kilometres whereas only 214,000 remain.
As a direct result of this deforestation, 300 of China's 617 cities now face water shortages and the Yellow River, which
first dried up before reaching the sea in 1972, has dried up every year since 1985.
China also now imports around 15 million cubic metre of timber a year compared with 4 million prior to a logging ban
introduced in 1998.
Where does this timber come from, mostly the carbon "sinks" (forests) of other countries. Yet these forests form the
very basis of the world's rain forests.
How on earth can this government ratify a treaty that has as its objective the mitigation of the effects of global
warming, yet within that treaty allows one of the world's most polluting countries to continue unabated and unhindered
on the basis it is a developing country.
Mirek Marcanik
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Judith Tizard's Music Quiz for MPs
I regard myself a reasonably intelligent woman of the third age(50+) I have just looked at Judith Tizard's music quiz
for MPs and find I would get about five questions right.
The rest are very difficult! I enjoy music but I am not heavily into it. There are more important things in my life. I
wonder what this is telling us? That not knowing all the answers to the New Zealand music quiz means that somewhere,
someone is making a lot of fuss about something which to many is not at all important!
LynPowell
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9/11 Investigation
To those yanks living in NZ; www.truthout.com has a petition on it's website calling for an investigation into the events described in several of your columns. You
would be providing a valuable service by posting a link to this site for those who are concerned about these matters.
By the way; I've gotten far more information out of just two pages of Scoop than in seven months of mainstream US news
reporting. Thanks!
J. G. Oliver
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Ariel Ben Attar
Editor:
A friend sent me a copy of the letter to the world by Ariel Ben Attar and I hope your service can deliver my thoughts
on the subject to him. I thank you in advance. Feel free to use this material in any way you wish.
Mr. Attar:
Are you at all interested in a stop to the killing? I'm speaking of the killing of Jews and Palestinians alike. Not one
word of your letter suggests that you are. You're very good at speaking in the past tense about the persecution of Jews
and I can certainly understand your rage over those historical events. But may I suggest that Israel, Palestine, and the
world need to look to the future for a solution rather than react to events, however terrible, that happened in the past
and cannot be reversed.
Yes, I am "upset" and "bothered" by Israel. I am also "upset" and "bothered" by Palestine. But must the killing go on
forever? Do you "not care less" about that possibility? Certainly another Ariel - Mr. Sharon - and his sworn enemy, Mr.
Arafat, are neither one interested in an end to the killing. I believe they are both blinded by hatred. I hope you and
other thinking Israelis and Palestinians are not.
I have attached some thoughts about what I would like to see my part of the world - the U.S. - do about the killing. I
hope they reach you and I hope you read them.
With respect and in the hope that both Israel and Palestine find a way to live in their own country and in peace,
Clint Trafton