Letters
Pohara footpath
On Thursday evening, a very constructive community consultation meeting was held at the Pohara Hall by our community board to discuss the plans for the Pohara footpath with the TDC roading engineer, Gary Clark.
I believe it was a satisfying meeting for all concerned and commend the community board for initiating it and also for chairing it so well. We certainly get good value for our targeted rate!
I would also like to thank Gary Clark for the obvious care and thought he has put into this plan, taking into consideration the sensitive nature of the site. We appreciate the effort both he and Rose Biss, the TDC heritage planner, made in driving over here from Richmond for the meeting.
Moira Tilling
Last Thursday 18 March, I attended a public meeting called by the community board to discuss the proposed walkway past the band rotunda at Pohara. This was a very good meeting with excellent discussion.
The thing that was disturbing to me was that Councillor Borlase, who is also a member of Heritage Golden Bay, voted to chop the front off the band rotunda. This was after the heritage committee had made a passionate plea to leave the rotunda as it was; a local heritage icon.
His action on this occasion leaves a lot to be desired as does his involvement with variation 57 in the Takaka township and the integrated health project.
I, along with a lot of other people know how they will be voting in October at the local body elections.
Harry Holmwood
Reply from Cr Borlase: I voted against the majority, to go with the suggestion of the TDC engineer for the simple reason that maintenance of the band rotunda had not been mentioned all evening. I attended a meeting of the Heritage Golden Bay committee a few days earlier at which the chairperson suggested that if we were to allow the TDC to take 1.2 metres off the front sides of the rotunda then the council would very likely take over the maintenance. I agreed wholeheartedly; with the council maintaining the rotunda, the community could be assured of it being where it is in sound condition for many years to come.
I can remember visiting Golden Bay some years before we decided to shift over here and seeing the band rotunda with its roof fallen in, the metal posts rusted through and the whole thing looked sadly neglected. My real concern is that history could well repeat itself. The salt water environment in which the rotunda is situated is extremely harsh making maintenance an essential. Will the TDC agree to maintain it when the wish of the meeting was to compromise the cycleway/walkway plan? I am not holding my breath.
Naked questions
At first I thought that the Naked Bike Ride was just a thinly disguised display of adolescent exhibitionism. But then I had to ask what kind of society manifests full-on adults who have nothing better to do than thumb their nose at convention?
Their idea of cool is to be childish in a premeditated fashion. Then it occurred to me that this was backlash from over-regulation where everyone needs consent to take a step (in the name of “safety” and for the benefit of bureaucracy), in a nation where limits on bureaucracy never reach the ballot box. When people have no real input in the rules that govern their every step, do they become desperate and “outrageous” and basically infantile? Isn’t vulgar body art about some kind of adolescent statement of “freedom”, and now this, cycling nude to “prove” that cool people are free of convention?
Then I wondered about the judge. If left is right and right is left, is anything indecent? Do I have the right to walk on a public sidewalk and not see genitalia?
I didn’t have that right on mainstreet last week. Maybe this judge is part of the backlash?
If cyclists can go nude, why can’t anyone go nude anywhere and why have boy’s and girl’s bathrooms? Why have any standards for anything?
Ray Songtree
Craniosacral therapy
I would like to respond to the letter attacking craniosacral therapy (GBW 19/3).
I have wrestled with a mysterious chronic pain condition for three years, which has intensely limited my physical activity. Thorough examinations by over 15 medical doctors, including highly regarded specialists in New Zealand and the US, have not produced scientific documentation to explain the pain I feel. Therefore is my pain not real? And likewise, are the benefits of craniosacral therapy not real (as Peter Bridgwater’s letter implies), simply because conventional medical science lacks the ability to measure them? During sessions with my craniosacral therapist, I experience subtle shifts in my body which are gradually helping me to stand taller and feel greater wellbeing. I often walk into sessions with nerves jangling in pain; I often walk out feeling at ease, deeply nourished.
So let’s not be so quick to dismiss what we don’t understand. Amazing healing capabilities exist within the human body; for me, craniosacral therapy has been one way to access that healing power, with real results. The therapy does work gently with sutures in the skull, so I wonder if it could heal closed-mindedness?! If so, I’d recommend Mr Bridgwater try a session.
Rebecca Reider
Egregious homeopathy?
Albert Einstein once was asked: do you believe in homeopathy? “Of course not!” he said, “but it works...”
Michael Roehrs
Nuclear comeback
Last night I watched with horror the documentary (The Nuclear Comeback) on the proliferation of nuclear power generation around the world. I was appalled to see it being touted as the new clean green way to generate power with ”zero carbon emissions”.
What about the highly radioactive waste fuel that nobody knows how, or where, to store; that takes, wait for it, 100,000 years to break down to a state where it is safe to come into contact with. Yes you did read that right. Let me repeat it so that you are quite clear about the fact: it takes 100,000 (that is one hundred thousand) years.
Are these pro-nuclear generation people mad? Are they off their rockers? Or do they just think that the rest of us are really, really stupid?
Apparently they are having a problem with what they call the NIMBYs, that is the “Not In My Back Yard”, lobby. Well frankly I’ve got a problem with the NIMBYs too. They don’t go far enough! How about the NOOPs, Not On Our Planet?
This is our planet, for all peoples and all creatures and life forms. What are we doing with it? What are we allowing greedy, short-sighted governments to do to it? What can we do to change this? Have you thought about it?
Rosana Quinn
Twilight Fair by year 7 students
Next Tuesday 30 March, year 7 at Golden Bay High School is running a school fair to help fundraise towards our camp to Teapot Valley in term four. It will be held between 4.30 and 7.30pm with a postponement date of Wednesday 31 March. All three classes have been learning how to run a fair and how much it costs. Every stall will be run by the year 7 students.
Some activities are: bowl ‘em, face painting, pony rides, obstacle course, push go-carts, colouring competition, op shop, balloon popping stalls and more.
Food will be available, with such treats as sausage sizzle, Devonshire teas, soup and mussels as well as some delicious home baking, lemonade, milkshakes and sweets for afters.
The pool will be open for supervised swimming, for a small fee. So bring your togs. It will be free entry and great family fun. We have worked hard to make this happen, so please come and support us.
Frances Clark, Nick Napp and Joshua Childs
(Year 7 students)
Integrated health facility
The Nelson Marlborough DHB states consistently that “It will continue to apply the same amount of funding as it currently does into Golden Bay”. From this and statements made by Mr Peters I understand this to mean that they will provide the same amount of dollars in the future regardless of any cost of living increase, in other words the percentage of funding will be reduced as the cost of living increases, I hope I am wrong, but somehow I doubt it.
The second issue is the location which will include a medical centre. We hear much of fears of flooding in Takaka but the site they propose to use means that access is through what I regard as the most dangerous area of flooding in Golden Bay, that is Bridgers Hollow, just outside of town, where in my time cars have been washed down into Windles paddock. It seems that no-one has compared flooding patterns before and after the cut was put in Takaka River mouth which has totally changed flooding, even without this comparison, no-one seems to be able to produce evidence that the area next to High School has flooded in the past.
Ann P Lewis
I would like to add my support to the concerns expressed by our Golden Bay health personnel.
They have stuck their collective necks out on this issue and deserve the backing of every resident who has used/uses/will use the public health system within Golden Bay.
Although integrated management may not be the “privatisation devil in disguise” we do need clear and honest assurances that public funding of staff and facility maintenance/development will continue into the future - not just the next financial year. Thank you.
Kaye Stark
When we have a family member living at the Joan Whiting, or we spend time in the Golden Bay hospital, or we see one of the practice nurses at the medical centre we rely upon their training, experience and integrity to give us the correct information because they are professionals.
That so many of them signed the letter headed ‘IMPORTANT’ in The GB Weekly (GBW 12/3), bringing their worries about the Integrated Management’s proposals for our future health care, is enlightening. We should listen to them, and ask more questions before we allow further changes to be made.
Liza Eastman
Right now if a night shift nurse or a member of the public is worried about an urgent health crisis, they can ring the on-call doctor direct and get immediate expert advice. Many people have benefited from this great service. Under the proposed integration, your urgent call will be either put through to an out-of-the-Bay call service, or added to the long list of new duties the nurses are expected to take on for no extra pay. The huge debt that the proposed, but being sold as a given, project will create will be an incentive to make budget cuts. The hospital site, being the cheapest, will mean that townies, enjoying being handy to amenities will have to find a way to the public transport-and-cycle-lane-deficient site, and the bulk of employees and patients are on the other side of Takaka.
Victoria Davis
With reference to front page item (The Nelson Mail 22/3), “GP claims bullying over pay cut.”
It is not our policy generally to write to the media; we leave this activity to those who delight in putting pen to paper. However we feel we must comment on the above matter.
We are both patients of Dr Eastman, and must express our disgust at the treatment dished out to our Golden Bay health professionals, especially Dr Eastman, by the Nelson Bays PHO.
We support Dr Eastman for standing his ground; he has always been a dedicated, efficient, hardworking health professional who deserves to be supported in the true Golden Bay manner.
Come on Golden Bay community, stand up and be counted!
Noel and Kath Riley
At public question times toward the end of last year arranged by IMG, I saw two documents. So I needed to know whether progress is “however dependent on: The community raising funds locally, effecting a reduction the site and service costs; or a combination in the order of $2.25 [see footnote 2] million to make a service on a Greenfield’s site viable “ [see IMG Business Case Golden Bay Integrated Health Service, prepared in July 2009] . IMG will not answer queries on this vital matter.
The second document was a letter again to IMG from unions representing nurses, making points obviously still unanswered by IMG three months later.
So congratulations on our nurses for what they wrote earlier this month. Thank goodness for their openness. And legislation covers whistle blowing!
It worries me deeply that those on IMG purportedly to “represent the community” are sitting silent before the power of bureaucrats. Are they content and happy that this community (including them) has to raise, somehow, $2.5 million dollars? I wish they would remember what they said over five years ago.
I fear that what IMG is deliberatively doing is to reach a situation, without real community input, where it can say “But we’ve got so far, that we cannot afford to change”. This community will simply be told, “This is what you’ll get.” And to hell with public opinion.
John Lee
I haven’t followed as closely or understood a lot of the talk and letters about the planned changes to our current situation in the Bay in regard to the Collingwood Rest Home, Takaka Hospital and the medical centre. What I do understand clearly however is the second-to-none care we are provided with at present by these services. It saddens me to see in the paper that our doctors are divided in opinion and the stress this must be causing for all concerned. I consider us fortunate to have them all.
What does concern me is the old “careful what you wish for” theory. I studied for my aged care certificate in Australia; I was so happy to be able to work with the elderly. Then I experienced some of these great ideas about combining services and staff.
When I first returned to the Bay I was lucky to work a short time at the Golden Bay Community Hospital and also at the Joan Whiting Rest Home as a casual aid. The care level at these places is awesome, nurses have time to care and the patients are comfortable and secure in the knowledge that not only are all physical needs met, but they have staff that really have the time to “care”. I know that change can be a good thing, I just hope we aren’t going to lose what we have in the process. I am getting older too!
Marie Whitaker
Real health integration
I endorse Daniel’s letter (GBW 19/3) encouraging a holistic approach to integrating health services in our community.
The present mainstream health system is still largely focused on interventions in degenerative stages of disease, or managing chronic disease with drug therapy until it becomes degenerative.
Holistic health practices have more of a focus on promoting health and reversing disease processes in their earlier stages. Incorporating integration of both treatment models in any community health facility makes good sense.
Research has shown that in New Zealand well over 50% of the population consult with holistic health practitioners. Increasingly people are taking personal responsibility and making informed choices about their healthcare options and our allocation of infrastructure and resources needs to reflect this.
Carolyn Simon, naturopath & craniosacral therapist
Labyrinth Rocks Park
On behalf of the friends of the Labyrinth Rocks Park I would like to sincerely thank the person or persons who left the two missing dwarfs on the track where they were found. I am sure that many visitors and children who visit the park shall get pleasure in seeing their return. I would like to think that whoever removed our donation box, which was kindly donated by a generous sponsor, could see fit to do the same. Here’s hoping!
Ross McDonald
Swimming Club
Friday was the final race day of the season for the Golden Bay Swim Club at the Golden Bay High School pool.
It has been a privilege and delight to participate over the months as a volunteer parent/coach to these terrific kids and young adults, watching them develop and improve their swimming skills. Kudos as well to the other parent/coaches and leaders of the club for their time, energy, and enthusiasm.
Golden Bay is blessed to have such a fine pool but sadly these swimmers had to brave icy cold water and many went shivering throughout the race. Why? Although the pool has a heating system, I am informed that the school doesn’t have sufficient funds to heat it. So the pool will close shortly when, with heating, the kids and adults young and old could continue swimming for many more months.
I am optimistic that, with innovative planning, we can rapidly find a sustainable way to fund the pool’s heating and maintenance into the fall and early winter. And after accomplishing that, who knows, perhaps we can discuss getting a removable cover to have year-round swimming like the folks over the Hill.
Anyone interested in getting together to look at this issue please email me at bdooley@mercout.com and let me know what is a good day and time for you to come to a meeting.
Bruce Dooley
The cow cubicle controversy
What language is it the cow cubicle farming advocates don’t understand? How much does it take to convince them the overseas markets look to our country for the clean, green thing? A country that produces animals raised outdoors. Indulging in cow cubicle farming will be a huge “put-off” for overseas consumers, as they can observe in their own backyards the way animals are crowded together on feeding pads and in barns, standing and sitting in their own excrement, all the time, week in and week out.
Kiwis have had their attention drawn to such places as battery caged poultry and most recently the plight of pigs in disgusting pens in our country.
When you take a cruise through the Mackenzie Country and Waitaki Valley in autumn and see the leaves when they are golden and falling from the poplars, willows and grapevines, why would anybody want to blot the pristine landscape with places of animal incarceration?
Barry R Evans
Thanks from Carol
I wish to thank the wonderful Community Workers and Child Health Nurse for organising the morning tea for me recently in the community centre and for the fabulous sculpture. A shape to aspire to? My heartfelt thanks to Plunket for their gift; you are so much an important part of this wonderful community to which I also belong. To the women and their families for bringing your precious babies into this community, I thank you. Golden Bay women and their families are like no others I have met before. Your most touching words of appreciation, and gifts, are so precious to receive, so much treasured by me. Thank you to you all for generously allowing me into your lives. With much love and gratitude I now enter another chapter of my life.
Carol Soutter
Mad Hatter's Tea Party
Come and join Takaka Playcentre at the Village Green from 1pm till 2pm on Wednesday 31 March. We are having a Mad Hatters Tea Party and everyone is invited. There will be free lemonade and cupcakes; facepaint for a gold coin donation. See you there.
Ryoko and Wendy, on behalf Takaka Playcentre.
