LETTERS
Scapegoats? ... Some believe the scrutiny that the Australian men's 4 x 100m relay team have been subject to has been excessive. Photo: AFP
Once again we have the shameful spectacle of young sportsmen being publicly humiliated for their transgressions while those supposedly running the show cringe and cower in some dark corner (''Fallen stars: shameful games began long before the Olympics'', February 23-24). While not condoning the behaviour of the Australian Olympic men's 4 x 100m relay team, surely others who were in authority should step up and publicly accept that their failings as leaders were also part of the problem - or is it easier to sacrifice others?
Greg Partington Quakers Hill
When do high jinks on a sporting trip warrant front-page news and blanket media coverage? What sporting trip doesn't have such pranks? Doesn't anyone remember Dawn Fraser and the 1964 Olympics? And all of this aided and abetted by the sports' administrators trying to be politically correct. Can we have some perspective, please?
Illustration: michaelmucci.com
Dale Bailey Five Dock
When was bonding introduced as an Olympic sport? It seems to be one played only by men and, curiously, only attracts media coverage after the event.
Megan Brock Summer Hill
Why are we so surprised at the antics of our swim team in London? This is simply Gen Y doing its thing. These narcissists also brought us ''look at me'' social media and the ''I love myself'' ring you wear on your right hand. Concepts like team, country, honour, responsibility, respect and humility are just so outdated these days. I turned them off and waited for the Paralympics. There I witnessed inspiration writ large.
Simon Welburn Turramurra
On Friday evening I listened to an interview with the ever-loquacious Laurie Lawrence, who, in defence of our Olympic swimmers, said something along the lines of: we should remember that these young athletes were only in their early twenties and that young men do not really mature until they are in their thirties.
I wonder if he would say the same thing about all the 20-somethings who are fighting on our behalf in Afghanistan?
Keith Fletcher Gwandalan
A bunch of our swimmers is now taking all the flack for ''failure'' at the London Olympics, but nobody mentions the elephant in the room - the fact that many more developed (and indeed developing countries) are now able to produce more top class swimmers than ever before.
It is assumed God hath decreed that Australia, because of its fine swimming reputation in the past, will continue to be up there at the top in the future.
Frankly, I was not surprised that Australia did not do as well as in previous Olympics. How many gold medals can we reasonably expect when China, with 50 times Australia's population, really gets serious about its swimmers?
Then there's India, Brazil, Indonesia and so on. So get used to it, Australia; it's fine to have aspirations - but the reality is …
Ed Raftery Davistown
Plenty of holes in communal waste management plan
Spending $465 million on shaking up recycling and garbage management appears to be a seriously flawed plan (''Bin night goes DIY in $465m shake-up'', February 23-24).
The reason for the proposal is that 70 per cent of material going to landfill should not be, 10 per cent of this is garden waste and 20 per cent recyclables. Would someone explain how people who can't be bothered to sort material into the correct bins in their own backyards are going to be convinced to undertake the activity correctly and transport material some distance from their household?
Paul Foley Caringbah South
I welcome the government's plans to increase the recycling options for household waste, the largest component of which is food. Would that it were also possible to legislate against our society's irrational propensity to waste perfectly good food.
In decades of urban gleaning, I have dined royally off what others have deemed, for whatever reasons, to be waste. On Friday night I picked up 17 large, beautifully ripe figs from the roadside in Darlinghurst, not a fig tree in sight. Several nights before, I found a bag with a very fresh bread roll, a pie, fruit, and three excellent buns, all at the foot of the statue of St Mary of the Cross outside the Catholic cathedral.
I decided to take the food before the rats from Hyde Park did, and coming from so holy a spot, I felt my action had some degree of divine sanction.
In my ideal world, I would never be able to find abandoned food. We should all find the deliberate waste of so precious a resource simply unconscionable.
Stephen Walter Paddington
I note with interest the state government proposal for citizens to take their food scraps to ''communal composting sites''.
I sincerely hope the government will enact legislation to indemnify those of us without cars as we board public and private buses and the trains to take our bags of rotting vegetable matter to the relevant depository.
Marty O'Neill Katoomba
Unpopularity does not warrant Gillard will fail
Your analysis of Julia Gillard's leadership and unpopularity is fine as far as it goes, but we might remind ourselves of another unpopular female prime minister (''She gets knocked down … she gets up again'', February 23-24). The first female prime minister in British parliamentary history secured her victory in 1979 despite a 19 per cent deficit in her personal approval rating. After two years as prime minister she was as unpopular as any prime minister since British polling began. Margaret Thatcher went on to serve three consecutive terms.
Australia is not America but seems sometimes to be like America in its obsession with polls and popularity.
Nor is Australia Britain but, before we bury Gillard, might we remind ourselves that she has proved herself resilient in the face of extraordinary abuse and that recent history in a similar parliamentary democracy saw a woman prime minister who was, in her words, ''not for turning'', face down her opposition and triumph. It's seven months to September and in political terms, that's an eternity.
Ian Muldoon Coffs Harbour
Will the ALP use the 1997 hit Tubthumping by Chumbawamba as its campaign theme for the election? Its lyrics (''I get knocked down but I get up again'') seem to describe the travails of Julia Gillard.
Robert Pallister Punchbowl
Peter Hartcher's psychoanalysis of Tony Abbott suggests he's schizophrenic (''Will the real Tony please stand up'', February 23-24). For all of Abbott's good works and intentions evidenced, there's little doubt he is a man with many flaws. I was gobsmacked to read that the Liberal Party campaign theme will be competency. Not vision or leadership and certainly not ''in your guts you know he's nuts''. I don't think saying I'd be a competent employee at a job interview would win me the job.
Glen op den Brouw Liverpool
The Herald Postscript tells us opinions were split between Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd for the leadership, then adds, "very few letter writers would like to see Tony Abbott prime minister of Australia" (February 23-24).
In the interest of attempting to correct a ship tilting too far one way, I'm pulling out all stops and putting up my hand (a difficult manoeuvre in itself). I would love to see the Opposition Leader as prime minister of Australia. Pick the bones out of that little lot.
Rosemary O'Brien Georges Hall
Hotels, hygiene and the yuck factor
Friends and family travelling with me no longer wonder why on first entering a hotel room I boil the jug and wash all cups and glasses (''Pressure on hotel cleaners 'leads to hygiene shortcuts' '', February 23-24).
Working as a "hotel maid" 27 years ago, at the then Menzies Hotel in Sydney, I was instructed to remove soiled pillow cases from the beds, turn them inside out and use them to dry the hand basin after cleaning and to dry the glasses and cups. In that order. (I took clean ones off the trolley when the supervisors weren't around.)
The used towels were put into service defrosting and drying the mini bar.
Looks like not much has changed - except we had a grand total of 24 minutes to clean for a continuing booking and 35 for a new one (they got clean sheets and more of a dusting). I always ran behind time. Whirlwind indeed.
Rowena Parry Mittagong
Share it, Premier
Our Premier doesn't get it (''Stoner receives perks of top job'', February 23-24). If he is so keen to recognise the increased responsibility thrust upon the shoulders of the deputy when he is standing in as premier, Barry O'Farrell should also accept there must be a corresponding reduction in his own responsibility. O'Farrell should fund Stoner's increase from his own salary.
The reality is that what we really need is not more snouts in the trough but less trough.
Alan Morley Belrose
Medicare squeeze
If the Medicare fee schedule fails to keep pace each year with increases in the Consumer Price Index, those charging the schedule fee will effectively take a yearly pay cut (''Medical fees rise despite increase in doctors'', February 23-24).
Paying people relatively less for sticking with the schedule fee is a "stick" with predictable economic results: as the schedule fee falls further behind, relative to increases in the CPI, fewer doctors will continue to charge it. Increased specialist numbers won't trump this, at least not in the real world.
Dr Alan Garrity North Narrabeen
Deep in it
It's not just Sydney Water's lack of follow through on water breaches that is concerning ("Water waste everywhere but no fines in four years", February 22). It is also its sewage collection and disposal.
Whenever it rains heavily there are many sewage overflows from the system directly to our drains, creeks and rivers, resulting in significant environmental degradation and public health issues. This is caused by massive infiltration of stormwater and the incapacity of the system to handle it.
It has been estimated that up to 50 per cent of infiltration comes from private property - much of it from illegal downpipe connections.
It seems Sydney Water is not prepared to pay for more inspectors to detect these illegal connections. It is easier and cheaper to let our waterways become a secondary disposal system and dump the poo on all of us.
Kim Wagstaff Oatley
Political speak
So, John de Bres (smh.com.au, February 24) is aghast that the Premier, Barry O'Farrell, has reneged on his pre-election promises re freedom of information and government transparency.
Sadly, he is just like the rest of us: one of the countless naive victims of cynical politicians of all persuasions, who will say and do almost anything to gain office, knowing full well that they have absolutely no intention whatsoever of honouring their promises.
In the real world it's called fraud, but in the whorehouse of so-called liberal democracies, it's just buyers beware.
John Richardson Wallagoot
Big ask for BHP shareholders
As a long-suffering BHP Billiton shareholder, I too am aghast at the $75 million package Marius Kloppers is pocketing after a lacklustre six years at the helm of a great company. However, there is no logic in Senator Christine Milne's contention that this shows ''they have more than enough to pay the Australian community for resources that belong to us" (''Payout shows BHP can afford tax, Greens say'', February 23-24).
This statement ignores the fact that BHP has paid $4.8 billion in the past six months alone to the Australian people in the form of taxes and royalties. It also ignores the fact that, according to my back-of-the-envelope calculations, over the past six years BHP shares have increased in value at a compound rate of a little over 3 per cent plus dividends of a little over 2.5 per cent each year.
This return to the shareholders who provide the funds to dig up the minerals and pay the royalties and taxes is on a par with bank interest over the same period. We are hardly reaping the profits of the greatest mining boom in history and we should not be asked to stump up more money to satisfy the political philosophy of the Greens.
And while Christine Milne is able to rely on a guaranteed parliamentary superannuation, the vast majority of Australians would own BHP shares through their superannuation funds and be similarly disadvantaged by any unjustified tax grab.
Bill Higgins Cammeray
Downton's killer
Michael Idato is way off the mark about the reasons for the decline in ratings for Downton Abbey (''Dress it how you want, costume drama's ratings are down'', February 23-24). Our family, for one, is sick of the interminable ads on Channel Seven.
The only other program we have watched on Seven in the past few months was the US Open, where programmers could not interrupt play with ads.
Like many, we buy the full series of Downton Abbey on Amazon two or three months after the British airing and lend it to a wide circle of friends.
I can assure you that Downton's ratings are strong by this measure.
Alan Edwards Wollstonecraft
Blinkered view
Kate Blakeney (Letters, February 22) has fallen, apparently, for the sob stories of so-called refugees. There would have been sound reasons why Ranjini received an ''adverse ASIO assessment''.
Blakeney would do well to dig a little deeper, and for a start, find out why ''freedom fighters'' found it necessary to assassinate the Indian prime minister and several leaders and civilians of their own Tamil community during their terrorist campaign against a ''repressive regime''.
I will be more than happy to give her a history lesson and a list of such atrocities with the hope of removing her blinkers.
George Rupesinghe Belmore
Golden wet years
While checking the weather radar over the weekend to gauge when it was safe to venture out, I noticed yet again that the central coast seems to receive the worst of the rain. Delving further, I found that over the past three years Terrigal was on the receiving end of about 30 per cent more rain than Sydney's harbour area. Wonder how many sea-changers knew or know about this.
Colin Maltman Chatswood West
In a word, Kloppers has it all
Will ''go like Kloppers'' become an Australian colloquialism for chief executives who receive obscene payouts even if the net worth of the organisation has declined during their tenure (''Why Kloppers had to go'', February 23-24)?
David Gordon Emu Plains
On behalf of BHP I'd like to offer a new entry for the Macquarie Dictionary.
Kloppered: verb, 1. To substantially decrease value of a national company and be handsomely rewarded for it; 2. To set new standards in low office morale; 3. To add insult to injury on a national scale. (See also colloquial terms for being Kloppered such as, screwed as in, to be; %$#@&* over, also as in, to be.)
Brian Wilson Rockdale
Flaming shame
The demise of the broadsheet format will be a death blow to a great Oz tradition: young blokes will no longer be able to do the ''Dance of the Flames'' at beach barbecues (Letters, February 23-24). Tabloid pages just won't do for a proper performance of this magnificent ritual.
Bob Pearson Mona Vale
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