LETTERS
Illustration: Cathy Wilcox
Whatever changes are made to the board at St John's College will be pointless until the new governors are given the power to expel offending students and have the courage to resist the ensuing pressure from well-connected parents and their lawyers (''Pell, O'Farrell act on ritual scandal'', November 7).
The challenge for the Archbishop and the Premier will be finding people of the right stature, experience and integrity to join the board. It is inevitable that the very people most likely to fill these positions have extensive relationships which will sooner or later be sorely tested when a parent makes a personal phone call to a board member, whom they have known since childhood, playing down the antics of ratbag offspring.
Graeme Smith Clovelly
I just don't get it. Why is there an archbishop and a premier flapping about at St John's? Where are the police?
Clare Zagami Wentworth Falls
It seems the current fad is to excise those parts of the country where undesirables tend to wash up. Might this not be an easy way to rid ourselves of the Johnsmen before they inevitably continue their life of privilege as our future lawyers, judges and politicians? Couldn't be too hard to excise a hectare or so of Chippendale.
Joshua Dymock Mona Vale
While it seems St John's College students deserve the recent bad publicity, it is well known that they by no means hold a monopoly on bad behaviour at Sydney University colleges.
In the mid-'90s I was an innocent full scholarship student at St Paul's College whose illusions of genteel scholarship in manicured sandstone surroundings were quickly shattered by the bawdy, lewd and sexist behaviour which passed for college culture. This included humiliating initiation rituals, drunken nude runs across the campus, allegations of rape and ceaseless homophobic harassment, the latter experienced personally.
Fearing for my safety and sanity, I left after only one semester and still shudder in disgust every time I walk past the college grounds.
Simon Power Tamil Nadu, India
Try inflicting initiation stunts on new workers in a workplace and you will quickly find yourself in hot water, even dismissal; the employer would also incur hefty fines.
So why is it different for a university college?
Bruce Stafford Tascott
It seems to me that St John's College would be well served by the timely implementation of an ethics course, religion having plainly failed to do the job.
Morgan Smallbone Cammeray
The truly tragic aspect of the articles exposing life at John's is that they highlight that nothing has changed in the nearly 50 years since I was there: that vulnerable young people expecting to join a supportive, nourishing and civilised community within the university are randomly brutalised.
Why such practices haven't long been condemned to extinction is the disturbing question.
Robert Herbertson Mosman
Regarding the allegations of unacceptable behaviour at St John's, there is another side to the college. Our foundation supports spinal rehabilitation. Last year we asked St John's to accept a young quadriplegic student.
The unqualified support and friendship this young man has received from the rector, staff and students has been inspirational. Students have selflessly and genuinely pitched in. How many 20-year-old students do you know who would happily take on the task of getting a quadriplegic ready for bed if required, or how many adults for that matter?
The college's support of disabled students extends back over 20 years to Matt Laffin. His inspirational account of his time at the college mirrors our feelings in 2012. The college administers a scholarship in his name to help disabled students who have followed him.
Our foundation is proud to be associated with St John's, the staff and students, and we hope the current spotlight on the college does not blind people to the good done there.
Andrew Gillespie Ben Kende Foundation, Newport
With every crisis comes an opportunity. I propose half the beds in the college be turned over to the Jesuit Refugee Service, as it is in many ways our ''first responder'' to an even bigger crisis and is dealing with peak demand. Alternatively, double college fees to fund the service.
Then, starting next year, all college applicants must spend a gap year working in a refugee camp before going to college. This might go some way to cultivating the culture and young Christian gentlemen most Catholics I know would want to see.
Michael Parker Darling Point
When a third-year graduating student of St John's College comes out with "Like, the leaders of this college, like, they always sit us down, they're like you're never forced into anything and all that kind of stuff", I think it's time to make English-as-a-second-language studies compulsory for all Sydney University undergraduates. And fast.
Matt Petersen Randwick
Peta Colebatch (Letters, November 7) indicates ''we need to know what professions these students hope to enter''. I have assumed it would be politics.
David Tarran Thornleigh
With all the carry on, resignations, etc, associated with the recent events of St John's College, it makes me feel good to be a Presbyterian.
David Barrow Merewether
Time to sleep easier in wake of Romney loss
Praise the Lord and pass the biscuits please (''Obama wins'', smh.com.au, November 7). Could you imagine having an investment banker, a man from the same tribe as the Lehman Brothers and the rest of that self-entitled ilk, in charge of the single biggest economy in the world? I think the Tea Party is over, folks.
Philippa Hunt Buderim (Qld)
Mitt Romney has failed in his bid to be elected US president, despite the help of some serious money and a policy of trying to be all things to all people. Tony Abbott might want to take note on the merit of being a political chameleon. Right now it has as much cache as being a Johnsman.
Joe Weller Lewisham
I looked and looked but couldn't see one black, or Latino, face at the Republican Party gathering in Boston. I did see plenty of men in suits and women with well-coiffured hair. Was I mistaken or does it merely point to the contrast between this conservative party and the Democrats? Is there a parallel in Australia?
Terry Charleston Wellington
The three Rs were the losers in the US elections. Not reading, 'riting, 'rithmetic, but Rove, Rush and Rupert. Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh and Rupert Murdoch's Fox mounted a relentless attack on Barack Obama's private life, his policies and his commitment to the American way of life. Such negativity didn't work in the US and it might not work here. Are you listening, Tony Abbott?
Fred Strassberg Belrose
Looks like four years more of oratory, given the Republicans retain control the House of Representatives.
Pasquale Vartuli Wahroonga
As Abraham Lincoln might have put it: ''You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but not even Fox News can fool all of the people all of the time.''
Richard Murnane Hornsby
Phew!
Iain Muir Engadine
I'm not sure what all the fuss is over the US presidential election results, as the curra-wongs in my garden were proclaiming the winner hours before all others. Has anyone else ever heard them calling out "Obama! Obama!"?
Gary McCue Blackheath
Vote winner
Forget all about voting and expensive political campaigns, the Coptic Christians have the ideal solution (''Lucky dip dictates who will be new Coptic Pope'', November 5). Is there anyone out there that does not believe we would be better off with a four-year-old blindfolded boy deciding our polit-ical leaders?
Clive Laing Lithgow
Forgetfulness a treasurer trait
The former state treasurer Eric Roozendaal says he is ''pretty hopeless'' with his personal finances (''Roozendaal gave false details to RTA, hearing told'', November 7).
He can take heart, the former ''world's greatest treasurer'' had similar difficulties, forgetting to lodge his income tax return. He went on to become prime minister.
Peter Procopis Leura
Will the Tax Office accept the Roozendaal defence that ''I am not good with personal finances'' if there are ''errors'' on a tax return?
David Brender Woollahra
Costing blows figures down
Joe Hockey can huff and puff all he likes about the release by Treasury of the assessment of the Coalition's policies showing that they will cost business $4 billion in the first year of a Coalition government (''As the Coalition knows, there is a long history of costing opposition policies'', smh.com.au, November 7).
Australians have a right to know if the figures are correct.
Lorraine Bevins Chester Hill
It is notable that the opposition has complained loudly about Treasury costing its policies but not about what really matters to the Australian public; the accuracy of those costings.
Mark Pearce Richmond
Bite fright
I hope, Norm Harris (Letters, November 7), that those door-knocking youngsters didn't break their teeth on that "small Testament" you handed out for Halloween.
Barrie Smillie Duffy (ACT)
Asylum seekers versus sheep
Have those inmates on Gulag Nauru protesting their indefinite incarceration given any consideration to the latest problems the government is experiencing with its live sheep exports (''Nauru delays illegal, commissioner warns'', November 7)?
Isn't it about time someone told these inconsiderate asylum seekers that they are lower on the pecking order than live cattle and sheep exports.
Dallas Fraser Mudgeeraba (Qld)
Andy Madigan (Letters, November 7) expresses a reasonable concern that funds directed towards animal welfare will be at the expense of aid to the neediest children of the world.
I suggest he underestimates our nation's capacity to give money away, and we need not face such an agonising choice (''Punters splurge $150m on big day'', November 7). Perhaps we just might manage both?
Ali Ritchie North Narrabeen
Andy Madigan, those of us looking to end the live export of animals are not arguing that the world should switch to a lentil diet. What we are arguing is that the live animal export trade is inherently, uncon-scionably cruel.
Slaughter the animals humanely here in Australia, where we have control over their welfare until the point of death, then process, package and export the meat.
That would provide vastly improved animal welfare, more jobs for Australians and continuing meat supply for our export markets.
Win, win, win.
And, as a bonus, those of us with consciences can sleep more easily at night.
Mark Dixon Revesby
Zuma betrays nation's potential
I am dismayed by events in South Africa (''President's home out of bounds'', November 6). The disturbing trend towards official corruption and violence is illustrated by the the recent shooting of mineworkers and the use of $29 million of public funds for the refurbishment of a private country residence of President Zuma.
Such behaviour is a betrayal of all those who struggled for a rainbow social democracy for all the peoples of South Africa. While Zuma lives the high life, millions of predominantly black people suffer Third World conditions in health care, education, housing, wealth distribution, and employment. When they strike for decent wages, they are shot down in scenes reminiscent of Sharpeville.
I write these words with deep sorrow in my heart: as a young Australian, 45 years ago, I campaigned to change my country's support for the apartheid regime. While we here did not suffer the tortures reserved for anti-apartheid activists in South Africa, we were nevertheless subjected to abuse and ridicule. People spat at us in the street. Politicians scorned the message of racial equality. I have never wavered in my support for a multiracial democracy in South Africa.
Like many others, I have been reluctant to criticise those who have inherited a country with such ingrained social problems. Zuma's behaviour, however, is ominously reminiscent of Robert Mugabe's.
Dr John Tully senior lecturer, Department of Social Sciences and Psychology, Victoria University, Melbourne
Failure of O'Farrell
Sydney is probably the best city in the world to live but NSW has an arrogant premier whose bloody-mindedness will set it back years if he doesn't act now to build a much-needed second airport for the city (''Coalition joins Labor attack on O'Farrell's airport plan'', November 7).
Bruce Apps Townsend
Justice sees clearly
This is a plea to have Federal Court Justice Jayne Jagot permanently assigned to the justice system in the USA (''Councils win landmark victory over global credit ratings agency'', November 6). Justice Jagot seems to be the only person who knows what produced the financial meltdown of the past six years.
William Healy La Quinta, California
Powered by fear
Your article on Australia's energy future demonstrates the determining factor in delaying our use of nuclear power is bipartisan fear of losing votes to the Greens (''After Fukushima, neither side sees a nuclear future'', November 7). Neither of the major parties dares to make the first move towards the inevitable. What a way to run a country. Fukushima is just an excuse for political cowardice.
Don Higson Paddington
Poor impression
The latest "artist's impression" of the proposed Balmain Tigers Leagues Club development highlights two things. Either there is an urgent need for a new artist or an urgent need for a new architect (''Legal feud after council keep funds'', November 7). As presented, what a bland, unimaginative and outdated look.
Stewart Smith St Ives
It's all a super con
Thank you, Peter Costello, for speaking out about super (''Paying for privilege of losing cash not so super for workers'', November 7). As a parent of a 21-year-old, I came to the conclusion a while back that super should not be compulsory until some point of life settlement, say age 30. Before then, it only benefits the companies taking the money, which treat it as theirs, rather than the contributors'. Just try getting the money off them to merge into an account with a different fund.
Ray Farley Wentworth Falls
Whipped into a feeling of disgust
I was enjoying the slow motion replay of the Melbourne Cup until seeing the close-up images of winner Green Moon being thrashed repeatedly despite commentators observing he was ''running his lungs out''. Does it really make a fast horse go faster, and does it hurt them as much as it offends many of us?
Peter Skinner Beecroft
Paul Murphy (Letters, November 7) shouldn't think there was anything sinister in the fact that the favourites were beaten in Tuesday's Melbourne Cup. It's called ''failing to stay'' or ''the glorious uncertainty of racing''.
John Byrne Randwick
What I'd like to know is: which horse did Damien Oliver have his money on in Tuesday's Melbourne Cup?
John Burn Mosman
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