LETTERS
Illustration: michaelmucci.com
Thanks, Mr Packer, but the fact remains your whole pitch for a casino is based on the ludicrous premise that profit from running a successful hotel will not recoup the cost of building it (''For the good of Sydney, back this plan'', November 3-4).
It's not like all those Hiltons and Hyatts still haven't recouped.
So either you're not being fully upfront with us, or your business plan needs a serious tweak.
Lloyd Swanton Wentworth Falls
God preserve us from the Packer casino in Sydney, if James Packer is pointing to the Crown Casino in Melbourne as a positive adjunct to the cityscape.
To the south of graceful St Paul's Cathedral and the famous and recently renovated Flinders Street station, following the line of the Southbank promenade abutting the St Kilda Road arts complex, we come to a grey concrete monolith relieved only by multiple spotty crowns in yellow neon and the word ''Crown'' with its huge letters lit up in garish colours. The place is an eyesore and the epitome of tacky. It dominates the riverscape rather than complementing it, and depresses me, a former Melburnian, every time I see it.
Sure, let's encourage tourists to the Harbour City, but with quality public spaces like the phenomenally successful MONA gallery in Hobart that we can all enjoy, not a tacky casino-hotel for fly-in, fly-out super-rich, for whom it could be Sydney, Macau or Vegas; who knows or cares when you're inside watching the dice roll?
Jennifer Indsto Pennant Hills
Like any other slick salesman, James Packer tells us why we should embrace his product. Now it is a luxury hotel that can only make a profit if it is a casino. Once it was a phone company, One.Tel, which lost millions. Are we meant to have short memories?
Judy Sherrington Kensington
A very rich man decides to commission, build, stock and administer an art museum at his own expense for the people of his home state, Tasmania (''Building breaks the mould for all the right reasons'', November 3-4). Entry for them is free, and is a modest amount for outsiders. As a result, Hobart has a wonderful addition to its cultural life and hundreds of thousands of visitors revitalise the tourism sector of Hobart and the state.
An exceedingly rich man decides to build a casino to make himself a great deal more money. He disregards the people of his home city, Sydney, and demands they circumvent regulations and give him what he wants. The casino is not for the citizens but for foreign high rollers whose interest is simply in gambling, not tourism. As a result, nothing has been added to Sydney's cultural life but James Packer will make even more money.
Jennifer Katauskas Wahroonga
Mogul James Packer's article in support of a casino was a pathetic attempt at using commercial logic. It reminded me of a car salesperson's spiel.
If we need gambling to attract visitors, better they don't come. The economic progress that he advocates comes at a heavy price.
Mr Packer is a successful entrepreneur and he views the world through financial glasses - but there are other perspectives.
James Athanasou Maroubra
Destroy the joint venture (''Casino cosiness not a good look with punters'', November 3-4).
Alicia Dawson Balmain
Cracker night was a shared celebration, not a pig-out
Your Halloween comparison, Wendy Cousins (Letters, November 3-4), doesn't quite fit with my fond memories of cracker night. Your supply of fireworks depended on how indulgent (or childlike) your own parents were and/or how much pocket money you were prepared to put aside to add to your arsenal. When the night arrived you let off your fireworks with family and friends. Neighbours got together for a street bonfire or a bigger one down at the park. The whole event had the feel of a communal celebration, including next morning's early search for ''fizzers''.
This seems to be a completely different concept to banging on a neighbour's door, demanding that they give you something that you can go home and enjoy by yourself.
Brian Collins Cronulla
It's not the celebration of Halloween that sticks in the craw, but the lack of celebration. Merely buying a whole bunch of seasonally adjusted disposable rubbish appears to celebrate nothing but how shallow we are.
Show me a celebration replete with myth and ritual and based on something truly insubstantial and I'll be the first to join in the trick that is the soul's treat.
Peter Fyfe Erskineville
I am not against Halloween because it is ''an American tradition'', which I agree it isn't, Wendy Cousins. I am against it on the principle we have pages of statistics regarding obesity in children, then we dress them up and walk them around neighbourhoods to collect lollies and chocolates to make them more obese.
Carmel Woods Hurstville
St John's College a fine example of a bad model
I am sure I am not the only person who compared and contrasted the revolting behaviour in St John's College with the hopes and aspirations of those students from Airds High (''Anarchy at St John's'', smh.com.au, November 4, ''Pride of Airds aim to teach lesson on prejudice'', November 3-4).
While the former has been the source of many of our leaders in the past, I suspect that many people would prefer our future leaders from the latter.
Gina Hay Bayview
The report on St John's college reminds me of the method that sometimes had to be used against antibiotic-resistant microbes entrenched in hospitals. The treatment was to shut down infected wards or units for a time, deep-clean and re-open.
I would recommend the same for St John's: close it for four years until the infectious larrikins have moved out of the university system and re-open under rules that cannot be subverted by legalistic sleight of hand. It won't hurt the present students to travel to lectures.
Bruce Graham Oatlands
Clearly the appalling treatment of women is institutionalised and sanctioned by the old boys of St John's College at the University of Sydney. Mr Abbott is an old boy of the college. Should we put two and two together?
Bill Ogilvie Bathurst
TB victims
Your article has solved a mystery for our family (''Forgotten graves of TB victims uncovered'', November 3-4). My mother, who died in March, once visited Waterfall Cemetery with my sister trying to locate her father's grave. She was five months old when he died at the Garrawarra Hospital for Consumptives (she always called it the Waterfall Sanatorium) in September 1923. As her mother also died of tuberculosis in 1936 she never knew just where he was buried. It would be wonderful if one day I could pay my respects to the father my mother never knew.
Sue Gorst South Penrith
Compromise pays
Your report about the Greens' criticism of the mining tax forgets one simple thing (''Mining tax compromise cost billions in revenue'', November 3-4). If there had been no compromise on the mining tax prior to the 2010 election, the mining industry's ads would have continued and, in all likelihood, Tony Abbott would now be prime minister. If so, there'd be no mining tax for the Greens to squawk about.
Tom Orren Wamberal
Surely, there is now enough evidence to dispel the myth that the Prime Minister is a great negotiator. Her negotiating skills (or lack of) are such that she is costing the country billions in revenue.
Barry McAlister Gold Coast
Poor ranking
We can only hope that the ''legal grey area'' that hire car firms such as Uber and Dash are faced with is resolved soon so they can operate on Sydney roads (''Transport snarl - claims new hire car booking technology risks running taxis off the road'', November 3-4).
On Friday, once again, I was left on the street waiting and watching the taxi that I booked drive past me. When I rang the company I was told the driver said I wasn't there. For how much longer does Sydney have to stand for the shoddy performances of the cab companies? Give us a break and give us some choice.
Lindy Morrison Clovelly
Stirred, not shaken
Greek (or perhaps I should say, ''Mediterranean'') cafes did a wonderful job in bush towns, although one at Gulargambone in the 1940s let me down (''Far from Kythera a Greek treasure is given new life'', November 3-4).
I crossed the dusty main street for a milkshake while waiting for a lift to an outlying cattle property. One flavour was available - vanilla - and when brought to me it appeared to be nothing more than a glass of plain milk, the same texture as when it left the cow. ''I ordered a milkshake,'' I said as it was put in front of me. The obliging proprietor picked up a spoon, spun it around in the glass, smiled and pushed it closer towards me with the words, ''One milk shake!''
At least it was cold.
Donald Howard Elderslie
Jingoism wearies
Martin Flanagan spoils an otherwise interesting article about Weary Dunlop's batman Blue Butterworth by rehashing the tired old jingoism about Australian troops (''No cup bet this year, in memory of a true Blue'', November 3-4). He quotes Tom Uren's view that the English prisoners of war on the Thai-Burma railway lacked ''the collective spirit'' and suggested they died in greater numbers because of it. Flanagan appears to endorse this as an example of Australian culture.
But Dunlop himself in his war diaries made a point of noting that the percentage of POW deaths in each national group - English, Australian, Dutch, US and Indian - was about the same.
Dunlop wrote: ''I think this has got to be understood in the fact that no matter how much spirit and endurance a man might show, he was simply sent back to the human grindstone until he was totally finished.''
Of course, there were more actual British deaths - because the British POWs outnumbered the Australians by more than two to one.
Why do we continually need to measure ourselves against the British? Martin Flanagan is one of my favourite writers. I pray this is not yet another example of the cultural cringe.
Russell Eldridge Ocean Shores
Timely reminder for independents
So Mr Oakeshott was under threat of defamation charges by Mr Ferguson and he and Mr Windsor are becoming disenchanted with the Gillard government (''Oakeshott outraged by minister's legal threat'', November 3-4).
This would be a good time to remind them both that ''he who sups with the devil should have a long spoon''.
John Munro Toowoomba (Qld)
It's still the perfect solution for both parties - swap Martin Ferguson and Malcolm Turnbull.
John Walsh Watsonia
Help teachers help students stay
The NSW government policy of making students stay at school, continue learning at TAFE or get a job is certainly the right one (''Disruption, time wasting after school leaving age raised to 17'', November 2). However, like most things, it was implemented with inadequate funding for those at the coalface.
Where I teach, at a high school of 1100 or so students, one of the deputy prinicpals has the added responsibility of implementing an alternative curriculum (with two or three days' work incorporated into a normal school week) for some of these students.
Some students who repeatedly failed to complete year 10 are sent to an external location to complete a basic level of education through distance learning. Again, much of the organisation of this program falls onto a deputy principal. These deputies are overworked.
The alternative can be seen in places where students who do not fit into the mainstream truant and commit crime in local communities. I know most of our local private schools would refuse these students entry.
Some of the early leavers, from years ago when the policy did not exist, are now long-term unemployed.
Instead of pulling funds from public education, it is time to recognise its importance in many regional and rural communities and to fund the programs that assist every student to fulfil their potential.
Gabrielle Curry Milton
Putting the royals into perspective
Franca Arena (Letters, November 3-4) implies that women are either saints (Diana) or sinners (Camilla). Men (Charles) are hapless fools led by their ''noses'' (so to speak). In fact, it takes two people to continue a love affair, and many others to forbid their relationship in the first place. We can safely say it was cruel social and religious traditions that kept them apart in the first instance and forced that doomed marriage upon Charles, and so imposed profound suffering on all the players. Who are, after all, only human.
Anne Cooper Stanmore
I am dismayed at Franca Arena's portrayal of the Duchess of Cornwall. Apart from being a stunning beauty in her youth, in recent times she has had to put up with all manner of insults. The fact she has risen above these insults without comment is a credit to her and an example to others.
Alastair Browne
Cromer Heights
… but no bowing
I was fascinated with Zoe Sanders's support for the monarchy; they are ''like the school captain'' (''No playing politics: youth vote grows up'', November 3-4). Zoe, they don't even go to our school.
John Buchanan North Ryde
The right medicine
I was saddened to read of Bob Ravich's death (''Leading light in cancer care'', November 3-4). About a decade ago, he gave me the wisest advice I've ever received: ''I'll look after your lymphoma, you look after your life.'' Worked for me.
Jeffrey Bentley-Johnston Neutral Bay
Parramatta ode
Having spent a recreational Saturday crawling the length of Parramatta Road (in a car) at a speed of between 0 and 1km/h, I think the sooner O'Farrell buries it the better.
Ivan Head Camperdown
Go, you good fling
Vivien Clark-Ferraino (Letters, November 3-4), it's good to see the ''older'' ducks of Duckmaloi still have some quack in them.
Steven Ford Kensington
Labor vultures
I'd go a step further than your editorial and suggest that a number of NSW Labor figures now under scrutiny never held Labor values and, from the outset, saw the party merely as a convenient vehicle for furthering their own agendas (''Nightmare on Sussex Street'', November 3-4).
Anne Ackroyd Melba (ACT)
For surety
Obviously, Justin Brash (Letters, November 3-4), Bianca Rinehart has substituted a hammer for the pea under her mattress to improve her chances of passing the princess test.
Glen Coulton Marmong Point
Blinkered out
I have just spent three days conforming with the new roundabout rules and I have concluded that there will be a need for a new form of car insurance: broken blinker-stalk replacement policy.
David Sayers Gwandalan
No comments:
Post a Comment