Men's liberation
Men's Liberation and Men's Health go together for many men, as it is only when men really look at their health, that they realise how little they care for themselves, and other people. The current health and welfare systems are uncomfortable at dealing with men, especially as many of these systems see men as a possible threat or problem.
Dogmatic political theories and policies do not help matters, as they see men in the aggressor/powerful/resourceful non-parenting stereotype, which often denies natural justice to men who access services that they desperately need. There can be little recognition of men's and women's true needs when helpers act with ideological blinkers on, that shut out the reality they dislike.
Such a reality may be that some fathers care for and protect their children, that men can be abused sexually and physically by both men and women and that older men want to do things meaningful to them not what their carers think is for old people.
I am hoping to establish a dialogue with people about men's health, either here on your pages, or they can write to me.
Malcolm Tyler (398 Main Rd, Glenorchy Tas 7010)
Leaded petrol
The leaded and unleaded petrol debate with its focus on the protection of the environment has allowed the government to raise another tax, supposedly, to protect the environment.
Whilst I believe there is valid argument for raising tax revenue from, among many items, petrol, the extra levy on unleaded petrol is nothing more than a tax slug in the guise of reducing lead levels and so improving the environment.
Certainly, one doesn't have to be an expert in statistics nor have them at one's fingertips to draw the valid conclusion that no matter how many people resist the nonsense to upgrade their vehicle either because of the propaganda about the environment or otherwise the status of having a newer vehicle, the facts are obvious.
Each year quite a percentage of older vehicles simply are beyond re-registration and hence end up on the scrap heap or in the paddock.
Yet the government slugs us and, worse, those more poorly off without real mention of the natural attrition rate of motor vehicles.
That the government has not been seriously challenged about this matter hardly speaks well of those in places of authority who ought to have argued successfully against this tax raising racket.
R. McEwen
Mudgee NSW
Amoebae and chimpanzees
Several letters in Write On recently have tried to defend animal liberationism. All rest on the unsupported assertion that there are no essential differences between the human psyche and the psyches of other animals. Robert Woods in GLW #175 goes so far as to claim that all animals have brains. The vast majority of animals, in fact, do not have brains; many have no nervous system at all.
Even amongst those that do have brains several distinct forms of psychic reflection of reality exist. The psychological abilities of humans are distinct (qualitatively) from those of higher primates, whilst those of higher primates are distinct from lower primates and other vertebrates. These are different once again from those of, for instance, jellyfish or sponge. A little research on this subject should be required before making assertions about the equivalence of humans and other animals.
Animal rights are not equal to human rights. Neither are the rights of a protozoan equal to those of a chimpanzee. Performing a medical experiment on a monkey cannot be equated with swatting a fly. This, however, is the logic of those who refuse to recognise the dramatic difference between humans and other animals.
Neville Spencer
Sydney
Anti-Semitism
I have just read the views of Yitzak Laor in your paper (February 15) which I found interesting, realistic and pragmatic.
The main aim of Zionism, to provide a homeland for persecuted Jewish people, is admirable, but the ideological foundations of Zionist philosophy are flawed.
On the credit side of the ledger, Israel deserves approbation for providing a home for holocaust survivors and other Jewish victims of persecution.
On the debit side, the attitude to the indigenous Palestinians and the indifference to over a million displaced people in the refugee camps was and remains the principal cause of the constant turmoil that afflicts Israeli life.
Is it possible for an ethnic or religious group to be absent from a country for over two thousand years and shortly after their sovereignty and independence is proclaimed deprive a high percentage of a homeland, and then refuse them the right of return?
If Zionists on the basis of religious mythology can claim sovereignty of Israel after an absence of two thousand years, surely the Palestinians after forty-seven years are entitled to the right of return.
To encourage Jewish people from the former Soviet Union to migrate to Israel while a million Palestine Arab refugees are still languishing in the displaced persons camps is a recipe for constant conflict and trouble.
The only logical conclusion to be drawn from the history of the Zionist movement is that Jewish people cannot solve the evil of anti-Semitism at the expense of the Palestine Arab. This concept is not new. Lenin enunciated it and Trotsky, Kamenev, and Zinoviev, who were Russians of Jewish descent, advocated it.
Anti-Semitism like any other obnoxious brand of racism must be combated and eradicated at its source.
Bernard Rosen
Strathfield NSW
[Edited for length.]
Wunderkind
Good to see Harvard MBA whiz-kid, Nick Greiner, on the Board of cancer-touts, W.D. and H.O. Wills.
The cancer-touts are targeting the young teens. Greiner was captain of St Ignatius College, a Jesuit institution, which prides itself on teaching ethics and morality to its pupils, according to ex-principal, Father Greg O'Kelly.
Pity that capitalism has little or no ethics or morals.
Greiner's Liberal Government privatised freeway constructions and he is on the board of directors of the privatised company. Its stock exchange value rose from $550,000 to $76 million. Nice little earner for the "ethics-first" Jesuit wunderkinds.
Denis Kevans
Wentworth Falls NSW
Neo-nazis
In every society the neo-Nazis are a real pest. But who are the Nazis really, neo or otherwise?
Last Xmas eve, the Australian came out with a picture of Hitler on the front page and inside another big story about the Nazi regime! Does this indicate a secret admiration for fascism?
Anyway long before the holocaust against the Jews, we here in Australia did the same against the Aborigines! And leaders in society today still say that we should not feel sorry for the crimes of the past.
Real Nazis don't feel sorry either! Anzac Day means another opportunity to watch Nazi propaganda films. And ex-Nazi war criminals to this very day are protected and sheltered in our society.
So with this kind of elevated thinking around, what justice can one expect in the case of the Hilton bombing and Aboriginal deaths in custody?
H. Hout
Sydney
[Edited for length.]