Talk of a republic
THE recent call for sacking of the monarch relies heavily on replacing her with an Australian citizen.
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If she isn't one already, confer Australian citizenship on the lady post haste and apologise for the gross oversight for not having done so a lot earlier.
After all, she would not be the first Pommie we've said g'day to, and welcomed into the Australian fold over the decades.
She is married to an Australian knight and would more that qualify should she be required to sit the residency test. Example question: Who opened the Sydney Opera House in 1973? Answer: I did.
Noel Christensen, Punchbowl.
Concise
CAN anyone tell me what’s happened to concise English? With the current terror plot in mind, we have a typical example.
Where we used to have a homemade bomb, three syllables and tells you exactly what it is, we now have the clumsy improvised (three syllables already), explosive (that’s another three), device (a final two). That’s eight syllables where three used to do the same job. As for the IED bit, if you didn’t actually know, it could mean anything - Indigenous Education Division for instance.
Then we have the at this point in time syndrome. At the moment says the same thing more concisely and neatly.
Finally (and there are many many more) we have also known as, shortened to AKA. Now alias, short and sweet, says the same thing and, even if you point out that AKA is also short and sweet, there is no way anyone’s vocal cords and glottis etc can say that as smoothly as alias.
Many years ago, a friend and workmate had been babysitting and had read a Beatrix Potter book to his young charges.
At one point it appeared Peter Rabbit had eaten too many lettuces, which had a soporific effect. He asked me what it meant. I told him it meant that it made him sleepy.
“Well why didn’t it say so?” was his rather indignant reply.
Well, it did, didn’t it? Only concisely.
Richard Hill, Newstead.
Bolder steps needed
RECENTLY China and Russia jointly proposed America take its nuclear weapons off the Korean peninsula and in return they would apply the strongest pressure on North Korea to cease its nuclear program.
What is wrong with that? Surely it is worth a try when the alternative seems to be a north Asia laid waste to a nuclear war and millions of lives lost. It is not as if America is not capable of devastating North Korea from further afield.
America was prepared to risk nuclear war on the world's behalf in Cuba in 1962 with its determination to have nuclear weapons removed from its doorstep, but fails to see why North Korea should take the same stance. While inconsistencies are being mentioned, how about a Chinese reconnaissance ship said to be "lurking" well within international waters during recent Australian-American defence exercises, while Australian boats and planes are regularly exercising their "rights of freedom of navigation" in the South China Sea.
Rod Fenner, Launceston.
Lord’s Prayer
AS A CHRISTIAN, I fully support the removal of the rote, meaning less recitation of the Lord’s prayers not only in the Tasmanian parliament, but in all parliaments.
It is almost blasphemy and cheapens the most wonderful prayer.
Each Sunday, I say the Lord’s prayer as part of the Eucharist and try to say it slowly, to fully appreciate its deep meaning.
Let’s face it, Australia is a Christian country in name only.
For most, it is as the great German pastor killed by the Nazis, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, put it in his hymn from prison: “we turn to God when we are sorely pressed” and today maybe not even then for many.
Malcolm Scott, Newstead.