NOISY MINORITY
With widespread media reporting of protests against Australia Day, it is worth remembering that recently two thirds of Australian voters said a resounding NO to these same folk.
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I can only conclude that this is just another noisy minority being pandered to by 'woke' media.
Mark Furnell, Poatina
MARK IT IN MARCH
The Australia Acts, which saw Australia become completely independent of the UK, were passed by both UK and Australian Parliaments and came into force on 3 March 1986.
Australia was at last its own country. Prior to these Acts Australia was to some extent a creature of the United Kingdom.
Surely the 3rd of March is the appropriate date to mark Australia Day.
John Biggs, Mount Nelson
NEED TO WORK TOGETHER
Congratulations to all the Australia Day award recipients.
Yalmay Yunupiu was named 2024's Senior Australian of the year.
Yalmay stressed the importance of teaching in 'both worlds'.
She made mention of health needs of Aboriginal Australians: "Two million of our people are diagnosed with chronic preventable diseases such as kidney failure, heart disease, cancer and many more illnesses. Our people are sick and dying, young and old".
"Unfortunately, Western medicine is not working on its own. We can't do this on our own. We need your help. To work together."
Professor Georgina Long and Professor Richard Scolyer were named 2024 Australians of the Year for their melanoma/cancer work.
"There is nothing healthy about a tan - nothing. Our bronzed Aussie culture is actually killing us," Long said.
So we must work together to help Yalmay's people.
There is nothing healthy - nothing, in their culture of playing with fire or deliberately dousing themselves in disease-causing wood smoke.
She is right. Many of their diseases are preventable. As with tanning are they prepared to give it up?
Clive Stott, Grindelwald
CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK
It was a case of 'a chip off the old block' at last Friday's Henley-on-the Mersey festival, Bells Parade, Latrobe.
Axemen Dale Beams and his son Zac contested third and fourth places for the standing block category, whilst the same event attracted a very close contest between Daniel Gurr (son of Mathew Gurr) and Kody Steers for first and second places.
The unusual sport of ferret racing was keenly contested with no drug testing required - the only incentive was apparently cat food during training to ensure a very successful racing campaign!
Kenneth Gregson, Swansea
ENOUGH WITH THE EUPHEMISMS
What master of doublespeak at the World Health Organisation (WHO) thought 'inhalable respiratory particle (IRP)' was a clever way to describe airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2?
This isn't just a semantic game it's a dangerous minimisation of a critical public health issue.
Remember the 'droplets' debacle? How that tiny-sounding term downplayed the virus's insidious ability to linger in the air and travel far beyond a sneeze or cough?
Now, they want to call it IRP, as if we're dealing with benign dust particles, not a virus that's claimed millions of lives.
'Airborne' is clear, direct, and accurate. It conveys the pervasive and persistent nature of the virus in the air we breathe. But IRP? It's like saying a swarm of bees is just a few 'flying stinging particles.'
It's a blatant attempt to shift focus from the harsh reality that SARS-CoV-2 fills our shared air, invisibly and insidiously, putting us all at risk.
We need honesty and clarity in public health messaging, not euphemisms that obscure the truth. Let's call it what it is: airborne transmission. Period. Say No To IRP. Airborne Is Real.
