Clean up day
On March 1st it was time for Clean Up Aust day and this year was the 30th anniversary. Amalin from Northern Settlement Services organised the Karen community of new residents to Tamworth and with volunteer Graeme set about cleaning up the Truckers Memorial site together with an area including TREC and AELEC. 20 people helped and collected 7 bags of rubbish. It was a good morning as usual and the group plan to have a clean up at the Truckers Memorial site and a BBQ in May.
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Graeme Reeves, Tamworth
Silly and racist talk
Yes, we have an epidemic and maybe a pandemic, the coronavirus, but the reaction of many people is ridiculous and often racist. There are reports that the paranoid in the community have already started panic buying of foods and virtually anything they think they might need. This is just silly and annoying.
Some of the parents with children at the city's children's hospital have actually refused to let doctors or nurses that appear 'Asian' to treat their children. The doctors and nurses are well aware of the virus and how to maintain a healthy regime. This is silly, racist and potentially life threatening.
It's time to listen to the people who know what they are doing, the medical experts not the politicians or the paranoid.
Dennis Fitzgerald, Melbourne
Cost of doing nothing
The present Liberal/National government appears to have a problem with listening to expert advice; it tends to conflict with their personal agendas. This is no more evident than in the brouhaha that has recently broken out over the cost of doing something about bringing carbon emissions down to zero by 2050. Some vested-interest members of government, including the PM and the member for New England, have declared it a road to disaster. As well, of late, we have seen a plethora of fellow-travellers hitting the media in support of fossil fuels and doing a snow-job with their rhetoric, fake news and fear-mongering. But, as they demand definite costings for zero emissions, in the hope of it being impossible, they surprisingly offer no cost-benefits for their spurious promise to bring energy prices down by pumping carbon into the atmosphere.
Fortunately, the University of Melbourne has come to the rescue.They have completed detailed modelling of what it will cost the nation if our leaders do not effectively tackle emissions; which includes removing fossil fuels from the climate equation.The university's research has shown that, based on current global emissions patterns, the cost to Australia of doing little will be $584.5 billion by 2030, $762 billion by 2050 and will accumulate to $5 trillion by the turn of the century - when all of these politicians will have disappeared and left their mess for our future generations. And the very bad news is that the costings do not include the costs of droughts, floods, bushfires, pollution or biodiversity damage. Goodbye to a healthy, wealthy economy and all it involves.
This Morrison government has developed a reputation for using the effects on the economy as a measure of the value of everything, particularly anything to do with climate change. Therefore these figures should send a chill down their collective spines. Now the PM only has to round up the vested-interest trouble-makers in the Liberals and Nationals and lay down the law. See those porkies taking off?
Bert Candy, Glenvale.
Picture worth 1000 words
An Australian developer has produced an app that allows people to upload a photo of someone else and match it with other photos of people and their location. Police in America have already tested and successfully used it to arrest one person.
The introduction of cameras on mobile phones has led to millions of photos being taken and far too many being put online for me to ignore. The Instagrammers and influencers may not realise that by default the location is embedded into their photos. They might be pleased as this would confirm that they actually were there although the photos of their home and children also shows where they are.
The technology that allows facial recognition is under attack from privacy advocates but why? If you have done nothing wrong, then you have nothing to hide although the reality is that some people err in their life choices.
The concern of people being recognized in photos has gone too far with google maps and street view blurring number plates on cars and people's faces. The silliness of this was demonstrated when a family saw the Google camera car approaching and stood to attention out the front. Their faces were blurred but so was the dog's face.
People should be happy to be known and seen although not obsessively. Live a good life and be seen doing it.
Dennis Fitzgerald, Melbourne
