Future is out there
WHEN Kevin Rudd and other world leaders meet at the climate change summit in Copenhagen next month, they should remember the words of futurist Peter Ellyard. He said, ''This is the whole new discussion of the 21st century, that the first allegiance is to the planet itself because we're all members of the global community. We can now describe ourselves as people who are inventing ways to live on this planet forever, and that's the 21st-century economy and that's the 21st-century jobs.'' (''The future's out there'', Forum, September 26, p4.)
I hope the summit delegates bear that in mind.
David Hicks, Holt
He's a brave boy
CRISPIN HULL'S snide comment in his Saturday Forum column that ''one could hardly expect anything courageous from Kevin Rudd'' is grossly unfair to our Prime Minister (November 7, p19). We all know Rudd is brave, because he keeps telling us so.
Bill Deane, Chapman
Coal is great!
COAL is great! The Third World can modernise by burning coal to generate cheap electricity. The CO2 sent into the atmosphere will fertilise our crops and forests, improve growth rates and greatly benefit mankind. We need more atmospheric CO2, not less.
The Copenhagen blabfest on climate change is a fraud and carbon trading a dangerous scam best avoided by Australian politicians.
Allan Taylor, Adelaide, SA
The elusive vaccine
A RECENT article (''Canberrans urged to have a shot as swine flu vaccine plan lags'', November 3, p5) got me moving to do the right thing in case I had an airport moment or otherwise helped spread infection.
I trotted off to my GP: an appointment was available in three weeks. So it would be five weeks before the immunisation became effective. Another general practice clinic was even less speedy.
A cheerful Katy Gallagher was filmed being speared at Canberra Hospital, so I inquired there but was told ''we do not do it for the public''. I dialled ACT Health and was told, ''Give us your details first, and I will book you in to one of the clinics and let you know.''
Having made reasonable efforts to do the right thing, I can now relax. I will wing it to Singapore and see what their airport has to offer.
Colin Samundsett, Farrer
Speaking up
MY FATHER was hearing-impaired, with hearing aids in both ears, and was almost 100 when he passed away in August. Over the last few years of his life, I accompanied him on many visits to hospital and to other health professionals, including audiologists. I became most frustrated with these professionals as they never recognised his disability and addressed him in soft mumbling voices, often when he was without a hearing aid. In hospital, his hearing aid would be removed so his temperature could be taken. It would often not be reinserted, so the next health professional assume all was understood. There was nothing to indicate my father's disability to anyone attending him.
Is it impossible for hospitals to identify patients with such disabilities to ensure better communication? Surely it would be easy to include in the notice currently the patient's bed which indicates the patient's name, their doctor's name and the name of their GP the words ''hearing-impaired''?
Health professionals doctors and nurses in particular should also be reminded to speak up when addressing a hearing-impaired patient.
P.M. Button, Cook
The best of what?
THE OBSCENE amount of money paid to Tiger Woods to make a competitive appearance in Australia is disturbing, and raises a number of questions about a golfer said to be the best sportsperson in the world.
Woods is also touted as the best golfer of all time.
To arrive at a conclusion of who is the world's best sportsperson, it is first logical to determine which sport is the world's best. As far as I'm aware, a comparative analysis of the world's numerous sports has never been undertaken, and we can only rely on the opinions of biased devotees who take part in each one.
Until such a study is undertaken by an impartial panel against an exhaustive list of relevant criteria, and the results are published, claims of Woods's greatness are ludicrous.
I rank golf way, way down on my list of world's best sports, and I can think of many sportsmen and women to whom Woods would not hold a candle.
Australia's squash champion Heather McKay, for example, was undefeated at world level for 17 years and never dropped a set, let alone a game or a ''match play'' tournament on her way to that unsurpassable achievement.
For my money, Australian football and the 1500m track event run neck-and-neck for the title of world's best.
John Bell, Lyneham
A simple solution
TREASURER Wayne Swan is not alone in wanting a simpler tax system. How about a flat rate (for example, 20 per cent) applied to the gross incomes of individuals and organisations?
No deductions are allowed; instead, everyone takes full responsibility for their expenses. Not only would this make life easier for all taxpayers, it would hopefully release many lawyers and accountants for more productive work. A higher rate may apply to high individual incomes: for example, 60 per cent for incomes more than 10 times the pension. This proposal is definitely simpler, but is it also viable and fair?
David Brand, Lyons
Safe as houses
WELL, I'll be! Rainwater as safe as tap water, eh? (November 6, p9.) How much taxpayers' money went into that research?
With that load off our minds, I wonder whether the researchers could be persuaded to perfect a round thing that could be fixed onto the bottom of boxes and carts to make them easy to move? Then, in a few trillion years, with the big stuff out of the way, we could look into the trivial things like curing the common cold and cancer, or cleaning up the environment.
Judith Erskine, Kingston
Signs of ignorance
I NOTE that the National Gallery will host another exhibition of famous paintings. One can only hope it does them justice when it displays them for the paying public.
On attending the McCubbin exhibition, I noted the Gallery had maintained its poor record for the accompanying signs. We were again faced with small signs that used poorly contrasting text (for example, ivory on plum or decking green), sometimes times placed at stooping height.
The result detracts from the experience as people must get very close to the wall to read the signs, thereby impeding the view for others. The warning buzzer was going non-stop as a result.
I mentioned this to the guides in a few exhibitions (Degas was the last one), and they said they receive and pass on many complaints, but the curators pay no heed, responding that the signs meet normal gallery standards.
It's no comfort to know there are people straining their eyes and backs in other galleries and a recent experience at the Art Gallery of NSW showed that they know how to display things better.
I would suggest the curators lift their game. Graphic artists know a thing or two about fonts, contrast and visual acuity, and as the gallery obviously doesn't it should hire an expert for the next exhibition.
Chris Mobbs, Torrens
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