Library fiasco
So the Kingston Library aka the relocated Griffith Library will be a ''vibrant place'' (''Kingston library a vibrant space'', May 14, p9). So it should be at a cost of $7.1million.
We already have a library building at Griffith. All this talk about the library doing well in the Kingston shopping precinct is poppycock. The earlier article on the Griffith library fiasco (''New library turns the page on Griffith'', May 7, p5) alerted Canberrans to the fact that M16, an art gallery, ''had more or less [been] promised the Griffith library building''.
Forsooth, me thinks the plot, with respect to the relocation of the Griffith library, thickens.
B. Legge-Wilkinson, Campbell
Natural burials
Jon Stanhope said that the possibility of natural burials would be considered in his consultation with the public about a second crematorium, but the survey we are invited to fill in (online at www.tams.act.gov.au under Get Involved) makes no mention of them.
There is an open question inviting other suggestions which might be considered, but knowledge of natural burials as an alternative seems not widespread here yet.
In Australia, cremation is cheaper than burial, and seven in 10 people choose cremation. Each cremation releases 150kg of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, uses non-renewable gas to fuel it, and wastes much beautiful wood in coffins.
In Europe crematoriums must use filters to remove some of the carbon, which should happen in Canberra too, and which will send the price up. Natural burials are very much cheaper, and I would prefer to have my body contribute to the growth of trees, not to greenhouse gasses.
Labor and the Greens have been strangely silent on this topic, though I expected them to be promoting natural burials.
The survey must be completed by May 22, but takes only a few minutes to fill in. If the idea appeals to you, please make your voice heard.
M. Middleton, Narrabundah
Sport and sex
Mark Dixon (Letters, May 15) labels those who agree with the suspension of Matthew Johns as ''feminazis'', ''man-hating'',''politically correct moralists''.
OK, the sex might have been consensual at first but there is no feminazi, man-hating, political correctness in wondering what she consented to and why these fellows believed they could take part in group sexual activity with only one 19-year-old without there being anything wrong.
In other people's worlds ''thousands of people'' don't ''do it every day'' and a ride in a taxi afterwards is no salve for the degradation of a woman by a group of drunken, overpaid footballers.
J.M. Keene, Murrumbateman, NSW
It was with regret that I was faced with Matthews Johns on the front page of your broadsheet (''Sacked Johns denies act of abuse'', May 14).
Firstly, he hasn't committed a crime. Yes he was an idiot whose only crime was to his wife Trish. Secondly, why would a woman entertain a number of drunken footballers, whose names I might add are not on your front page? And, thirdly, why wait seven years to drag it up again and ruin his career? And lastly, please don't become like the British News of the World, commonly known as the ''Screws of the World''. Shame on you, Canberra Times.
Ted Lipsham, Isabella Plains
In the 1970s one of the mantras of feminists was the end of the double standard on sexual activity by men and women. Men's promiscuity was tolerated if not applauded, the reverse for women. That the centre of the group sex scandal can cast herself in the role of the victim, given there is no accusation of rape, coercion or intoxication, seems strange.
If I had sex with a group of female international athletes I would either be dismissed as a fantasist or labelled superstud or one lucky bastard, but certainly not a victim. So why should it be different for a woman?
Surely that is the old double standard resurrected. Recent reports that the woman boasted of the sexual encounter must surely embarrass her supporters.
John Coochey, Chisholm
School tables
Robert Willson (Letters, May 12) sees no reason why schools shouldn't be ranked on ''league tables'' like sporting teams.
This echoes one of his lines from an earlier letter: ''In education as in life there is simply no such thing as a perfectly level playing field and we all need to shut up and get on with it as best we can.''
If he follows sporting competitions like the AFL and NRL he will know that the ability of lower-ranked teams to become higher-ranked teams is based on more than simply ''making more effort''. In both, a level playing field is actively sought and the dominance of the old ''superclubs'' is all but broken. Administrators in these sports realised long ago that a fair distribution of resources is in the interests of all. For similar reasons, teachers and their unions have long campaigned for a needs-based funding model rather than the rampant overfunding of private schools.
The status quo reminds me of the English Premier League where there is no salary cap, no player draft and the same four teams occupy the top four spots on the league table, probably for the term of our natural lives.
Call this progress?
Glenn Fowler, Australian Education Union ACT branch schools' organiser
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