Biden can look to South Africa for the way to heal a nation

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds..." (Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, 1865).

To achieve some degree of bringing together a fearfully and bitterly divided nation, Biden should look to the awesome example of Nelson Mandela's Truth and Reconciliation Commission which brought together Afrikaner and Indigenous African peoples of the New South Africa. Crimes were truthfully acknowledged without the spectre of revenge communal violence seeking to punish those responsible for the bloody excesses of apartheid. Now more than ever, the US government and its people need to acknowledge their own excesses and learn from the best of what the world can give to help Americans heal from the crimes and corruption of Donald J Trump and his willing accomplices.

With Joe Biden's comprehensive win many commentators are suggesting the days of Trumpist populism are over; that the Republicans learning from defeat will become more moderate over the next four years. Make no mistake this election shows the strength not the weakness of Trump's brand of jingoistic misogyny. Despite an historical landslide for Biden, Republicans have maintained control of the Senate and gained seats in Congress. Despite losing Trump received the second most votes of any president in US history. The only thing Republicans are going to learn from four years of destructive populism is that it works.

While agreeing with both Geoff Davidson (Letters, November 3) and Ronald Elliott (Letters, November 7) that Snowy 2 will be an economic failure destined to increase the cost of transition to renewables, I think Mr Elliott may be unaware of recent developments in grid storage batteries.

The benchmark "Levelized cost of electricity" (LCOE) representing the "all up" lifetime capital, input, operating, risk and equity costs for grid battery storage has halved over the last two years. Based on LFP (lithium-iron-phosphate) batteries deployed in Chinese grid storage systems, this cost is now below 16 cents per kWh, well under the retail cost of electrical energy. CSIRO's 2018 report, "Lithium battery recycling in Australia", found that a local lithium battery recycling industry was "economically and environmentally achievable".

With further steep reductions in battery storage forecast, the Australian public as both investors forced to underwrite Snowy 2's expensive, centralised and fragile infrastructure and consumers forced to pay higher electricity costs resulting from its inefficient operation, should be demanding greater transparency and scrutiny of this project.

Shortly before 5am I rushed my wife to the Calvary Hospital ED. While helping her out of the car I noticed an elderly lady sitting outside the entrance. On leaving the hospital at 6.45 (minus the wife) the woman was still there waiting for a taxi. This was in spite of two follow-up reminders by hospital staff. To this day I have not forgiven myself for not offering assistance. In my years of driving Aerial Taxis I do not recall any driver being this late. Aerial was providing an excellent taxi service much to the appreciation of most passengers who undeniably showed it. Understandably at times of high demand taxis would sometimes fall behind - but only by minutes.This attracted exaggerated criticism from the public claiming Aerial had a monopoly and met the demand as it pleased.

It would be interesting in knowing the woman's outcome and the reason the taxi was at that point running over an hour late. Could the reason be that taxi driver licenses are now being given to any "Tom, Dick and Harry"?

P. R. Temple expresses the hope that the Greens will oppose Barr's proposal for West Basin (Letters, (November 6). I'm afraid this won't happen. True to form, the Greens have accepted government ministries and are effectively in alliance with - indeed a part of - the ACT government. I had the privilege of standing as a candidate for the Community Action Party. The reality is that, despite their strenuous efforts, none of the minor party and independent candidates succeeded in getting elected. The system plainly favours established parties.

I hope this isn't sour grapes on my part. Naturally one must respect the electorate's choices. But the simple fact is that we are, once again, stuck with a legislature composed solely of two political blocks. In such a scenario no opposition party, Liberal or otherwise, can bring much pressure to bear to restrain excesses by the government of the day. I know 2024 is quite a way off, but those who value a vibrant and effective democracy should start thinking about how, when the next election time comes around, Canberra's ossified political system can be given the shake-up it needs.

Andrew Barr casts a positive spin on being in coalition with the Greens with its six seats in the Legislative Assembly. I doubt that third choice Labor candidates and elected members now deprived of ministerial positions feel the same way. It's the party's own fault. I couldn't see any reason why, other than for a quieter life, Labor gave the Greens a ministry in the last government. There was no way the Greens would have denied Labor supply or formed a government with the Liberals, a point it made clear this time. Instead, often called "the Greens Minister", Shane Rattenbury had been able to boost the profile of his party well beyond what it might have achieved as a rump opposition party.

Your editorial "Wanted: ideas to cool a hot city summer" (November 8) concludes with some suggestions for Lake Burley Griffin's west basin that are worthy of consideration. While I question the wisdom of generating "green energy-powered" waves of "world-class, competition-ready surf quality" in the confines of the basin, your final suggestion has considerable merit. Anyone who has visited Brisbane's highly popular South Bank precinct, with its broad white-sand Streets Beach, would enthusiastically support your suggestion of "an artificial beachfront". Some shady trees along the northern margin of the beach would make it even more attractive.

As a Beethoven tragic with a birthday on 17th November, I was surprised to read Ian Warden (CT Panorama, November 7, "Lots of Trumps, only one maestro") declare that I share a birthdate with the great man (Beethoven that is, not Trump). I was pretty sure I didn't so I 'Googled' Beethoven and found that the date Ian Warden was after was 17th December. The maestro was, in fact, only baptised on that date, there being no such thing as a register of births in 1770. But as baptism usually occurred three days after birth we assume Beethoven was born on 14th December 1770.

The nearest I come to sharing a birthday with a musical personality is with Kate Ceberano (though a vastly earlier year than her of course). So if Ian Warden celebrates Beethoven's birth on 17th November, I hope he'll remember me and Kate. Meanwhile we'll look forward to the proper celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the birth of the great man (again, Beethoven not Trump) on December 14.

With apologies to those who have to live in them, enter a typical new "bijou" apartment here, and immediately, you'll not just be confronted by a mean galley kitchen, but actually find yourself standing right in it. Beyond will be a contiguous tiny "living/dining" space, and a tight balcony with the ubiquitous noisy, space-grabbing air conditioning compressor. In many instances, the balcony will receive little or no sun, and overlook other "private" open spaces.

Clearly, developers, citing creeping slum-like norms elsewhere, or misleadingly invoking short-term resort living "standards", have been able to sweep aside good planning, and the ACT Apartment Code. It sought to prevent those faults and more. Excessive building heights, and densities (including massive increases on those permitted in the Town Plan) mean further health and environmental problems; and higher land prices, delivering massive lease "betterment" charges to the powerful ACT Treasury.

Our new Labor-Greens government must take back residential planning and development from gung-ho developers, get land prices down, and find legitimate compensatory income streams.

With politicians actively fomenting social divisiveness and social wealth inequality, squandering billions on anachronistic military hardware, abdicating ministerial responsibility, enriching themselves and their donor coterie and contributing to Australia being consumed in flames, could foreign interference conceivably cause more damage ('Foreign interference charge laid', November 6, p.9)?

Joe Biden and seven of the nine members of the US Supreme Court were raised as Catholics. Is someone keeping an eye on the Pope?

Congratulations to President-elect Joe Biden. But what on earth are we all going to do for memes in 2021?

Back in June the late Tom Petty issued a cease and desist letter to the Trump campaign over the use of his classic hit, I Won't Back Down, yet as Donald Trump hides away in the Oval Office Petty's lyrics are probably playing on repeat through the soundtrack of his mind.

Is my understanding of the English language faulty? I fail to understand how the media can "declare" that Vice-President Biden has won the US presidential election. Surely that is the role of the Electoral College, after each state has declared its own results. If my understanding of the English language is correct, at the best the media can do is "call" the election results.

Now that the US election is over and the US has a president-elect, there is also an ongoing tradition for the outgoing president to leave a letter on the Oval office desk welcoming and "advising" the incoming president. Whether outgoing President Trump can bring himself to maintain that tradition remains to be seen, but I suspect he won't even bother to flush the Presidential men's room.

Perhaps the Reserve Bank's next step should be to audit the quantum of the country's available under-bed space.

Eden-Monaro, Northern Territory, ACT, New Zealand, Queensland and Bye-Don! The Murdoch empire is not having a good run.

Several times recently I have read that only married women were allowed the contraceptive pill when it was introduced in the 1960s in Australia, the latest in the review for the film "Brazen Hussies" (CT, November 8). This is not true. Many young women, with menstrual difficulties (including me at 17) were prescribed the pill, without question, as it helped with menstrual pain and irregularities. With a friendly doctor, a young unmarried woman could also get it for contraceptive purposes. And it became easier over the years.

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