Healthcare fixes need to focus on the ‘health’ part

Of all the problems facing us, fixing the healthcare system is unique. Unique because it is the easiest to fix and will cost the taxpayer nothing. We have proved over and over that pouring more money into healthcare isn’t the answer. Unhealthy New Zealanders are not the fault of the health system. The fault lies with something quite sinister and insidious. Every year in NZ, $400m is spent advertising junk food with another $200m spent advertising beverages. Almost nothing is spent advertising healthy food, water, exercise or non-smoking. When did you ever see a TV advertisement for spinach? Half of every dollar spent advertising food or beverages should be spent advertising healthy eating, exercise or non-smoking. All it takes is the stroke of a pen to pass this new regulation. Hospital admissions will be cut in half when people stop smoking, eat healthy and exercise.

John Caldwell, Auckland

Bottled-up potential

Well done, Florence van Dyke. I loved your article (Focus, Back to the future for plastic bottles, May 15) on reusable bottles and fondly remember the days when schools, sports clubs, scouts and guides and other community groups would do bottle drives to raise funds. Not only did it help them financially and help the environment but also created a wonderful culture of all age groups working together for a common goal. Myself and my friends weekly pocket money was self-raised from collecting empty Coke and Fanta bottles and cashing them in. Go girl, you’ve got my vote.

Chris Chamberlain, Palmerston North

Banks too willing

An article in your paper suggests that banks are too restrictive in lending (Business, Here’s how home loan stress tests work and why bank lending was investigated, May 15). I believe that over the last 20 years the opposite has been true.

Banks have been too willing to lend, driving house prices to fantasy levels. For many borrowers this looseness with lending may be their demise. We have to expect many who bought the last three years will struggle to come through a new interest rate environment. Interviewing mortgage brokers about this problem is almost meaningless. They just clip the ticket and the more people borrow the happier they are. One has to ask what they contribute to society? Banks are justified to seek to exercise responsible lending and they should have put more emphasis on this a long time ago. Frank Olsson, Auckland

Zero waste aim

Every bottle should be re-used and nothing should be in plastic. I would not mind paying an extra 50 cents a bottle to ensure it is reused (not recycled). We should be aiming at zero landfill.

Steve Mcconnochie, Christchurch

Worthless assurance

If Kay Weir (Letters, May 15) truly believes that Russia is being irresponsibly targeted by the West, maybe a quick visit to Ukraine will alleviate her concerns. After assurances that he will not invade, Putin has sent his murderous and thuggish troops in to a country he thought would roll over and accept his illegal invasion.

Sadly, the West was dumb enough to accept his worthless assurances that he would stick to his word. Hopefully Ukraine will prevail and put Putin back in his box.

James Archibald, Auckland

Ego inflames war

The expansion of Nato towards the Russian border may not be the basic cause of the war in Ukraine, but it is certainly a contributory factor, as is Russia’s perceived loss of power and prestige following the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The biggest contributory factor however is the Russian President. Vladimir Putin’s ego

is locked into this war. Consequently, and unlike Nikita Khrushchev, the Russian President at the time of the Cuban missile crisis (1962) to which the current crisis is often compared, he appears to lack a reverse gear. The worrying thing for all of us is that if President Putin feels trapped by circumstances beyond his control such as a stalemate or a loss in his military venture, he may lash out with chemical or even nuclear weapons.

Under pretext of protecting the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad he could even attack

the Suwalki Gap which would draw Poland and Lithuania, both Nato members, into the war.

That’s why it’s essential that both sides be given the opportunity as soon as possible to withdraw from the battlefield without too much loss of face. Ian Badger, Christchurch

You go, Gen Z

Having just read Kirsty Johnston’s feature (News, You’re