Christchurch has made us confront our complacency
One of the saddest moments in one of the saddest weeks was seeing my adopted hometown of Christchurch on the cover of the Guardian Weekly (22 March) for all the wrong, terrible reasons.
At the time of the attacks, I had been standing not far away, next to our earthquake-shattered cathedral with around 2,000 kids of all ages as they energetically protested our inaction on climate change. Within an hour, the city was in lockdown and the protest all but overlooked.
If anything good can come of these attacks, it is that many of us, including politicians and so-called thought leaders, have been forced to confront our growing complacency and tolerance of casual racism and hate speech as it has crept into our press, politics and our everyday.
No more, we say. This is not us. This is not who we want to be.
On the Monday after, I saw that same spirit of passion, resolve and determination to make things better. More than 2,000 school students attended a vigil outside Al Noor Mosque, organised by the kids themselves, for their community. The victims were not defined by their faith, they were their team-mates, their classmates, their friends.
Hear us. This is us. This is who we want to be.
Kate Hodgins
Christchurch, New Zealand
• What a pity that your accurate articles on the ghastly terrorist attack in Christchurch had to be published before the reaction throughout NZ was evident. The whole country appears to be reaching out to our bereaved Muslims with concern, sympathy and love; how galling for the perpetrator.
Peter Stead
Auckland, New Zealand
• I had hoped the Weekly would follow the lead of New Zealand media, who have chosen not to name the terrorist nor give his rhetoric airtime. Instead, as a country, we’re giving our voices to the victims, to our Muslim whānau. We’re listening to our diverse community about how we can do more to address racism. And in our grief, we’re holding each other up with words of support and aroha.
Sarah Howard
Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa
• I tried to figure out your Roots of Hate cover and realised you were depicting fists. USB sockets would have been more to the point.
E Slack
L’Isle Jourdain, France
Let’s see how driverless cars get on in Manila
The wide open streets of Chandler, a suburb of Phoenix, could have been designed specifically with self-driving cars in mind (22 March). However, I will wait until the day Waymo or Uber successfully tests its cars in a Moscow snowstorm or in Manila in monsoon season before I believe this mode of transport has finally arrived.
Peter Williams
Alphington, Victoria, Australia
Kashmir deserves its independence
It is heartbreaking reading of events in Kashmir (8 March). The Kashmiris are generous, creative, artistic people and happy to share their beautiful Himalayan country with visitors. It deserves to be independent like Nepal, Bhutan and, previously, Tibet.
During the second world war, my father was serving in India and my sister and I joined him. I was sent as a boarder to the Presentation Convent School in Srinagar. We were of many different religious and political denominations but developed great friendships.
One uniting factor was that we could beat the local boys’ school at field hockey, but we could never beat the nuns. They cheated, running with the ball under their long habits. When several of the nuns confronted the goalie she could hardly pull up their skirts to see who had the ball. At short range it was hard to prevent the nun with the ball from scoring.
Kashmir deserves its independence, and an end to eternal war.
Wendy M Davis
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Crops would be quite the hazard on the golf greens
One way to green golf courses (29 March) would be to convert them into urban farms. These would create many meaningful jobs and local food, greatly reducing food miles. The land will have to undergo a transition period to ensure crops are not contaminated by synthetic fertilisers and pesticides used by most golf courses. Abundant edible biodiversity instead of boring monocultures!
Louise Taylor
South Arm, NSW, Australia
