Cecil Rhodes has been judged by history and Cecil Rhodes has been found wanting. We are in the midst of a frenzy of blaming, judging and rewriting history. Before we go on maybe we should stop and ask ourselves what way history will judge us – we ignore God but worship celebrities, we terminate our children in the womb rather than rear them, we honour our father and mother by putting them in a home.
The list could go on but we don’t want a rant. Cecil Rhodes was doing what he thought to be right, he was helping build the empire. Like the rest of us Rhodes was almost certainly motivated by greed, lust and the desire for fame. These are the same things that drive us today. Our lust to have everything we want and to have it now has led to a culture of ‘rights’ without responsibility, where what I’m entitled to is more important than anything else, even to the detriment of society – if I have a sore toe and want to have it seen to, then the person with cancer can wait, my right to an appointment overrides their right to life.
This selfishness is even better seen in our treatment of the planet. We are the first generation to know for sure that we are destroying the earth yet we continue to rape her of her resources, giving no thought to our children or their future. The science can’t be denied but ask us to do without our 4X4 or the huge house and see what sort of reaction you will get. Then there is the culture of lying. We build our society on lies. What is the biggest lie we tell ourselves? That acts of utter selfishness will make us happy.
We have convinced ourselves that unfettered economic growth, while half the world lives in poverty, can make us happy, that the utter selfishness of terminating our unborn because they are an economic burden will not do us immeasurable psychological damage.
We will be known as the generation that lived in denial, denial of what we were doing to ourselves, our children and to the world. We will be remembered as the people who told our children that we didn’t want them because they cost too much.
TURLOUGH QUINN
Portglenone, Co Antrim
Don’t blame Troubles for low standards of delivery of services and manufacturing
We have been told that there will be a new normal after Covid-19, but I doubt if that will be better than the dysfunctional, incompetent and largely wasteful activities which run the province and which plagued us for the last umpteen decades. We cannot continue to blame the Troubles for the general low standards of delivery of services and manufacturing.
Having worked here and abroad in private and public sectors, I can see clearly the inefficiencies which we readily accept. Our answer always seems to be, we need to consult, write strategies, enter legal challenges etc. But we ignore the aim of the game – this surely is to get things done, whatever they are.
We listen to the minorities who play on the fears of the majority, who object to virtually everything and they hold back the whole of society. They create obstacles, they delay action, perpetuate unfairness and ultimately cost more money.
Our government needs to cut through the low standards which we accept, it needs to appoint people who get things done, it needs to face the electorate with the unpalatable truth that staying as we are just won’t work any longer.
My children voted with their feet years ago and they and their friends have little time for our stick-in-the-mud attitudes and the fact that they can ill-afford to keep subsidising people who are making little effort to improve.
So we can improve; so we must make the first steps; so we need to stop deliberately refusing to make progress – for reason which most of us don’t understand – so when are we going to see a realistic vision with the leadership to start getting us there.
TOM EKIN
Belfast BT1
Carers being overlooked
In a most difficult time for working-class people I am aware of the challenges families face trying to make ends meet. Covid-19 has sadly left people without a job to return to. Food poverty and uncertainty is sadly a reality as unemployment rises. However, there is also another group of people who seem to get overlooked – carers who look after a loved one in their home.
While a lot also work it is very evident that government takes these people to a large degree for granted. If you are a carer, to be entitled to Carers Allowance of £67.25 you cannot earn more than £128 after tax. This is unacceptable. It should be noted that a carer role for a loved one is 24/7. Furthermore, when a carer gets home from work their work starts again in their caring role.
However, if you fall into a certain category of occupation you are entitled to what’s known as a ‘Blue Light Card’ which means you are entitled to discount when shopping in various stores. Another card is called ‘Discount for Carers’.
This should be an entitlement to the carer in the home not just a selected section of the community. People in the community are caring for loved ones not for monetary gain but because they genuinely care. I intend to write to the appropriate department in the Stormont Executive to ask that they give my points some serious consideration and when doing so keep in the forefront of their minds how many unpaid hours the carer in the home is saving the economy.
KIERAN McCAUSLAND
Workers’ Party, Upper Bann
A call for more humanity
It is noteworthy that one of the heroes to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic was the figure of Colonel Tom Moore, quietly doing 100 laps of his garden on his walking frame to raise money for NHS charities before his 100th birthday – this kind, quiet dignity in contrast to the selfish, largely vacuous, materialistic, throwaway western world view so prevalent before the virus.
Hopefully some lessons have been learned from our experiences during the virus, things don’t go back to the way they were and people start treating each other better than they did before.
BRIAN RITCHIE
Lisburn, Co Antrim
Blindly obvious
Given the letters in recent days about abortion – triggered by someone signing off with a doctorate – I think it wise if people want to use academic titles they indicate the area of expertise. Is the doctorate a medical one? One in the social sciences? Or in what area?
As for abortion it is blindingly obvious that an unborn child is that – an unborn child. In a matter of weeks it will be a born child and continue its development outside the womb to adulthood and eventual death. Why pro-abortion people cannot see this simple fact is beyond me.
SEAN O DOIBHILIN
Leitir Ceanainn, Tir Chonaill
