LETTERS
Illustration: Cathy Wilcox
It is little wonder that young people are electing not to follow careers in maths, science and technology when they see governments attacking and diminishing scientific input into vital environmental concerns, such as management of the Snowy River and Murray-Darling river systems (''Dropping maths doesn't add up, says Ridout'', ''River body in limbo after states cut budget'', ''Fears for the Snowy'', February 27).
If the promotion of the sciences in education is as vital for the economy as Heather Ridout suggests, then it is vital for both business and government sectors to be promoting and supporting scientific and environmental agencies across the country.
Young people are being given the message that science and the environment are disposable in the face of business concerns, when it is becoming clearer every day that ignoring environmental issues is becoming ever more costly. Let's do the maths indeed.
Sally Gillespie Lilyfield
Maybe if the employers, including the mining industry, spent less time and energy on tax avoidance, then Australia could afford spend as much as other OECD countries do on education. We might then achieve the standards they seek. Please also remind me again how well our country rates with regards to big business philanthropy.
Ross Elliott Balmain
Gosh, industry whining again, this time about the falling number of students studying senior maths. How about some positive thinking and action for a change Ridout and pals? Some well-targeted scholarships and after-school maths clinics for identified students in disadvantaged high schools might help. I'm sure that industry could get together with schools and maths teachers to come up with some useful ideas. Easier just to complain, I guess, and hope that government will take the necessary action.
Julie Harders North Sydney
If girls are no longer taking up maths as a subject and many pupils have problems reading and writing is it not time for compulsory subjects to be instituted in all schools.
In my long-ago school days I was informed that English, maths and rugby league were compulsory, after those you could choose what you liked.
John Munro Toowoomba (Qld)
I wonder if recently there has been a close look at the impact of selective schools on the curriculum of local comprehensives as far as the offering of more advanced maths and science courses is concerned. If eight or 10 of the top performing students are skimmed off a local school's intake and one or two more in year nine as selectives make up the numbers, the ability of the comprehensive to offer advanced maths, even physics and engineering science is severely limited. If schools are not offering the full range of subjects, regard for and participation in those subjects is difficult to maintain, an influence on both girls and boys.
Gus Plater Saratoga
Jennifer Seberry's claim that ''there are not too many primary teachers who like maths'' is simply not true (''Simple equation to multiply girls excelling at maths'', February 27) . Experienced primary teachers have been frustrated by the dumbing down of the primary mathematics curriculum over the decades to the extent that teaching the basic mathematics skills that lead to the ability to study higher level HSC mathematics is an optional or extension activity.
Together with the cluttered curriculum, an increasing reluctance of iNow generation students to show persistence in solving problems, and modern society's expectation that schools will also take on a substitute parenting role, it should not be surprising that many students are leaving primary school underprepared to move through high school to higher-level mathematics.
Stephen Kirk Blackbutt
Self-interest calling the shots
The three state governments who have cut funding to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority have undermined their own rhetoric about the importance of its work (''River body in limbo after states cut budget'', February 27). For instance, following $20 million in cuts by NSW last year, a whole strategy to restore native fish to the system was axed, and as a result the mongrel carp will remain unchallenged. Yet the government can find $19 million for hunting in national parks. So half the Shooters and Fishers Party are happy.
Dick Clarke Elanora Heights
What sort of environmental vandals occupy the government benches of the NSW Parliament? How appalling is it that industry is allowed to call the shots on one of our most fragile and abused ecosystems in the Snowy Mountains. I knew that dicing the snouts in the trough ALP was going to have many downsides, but not in my wildest dreams did I envisage how blatant the cosying up to industry and sectional interest groups would be, or how quickly the Coalition would show its true colours. First fisheries, then the gun lobby, and now we will allow industry to run the Snowy River for their short-term self-interest. O'Farrell is selling our future for his self-interest and the big end of town, with no regard for how our grandchildren will clean up his mess.
Jacqueline Hicks Marrickville
PM pitches campaign tent under west's skies
When she announced the date of the election Julia Gillard stated that: "It should be clear to all which are the days of governing and which are the days of campaigning'' (''Oh west, where goes thy vote?'', February 27).
Well, with her move to western Sydney for one week, it must be clear to us all these are indeed the days for campaigning and, despite her assertions to the contrary, she has started the nation's "longest election campaign". Will we ever be able to believe a word that comes out of this Prime Minister's mouth?
Jonathan McIlroy Avalon
There should be no expensive hotels for the Prime Minister next week. If Ms Gillard wants to learn what bothers western suburbs voters, she and her entourage should commute. Even from the relative comfort of air-conditioned Comcars, they would experience first hand the traffic gridlock that frustrates the majority of us Sydney drivers.
Peter Mahoney Oatley
I was amazed by Tony Abbott's comments regarding the Prime Minister's time in western Sydney: ''What western Sydney wants is not a visit. Western Sydney wants a plan.'' I'm sure western Sydney can do without Abbott's short, photo-op visits. I look forward to his plan - let's have some detailed policies explained via in-depth interviews with such programs as 7:30 and Q&A.
Malcolm Grice Dingley (Vic)
I wonder how the restaurant at the Novotel in Rooty Hill serves humble pie.
Pastor de Lasala Seaforth
Anyone who wants to escape the western suburbs for four days is welcome at my place.
Garrett Naumann Cammeray
Ambos fall behind
Ambulance officers in NSW have suffered greatly over the past 10 to 15 years and now receive less remuneration than most of their interstate colleagues (''Ambulance case vital to future of the unions'', February 26).
They have been ''upskilled'' gradually with no thought given to improved wages and have, in fact, suffered a reduction in working conditions all as a direct result of inaction and/or apathy by the Health Services Union. A classic case was when they lost their lunch hour 4½ years ago - yes, that's correct, they do not get a lunch hour any more.
There are many other instances of problems as a direct result of the HSU doing very little. Small wonder they are fighting hard to form their own industrial body. Good luck to them.
Stuart Greenshields Wentworth Falls
Clive's love boat
Clive Palmer promises that on his new Titanic, ''you can take the wife and fall in love again''. He doesn't mention with whom (''A ship where dreams come true'', smh.com.au, February 27).
Dave Watts Clareville
Anti-breastfeeders must be consistent
The action of the manager of Satellite cafe and the views of her defenders would carry more weight if they were more consistent in their application - would she ask a bra-less woman with a see-through top to cover up, for example (Letters, February 27)?
Is there an arbitrary limit on how much thigh and lower belly (of both sexes) can be exposed before it is offensive? In my experience there are many sights in cafes and other public places which are a damn sight more offensive than a mother breastfeeding her baby.
Jon Stirzaker Latham (ACT)
I have occasionally witnessed a woman breastfeeding her baby in public. However, I have hardly seen a breast and never, God forbid, a nipple. All I've seen was the back of a contented baby's head. These people carrying on about it must be watching closely to be so outraged.
Gill Graham Bowral
Loyalty disparaged
Bill Tango (Letters, February 27) is quite right: to say there is a possibility of a conflict of loyalties for an individual with dual Australian-Israeli citizenship is not veiled anti-Semitism. But to exploit the issue to cast aspersions on the loyalties of Australian Jews as a whole is.
Peter Wertheim Executive Director, Executive Council of Australian Jewry
Suspect premise
For a professor of law, George Williams sure sounds like a political lobbyist ("Tasmania leads way on voluntary euthanasia" February 27). His support for legalising euthanasia in Tasmania is based entirely on the rather weak premise of a Newspoll survey. He neglects to note such surveys are notoriously nebulous, and the results - as unreliable as they are - nonetheless change dramatically when more specific (and statistically more reliable) questions of personal involvement in euthanising are posed.
Rather than devising legal ways of killing off its citizens, Premier Giddings and Minister Nick McKim would do well to show some leadership in providing palliative care in their state. A 2004 survey of palliative care services in Tasmania found: it had only 50 per cent of the designated palliative care beds recommended; no staff qualified in psychology, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech pathology or music/art therapy were employed; it was only servicing about 52 per cent of estimated need.
Professor Williams would do well to lobby accordingly.
Dr Peter Comensoli
Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney, Watsons Bay
Dangerous activism
I assume I am one of a substantial majority of Australians wishing to see an end to whaling. I hope there is also a large majority in opposition to the tactics being employed by the activists aboard the Sea Shepherd (''Whalers say activists ruined refuelling'', February 27).
Whatever rights or obligations Australia might have to police Antarctic waters, and whether or not the whalers are breaching international law, as Bob Brown asserts, there can be no excuse for the Sea Shepherd interposing itself between two ships undertaking a refuelling operation. Ship-to-ship refuelling always involves some element of risk, and more so in hazardous waters. The slightest misjudgment could result in a collision causing significant loss of life.
If the present tactics lead to such an accident, the ensuing attempt to blame the whalers will not work and the anti-whaling cause will be set back for years.
Ken Knight Hornsby
Pass the olive oil
I should not have left my dietary habits back in Cyprus. I hope it is not too late (''Mediterranean diet cuts risk of first heart attack by 30 per cent").
Mustafa Erem Terrigal
There's an art to escaping censure
No sooner does the troubled personal life of a sportsperson, especially an NRL player, become public then the chattering classes work themselves into a lather offering comment on the code and the individual's association with gambling and alcohol (Letters, February 27).
Yet over summer, two of the most popular art exhibitions were of the works of Francis Bacon and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Bacon, an alcoholic, had numerous relationships, some violent, including one with a petty criminal. Lautrec, also addicted to alcohol, had many troubled relationships with women. Some of his best work is from the bordellos of Paris, which he regularly frequented as a paying customer.
During their lives, despite their personal failings, both artists enjoyed huge popularity. Art lovers are viewing their works in droves, seemingly unconcerned as well.
If Ben Barba carried a brush instead of a football, he'd probably be referred to as a "troubled genius" and his next exhibition would be a sellout. I hope he overcomes his current problems and returns to his "studio" to exhibit his talent.
Mike Kenneally Balmain
Proof is in the litter
Mitch Geddes (Letters, February 27), if the plastic bottles and other litter you see falling from the yellow bins had instead been taken to a collection depot (and the refund provided) they would never ''find their way into street drainage and creeks, and [be] … ultimately next seen in rivers and on beaches''.
What you have observed proves Ian Kiernan's point to a tee.
John Lees Castlecrag
Right to fight
Thomas Russell's attitude so reflects the tone of conservatives' political ''debate'' (Letters, February 27).
He says of Malcolm Turnbull: ''Why bother fighting the enemy if you've already surrendered?'' And they have the audacity to call the left ''class-warriors''.
David McMaster Cremorne
Missed the boat
The paddlesteamer Australia, which appears in the painting reproduced in Tuesday's Herald, did not commence operations until early 1835 and could not have been in the harbour in 1831, thus the painting is unlikely to have been executed then (''A site transformed … from a fort, to a transport hub, to an arts centre recognised worldwide'', February 26).
The Australia is easily identified by her then-unique striped funnel. In the mid-1840s, the Australia briefly worked as a north shore ferry, operating from Sydney Cove. The steamer was, however, originally constructed for the Parramatta run, operating from Darling Harbour. The Australia was later converted to a three-masted schooner that her owner unsuccessfully attempted to rename the Smuggler. The customs officials lacked a sense of humour.
Ron Madden Wagga Wagga
Show of faith
In view of the ongoing scandals enveloping the Catholic Church worldwide, my admiration for its loyal followers knows no bounds (''Conclave may come early under shadow of cardinal's departure'', February 27). Against all odds, they continue to display two character traits that alas, of late, this unbelieving outsider is sorely lacking: patience and tolerance.
Max Fischer Scarborough
You can judge a reader by his book
I agree with Terry Charleston (Letters, February 26) regarding the compressed Herald; I also don't want to suffer the embarrassment of being labelled a reader of the other daily. It reminded me of an experience when buying a copy of Ulysses. The bookseller had two copies, one with the title emblazoned on the cover. He advised me to buy that one as it would impress my fellow train passengers.
Robyn Hansen Pennant Hills
So the Herald will no longer be a broadsheet. Well, there goes my exercise regime.
Shane Withington Church Point
When contemplating the new compact Herald, Anne McDonald (Letters, February 27) might spare a thought for those of us who read the Herald online. Now I have to lay out a bunch of iPads when I want to do some painting.
Mic Gruchy Darlinghurst
