Shortsightedness? Underfunding? General wankery?

Here you have it, folks: the occasional entry when Mikey gets a little serious.

So says a letter in today's Herald:

Reading the predictions about oil makes building yet another new motorway for Sydney seem even more shortsighted. Surely the Government should start addressing the problem of transporting people rather than the symptom of congested roads?

Neville Brown Croydon

Letters, Sydney Morning Herald, April 4 2005

What I think is shortsighted is not building motorways. What so many people forget is that motorways and the land corridors that they occupy can also accomodate various modes of public transport: bus transitways and in some cases, rail. But whether or not that's on this Governments agenda is another question.

Regardless of problem traffic congestion - which can and should be solved by better traffic management and mass transit solutions - radial and orbital motorway standard roads will be needed sooner or later to allow better access to and from all areas of the metropolitan area. Just imagine without high-grade roads, snaking one's way through narrow suburban streets. It's totally impractical.

And building a motorway won't automatically mean more cars if one plays one's cards right. Slap a toll on the road and you're effectively setting a supply-and-demand control on the road's use. Give mass transit operators toll-exemptions and you're killing two birds with one stone.


And another letter:

Linda Doherty's article ("Schools scandal: no cash, no hope", Herald, April 2-3) provides a gloomy picture of NSW public schools. She should have emphasised that despite funding cuts, the majority of our well-adjusted, well-educated citizens still graduate from the "shabby" surroundings of public schools.

Assets do not equate with pastoral care or educational excellence. Tailored uniforms and beautiful buildings may assuage the anxiety of parents, but do little for the educational or emotional wellbeing of students.

Mike Fullerton Croydon

Letters, Sydney Morning Herald, April 4 2005

Thumbs up, buddy. It's true that despite all the shit public schools are putting up with, they still manage to churn out top-quality kids. Buggered if I know how they do it (but I'm learning!). Public education: it's time to give it more.


And finally, this:

The National Union of Students believed it was a good cause to spend more than a quarter of a million dollars of compulsory student union fees promoting the idea that Australia would be better off in the hands of Mark Latham, Andrew Bartlett and Bob Brown ("Nelson berates union for spending students' fees on Labor campaign", Herald, April 2-3).

Case closed for voluntary student union membership.

Ian Farrow Hampton (Vic)

Letters, Sydney Morning Herald, April 4 2005

The Federal Government claims that, by being democratically elected by the people of this country, that they have a mandate to spend taxpayer dollars in any way they see fit. And no one seems to have a problem with that line of reasoning.

But student unions and guilds are also democratically elected from and by the student body, from whom they receive their funds. If we follow the former's logic, then don't the democratically elected board members of the student unions and guilds have a 'mandate' to spend their member's money appropriately?


Listening to:
Title: Retarded
Artist: The Dandy Warhols
Album/station: Come On Feel The Dandy Warhols (2004)
Length: 2.46