Letters to the Editor
Disagreeing with John Veysey
John has a long history of tilting at windmills and is a very, very enthusiastic activist. He has been involved in anti 1080, antivaccination and anti5G, What John promotes are invariably fringe theories and he dismisses valuable things such as vaccination. As a polio victim, with another friend who has been confined to a wheelchair for what’s left of his life, I object to his rants. I had an uncle die of diphtheria; I absolutely believe in vaccinations. The garbage John spouts about 5G is tragic, but what is extremely tragic is that he believes this.
It is interesting that he is always "anti" something, preferably something new and beneficial, he is a dangerous menace.
Yours faithfully,
Neville Cameron
Coromandel
“We are sorry,” …wait times…
"We are sorry, but we are currently experiencing higher than normal call volumes and wait times are longer than expected. We apologize for the inconvenience. One of our representatives will be with you as soon as possible." It seems like every call centre I've contacted over the past few years has this or a very similar automated message to greet you. This, of course, is followed by an unreasonably long wait. Sometimes in the hours. I have news for everyone running a call centre - these waits are not 'higher than normal', they are the normal. The new normal. Maybe it is time to hire some extra staff. You could even hire some people to work from home. All they need is a dedicated phone. It isn't that hard to manage, and you could help people who are only able to work part-time and/or from home who might not have many other options. Why is it that customer service has taken such a dive over the past few years? I understand that many people can look up their issues online, use your web service, or automated self-service apps and those can be wonderfully helpful. However, it seems not every problem can be solved this way and sometimes people need to actually speak to a real live person. The wait times everywhere suggest that the number of people trying to reach you does in fact well exceed your ability to provide assistance. Again, I say, hire some more staff. I seem to recall a time when you could leave details and have someone call you back, but this seems to have fallen away. Maybe the 'representatives' were losing too much time with all that redialling. Now we have to wait glued to the phone, so we don't miss if and when somebody finally answers. That means it is really difficult to even try to do something productive while we wait endlessly. While I am at it, can I ask why the music on these things is always so incredibly loud? It is bad enough we have to wait interminably but to ensure we don't miss the staff representative we are forced to listen to blaring music. Even if we have a speaker phone option to ensure we don't miss a real person speaking we are forced to endure what is mostly static-filled noise due to the excessive volume. To be fair, the choice of music is often pretty good, but why does it have to be so much louder than the spoken voice? Also, add a few more songs. Waiting is tedious enough without having to hit the same songs over and over again. Experiencing repeats on your song list only emphasizes the length of time we are on hold. Are songs really that expensive to hire? So, to Banks, government offices, power companies, Air NZ, ACC, etc., etc., etc., how about bringing back some customer service? Real customer service, where you can talk to a real person who knows what they are talking about and can answer those questions and queries not on your FAQ's page. Consistent long wait times suggests these queries are real and at an extensive number of calls. If they weren't we wouldn't have to spend so long on hold. Just one last thing. To all the people who work on those call centre lines. Thank you for your efforts. Despite my grizzles above, when we finally do get through to you most of you are very helpful. You also tend to be patient and understanding. You may feel your clients don't appreciate you. You may even get the brunt of their aggravation and impatience at having been left waiting so long. Please remember it is not you. You folks are doing a fine job. But if you get a chance, maybe suggest to your bosses that they hire some more staff. It would possibly lessen your workload a bit, it would mean people are less aggravated when they finally get to you and also - WOW!!!, shock surprise, provide better service for your clients. Everybody wins. Customer service. It used to be the cornerstone of a successful operation. Now it seems like it is little more than something that is given lip service. I suspect that whoever does manage to up their game to old school customer service will reap the benefits. Why not lead the way. Sincerely, someone tired of waiting on the phone for so long.
Leighton Duerre.
Whitianga
Editor's note: Coincidentally, an event occurred for a friend of mine last week whereby she lost her contact lens. Unable to see without her lenses she rang her insurance company (Tower) to lodge a claim. In the space of three minutes she had made her report, been given approval for a replacement lens and told it would be sorted as soon as her chosen provider could manage. I have
had many experiences such as outlined by Leighton Duerre and I sympathise with him. It is therefore cause for celebration when a real human being is there to give you prompt and helpful service. It makes all the difference.
Thank you
Morena Dear Informer folk,
I just want to let you know your paper is
fantastic!
I love it more each week. Courageous
articles and both sides of stories heard -
bravo!
Erica Sacault
Whitianga
The Conch
After my letter in the middle of May in the Informer I received a number of ideas from readers who understood the need for radical change to our system of government.
I learned very clearly that the representative system had become so abused it no longer served the general voter.
Our electoral system of government was already looking shaky when MMP was installed to extend the life of the representative system.
Informer readers taught me that NZ leaders had been plunging our country into a series of agreements with overseas powers for decades.
This sell-out of our country has been going on since 1980’s when David Lange’s banning US nuclear warships was the last time any of our leaders resisted intrusion from overseas powers.
Roger Douglas exposed our economy to overseas interests; free trade and a take-over by technology, no more need for the Kiwi Number eight wire, do it yourself attitude.
Jim Bolger signed NZ up to UN’s agenda 21 in 1992 then skipped over to Washington for a few years.
Helen clark installed the UN’s Common core curriculum before losing an election and skipping off to the UN herself.
John Key signed NZ up to Agenda 2030 before quitting his job and skipping overseas.
Jacinda Adern initiated the audit of NZ’s progress down the UN 2030 path before quitting her job and high-tailing it overseas to leave her country in chaos.
A cursory look at agenda 21 and agenda 30 reveals that NZ is well along the path to fulfilling the purpose of these agendas, agendas invented overseas with no input from New Zealanders.
The present system of government ensures that the NZ people will continue to be led down the same path that previous leaders have signed us up to. While we continue with the same system It won’t make any difference which party you vote for.
The voice of the people will never be heard until the people stand up and get counted. The conch will provide just such an opportunity.
John Veysey
Whitianga.
Open discussion – a better New Zealand
I would like to express my full support to Trevor Ammundsen for his recent Guest Editorials and to The Informer for being sufficiently independent to publish them.
Apart from publications like the Informer, much of what we perceive as open and free media is far removed from these ideals. Thinly disguised bribes given to media organisations such as NZ on Air funding and press guidelines and restrictions on print media come with politically correct conditions and have severely curtailed free and open discussion of many important issues in NZ.
However, the independence of The Informer has allowed Mr. Ammundsen to raise issues that are often swept under the carpet and never raised by the bribed media. The usual response to people raising important questions such as Mr. Ammundsen’s is that they are instantly labelled as ‘racist’ if they discuss Maori issues and cancelled. Similarly, those voicing alternative views challenging the mainstream climate change narrative are labelled as ‘deniers’ and brushed aside. Sadly, correspondent Thomas Everth is guilty of both examples of this shameful intellectual laziness.
He would do well to heed the words of the former Australian Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies who famously said in 1960:
“It is a simple but sometimes forgotten truth that the greatest enemy to present joy and high hopes is the cultivation of retrospective bitterness.”
Mr. Everth’s response to Mr. Ammundsen’s legitimate concerns reeks of this “retrospective bitterness”. We all need to look forward, not backward, if we are ever going to build a better New Zealand for all races where we are all treated as equals.
Alastair Brickell
Kuaotunu
My concerns about Mr Veysey’s letter.
I was extremely disappointed to see Mr Veysey’s letter in last week’s Informer (18 July). I will outline my concerns in the order in which they appear in Mr Veysey’s letter.
In his third paragraph, he states that “The harmful effects of this (electromagnetic radiation) are only just becoming apparent. The phenomenon of 5G radiating through densely populated areas is so recent that there is, as yet no long-term research result but early results indicate heightened cancer levels after living close to one of these cell towers for more than 5 years.” I find this fascinating as, according to the article in Wikipedia on 5G technology, the first widespread deployment was in South Korea in April 2019 - 4 years ago. In fact, a well-designed study by J Vila et al published in Environment International (see below 1.) found that in a large group of workers exposed to high levels of high-frequency electromagnetic fields (read 5G-like radiation) there was no evidence of any increase in brain tumours. They did conclude that more research may be needed. However, the amount of electromagnetic radiation to which these subjects were exposed far exceeds those found near a 5G tower.
He then goes on to assert that the “recent “modern” vaccines” contained graphene. He gives NO evidence to support this statement! In fact, the MRNA vaccine contains MRNA a single-strand nucleotide that can ONLY manufacture a single protein: - in this case the Covid 19 spike protein. This is wrapped in lipid nanoparticles (NOT programmable!) to facilitate the entry inside the cells where the MRNA can use the cell’s “machinery” to manufacture that single protein. The only other ingredient was a buffered salt solution which is commonly used for intravenous infusions and sugar to protect the MRNA when the vaccine was frozen. Anyone wanting to confirm this can see the full article published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology using this link:- https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/12/09/1013538
He then goes on to misquote me. Like many others, I have grave reservations about the potential downsides of AI. (More of that later.) I have no such reservations about the risks of living close to a 5G tower.
He then goes on to state that he read the Wikipedia article on graphene. He clearly has not! After a third careful reading of this article, I can find no mention whatsoever of any of the very worrisome side effects that Mr Veysey claims he found in the article.
He then goes on to misquote Wikipedia, saying that graphene was not invented until 2004. In fact, the article states: - “Scientists theorized the potential existence and production of graphene for decades. It has likely been unknowingly produced in small quantities for centuries, using pencils and other similar applications of graphite.
In 2004, the material was rediscovered (italics mine), isolated and investigated at the University of Manchester by Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov.”
He follows this misinformation by stating that historical vaccines did not contain MRNA or graphene. This is completely true. I agree with that statement. However, he offers no evidence that modern vaccines contain graphene. There is, in fact, one paper that purports to show high levels of graphene in Covid 19 vaccines (see below- 2).
Mr Veysey is free to continue to worry about the misinformation presented in Julia Biermann’s letter. If he wishes, he can continue to follow the AI-powered algorithms that both Julia and I are concerned about and find more misinformation that has no scientific validity. Anyone who wants to test the power of these algorithms need only perform a search for any given product on their web-browser and see how many times advertisements for the same or similar products appear the next time they open their browser. Cat Stevens was correct when he sang “There’s none so blind as those who will not see.”
Kevin Pringle, M.B., Ch.B., F.R.A.C.S., ONZM, Emeritus Professor of Paediatric Surgery, University of Otago, Wellington.