Letters: There are so many stupid and greedy people out there

How can people can pursue unsustainable consumerism in the face of our own extinction? This and more questions and observations from this week’s letters.

How can people value consumerism more than life?

It’s ironic that standing up for nature is somehow a radical idea. It’s beyond pathetic that people place consumerism above the continuation of the Earth’s ability to sustain human life, and astounding that people vote for people that don’t actually care about them. And it’s increasingly likely that the current era will become a part of the future fossil record and just a tiny blip in the overall history of planet Earth. 

So many stupid and greedy people out there. No foresight. Nothing is sacred, only possessions and profit. At this rate, we will not survive; not unless we radically change our ways.

Bob Vidler, Facebook

Anger management

Thank you, Lottie Elton, for standing up for asylum seekers and saying it like it is. There is, sadly, a problem in some places where asylum seekers are sent (by the Home Office) to live. And here tempers are flaring largely because of misinformation, and the spreading of rumours, all exaggerated to nasty levels, by a minority of people with very loud voices!

Most of us, of course, welcome desperate people fleeing war and climate change, most with horrific stories to tell, if we would listen. Most of us see each other as human beings with the same dreams as we have for ourselves and our families.

There are local difficulties, caused largely by the government’s mishandling of the issue and spending money in the wrong places. Professor Mondon was right when he said in the article, “People are right to be angry at a system that doesn’t serve them, but immigrants shouldn’t be the target of that anger.”

I volunteer at a small advice centre for refugees, and in more than 10 years I have yet to meet anyone who did not arouse immediately my sympathy, and an urge to help them succeed.

They all want to be part of our community. To work and be of value; to give their children a better life.  

We need to stand up for what we really think and be prepared to challenge wrong facts and idealism wherever we find it. Easy to say, I know, but we must. As Samira Ali concluded, “Silence only helps the far right.”

Thank you again, Lottie.

Frances Middleton, Norwich

Read more:

• Climate anxiety: What is it and how can you cope?
• Delivery bikes outside hotels prove only one thing: The ban on work for asylum seekers must be lifted
• The UK’s top mental health charities: How they help and how to support them

Good Samaritans

Thank you for the article by Laura Cooke, reflecting on the proposed cuts and changes to Samaritans and its services. I too am a former Samaritans volunteer, and Laura’s thoughts and comments very much reflect my own – it is deeply troubling to hear that a service so many are in need of is in danger of no longer being available to them.

I would ask all those who share these concerns to raise their voices in support of Samaritans at this time, and to do whatever they can to help preserve this service; it seems to me that this is needed more than ever at this time, and the loss of it could only lead to immeasurable harm to many people.

Debra Warner, Exmouth

Early learning

I regularly buy Big Issue and the other week left a copy of the magazine on the settee in our living room. Without prompting, my 20-month-old granddaughter (Kanoni Mnoga) picked it up, opened it, and pretended to read it (well, I presume she was pretending!). She looked so sweet that my wife took a couple of photos of her. 

I asked both her mother and father if they were happy for me to share the photos with you, which they were.

Andy Thorpe

Wealth snatcher

I always enjoy Paul McNamee’s column and agreed with his analysis of Right to Buy. I would go further: it was a typical Thatcherite policy: anti local government, selling off the family silver (at massively discounted prices) to make the country’s finances look better than they actually were, and was largely seen at the time as an electoral bribe in the lead-up to elections, both local and national. It worked, but at a cost we are still paying.

Richard Bridges, Halesowen

The pig picture

I read your story on pig-farming with interest. I agree with the author that pigs are “as intelligent as three-year-olds and make great pets”. 

Instead of supporting groups like the British Pig Association, he would perhaps do well not to support the breeding of pigs for slaughter, and instead highlight the work of the growing number of animal sanctuaries like the ones mentioned in the latter half of the article, that provide safe and happy homes for animals rescued from the slaughter industry. 

He might even consider joining the “more than three million vegetarians and vegans in the UK today” who believe that we can be kind to animals without slaughtering them.

Michael Loughlin

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