New Zealand Listener – March 02, 2018

4 LISTENER MARCH 10 2018

LETTERS

ROLLINGSTONE

Must-see doco on the mag, the myth

& the music p

BEETROOTERBernard Lagan on

ruddy-faced philanderer Barnaby Joyce

FEAR GROUNDSJoanne Black: what it’s

like to have a child at a

US high school

GUITAR STARAn Aussie female music

sensation opens up before her NZ gig

MARCH 3-9 2018

BLUES BUSTER

A BOLD NEW TAKE

ON DEPRESSION

A KINDER SOCIETY

Revealed: the NZ firms giving offenders a second chance with a real job

The bestseller

that Elton John,

& Hillary Clinton Emma Thompson

call ‘game-changing’

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Palestine and then, through

various causes, left the region

and settled in groups in

various countries in Europe

mostly.

Either voluntarily or other-

wise, they lived in certain

areas and not others. Marry-

ing outside the religion was

not encouraged. Some did,

which is why it is possible for

someone who does not belong

to the Jewish religion to have

some Jewish ethnicity in their

DNA. Also, there are people

who are brought up in the

Jewish religion who become

secular or non-believers. Adolf

Hitler decided that these non-

believers were also eligible for

the gas chambers.

In other words, just like

Greeks, Italians and Irish, etc,

Jewish ethnicity can be traced

through DNA.

Elizabeth Urry

(Devonport, Auckland)

“DNA discovery” (February 24)

omitted any reference to the

NZ Society of Genealogists as

a source of information about

one’s ancestry. The society is

Downside of

antidepressants

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It’s good to see the Listener

giving space to people like

Johann Hari who question the

long-term efficacy of antide-

pressants (“The blues battle”,

March 3). But the more serious

problem of side effects also

needs attention.

For many patients, the anti-

depressants become gateway

drugs to lifetime depend-

ency on mood stabilisers and

anti psychotics, drugs that are

toxic, addictive and likely to

cause more side effects. The

options to reduce the dose or

employ alternative therapies

are sidelined and become

increasingly risky.

Meanwhile, the patient is

told that s/he has developed

an incurable condition with

a label such as “bipolar” or

“schizoaffective disorder”,

which can at best be man-

aged by further medication.

It’s difficult to honour the “do

no harm” principle or allow

“informed consent” when

prescribing something with

a long list of side effects for a

person already befuddled by

previous doses.

The pattern is well docu-

mented by questioning

psychiatrists and researchers

such as Peter Breggin, Robert

Whitaker, Will Hall and Gary

Kohls in the US and Joanna

Moncrieff and David Healy in

the UK. In New Zealand, Julia

Rucklidge is adding to nutri-

tional research by William

Walsh in the US and Patrick

Holford in England.

All of this complements

what Johann Hari is saying

and offers brighter prospects

for mental health sufferers

once the dependence on medi-

cation is reduced.

Peter Vogt

(Tauranga)

Marc Wilson, my favourite

Listener columnist, left me

deflated – ironic, given the

topic – by his choice of words

when writing about depression

treatment (“Cause and effect”,

March 3).

In a generic reference to

females, he wrote of “Jill”,

whom he mentioned after

“Jack”, and the pair of them as

a “sad boy (or girl)”.

Instead of the sexist cliché,

and the infantilising “boy”

and “girl”, he could have used

s/he, which is more appropri-

ate for the 21st century.

CR Barnes

(Dunedin)

CTV BUILDING CULPABILITY

I don’t understand why the

police do not appear to have

considered charging the

engineers who designed the

CTV Building with criminal

nuisance (“Force majeure”,

March 3).

The Crimes Act 1961 says:

“Every one commits criminal

nuisance who does any unlaw-

ful act or omits to discharge

any legal duty, such act or

omission being one which he

or she knew would endanger

the lives, safety, or health of

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the public, or the life, safety,

or health of any individual.”

The Act goes on to say that the

maximum sentence for this

crime is one year in prison.

Maybe the police felt that

there was greater need for

accountability because of the

death toll. But surely the acts

or omissions of the engineers

should be tested in court

and, if they are found to be

accountable, they would not

get away with it entirely.

The Government, in the

meantime, might consider

amending the Crimes Act to

permit longer sentences when

someone is found guilty of

criminal nuisance.

David Hay

(Epsom, Auckland)

Surely those who made the

decision to allow the CTV

Building to be reoccupied after

the initial September 2010

earthquake are just as culpable

in its subsequent collapse, if

not more so, than the original

designers?

John Northcott

(Warkworth)

ANCESTRAL PUZZLES

Edna Tait (Letters, March 3) has

obviously not studied much

history in relation to Jewish

ethnicity. The Jewish people,

as a distinct race, originated in