Climate change:

James Burke writes: Dick Kleeman’s assertion (yesterday, comments) that “We have had the most benign summer and winter weather on the east coast of Australia over the past dozen years” is both untrue and offensive.

In January-February 2009, somewhere between 200 and 500 people are likely to have died as a result of the record heatwave and attendant fires that hit the southeast of the country.

Mr Kleeman is entitled to his delusions but isn’t it time Crikey showed some more discernment in what it publishes as “alternative views”? I assume you edit out the rantings of “truthers” and so on, why do global warming deniers get so much exposure?

Harold Thornton writes: Re. Dick Kleeman This global warming nonsense is just like gambling. I’ve been playing the pokies for years. What would these mathematicians know about my chances of winning big time?  They can’t even predict what will happen the next time I push the button, and yet they say if I keep on playing I’ll lose. What a joke!

And Tamas Calderwood (yesterday, comments). A price on carbon won’t alter people’s behaviour one iota.  They’ll just keep on paying regardless of how much it costs.  What a joke!

Hong Kong:

Michael R. James writes: Re. “Letter from: Hong Kong, where democracy has stalled” (yesterday, item 14). Simon Roughneen wrote: “An expanded panel of 1200 will choose the successor, out of a population of 7 million people. The regions Legislative Council, or Legco, is partly chosen by popular vote, but half the seats are controlled by special interest groups.”

Yes, but is it such a terrible system? Even without the poor representativeness of the Australian electoral system (Greens: 1.45M votes, 11.8% national vote, 1 seat), and considering that the Brits ran HK for 156 years without any universal suffrage, we need to be restrained in judgement. Some of those “special interest groups” are community elders or representatives.

One would have to say it works pretty well and also seems reasonably responsive to community concerns. Let California be a sobering lesson in not taking democracy so far it causes paralysis. (Yet Californians would be quite happy with HK’s low tax regime!)

And it is a glass half full. The CCP may never want to relinquish its absolute power but their observations from watching HK might be a powerful model of how the PRC could evolve to handle the building pressures (of wealth inequality, regional inequality, corruption, justice, governance) in the vast mother country. As to rivalry between Shanghai and HK, China could sustain half a dozen stock exchanges the size of HKs.

As the author says, the Pearl River Delta mega-region (that includes Guangzhou, HK & Macao, and the Shenzhen & Zuhai SEZs) is second only to the Shanghai region (not just in China but the world) in scale, dynamism and sheer energy, and cannot be suppressed. To worry about Shanghai-v-HK would be like saying NYC, Chicago and LA could not co-exist in the one country.

But then I am an unabashed fan of Hong Kong. In fact I am thoroughly besotted with it. There is no other place in the world that gives such a buzz upon arrival. It is not just that it is an amazing physical place — the ceaseless activity on the harbour as you cross on the Star Ferry with that glittering cityscape backdrop — but more to do with the palpable dynamism, having provided opportunity to so many (most arrived there as impoverished refugees), “the world’s freest economy”, culturally vibrant and all from a barren rock.

I would swap a whole raft of our corporate and mining fat cats for one Li Ka Shing.  And I would swap the whole opposition front bench for one Anson Chan and probably the whole parliament for one Lydia Dunn. I wish we could lease their Legco to come and run Australia for a decade or so, and knock us into shape. No chance of course, it is too dull here.

Jackie Chan lived in Canberra for a while with his parents (refugees from Shanghai, now in Gungahlin Cemetery in Canberra) and worked as a labourer on building sites there but went back to HK and the rest is history, and our loss.

Peter Slipper:

Niall Clugston writes: Re. “Labor on a slippery slope with its colourful deputy speaker” (yesterday, item 1). I question Bernard Keane’s emphasis on Peter Slipper’s character in his piece on the election of the Deputy Speaker. Surely the most important point is that Action Abbott has so alienated the cross-benchers that they won’t even vote for his choice of a Coalition candidate.

New Delhi:

Bruce Graham writes: Re. Bob Smith (yesterday, comments), I have visited Delhi twice in the last 12 months. It is not as dirty and chaotic as Dhaka. It is less scary than most of Africa. The Australian media portrays it no more inaccurately than almost every other non European city I have ever visited. Most people are kind, honest, and helpful, but they are not the ones homing like buzzards towards a fresh face at the New Delhi railway station.

It is hard to find anybody (Indian or not) who describes Delhi as their favourite city. To be fair, people from Mumbai often criticise Delhi for being too slow and dull. Northern India in the dry season is for people who do not mind dust, thrive on chaos, and are not easily frightened by a crowd which may or may not be friendly. In the wet it is the same, but substitute mud for dust.

One day’s drive, to the north ( Kashmir) and peace is enforced at gunpoint. One day’s drive to the Northwest brings Amritsar, where the Golden Temple is not only one of the great religious monuments of the world, but a standing reminder of the conflict between Islam and Hinduism, with the Sikhs (geographically, and perhaps culturally) caught in the middle.

The violent partition of India was more than 60 years ago, and inter-communal riots are rare, but there is in the North an underlying sense that courtesy is important because the stakes are high.  Take that as you will.

Sarah Murdoch:

Andrew Dempster writes: Re. “Media briefs: the Model screw-up … The Oz ‘campaigning’ … SD for AFL GF …” (yesterday, item 19).  Why is Crikey even commenting on this model “story”? The first question you must ask — is it reality television? If yes, then *it’s not real*.

This was clearly a fake piece of nothing but PR. It managed to fool the SMH, ABC’s 702 and Crikey (these are just the outlets I’m aware of) and gain lots of free publicity. Murdoch’s “acting” when she got it wrong was so unconvincing, even a future in “reality” is beyond her…

A locust plague calls for an ibis wedge:

Jackie French writes: Re. “Crikey Clarifier: Locusts — who are they and why are they here?” (yesterday, item 12). One large mob of ibis (in the right place at the right time) can eat two tonnes of locusts a week. We don’t have a locust plague. We have an ibis deficiency.

And free range chooks and turkeys are pretty good too — the chooks turn into athletic ballerinas sweeping them from the air. Large vacuum cleaners — while sounding weird- turn locust plagues into excellent fertiliser.