OPINION

Local-only jobs

Re: "Cops nab Chinese tour guide", (BP, Feb 8).

Hiring local tour guides might be cheaper than importing foreigners to guide foreigners. However, employment laws such as this one that reserve certain professions for local people might be good for locals. However, some need updates and revisions to provide long-term benefits. Indeed, some laws impede the local workforce from competing in the international market.

Facts over mockery

Re: "Claims need proof", (PostBag, Feb 19).

Tarquin Chufflebottom calls ivermectin a "dewormer tablet". Over 100 peer-reviewed papers have demonstrated both its antiviral and anti-cancer properties.

Meanwhile, Dr William Makis is a practising oncologist with thousands of patients. He has a 4-year degree in immunology, a 4-year medical degree, and a 5-year specialisation in nuclear medicine, radiation, and oncology. He has run oncology clinics for many years and published over 100 peer-reviewed papers on cancer diagnosis and treatment. Chufflebottom is simply incapable of understanding any of this but chooses instead to pour scorn, which he confesses he likes to do. One wonders why.

Allies doubt America

Re: "US tensions plague final phase of German election campaign", (World, Feb 17).

Unlike US Vice President JD Vance's pointed observation that Europe, specifically Germany, could better respect the democratic principle of free speech, his boss's acts and reckless speech regarding Russia's war against Ukraine.

When US President Donald Trump proves the US not to be a reliable ally against aggressors such as Putin, he forces nations to reassess how best to protect themselves from very real threats.

Their solution is obvious. Had Ukraine had its own nuclear weapons rather than trusting in Nato with US support to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity, it would have had more sure protection. Even Putin would have thought twice about invading a neighbour with credible means of reducing Moscow to rubble.

The lesson is clear. If the US draws back from its historic post-WWII role of helping to enforce world peace (save when fomenting wars it desires) -- the Pax Americana that has endured for 80 years -- those nations bordering states like Russia will be acting sensibly by acquiring nuclear weapons as quickly as possible to fill the void that Trump is creating by retreating the US.

I find this new world order that Trump is recklessly birthing, apparently to MAGA exultation on a par with storming the US Capitol back in January 2021, to be more than a tad appalling.

Perhaps Trump does not worry about such things in his program of glorifying all things Donald Trump as usual because he thinks he won't be around to reap what he is sowing. That is as comforting as his gutting the scientific excellence that has founded American military and economic might since it scooped up scientists fleeing Germany before and after WWII.

Has Trump not learned his Thucydides? Does he not even know modern world history since 1933?

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