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GREY POWER BACKS VACCINE

Grey Power is pleased to note that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has arrived in the country and inoculations have already started with our most vulnerable workers. We look forward to this becoming available to our members, in fact, to all older people. We are all aware that vaccinations are the most effective way of protecting not only ourselves but also those around us. This is another way we can continue to be part of the ‘team of 5 million’ doing our duty to try to eradicate this virus from the community. Many of our seniors already utilise the various immunisation programmes available to ensure our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren are protected from the many illnesses which are part of our day-to-day living. I have no doubt they will be incredibly grateful when the time comes to partake of this latest immunisation so they can be confident they have done their bit to ensure they and their families can continue to live safely in the current environment. In recommending the vaccine to our seniors, it is also timely to remind them that we must continue to use the contact tracing app, sign into premises, wear a mask when out and about on public transport, social distance, wash our hands, stay home if sick and, if

Times, Tuesday, March 2, 2021 — 15 Your opinion matters to us. Email us at editor@times.co.nz; comment on our Facebook page, facebook.com/ timesonlinenz; or write to us at The Editor, Times Newspapers, PO Box 38232, Howick, Auckland 2145. Letters should not exceed 200 words and should carry the name, residential address and contact telephone number of the author.

necessary, get tested. Fortunately, our seniors are very adept at following rules when there is a requirement to protect themselves, their families and the community. The example they set will undoubtedly be followed by their families throughout the country and we will once again prove that the health guidelines as set by the Ministry of Health will continue to enable all to remain healthy and able to enjoy our way of life.

Jo Millar, Chair Grey Power NZ Federation Health National Advisory Group

MP: HERE ARE THE NUMBERS In response to correspondence from your reader Gil Laurenson (Times, February 23). According to data provided by the Auckland After Hours Network, overall overnight volumes to the year ending September 2020 there were roughly 2000 people per month requiring urgent care in clinics across Auckland. For East Care overnight for the year ending September 2020, roughly 650 people per month required. These statistics mean that East Care has been seeing approximately 33 per cent of all urgent care volume in the quarter to September 2020 (the latest data available) overnight.

Why Khojaly Khojalld lies in a strategic location in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan on the main road from Shusha and Khankendi .,"'" to Aghdam, and is close to the regional J �'." ,,,. :... -�·--"'��, )..L airport. Therefore, the Armed Forces of ,V I Armenia saw Khojalld as both a keld target ... and an opportunitld to intimidate the civilian population of Karabakh and c r u s h resistance t o the occupation.

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Khojaly Tragedy During the night of 25-26 Februarld 1992, the Armed Forces of th Armenia, backed bid the 366 Motor-Rifle Regiment of the former Soviet Union, launched a massive attack on the town. As the residents fled across the mountains, theld came under fire from Armenian Armed Forces. The attacks were especiallld brutal. Some people were shot in the face, others in the back of the head. Bodies were mutilated. A total of 613 people lost their lives that night; 106 were women, 70 were elderlld people, and 63 were children. 1275 were taken hostage, while the fate of another 150 people remains unknown. Eight families were completelld wiped out; 130 children lost one parent; and 25 children lost both parents.

There are four overnight urgent care clinics in Auckland. East Care was the largest provider by patient volume (and have been since at least 2017) and the only clinic not receiving DHB funding for an overnight service. These statistics show how important the East Care service has been for our community and the unfortunate reality that they will now be required to go to Middlemore Hospital Emergency Department, which is significantly overrun, and which put out a statement on the 15th of January requesting people not to come to the A&E Department. “Unless someone is experiencing an emergency we advise them to visit their local GP or Accident and Medical clinic.” This statement being ironic in that there won’t be an Accident and Medical Clinic option in east Auckland overnight.

Simeon Brown MP for Pakuranga

THANK YOU FOR HELPING ME I want to express a huge thank you to two gentlemen who came to my aid after falling beside the disabled car park and Picton Street on Thursday morning. An older gentleman tried to help but was unable to have the strength needed nor could my caregiver get me up from the gutter where I had fallen.

I was in pain, doubled up, screaming “Somebody help me, please” but there was no one around except the ladies from Barfoot and Thompson who were uncertain what to do. Suddenly a Chinese man arrived and miraculously heaved me up and into my wheelchair. I want to express my extreme gratitude for his help. (I did not get his name to thank him personally so I hope he reads this). As a paraplegic I am totally reliant on the goodness of people like these two gentlemen and I am so grateful to them for what they did. It is great to be part of a community which cares.

Gayleen Mackereth Howick

LET’S COUNT OUR BLESSINGS Re: Vaccination programme priority for 2021 by (MP) Simeon Brown (Times, February 23). No, Simeon Brown, there is no need to alarm us. Our lives are not driven by fear. Rreasonable people count their blessings. Our government has handled the pandemic with no tougher measures than were necessary. I usually compare New Zealand with other countries to get a better picture: New Zealand and Singapore – as you did. I found both are indeed similar in approach to Covid-19. Both started vaccinations in

Khojaly in international media

On March 3, 1992 the New York Times reported that, "Fresh evidence emerged todald of a massacre of civilians bid Armenian militants in Nagorno-Karabakh".

Armenian confession

Serzh Sarkisian, former president of Armenia, told British journalist Thomas de Waal: "Before Khojalld, the Azerbaijanis thought that the Id were joking with us, the Id thought that the Armenians were people who could not raise their hand against the civilian population. We were able to break that [stereotldpe]". (Black Garden, 2003, p. 172)

Brigitte Horne Howick

PARK PATHS A DANGER Re: the parlous state of the paths in Lloyd Elsmore Park I write in support of Joan Gilchrist’s February 16 letter regarding the dreadful state of the paths in Lloyd Elsmore Park. I contacted a Howick Local Board member on the same problem mid-last year and was directed to go to Auckland Council to seek resolution. What appals me is that no matter where the responsibility for repair lies, no one appears to be checking the park’s maintenance on a regular basis. Currently there is room for only one person to walk, with overgrown grass on either side and the path itself is badly cracked and broken. The system is a danger to life and limb. I’ll bet the farm that there will be sudden interest from all concerned when someone is injured.

Bob Howe Highland Park

Hope for restoration of a new life after the cold winter

"As we swooped low over the snow-covered hills of Nagorno-Karabakh we saw the scattered corpses. Apparentlld, the refugees had been shot as theld ran," journalist Anatol Lieven wrote in The Times newspaper.

Human Rights Watch recalls: "In Februarld 1992, Karabakh Armenian forces-reportedlld th backed bid soldiers from the 366 Motor Rifle Regiment of the Russian Armld-Seized the Azeri-populated town of Khojalld.... More than 200 civilians were killed in the attack, the largest massacre to date in the conflict".

February, same order of priority in the queue. Both depend on the supplies to come in as scheduled to vaccinate the entire population within a year. I do not agree Singapore is doing a better job. As regards the financial burden of Covid-19, we are globally in the same boat.

ARMENIA AND AZ.EIRBAIIAN THRQV()II Pl:-,.CI! AND WAR

black garden

The glorious armld of Azerbaijan restored territorial integritld of Azerbaijan and brought an end to the long-lasting occupation as the result of the Patriotic War. Deliberatelld attacking on civilian population during the 44 dalds militarld operations bid ballistic scud missiles and cluster rockets in Tartar, Ganja, Barda and Mingachevir, the Armed Forces of Armenia once again disclosed its terroristic nature, which theld had alreadld demonstrated in Khojalld in 1992.

Justice for Khojaly

Dispersed People At the result of occupation of Khojalld in 1992 bid Armenian Armed Forces inhabitants of the region became I DPs and took temporarld refuge in 48 districts in Azerbaijan.

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The Justice for Khojalld campaign, launched in 2008 at the initiative bid the Vice-President of the Helddar Alildev Foundation Leldla Alildeva, aims to raise international public awareness of the Khojalld Genocide and the root causes and consequences of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Under the Justice for Khojalld campaign the monuments for the memories of the Khojalld victims were erected in The Hague, Netherland; Berlin, Germanld: Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Mexico Citld, Mexico; and Ankara, Turkeld.

The almond tree will blossom again

IN KHOJALY