Duffer heaven

I HAD my first game at the newly configured Fremantle Public Golf Course which I thoroughly enjoyed. 

I played the old course for many years, but the new course is vastly improved with lovely, lush fairways and excellent greens. 

The new clubhouse has not yet been built and so there are no golf buggies, hire equipment or food and drinks. 

It costs only $15 for 9 holes after 3 pm.

Experienced golfers will probably find the course very easy but for casual duffers like me, it is ideal.

Eamon Murphy
East Fremantle

Live and let live

I REFER to the article that appeared in your last edition entitled “Health group pans Dockers booze deal” (Herald, March 19, 2022).

First of all, I would just like to say that I hold the staff at Cancer Council WA in very high regard and I really admire the work that they do.

However, two of the constants in life are sport and sponsorship and nothing is going to change that.

So unfortunately, unless this organisation is willing to take the place of “Pirate Life Pavilion” and throw a big bucket of money the Dockers way then the situation won’t change.

Like it or not, alcohol has played a big part in Australian culture since time memorial and if drunk sensibly, it doesn’t cause too much harm.

Maybe when I was younger the word “sensible” didn’t figure in my way of thinking, but I believe that I have a handle on it now.

So maybe we can ‘live and let live’ and continue to enjoy a game of football and a few drinks in moderation.

Steve Grady
Palmyra

Better than that

THANK you Herald for your story “Quick refugee visas not for everyone” (March 19, 2022).

Indeed. In about four weeks the Department of Home Affairs efficiently issued about 4000 visas to Ukrainians fleeing terrible circumstances in their homeland. 

About 750 have arrived and have access to work, study and Medicare. So good.

During the Afghan crisis in August, Australia efficiently evacuated some 4000 people in danger; months later DHA had received some 30,000 humanitarian visa applications. 

By November not one of those visas had been approved. 

Meanwhile there are murders every day in Kabul’s Hazara neighbourhoods, as well as in rural areas. We had a 20-year involvement in Afghanistan; surely we have some responsibility to respond to the crisis, recognise the dangers and act with some humanity.

Also not so good is the treatment of those who departed terrible circumstances in Afghanistan and arrived by boat.

For example, in 2013 Salah Abdul Kareem fled Iraq with his 14-year-old son. The Taliban were threatening him with his life.

He had worked with the US army in Afghanistan, his last job in the ministry of oil; terrorists had killed his brother in 2007. 

Abdul Kareem left his wife and younger son, thinking he would make the journey to this safe country and they could join him later. Instead he has been in detention for nine years.

Before the reopening of the offshore detention centres in 2013, thousands of Hazara Afghans escaped the Taliban, arrived by boat at Christmas Island, were deemed to be no threat and released into the community. 

They have lived among us for a decade, working and paying tax, but with no pathway to permanence, and since August last year desperately worried for their families in terrible danger from the Taliban – but family reunion is not permitted for those on temporary protection visas.

I applaud our kindness to Ukrainian refugees, but our refugee intake must be non-discriminatory.

I agree with Dawn Barrington; it clearly is not. We can do better.

Betty McGeever
Cottesloe

Carmel Cafe?

IT is wonderful news that Carmel Mullally’s house in North Fremantle will not be demolished.

If it does not pose a problem to be relocated, perhaps with approval from the family of Carmel, it could be renovated into a cafe/diner for the truckies.

Frank Cherry
Southlake

FCO enriches

MY wife and I have been regular attendees at the Fremantle Chamber Orchestra concerts for at least 10 years, generally in the Town Hall.

I feel embarrassed that I have failed to write letters of appreciation to the Herald or the FCO itself. 

Be that as it may, the FCO plays terrific classical music. 

We are enriched by their contribution to our enjoyment with such a plethora of music. 

Over these many years, we have delighted in the inclusion of lovely classical pieces seldom performed in the standard repertoire.

Thank you, FCO!

Tim Johnson
Leeming