Well we’ve all become used to obese boys and girls. Problem is their obese parents have to get over their own bad habits before insisting on lifestyle changes for their children.

Corporate bribery of weak governments has seen the normalizing of a fat Australia and it’s not just a problem for us, it’s a fat world out there that needs to stop playing into the tastebuds of weak politicians and unsupervised children.

Brian Johnson, Gymea

The letter by Andrew Sefton (Illawarra Mercury, September 17, 2016) is just as offensive to myself as it is to all the other Australians who took the trouble to exercise a democratic vote.

I voted for Pauline because I am sick and tired of the way Australian assets are being sold off by his political mates. Never before are so many so-called honorable politicians from both sides of the mainstream spectrum being investigated for corruption.

How many more of our aged, youth, unemployed and our sick and homeless have to be trod on by the likes of Baird, Turnbull, Shorten, and Morrison?

Dave Cox, Corrimal

I read Mr Ben Morris’ letter (Illawarra Mercury, September 15, 2016) with surprise. Yes, many Vietnamese refugees have roots in North Vietnam but they did not move south because of the war; they moved to escape the notoriously brutal communist regime.

They did again in the post 1975 exodus after the war already ended, for the same reason. To understand communism, you must live with them.

Communist North Vietnam raised the war (cheating the world via its cover organisation called The National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam) flouting the 1954 Geneva Convention, and invaded the South, dishonouring their signature in the 1973 Paris Accord. There is no glory for the offenders, Mr Morris.

They were not mere participants, they were invaders. History does not recognise criminals’ deaths no matter how large their loss. Only the victims are honoured, in this case, the Republic of South Vietnam Arm Forces.

Communists bulldozed the cemetery to revenge the (dead) soldiers of South Vietnam, whom when alive, the North Vietnam could not match in battles.

Yes, beating, torture, killing were common in world history. In the Vietnam War, the South had Open Arm policy, treated the wounded or the captured humanely, while the North shot even their own injured soldiers to reduce burden on veteran pension. They left 1.2 million  ex-soldiers of the South to die in prisons (disguised as Re-education Camps) through harsh labour, poor food ration and no treatment, medical or surgical, to any of those victims.

Dr Anh Nguyen, President, Vietnamese Community in Australia – WA Chapter

I am puzzled by Dr Anh Nguyen’s unrelenting and unforgiving bitterness over the outcome of the civil war in Vietnam over 40 years ago.

Vietnam’s transition from being a former French colony, then to the war itself following France’s reluctant departure in 1954, and finally to Vietnam’s eventual reunification after the war ended in 1975, may be unpalatable to Dr Anh Nguyen but to most Australians, Vietnam now simply represents an enjoyable tourist destination.

No matter whether one supported Australia’s involvement in the war as the good doctor clearly did, or opposed it as I and many other Australians did, it’s all history now. Please let it go.

John Martin, Woonona