Waikato Times letter of the month

The Waikato Times is an excellent newspaper but its Letters to the Editor are the dottiest in the country. Here’s an example from the 9 March edition (not online yet):

Stop imports
The root cause of unemployment is employers moving local business overseas.
The only solution is to ban the import of goods manufactured overseas.
The NZ Army uniform order which was supplied by a local firm is now being supplied by China.
If the local manufacturers’ cost is high, the army should set up its own factory inside the prisons and put the prisoners to work for 10 hours a day and pay minimum Chinese wages.
The product will be cheaper, quality will be good, prisoners will learn a trade, and the money will circulate within the country.
Telecom and the banks should not be permitted to operate in New Zealand if they want to have their call centres overseas.
The Government should ban all imports including shoes and refrigerators, which will give birth to new industries in New Zealand.
It will provide more employment and consumers will not have to purchase the poor quality imports that flood the market. Ban imports for at least five years; it is not necessary for New Zealand to depend on imported goods. (Abridged)
MANO MANOHARAN
Hamilton

Note that this is the abridged version. What can the original have been like?

Leaving aside the economic illiteracy – just for starters, why would other countries buy our exports if we don’t buy theirs? – and the resulting sadness at the supermarket with no pineapples or bananas to be found, could Mr Manoharan possibly be an import himself?