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Francesco Sisci, thanks for your great essay [Bush, Hu to meet at crucial crossroad, Oct 29]. It presents a well-balanced and informative view of the current situation. I have only one comment, regarding your paragraph dealing with Japan's worry about the shipping lanes via Taiwan. A carefule examination of the geography shows that this is not the case (please see maps and discussions here.) I have also tried a search myself, but all I could find is indirect reporting on the "concerned Japanese" view on the Taiwan shipping lane. I would be interested to know the original text or speech of such concern, and who in Japan had presented such view.
Sun Bin (Oct 31, '05)


Francesco Sisci in Beijing argues a good case [Bush, Hu to meet at crucial crossroad, Oct 29]. Yet, conditions for George W Bush have changed so dramatically in the past week, any meeting with Hu Jintao would put the American president at a net disadvantage. For in the past week, more of Bush's chickens have come home to roost. In the wake of his failure to deal competently with the after effects of Hurricane Katrina and his inability to rein in spiking gasoline prices, he finds his own vice president's right-hand man indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice; his hand-picked candidate for the Supreme Court taking herself out of the running after causing cracks in his right wing, Christian electoral base; the war in Iraq taking the American body count over 2000. Bush has low cards in dealing with China. He is playing with a weak hand. Hu knows this full well and will press his advantage. The United States is in the grip of inertia till the end of Bush's presidency. The 43rd president is wounded. Washington's ship of state will willy nilly stray without a seasoned captain. Three more years of Bush in the Oval Office will put another nail in the coffin of an America in decline.
Jakob Cambria
USA (Oct 31, '05)


Franceso Sisci is totally off base in giving the impression that Japanese victory over Russia early last century and the victories in Asia in early World War II were victories to free the Asian from white colonialists. This is definitely without regard to historical facts. The Japanese did not liberate fellow Asians. They came to enslave. When the Asian conquered were enslaved, they certainly did not feel liberated. Who needs a new master in place of another? The Japanese revisionists cannot fool the Asians who sufffered under Japanese brutality. And now many of us are wondering whether the Japanese of tomorrow, free from any real historical education, will try to subjugate the rest of Asia once again on the back of the US.
Jack Chua (Oct 31, '05)


This is with reference to Kaveh L Afrasiabi's prodigiously well written piece, Iran, Israel: The good, the bad and the ugly [Oct 29]. From Tel Aviv to Riyadh to Dhaka to Islamabad, the world cannot understand the high-on-rhetoric and low-on-content statements made by the president of Iran. These statements do nothing to support the cause of peace and do not help the Palestinians in any way. In fact they do the exact opposite. For a quarter of a century Iran had fraternal relations with Israel. Afrasiabi correctly points out that "Cyrus the Great's edict in 534 BC which, after liberating the enslaved Jews in the Kingdom of Babylon, allowed them to return to their promised land." In the 7th century Omar bin Khattab, when he liberated Jerusalem also allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem. In the 12th century it was Sultan Salahuddin Ayubi to liberate Jerusalem and allow the Jews back into the city. The current Iranian-Israeli tiff is a historical anomaly. If Iran had the gumption to do anything about the Middle East it should have. The fact remains that it could not even remove a government in Afghanistan, nor eliminate Saddam Hussein. Making rhetorical and tall statements only exacerbates a volatile situation. Jews and Muslims fought together against the Nazis in the Battle of Bulge and the battlefields of Stalingrad to defeat Nazism. The 800-year Jewish-Muslim-Christian symbiosis in Spain, the nurturing of Moses Maimonides and the greater Jewish community in Egypt, the nurturing of Jews under the Ottomans and in the Mughal era are great historical facts that should be used to build cooperation in the present time. The government and people of Israel know the difference between an irresponsible statement and the greater world of Islam. It is important for the world to know and Israelis to know that there is no resonance of this nonsense in the world and no resonance to this balderdash in the Muslim world. Hopefully the press will not use this statement to unleash a new wave of Islamphobia and bigotry. Nothing in rejecting this bigoted statement prevents us from supporting the two-state solution in the Middle East, or objecting to the Israeli government for their bad policies towards the Palestinains. However this can be done better with engagement, rather than isolation of Israel. We still support the right of the Palestinians to statehood, even though their self-centered politicians did not even have the decency to send a single penny or even a condolence message to the [Pakistan] earthquake victims. We are part of a local group focused on building bridges of harmony and Pakistani-Americans have been overwhelmed by the support of our local synagogues in collecting relief supplies for the victims of Pakistan. We applaud this sense of community and we are thankful of this support. This is the community that we can be all proud of, not the one based on hatred and bigotry. Let us work together to throw anti-Semitism and Islamphobia into the dustbin of history.
Moin Ansari (Oct 31, '05)


Ramzy Baroud (Rolling Back Syria, Oct 29) wrote that it's "unscrupulous" to solely single out Damascus as the only likely suspect in Hariri's murder. Detlev Mehlis, commissioner of the UN-sanctioned investigation into the Feb 14, 2005 assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister, Rafik Hariri and 22 other individuals, concluded that there is "probable cause" that high-level Syrian security officials, with the aid of their Lebanese counterparts under Emile Lahoud, conspired to murder Hariri. The evidence, taken as a whole, is compelling. To cite just two pieces of evidence: The bomb that killed Hariri comprised about 1,000 pounds of TNT, and created an enormous crater in the road. Lahoud, or his immediate underlings, ordered the crater to be filled the very next day! And Syrian leader Bashar Assad has stonewalled the investigation at every turn, taking a month to respond to Mehlis' initial request to interview Syrian officials, only to refuse the request. Later, he only agreed to submit a letter containing the written responses of several officials. Finally, under increasing international pressure, Assad relented to allow a few of the requested interviews (although he himself refused to be interviewed). Beyond this, Mehlis' report presents an array of strong evidence, all of which points toward the probable involvement of Syrian security officials in Hariri's murder. None of this, of course, constitutes proof of Syrian complicity. However, during all the months of Mehlis' investigation, the earlier investigation by the Lebanese, and the forensic analyses of the bomb sites by teams from Switzerland, Germany, Japan, etc, no one turned up any substantive evidence to corroborate Ramzy Baroud's implication that there are other "likely suspects". I also doubt the accuracy of Baroud's claim that Syria has "fully cooperated" in the war on terror. How could anyone other than Bashar Ashad and a few top Syrian officials possibly know such a thing? If the US State Department has ever stated that Syria has "fully cooperated" in the war on terror, I think their statement should be challenged. It seems likely that any statements that the US State Department has made in praise of Syrian actions, were directed toward specific actions at specific times, and were made in the hope that those actions would be part of a pattern of humane behavior, rather than a ruse.
Jahiliya
New York City, USA (Oct 31, '05)


Ramzy Baroud [Rolling Back Syria, Oct 29] may be on to something. We may just be dealing with a simple case of private jet envy. Whatever happened to his 777 anyway?
Sullivan
USA (Oct 31, '05)


Dear Spengler,
I'ma leader of a world super power. I got my thumb on a BIG RED botton and God keeps telling me to PUSH it. So far I have been able to just invade and brutalize another country into submission (the lesser of 2 weevils). But now that this country's neighbor says they want to Barbie-Que a whole country full of folks on the meditar-anian(Sp?). So my question is, Should we go ahead and SHAKE AND BAKE that neighbor or keep going with the standard SHOCK AND AWE thingy. Appreciate ur hep on this pardner.
Concerned at Camp D (Oct 31, '05)


Re Hidden motives in anti-corruption campaign, Oct 29, by Mark A DeWeaver: It has already been proven that corruption in China went up a thousand fold during the watch of Jiang Zemin. It has also been proven that the guilty parties were people with political power and connections. So who can these culprits be if they are not in myriad ways connected to the Jiang administration? When Hu Jintao cast his net around, who else but Jiang's men were found caught in the net? As the public is no longer satisfied with the swatting of "corruption mosquitoes", so Hu must show his commitment to the cause by tackling some voracious "corruption tigers". It is no surprise that those "tigers" turned out to be closely linked to the Jiang clique. How else could one become such "tiger" in China without the backing of political powers from the centre? Can DeWeaver then conclude that the prosecution of these men was part of the power struggle between factions in the party and that Hu needed to take the knives to these "tigers" just to consolidate his power? The facts rather showed that Hu would have to be already secure in his position before he would even dare to confront these powerful, entrenched "tigers". DeWeaver also sees Hu using the anti-corruption drive to cool down China's economy. Again he does not make the case for a motive even though one of the side effects of the anti-corruption campaign could very well have cooled the investment-driven economy. Let's give Hu a chance before ascribing unsubstantiated motives to his government. One can believe that tackling the corruption pandemic is essential to the survival of the regime and that Hu is trying to do it without adopting the recommendation of democrats for a multi-party system or a complete empowerment of the media in order to reap the power of the Fourth Estate for the supervision of the executive branch of the government.
Chan Ah Tee
Malaysia (Oct 31, '05)


I wanted to thank you all for publishing such informative articles. I am a geography Masters student who is focusing on East Asia and I am very grateful for the resource that your site provides. These thorough articles are just the sort of informed dialogue that needs to be discussed. Hisane Masaki's paper [Where Japan is heading, Oct 26] is another great article and one that brings up many serious questions. The revision of the constitution will certainly be a major issue in the near future and it will be very interesting to see how it plays out with Japan's neighbors, and at home, especially if Article 9 is overhauled. Also of great interest, and perhaps as much significance, will be the reaction to the incorporation of "love of country" references in the preamble and a possible resurgence of nationalism if, and when, that occurs. Thank you very much and keep up the good work.
Joel Stewart
Portland, USA (Oct 31, '05)


Re Follow the drugs: US shown the way (Oct 27): Kudos to Ramtanu Maitra for his effulgent dissection of the world drug trade. I have become a true fan of Maitra. His in-depth analysis gives us reason to pause, because the drugs actually end up in our middle and high schools and affect the future generation of America and the world. The Afghan warlords are taking the NATO forces and America for a ride ... Future generations will never forgive us for tolerating [Afghan President] Karzai and his drug kingdom ...
Moin Ansari (Oct 28, '05)


Re Hu goes to the Hermit Kingdom [Oct 27], by Jing-dong Yuan. The US is the country with the most superstitious belief in using nuclear weapon as a means to threaten other nations and thereby achieving its national interests. As such, the US believes that other nations will use the nuclear threat in the same way. The US is thus petrified by the prospect of nuclear proliferation. China has not felt and will not feel threatened to the same degree. China was not intimidated by consistent threats of nuclear annhilation from the former USSR and the US. Why should China be intimidated by a nuclearized South Korea, Japan or Taiwan? The new nuclear blackmail that the US imposes on China by hinting that it might allow Japan, South Korea and Taiwan to be nuclearized does not constitute the rationale for China's efforts in persuading North Korea to negotiate with the US. However, it is still in China's interest to defuse the situation in Northeast Asia brought about by the US's not so secret agenda. A successful resolution of the nuclear question will bring peace to the region which will be conducive to gradual change in North Korea, the unification of the two Koreas and perhaps consequently the removal of the rationale for the military alliance between South Korea and the US. China wants peace and the political and economic integration of North Korea into the general uplifting of the Northeast Asian region, which will also include Russia, and maybe Japan. Therefore China has its own nuclear agenda: it will not be acting as the '"running dog'" of the US in the so called "anti-proliferation" scam. (The US is selectively proliferating nuclear armaments to countries like Israel and India and is continuing with its own nuclear weapon research to perfect its nuclear stockpile.) China and Russia back the North Koreans for their insistence on having nuclear energy for civilian use. Japan is openly insisting that it can produce hundreds of nuclear warheads in a short time from its own civilian nuclear technology and capacity. This is a threat, of course, as is the US, which will decide what Japan does. China can do likewise with North Korea. As the US can do quite a lot with Japan's nuclear capacity in terms of a threat, so China will not let go the option to do the same with the North Korean civilian nuclear capacity. Fair is fair.
Chan Ah Tee
Malaysia (Oct 28, '05)


I refer to Iran on course for a showdown (Oct 28). While the Americans and Israelis have been threatening to bomb Iran with nuclear weapons (threatening to wipe Iran off the face of the earth), the same way they are wiping Iraq and Iraqis off the face of the earth, the Iranian president has just responded to the Americans and Israelis with their own medicine. Americans have been threatening the world with their pre-emptive strike policies and have carried out invasions to enforce their will on others. It is time someone stands up to this tyranny. The Iranian president has said nothing that is not wished and desired by a majority of the Iranians but also by a majority of the people of the Third World who feel threatened by arrogant Americans and Israelis. Three cheers for Ahmedinjedad!
Vincent Maadi
Cape Town, South Africa (Oct 28, '05)


Tatsuo Sasaki (letter, Oct. 27), may I remind you of your opening sentence (letter, Oct 18) which reads as follows: "[Junichiro] Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni this Monday showed once again how great a leader he is." Followed by a whole lot of unrealistic expectations that Koizumi's actions actually foster peace and goodwill between the nations and demand respect for a Japanese military-Shinto ritual. Your opening statement alone made the antennas of all your neighbors go on red alert! At least you seem to agree with my answer to your question (1). My answer to your question (2) you say is a hotter issue. Perhaps you don't know that even if some ignorant people believe that all Japanese are stupid, which is deplorable, you only need a minority of extreme rightwing Japanese to control Japanese politicians. You were a 15- year-old boy when the mayor of Nagasaki, Hitoshi Motoshima, was shot in the back by Japanese fascists for daring to suggest that Emperor Hirohito had to bear responsibility for the war in Asia. Motoshima san had made this statement on December 7, 1988, when you were 13 years old. The following day, on December 8,1988, Nagasaki city legislators and the regional branch of the Liberal Democratic Party demanded a retraction of the mayor's words. So much for the "wisdom" of Japanese politicians. I'll amend my answer to your hot-issue question (2): If you believe and Koizumi thinks that visiting the Yasukuni shrine fosters peace and goodwill among the nations, you demonstrate that even intelligent Japanese don't dare to speak out for fear of meeting Hitoshi Motoshima's fate. No, Tatsuo Sasaki, the majority of the Japanese, including you and Koizumi, haven't learned a thing.
AL
Canada (Oct 28, '05)


You don't hear much about Cindy Sheehan these days. Not unless you want to get your dose of hate-filled rhetoric from Michael Moore's fair and balanced website. But if you wait long enough you may just see her take over the news cycle and overshadow more important news such as who said what to whom when at what time about a CIA "covert" agent whose name is even known by the local paper boy in her neighborhood. But in order for Ms Sheehan to take prominence over such momentous developments she may have to do something crazy, like tie herself to a fence or something. Other than that, one wonders if Ms Sheehan will be able to regain her celebrity mom status now that the media is more focused on embarrassing someone else like the president or vice-president and have all but forgotten about this avid camping aficionado.
Miguel A Guanipa
Whitinsville, USA (Oct 28, '05)


I wish to bring attention to a very sad fact that Aung San Suu Kyi has nearly spent 10 years in detention in Burma, imposed on her by country’s brutal military regime. The junta has been responsible for systematic and widespread human rights violations and abuses against its people: used rape of the young and innocent women as a weapon of fear, compulsory relocation of people, forced labor, use of child soldiers and persecution of religious minorities to impose its vulgar will on the people. It is one the poorest countries in the world and the main source its revenue is illegal trafficking heroin and amphetamines ... Why has Burma gotten away with the worst crimes imaginable committed against its people? The Security Council is just an onlooker and has failed to apply Chapter VII of the UN Charter as it did in Afghanistan, Yemen, Rwanda and Cambodia, thus allowing the junta to tyrannize the Burmese with impunity. The fact of matter is that China benefits enormously in trading with the generals and has friendly relations with the regime; Europeans are no better when it comes to export booty. I get very curious at the double and duplicitous standard of President George W Bush and Britain’s feeble, wink-wink and blinkered stance in confronting the junta head-on.
Saqib Khan (Oct 28, '05)


Tasty food? Comfortable hotels? The horror! Tibet has been turned into a veritable Las Vegas!!! I mentioned that ANYONE can go to Tibet and witness for themselves if there's an "ongoing genocide" as claimed by Brij and Wiejayasingha. I said I could recommend good eats and comfortable hotels (my words twisted to "luxurious hotels" by the honest gentleman), and voila, I'm some kind of a sex tourist revelling in the desecration of Lhasa!! This illustrates clearly the sick minds and quantum leaps of logic that people consumed with illogical hatred are capable of when faced with a barrage of criticism of their support of resurgent Japanese neofascism, simply because the target and victims are Chinese. These are people who paint the entire ethnic Chinese population in East Asia with the brush of "mass murderers" of Tibetans. Any normal person will know that there are always grey areas, and nothing is absolute. "Genocide" figures are unquestioningly cited from exiled Tibetan sites without simple caveats as to how such precise population census can be conducted OUTSIDE Tibet, even while Brij admonished that Tibet is a vast territory, ignoring the fact that reputed human rights organizations such as the ICJ circumvent these "allegations" while citing specific incidents when they raise the Tibetan issue with China. Take the astounding charge that Lhasa has been transformed into a "flesh-trade" destination. Use some logic: the Chinese are astute businessmen, would it make ANY sense to plough such monies into Lhasa, instead of say, Shanghai? Further, the fact that schools, hospitals, new homes, major infrastructure have been built isn't attributable to "modernization" but a nefarious scheme to conduct "cultural genocide", or worse, "rape" Tibetans who are presumed to be content to spin prayer wheels and labor as illiterate serfs to the Dalai Lama theocracy to the end of their lives. These concerned parties never mentioned the annexation and continued occupation of lots of other territories in the world - Okinawa, Sikkim, Hawaii, New Mexico, etc, which really make their "moral crusade" suspect ... This comic exchange has reached the point of diminishing returns. All the endless indignant harping, not to mention character assassination, only because I said that the Asian holocaust and the Tibetan issue are clearly SEPARATE, without even volunteering an opinion except to testify that there isn't an ongoing genocide and bloodshed in Tibet as claimed. These people ... are doing their cause a huge disservice.
L Kirchhoff (Oct 28, '05)



Reply to AL [letter, Oct 26]: I'm glad that you answered my question, so we can talk about it. Reading your story I can know a little about you, and I guess you are older than I (now I'm 30), you have a long life experience. I respect your sentiments. Probably my words mean little, or nothing, for you, but I feel very sorry for what happened to your mother, and you. I believe Japanese commited many terrible mistakes during wartime, and surely I'm not proud of what happened and I wish that it had not happened. About question 1, although I'm not a politician as you suspected, I agree with you that Japan's past is not clearly written in text books, or discussed and acknowledged in Japanese society. I think that a full, open discussion, without anger or fear, about what happened (and mainly about what is happening) in Asia and the world would be healthy for everybody. Regarding answer 2, I think it will be a hotter issue. I guess that your point of view about contemporary Japanese is not very fair, because you [imply] that all Japanese are stupid, that they believe things like "Koreans invited them to control their natural resources for them", or "Japanese believe that they are just poor innocent victims", etc. I agree that there are some Japanese who believe these things, but ordinary Japanese do have some idea of mistakes that were commited in the past. So, going back to the initial issue, when someone visits Yasukuni it doesn't mean that he or she is proud of Japanese war criminals.
Tatsuo Sasaki (Oct 27, '05)


I am in full agreement with AL's letter with regards to the general Japanese attitude of higaisha ishiki. Look at [Prime Minister Junichiro] Koizumi's unrelenting habit of giving the people of China, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia the finger. He lacks humility. Forty-six percent of Japan's population think it is not right to visit the Yasukuni shrine when he is PM. Even one of the Japanese courts agreed that he is in contravention. Yet he continues to visit the shrine. He has no concept of humility and human relationship. He has no concept of contrition. He is of the opinion that as long as he has sort of apologized, he is free to pray in a shrine that worships war criminals. Now that the Americans are his great friends, he has no real need of his neighbours. Just like pre-WW II days when Japan was aligned with Germany and Italy to form the axis to subjugate the world. Fortunately the Americans are an enlightened lot and view Japan more like a cash machine for their needs. Eventually Koizumi will be gone and hopefully a leader of substance can be gleaned from the Japanese population whom the outside world can respect uniformly ... Many other readers like to confuse the issue by saying that China's government is not freely elected like those of India or Japan. We know the Japanese election is a farce because the same party has been entrenched in power since inception. In India they have a better democracy, but for whom? The poor remain in abject poverty as the rich get even richer. I am not saying China is better or India or Japan is worse. There is good and bad in every system. Japan works because of its homogenous population and their homogenous beliefs and not because of free elections. India is not working as well because of too much diversity and historical millstones. China is working now because the Chinese are true capitalists and individualists. They have capitalized on globalization and trade, becoming the workshop of the world. Coupled with the Internet, wireless communication and mass media, the Chinese are relevant again.
Steven
Toronto, Canada (Oct 27, '05)


[Re A vote, a strike and a sleight of hand, Oct 26]: The IAEA vote against Iran by India was quite likely produced by the China factor. Even though I would not have advised such a move, I respect the decision of the Indian prime minister in this matter. The crucial question that the Indian government perhaps asked itself could have been this: "Given a choice between antagonizing India and antagonizing China, what choice would Iran make?" If one concludes that Iran would choose [not to antagonize] China because of its UN Security Council seat (something that US doesn't support India for), and help with missile and nuclear technology, then India is forced to consider the question: "What other geopolitical arrangement would enhance India's influence materially over the continued ambivalence of the present times?" Dealing with the US is tricky business. The US, like any major power, believes in control over principles - with the only inexplicable exception being China, where it has neither control nor any principle involved. Towards China, the US still has a Kissingerian hangover. Towards India, American policies appear arrogant - the US wants India to heed American sensitivities about Iran, but pays no heed to Indian sensitivities about the Pakistani military being armed with American weapons. If America fails to meet Indian concerns this time, India just might start appreciating the fact that Iran has enough uranium for both the countries' needs.
Brij (Oct 27, '05)


Ramtanu Maitra made a prodigious analysis on the prolific opium production in US-puppet ruled Afghanistan in Follow the drugs: US shown the way [Oct 27]. The proclivity of US troops and the Karzai government to clandestinely bless the poppy growers helped Afghanistan's rise in the opium business. No matter that millions of innocent youth get addicted to heroin and opium-related drugs, no matter that thousands of young teens die in their salad days, no matter that Afghanistan sails close to the wind in becoming the world’s largest opium producer; the US would still continue to occupy Afghanistan and provide safe haven to those illegally legal poppy farmers ... It is obvious that the US and its allies are profiting from the heroin business, and the outcome will be the destruction of the Western world, as Maitra pointed out. During British rule in India, the opium processed in the factories in Calcutta used to be exported to China. In 1880, there were 15 million confirmed opium addicts in China, and the Chinese government collapsed from within, in 1912. As the saying goes, "Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it." It seems the Western world is undergoing a major attack on its civilization through [drugs], owing to their own material greed and utter disdain for humanity. Skanda’s blustering mail (Oct 26) lacks logic. He cannot see the reality of the day. I would like to inform him that Afghanistan under Taliban reign was much better than rule under the present US-puppet regime. The utter lawlessness, disorder, anarchy, lootings, carnage and the destruction of Afghan infrastructure are all concatenations of US invasion. True, the women were forced to hide their bodies but the widows were never burnt to death along with their dead husbands on the piers; true, there were harsh punishments for robbers and murderers but the lower-ranked people were never treated as slaves ... I would also like to ask the writer, how could 40,000 people be responsible for the sin of one Osama? And why is Osama still not caught despite the US killing thousands of innocent civilians in his pursuit? And will he kindly tell us why the US slogan of “war against terrorism” so abruptly changed to a “mission to spread freedom and democracy through invasion and overthrowing the existing system of government?”
Mohd Salekun Noor
UAE (Oct 27, '05)


[Re Hu goes to the Hermit Kingdom, Oct 27 In spite of differences, China and North Korea maintain the closeness which is expressed in the Northern Sung's watchword, which in vivid imagery uses lips to protect teeth, and which Deng Xiaoping used during his visit to Pyongyang, thereby signaling China's good neighbor policy. Historical memory is ever-present to China. The Northern Sung, to ward off invasion, appealed to sister and rival the Southern Sung for aid and succor and to join battle with it. In a poetic flourish, the Northern Sung's lips offered to protect the Southern Sung's teeth. But the Southern Sung turned a deaf ear, and in consequence both Sung kingdoms fell to the conquering Ming. China is not willing to let North Korea fall to the United States' unreasonable demands. It has no interest to cede reassertion of ancient privilege before a weakening America with an inconsistent foreign policy in northeast Asia.
Jakob Cambria
USA (Oct 27, '05)


This goes out to the [Iranian Arab] separatist spokesman Nasser Ban-Assad of British Ahwazi Friendship Society [letter, Oct 22]. None of us here fall for your lies. [British Ahwazi Friendship Society] ties with the Saddamites are well known. You have called for the integral and historic part of Iran to join Iraq. Your members attacked the Iranian embassy in London. It is because of you and your pan-Arab and Saddamite allies that the noble Iranian Arabs suffer ... Iranian Arabs have proven their loyalties over and over again to Iran, and that fact makes your blood boil. Long live Iran.
Jamshid Petrossian
Ottawa, Canada (Oct 27, '05)


I wish to correct several of the statements made by Moin Ansari [letter, Oct 26]. 1) Nowhere did I advise him as to how to live his life. 2) Xenophobic bigotry and Islamophobia - such extremist talk amounts to cheap name calling which tarnishes the value of a good forum such as this. Writers can disagree and put forth their views without resorting to name calling. Religous fervor does not replace intelligent discussion. 3) Demonizing Islam - frankly, I have no interest in Islam nor have the time for it. With the rest of the world I am against Islamic terrorism. 4) Vitriol (caustic remarks) in a discussion is preferable any day to vituperative (abusive) talk from the likes of Ansari and Noor. 5) "Travel around India and you will find that most Indians do not care about Pakistan" - it is a fact and maybe Ansari should travel around and check it out. 6) I wonder why Ansari assumes I am a Hindu - I never mentioned anywhere my faith and it rightly does not matter in a healthy discussion. Ansari again needs to check his facts before he writes in future ... I notice there has been a healthy discussion about Japan and China between several writers and I have not noticed anyone descending to cheap name-calling.
Skanda
USA (Oct 27, '05)


Ian C Purdie [letter, Oct 26] writes, of Miguel A Guanipa's letter: "I have never met any pro-war supporter who has served his or her country in uniform." Though not the only one in the US, Mr Guanipa is one of those pro-war supporters who cheer on the lynch mob while avoiding direct participation in the risk involved. And one of those I at every opportunity invite to put their war-support and loud "patriotic" bravado into action: enlist, and demand to be sent to serve in Iraq. Either that, or crawl back into dark silence.
Joseph J Nagarya
Boston, USA (Oct 27, '05)


I wish your news site could realize what a wonderful opportunity it has to let us in the rest of the world learn about your part of the world. As an example, look at any of your headlines for your stories though, and see it is all about politics, and this side or that side is doing something wrong; or as we hear all the time, playing one race against another; or the poor against the rich. If you could only give us just the news - the good and the bad, without any political prejudice either way - anyone can make up their own mind if there should be a political slant to it. I have traveled many times there, and the intelligence, warmth and "I will find a way" attitude of every person I have met in Southeast Asia will always succeed. It might not happen by this weekend, but it will happen. The people are too intelligent, caring and wise to fail. I wish your website good luck, but please keep your own idea of politics and what is fair and right to yourself.
Nelson Emery (Oct 27, '05)

You can find the news in any of the vast number of publications that subscribe to newswires like AP and Reuters (and you will find they all run the same articles). We at least offer an alternative to the wire services, as well as provide an opportunity for Asians themselves to let their voices be heard (about what they think is fair and right). - ATol


I wish to reply to Skanda’s letter of October 26 and would like to inform him that I do study about almost anything and everything and write. I do not and will never use subjectivity as the criterion, but use objectivity to arrive at an opinion. If I feel impressed with something, I honestly feel encouraged to announce it, but certain things that I find diabolical, I have no hesitation in saying it loudly so that distinction can be made by the readers about truth and falsehood. I would like to inform Skanda that I spent many years of my early life in New Delhi and have many cherished memories of living around Hindu friends and finding many of their festival rituals fascinating but some distasteful ...
Saqib Khan
London, UK (Oct 27, '05)


Stephen Roach does an excellent job of highlighting the nature of US-China economic codependency [Tough flying for the global economy, Oct 26]. The reality, as Mr Roach observes, is that China is dependent on US consumption and that demand cannot simply be conjured up elsewhere at a moment's notice. Thus, China must continue to loan US consumers money in order to keep the demand for their exports high, at the expense of investing it in themselves. The question then becomes, which position is more enviable (or perilous), the lender or the debtor? If US consumers default on their debt, not only will demand for China’s industry disappear, but so will the wealth that they have created and loaned out. Conversely, the US will pay higher interest rates, but one can recover from bankruptcy. Could it be possible that the US has reached the point with its bank that the bank has so much of its money invested in one client it can’t afford to allow that client to fail and continues to make loans in hopes of success? The fact that China keeps producing at a frantic pace (ie, creating and keeping jobs) in light of a potential drop in demand may be a sign of concern instead of strength. These are interesting times.
Ken Arok
Vermont, USA (Oct 26, '05)


[Re Greenspan's conundrum, Oct 26] A better title would have been an "an abduction in absurdium". Still much of Mr Merks views reflect a somewhat classical interpretation of what provides clues to parts of a gargantuan economic inter- and intra-related series of interactions. Unfortunately (?) much of the present and possibly future interactions will require a "hip-hop" background rather than one based on the classics. The following is abstracted from a newspaper report ... and is a simile for the "new" wave of portraying the world through the eyes of a young university-attending couple. The young woman aged 21 and her male companion aged 24 reported to the authorities that over a period of eight hours they had each consumed a total of 25 alcoholic drinks. When the bar closed at 2am they went ot the young woman's Lexus only to find that she had locked her keys inside the car. Whereupon a good samaritan approached and offered to open the door for a $10 bill. In the process and according to the two young univeristy students, the good samaritan stopped working on opening the door and "forced" the two of them to smoke crack cocaine. The claim that China is flooding the US and/or the world with manufactured goods is like the claim made by those two inebriated students. Most if not all those products are manufactured at the request of Western interests. The price of a Walmart or a Kmart/Sears share reflects the profits those companies make on the manufacture and sale of products "Made in China". Bureacratic record keeping such as exports and imports statistics mean very little to multinationals located in one country and managing several production sites in other nations. The difference in the sums showing total exports from US to China and exports from China to the US, with the proviso that China is "giving it to the US", is a little infantile. When Alan Greenspan lowers interest rates to the point where individuals can purchase real estate for as little as $2,500 for a three-bedroom condominium that is priced at $250,000, is he not in a way proving what the young couple claimed the good samaritan was offering them? In either scenario Mr Greenspan will hand over his conundrum to Ben Bernanke in January 2006, and Dr Bernanke will need all the good luck to resolve the legacy. As for myself, when I attended college I had to take the streetcars of LA.
Armand De Laurell (Oct 26, '05)


Re Fong Tak-ho’s article Rice tour raises China’s energy hackles, Oct 25: What Ms Rice did or did not do would come as no surprise to the Chinese. For a while now, two "tectonic strategies" have been grinding and mashing against each other, the "containment" and the "anti-containment" of China is at play here. China had anticipated that her oil supplies from West Asia and other sources via the sea route might be threatened at some future time and has tried to plan for such a day. Its foray into Asia’s northeast for the Russian oil reserve was almost frustrated by the American ally, Japan. The initiative taken with the formation of the Shanghai Five [now Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)] must have been prompted by China's general security concerns for its western borders as well as for the potential oil supply from the Central and West Asian regions. A pan-Asian pipeline all the way from Iran through the "stans" to China would certainly be a strategic oil breakthrough for China. To think that this pipeline will encourage South Korea and Japan to gravitate into the Chinese orbit would be pure speculation but it is certainly something that is not outside the ken of the strategists in Washington. Perhaps it is not too much to say at this point that the emergence of American military and other influences in Afghanistan, etc, does complicate the picture for the Chinese oilmen. Perhaps even China’s invitation to Iran, Pakistan and India to come to the original Shanghai Five meetings as observers was a counter-move to the American presence in this area. But surely the encouragement given to the Indian navy by the Americans to extend its influence into the Andaman Sea, the Malacca Strait and beyond, and the American and Japanese initiatives in multi-national naval patrol of the vital Malacca Strait are all watched nervously by the Chinese. Strategic planners in Beijing have given serious thought to the possibility of setting up an oil terminal at a sea port with a pipeline to China, in friendly states like Pakistan, Bangladesh or Myanmar. The cutting of a canal through Isthmus of Kra in southern Thailand to bypass the Malacca Strait has been considered. One thing can be said with certainty, frustrated by the Unocal acquisition failure and the threats to her oil supply from West and Central Asia, China is not likely to relent over the contest with Japan for the oil in the sea it shares with Japan. It could very well be the new flashpoint.
Chan Ah Tee
Malaysia (Oct 26, '05)


To letter writers Brij, Chrysantha Wijeyasingha, Tatsuo Sasaki, et al: Strangely, most Japanese and some Indians are upset that China refuses to lick the feet of the West, and if that means grabbing on to Tibet, Taiwan, Xianjing, etc, then so be it. Using the yardstick of democracy and free speech that is constantly parotted by the anti-China crowd, may I suggest that we hear from the victims of China themselves. Last time I checked, the Dala Lama said Tibet will be better off being part of China. And the Taiwan legislature won't even pass a bill to buy US weapons. Meanwhile, I don't hear any outcry for the US to give the states of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California back to Mexico, or Hawaii back to the natives. I am not a fan of Frank of Seattle, but this anti-China crowd makes me look at dogs more closely.
Roy
US (Oct 26, '05)


Brij (letter, Oct 24) embodies a scary vision of what might happen if people forget too fast. Acting and living in peace for a certain number of years is no guarantee of eradication of a conquering thirst, racial/ideological bigotry and violent impetus. Germany was a peaceful country for a while after its defeat in WW I, but lack of repentance for its war crimes and misguided nationalism driven by the thirst for revenge plus world powers’ appeasement policies soon led to new disasters of an unseen magnitude. Japan’s trivialization of its war crimes, territorial disputes with all its neighboring countries, an ongoing campaign to dismember restraints on its military ambitions imposed by the US-drafted constitution, together with its economic and technological capability to produce the world’s most sophisticated conventional as well as nuclear weaponry almost overnight, are no jingle-bell ringings to countries trespassed by it in the past. On the other side, Japanese war-crime apologists had better not cheat themselves into the illusion that Japan’s remilitarization ambitions and emboldened hostility against its Asian neighbors are directed only at a rapidly rising China ... Americans do not have to visit Pearl Harbor to be reminded of what Japan is capable of if left unwatched or unleashed. If the allmighty US needs to keep 50,000 troops in Japan for over 60 years to ensure its security, why should not China be allowed even to voice its concern? While selling his brand of forget-and-forgive, Brij seems determined to hold on to his collection of nostalgia and imagination ... While Brij may feel sorry for himself that Tibet is no longer a Shangri-la wonderland where extraterritorials land to marvel at the earth’s beauty and richness, the reality is that Tibet was mostly uninhabitable and totally impoverished under a cruel slavery system and centuries behind even a less-developed China in economy before the 1950s, and it is today opened to the world and enjoying a fast improving social and economic life.
Raymond Cui
Beijing, China (Oct 26, '05)


It seems that we are heading toward another fiery fight between readers (Tibet and Japan). While I agree with the Chinese that Tibet cannot becompared with Japan’s atrocities, but since China suffered under Japan’s colonial rule, it must not replicate the same with the Tibetans, even to a lesser extent. Though Kirchhoff's argument [letter, Oct 24] seems reasonable, to understand the ground reality it is not enough [to note] that they are well fed or accommodated. In the Indian part of Kashmir, separatist leaders frequently call for strikes, and hold meetings and processions where anti-India voices can be heard. Are Tibetans enjoying the same liberties? Unless they are provided the same liberties it will be hard to read their minds ... China has made clear to its citizens in many ways that if people, even mainland Chinese, revolt against the government, they will be ruthlessly crushed. The Tiananmen Square incident is a glaring example. Once I read, “If you cannot prevent rape, then you better enjoy it”. I wonder whether Tibetans are happy because they have no alternative. Only Tibetans living in China can tell.
Shivanantham
Cuddalore, India (Oct 26, '05)


This is in response to Jennifer's remarks [letter, Oct 25] that daring to criticize China for its brutal excesses both within the nation and towards the Tibetan people amounts to nothing but "China bashing". But Jennifer never mentions that the leadership of China criticizing [Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro] Koizumi for visiting the Yasukuni shrine and all those who support the Chinese stand may be "Japan bashing". In the past China considered itself the Middle Kingdom, in other words, the kingdom around which the rest of the world revolves. Well that "Middle Kingdom" attitude died a long time ago and China cannot demand apologies from Japan for her past atrocities when China has done equal attrocities of her own and has not apologized for them. This is the 21st century and China or any other major power (even the US) is no longer so high above the rest of humanity that it cannot be held accountable for attrocities commited in the 20th century and still threatens other nations (Taiwan) if they dont toe the Beijing line. When China apologizes and compensates the victims of its atrocities, maybe it will have the moral ground to demand the same from other nations that have brutalized China. Beijing needs to stop badgering Japan, stop its imperial threats to Taiwan, and act like a responsible nation. Then I am sure the world will stop criticizing China for its double standards and hypocritical attitude.
Chrysantha Wijeyasingha
New Orleans, USA (Oct 26, '05)


Well Tatsuo Sasaki, I'm a little late answering your two questions (letter, Oct 20). (1) My understanding of "taking full responsibility for your WW II history" is that you make sure that you are fully informed of Japanese atrocities, acknowledge them and describe them in your school history texts and acknowledge them when you are dealing with survivors. Furthermore, full responsibility, in my opinion, means that all Japanese politicians (and I suspect you are one of them ) and all Japanese citizens finally, finally, behave like responsible adults. Shall I briefly give you only one of millions and millions of examples? My mother was a lawyer working in the Supreme Court of the Netherlands Indies. During the Japanese occupation she became prisoner SP1681 and vanished in December 1944. At that time I was prisoner III4001 in another camp for 10-15 -year-old boys. We children had to carry more than 900 decomposing corpses to the camp gate between September 1944 and September 1945. The Japanese provided neither soap nor adequate water (one unreliable tap for 2,500 prisoners) so we washed the slime off our hands and bare feet in an open sewer that ran through the camp. Emperor Hirohito, in whose name all atrocities were committed, had authorized the execution of all Caucasian prisoners of the Japanese on August 26, 1945. I volunteered for a job outside the barbed wire about two weeks before news of the capitulation of Japan filtered into our camp on August 24, 1945 ... Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved our lives, as it did those of millions and millions of citizens in Japanese occupied territory. Question (2) is so foolish that all I will say is this: You know very well that your culture is steeped in higaisha ishiki or "victim consciousness". Japanese actually think that the Koreans invited them to control their natural resources for them! You think that the Manchurian and Chinese "incidents" were caused by an uncontrollable typhoon into which poor innocent Japanese were sucked like twirling cherry blossoms. You actually teach your schoolchildren that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nothing but crimes against humanity and racist to boot, on a par with Auschwitz. In your minds there is no room for any thoughts about cause and effect. You are just poor innocent victims. Higaisha ishiki.
AL
Canada (Oct 26, '05)


Miguel A Guanipa writes [letter, Oct 25], providing no evidence for his inflammatory image: "Iraq-war foes will probably be storming the supermarkets this weekend to get enough food and liquor for their 'Iraq war casualty milestone' parties ..." Learning how to engage in name-calling and hate speech is not "clever" or rational, even when one learns how to do it from fake news/extremist right-wing propaganda organ Fox "News". Tip: hate harms the hater before anyone else gets news of it. Such self-righteous irrationality is also immature, and should embarrass those who engage in it - even though they disguise themselves as adults. Think it through: the bullies you emulate are still in their elementary-school yards bullying and spitting at the "different" - those who read books, minorities, those who are for advancing civil rights and equality for all. Or being victims of bullies and yearning for the day they can be the bullies. Either way, Mr Guanipa, what does your hate-speech and name-calling solve or prove, beyond smearing people you don't know but instead imagine exist, based entirely upon presumption - prejudice - and unfounded fantasy?
Joseph J Nagarya
Boston, USA (Oct 26, '05)


I believe Miguel A Guanipa dishonors the memory of the 2,000 American service personnel who have lost their lives in Iraq as well as the many, many thousands who have been wounded. As a long-time opponent of this illegal war I have never met one anti-war supporter who took any comfort at the mounting US casualty toll. I may also add I have never met any pro-war supporter who has served his or her country in uniform. Obviously, they must exist. Those who have served their country are very mindful of the horrors involved and regard war as the extreme last resort when all else has failed. Tragically this was not the case in this misbegotten war.
Ian C Purdie
Budgewoi, Australia (Oct 26, '05)


It is amusing that the likes of Noor want to provide the truth about Afghanistan. His soothing account of Afghanistan, that the Taliban have been destroyed and everything is rosy and wonderful except for the Americans there, is pure fiction and will not fool anyone. I am not sure where Noor gets his news or facts, but every news website including Asia Times Online have reported that the Taliban is alive and kicking and is a growing menace in south Afghanistan, thanks to the generous help from the loser next door called Pakistan. [President Hamid] Karzai is having a difficult time managing the place because of the Taliban and other warlords. Noor managed to mention at least six times that the Americans are the killers in Afghanistan. I think he needs to remember why the US is there in the first place. Since his memory is short, let me remind him that a killer called Osama bin Laden, hiding in Afghanistan, murdered 2,500 innocent souls in New York. Such a callous, cruel deed cannot go unpunished and the perpetrator has to be brought to justice. Remember, if you strike first, there is always the risk that you will be struck back. Saqib Khan's reply [letter, Oct 25] is at the best ludicrous ... his words were that one read about Islam before writing about it. By the same token, I implore Saqib to read before he writes another word on anything.
Skanda
San Francisco, USA (Oct 26, '05)


This is with reference to Skanda's letter (Oct 24) advising me how to conduct my life, when to write, what to write, who to favor, who to feel sorry for and when to be happy. Skanda ... your xenophobic bigotry and Islamphobia are apparent in your pitiful attempt at demonizing Islam. Not surprisingly, your vitriol was directed only against against Muslims, Saqib, Noor and me. "Travel around India and you will find that India has no time for Pakistan". Amazing contradiction of facts, where your entire letter is a diatribe against Pakistan and Muslims ... Skanda also reminds us about what we are fighting for ... he will find out that the cabal of lies about Iraq is coming down like a house of cards, hit by a hurricane called Fitzgerald! The architects of the heralded policies in Afghanistan and Iraq have been greeted with disdain by the American people and will probably be indicted ... Just like you being Hindu does not eliminate your American nationality, my being a Muslim and an American is not a contradiction. I am proud of both facts.
Moin Ansari (Oct 26, '05)


Spengler's at his best when he drops his fixation on religiosity, which is just a mask for gaining and keeping power [A Syriajevo in the making? Oct 25]. His comment about America's Potemkin Village in Iraq is brilliant but it underplays the deadliness of [President George W] Bush's gullibility as opposed to the relative harmlessness of [Grigori] Potemkin's ruse.
Harald Hardrada
New York, New York (Oct 25, '05)


Paul Zimmet's article Diabetes: Asia's ticking time bomb [Oct 25] draws attention towards a very insightful issue which no [doubt] is worse than a time bomb, because the casualties and destruction of a bomb cover certain areas, while diabetes has reached every corner of the world. The statistics say that in Canada every fifth person is a diabetic. [It is not valid only to] blame [Coca-Cola] or Western foods for this killing disease. Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and several other countries around the globe have their own typical eating habits which excessively include starches, carbohydrates, saturated cooking oil and dairy items. A glass of Coca-Cola might have 120 calories, but people in Pakistan and India eat their traditional sweets (mithai) in pounds at a time, which might have 2,000 calories as these sweets or mithai are made by 50% addition of pure sugar and are deeply fried in oil. So you could visualize the intake amount of sugar and oil in the body and we all know that sugar goes directly to our blood. Plus, these foods are joined by not moving the body adequately to burn excessive calories (not exercising) and stress of various natures ... Stress affects your nerves and body, damaging tissues, which further warrants various complications like diabetes, blood elevation and shrinking of the blood vessels.
Shafiq Khan
Canada (Oct 25, '05)


China gets its dander up when it thinks anyone is poaching on its preserve - its broadly defined geographic area of possessive historical rights. The recent ... quick tour of Central Asia by Condoleezza Rice [that] preceded Donald Rumsfeld's visit to Asia is a case in point. Although Fong Tak-ho [Rice tour raises China's energy hackles, Oct 25] sees the greasy hand of Washington in an attempt to thwart China's thirst for hydrocarbons in the former Soviet Central Asian lebensraum, the situation is more complex. The very countries which the American secretary of state visited are of high geopolitical and geo-military interest and importance to the United States. This aspect takes on a darker coloring of strategic significance. America's interests do not focus necessarily on a single consideration, although the Bush administration has strained a raison d'etat appreciation of a nuanced foreign policy.
Jakob Cambria
USA (Oct 25, '05)


M Ramdas ([letter] Oct 24) ... appears to enjoy the piece of news in Syed Saleem Shahzad's Stoking Afghanistan's resistance [Oct 22] that "US soldiers desecrated the bodies of Taliban fighters by burning them" ... I wish to inform the writer that the repeated tales of so-called Taliban brutality have been dogging the Asia Times [Online] Letters page for a long time and we don't need any more reminders. However, I would like to enlighten the writer with the fact that the realm of Taliban has already been destroyed and he can relax. One should not cling to the past and live therein when the present reality has badly distorted the image of that bygone era. I would like to help the writer see the bitter truth of the present-day Afghanistan. US bombers have conducted a reign of terror against innocents as well as the Islamic soldiers in Afghanistan. The US in Afghanistan has killed many more civilians than those who lost their lives in the [New York] World Trade Center attack. The US war has increased the numbers and suffering of hundreds of thousands of innocent refugees and has exposed millions more to the threat of starvation. This is the fruit of Washington's crusade of "good versus evil". The warheads with milled uranium ore, which the US used against the unarmed Afghanis, have increased the suffering of the plebeians manifold ... The utter destruction of Afghan hospitals, clinics, buildings, roads, electric poles etc made the lives of the common people very miserable. Thousands of people have to live without the continued presence of their near and dear ones who lost their lives in the deadly US invasion. But nobody speaks of present-day Afghanistan; they are busy digging the graves of the past to humiliate the Muslims.
Mohd Salekun Noor
UAE (Oct 25, '05)


[Re L] Kirchhoff's comments on the "progress" he witnessed in Tibet [letter, Oct 24]: He mentions ... how he stayed in a luxurious hotel and had wonderful food in Tibet. I too have read of the economic progress China has brought to Tibet ... I read of the large flesh-trade industry thriving in the former sacred city of Lhasa. Before Tibet was annexed Lhasa was the holy city of Vajrayana Buddhism, similar to other sacred cities such as Jerusalem for the Jews or the Vatican for the Roman Catholics. I am assuming that Mr Kirchhoff is a Christian and if he is, how would he feel if the Vatican was destroyed, its sacred literature and buildings destroyed, its people ravaged by a foreign communist entity, and the pope had to flee to another nation just to preserve what little is left of the nation of the Vatican? Instead of being the center of the Roman Catholic religion, this foreign communist entity builds luxurious hotels, wonderful restaurants and thousands of brothels (courtesy from Beijing)? The moral degradation of this sacred city of Lhasa doesn't bother Mr Kirchhoff ... If Mr Kirchhoff is a Christian he would understand the gravity of what has happened to Lhasa and the Tibetan culture. But if he is a communist sympathizer or a Maoist apologist he would completely disagree with me. Instead of him giving advice to the rest of us to visit Tibet and be "enlightened" to the "progress" Beijing has given to the Tibetan people, he should ask the Dalai Lama how he feels [about] how Beijing has transformed the once-sacred city to a city for man's lewd pleasures.
Chrysantha Wijeyasingha
New Orleans, Louisiana (Oct 25, '05)


L Kirchhoff's defense of his beliefs [letter, Oct 24] is hardly amusing. Nobody is glorifying anything here. [Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro] Koizumi has expressed regret about the old Japan and apologized a few times. Remembering the war dead is a spiritual thing. This whole brouhaha is about a genocidal organization called the Chinese Communist Party, which is whipping up nationalist hysteria using any and all excuses it can find. According to Tibet's government-in-exile, about 1.2 million Tibetans have died unnatural deaths under Chinese occupation between 1949 and 1979 - including 170,000 Tibetans tortured to death in Chinese prisons, 450,000 who died fighting the Chinese army, and 350,000 Tibetans who starved to death during the same time. Tibetans number [fewer] than 6 million worldwide right now. How is that not genocide? L Kirchhoff says that he has been to Tibet. Assuming that is true, he should know that Tibet is a vast 2.5 million square kilometers of land area. It seems that if Kirchhoff were to visit Shanghai, he would conclude that there is no poverty in China. The Genocide Convention of 1948 defined genocide as (partially) "(b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part." Further, Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949) states, "The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies." Han Chinese outnumber Tibetans in Tibet now, and occupy all the important posts, and commercial and authority positions. Tibetans are forced to renounce their own heritage, denounce their own religious leaders, speak Mandarin instead of Tibetan, and call it "modernization" (as letter writer Li wrote on October 24). May all of China be blessed with a similar "modernization" some day. Kirchhoff also calls me fascist, so I will enlighten him on fascism: Fascism is "a philosophy or system of government that is marked by stringent social and economic control, a strong, centralized government usually headed by a dictator, and often a policy of belligerent nationalism." You could say "China" and it would mean the same thing right now.
Brij (Oct 25, '05)


The writers in your [Letters] column who persist in making illogical analogies between the Japanese invasion of China and issues such as Tibet and Mao Zedong's rule of China make a deliberate attempt to divert attention away from past Japanese atrocities in China, to mitigate world opinion of Japanese aggression and to dilute the gravity and inhumanity of the Japanese invasion of China. In support of their views, they cite exaggerated inaccuracies, distort historical events and make unsubstantiated claims. It is obvious that their agenda is China-bashing and their motive is to incite hatred of the Chinese. This seriously undermines their credibility and it would be futile responding to their self-serving accusations.
Jennifer
USA (Oct 25, '05)


I found Skanda's letter of October 24 amazingly ridiculous and diabolical in lecturing me to read Hindu philosophy ... Should I ask Skanda to take off blinkers and study Islam? It is not only a belief, but also a practice, spiritual as well as temporal. It is in fact a complete code of human life for all humanity ... With regard to the Katrina disaster and those affected by [it], he should read my letter of September 7 and would find that I did express my profound grief at the plight of the victims, as I would do for any human suffering in pain and agony of life.
Saqib Khan
London, England (Oct 25, '05)


Jakob Cambria writes [letter, Oct 21]: "Retired Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson has spoken out against the cabal that has by stealth taken over America's foreign policy." This is only news to those who (1) wholly supported and defended [US President George W] Bush and gang at the time - as did Cambria - and (2) who weren't paying attention. By contrast, to those who were paying attention, and keeping faith with law and standards, it was obvious, thus any "stealth" was transparent; and spoke out - Cambria was not one of those - using the term "hijacked", as did Wilkerson. Why does Cambria change "hijacked" to "taken over"? Because it sounds less ominous than is the reality?
Joseph J Nagarya
Boston, Massachusetts (Oct 25, '05)


[Re] Chrysantha Wijeyasingha's letter dated Oct 21: Apologies and acts of repentance by Japan for its atrocities during the Second World War are directed to nations it victimized. In other words, these acts are not meant just for the Chinese government but more importantly for the Chinese people and [China's] cultural identity. It is an unfortunate fact that throughout [the] centuries more Chinese have died [at] the hand of their own governments than [of] foreign occupiers. However, this does not preclude the right of Chinese and other innocent people to Japanese remorse and atonement. Else would the Kuomintang administration be deemed the sole legal Chinese body to accept an apology from Japan since [it was] the official ruling entity during the war? World War II as prosecuted by the allies was oriented toward the defeat of an idea, fascism, and not to any nation or ethnic group per se. That is the reason why the level of suffering of the French, Dutch and Russian people was in no way diminished even though occupation and suppression were enacted by their governments in Indochina, Indonesia and the former Soviet Union, respectively. Similarly we do not erect a memorial honoring the events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki because we recognize that at the end of the day, Japanese or otherwise, innocents perished. The right of the Chinese people to demand recognition of Japanese brutality is undeniable and at this stage, I see the Chinese government as the strongest representative of these demands. If the Japanese Diet is still willing to color the facts of the war in spite of government-to-government (Chinese/Korean/ASEAN-to-Japanese) dealings, I do not foresee higher effectiveness by other representing bodies other than a multinational coalition.
Wombat
Singapore (Oct 25, '05)


Iraq-war foes will probably be storming the supermarkets this weekend to get enough food and liquor for their "Iraq war casualty milestone" parties. What better way to inflame their hatred against George W Bush than to celebrate this milestone in your own living room with your liberal friends and relatives, in front of a wide-screen plasma TV and an assortment of Moveon.org free bumper stickers? The newspapers are probably already preparing the caption: "Iraq, 2000 dead." They will probably use the leftover space they had prepared for Tom DeLay's mugshot, which didn't work out so [well] for them. But this is bound to make a few waves. I mean 2,000 soldiers dead in an illegitimate war. Or so the liberals claim. And it's such a nice, compact number. It just rolls off your tongue.
Miguel A Guanipa
Whitinsville, Massachusetts (Oct 25, '05)

Mahan Abedin has been too eager to take the Iranians at their word in the article How Britain botched the Iran stand-off (Oct 22). He suggests that the Ahwaz bomb attacks in Khuzestan [were] the work of Arab separatists being directed by the Iraqi Ba'ath party and, at the very least, tolerated by the British government. First, the well-known Ahwazi parties favor non-violent civil disobedience and have no involvement in terrorism or the Iraqi insurgency. The links between the Ba'athists - both Iraqi and Syrian - and the Arabistan separatists were severed [after] the end of the Iran-Iraq War in 1988. It is highly unlikely that an Ahwazi Arab movement would commit terrorist acts on the people it represents. It would be totally counterproductive. Second, there is no relationship between the Ahwazi movement and the British government. A member of our organization had a chance encounter with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw at a conference on British foreign policy in the Middle East and this was exaggerated by the Iranian regime as an official meeting with Arab insurgents, which it was not. In fact, the man in question is committed to non-violent opposition. He was surprised that Mr Straw knew little about the ethnic cleansing of Arabs in Khuzestan province, nor did the foreign secretary express much interest in the issue. We have not had any contact with the Foreign Office since then. Third, the Ahwaz bomb attacks in the run-up to the June elections coincided with a series of attacks across the country, which in an interview with London's Guardian newspaper reformist presidential candidate Mustafa Moin blamed on those seeking the election of a military candidate. Although the regime claims to have arrested those responsible and found a British connection, it has never put anyone on trial or published the evidence. [The] bomb attacks in Ahwaz are most likely to have been caused by elements within the regime seeking to militarize Iran, either the Pasdaran or the Basij. The notion of British intervention in Iran serves as a powerful rallying point for Iranian nationalism, casting all opponents - particularly ethnic minorities - as foreign agents worthy of violent oppression. Such attacks also divert from the issue of Iran's nuclear program, isolating Britain from the negotiating process. One should not underestimate the extent to which President [Mahmud] Ahmadinejad, a man who has been implicated in the murder of Iranian Kurdish leaders in Vienna, will go to in order to achieve his goals.
Nasser Ban-Assad
Spokesman, British Ahwazi Friendship Society
London, England (Oct 24, '05)


Thanks for sharing the fascinating story Stoking Afghanistan's resistance [Oct 22] by Syed Saleem Shahzad [regarding] the Taliban getting "upset" at my countrymen (US troops). All this story does is ignite more passion and hate in the radicals in London and smiles (and more dollars for their help in war on terror) from the Pakistani military establishment. Now let's see what the Taliban have done to deserve this ... sympathy: blowing up the [statues] of Buddha in Bamiyan, Afghanistan; forcing all Hindus and Sikhs in Afghanistan to wear a patch to identify them as infidels; butchering the Shi'a minority (now remember these are their co-religionists), especially the Hazara community, and throwing them into mass graves. I didn't expect anything less from [this] lot who name mountains after Hindu slaughter (Hindu Kush Mountains of Afghanistan). Whipping and beating women in public for not wearing the burqa and turning educated women into beggars and hookers. Stoning women to death in public for crimes of passion while men go free or take on another wife. Denying schools to girls and enforcing archaic rules for young boys and men to sport regulation-length beards. Next, hijacking an Indian Airlines plane, and then slitting the throat of a newlywed Hindu man in front of his wife returning from their honeymoon from Kathmandu and then dumping his lifeless body out of the plane. Working hand in glove with the Pakistani ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence] and killing of innocent Hindus and Muslims in Kashmir in the name of their god and freedom. Working real hard to take their country back to the Stone Age with their Arab and Pakistani masters. I can go on ... Regarding the Australian TV reporter, the US Army needs to hand him over to the Taliban, and then we will see how long he can keep his head in place.
M Ramdas
San Francisco, California (Oct 24, '05)


Re India gets teeth against corruption [Oct 21]: It may be a good step taken by India to curb corruption. But the Indian journalists have already dug [up] many scandals without this act, and made [them] public. Present politicians do not feel shame at being called corrupt. Many tainted politicians winning election and even getting ministerial berths reveal that this act alone cannot change Indian polity. What is the need of the hour is judicial reform. Forming a political court (as a consumer court) where cases pertaining to politicians (especially those who are or were ministers) [can be] disposed speedily will help to purify Indian politics. And these political courts must have a time frame to dispose of the cases. If the court is unable to dispose of the cases within the stipulated time (say five or 10 years), then the court must disclose to the people who is responsible for the delay. And if the defendant (politician) happened to the one, then he must be prevented from contesting.
Shivanantham
Cuddalore, India (Oct 24, '05)


[Re] Pepe Escobar's article How to constitute a civil war (Oct 15): I am very impressed by the in-depth reporting from Iraq, not found anywhere else. I anxiously await an article by Escobar that focuses on any possible solutions in Iraq.
Moin Ansari (Oct 24, '05)


This refers to letters by Nadia Shoeb and John G Scherb dated October 21 commenting on Syed Saleem Shahzad's article Waging jihad against disaster [Oct 20]. I wonder if the referred article even falls under the category of an "article" ... There is nothing new or special in the "article" but the same old narration with a new pen. I want to remind readers that Kashmiris couldn't do anything in the past and cannot move an inch in the future without the support of the Pakistani government (especially the Pakistani military and its intelligence agency ISI [Inter-Service Intelligence] and Pakistan-based Islamic religious parties). For the last six decades, it was not Kashmiris but the Pakistani military who have been fighting the war of independence. If you analyze the political history of Pakistan after independence, every Pakistani leader used the Kashmir issue as a stunt at the behest of its military in order to get weapons, cash and material aid from the United States, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states and the Muslim world at large. On the other hand, Pakistan's religious parties have been grinding their teeth in the name of jihad-e-Kashmir in order to keep alive their fanatic motives ...
Shafiq Khan
Canada (Oct 24, '05)


Saqib Khan [letters below] by his own account has been shedding an awful amount of tears only for his Kashmir brethren. We did not hear any remorse or grief from him for the thousands who were affected in New Orleans. Why would he care? They were just infidels and non-believers. He also goes on to lecture that one should read about Islam before writing about it. By the same token he should spend time reading about India, Hindu philosophy, Pakistan and Islamic terrorism before he writes another word. [Mohd Salekun] Noor [letter, Oct 21] is right about one thing - that there cannot be genuine peace between India and Pakistan. There can never be peace until Pakistan gives up its jihadi mentality and its spread of terrorism and nuclear proliferation. Travel around India and you will find that India has no time for Pakistan. Except for the Punjabis and Sindhis, the rest of India simply does not care about Pakistan. Moin Ansari [Oct 20] seems to be getting his knickers in a twist. He tries his hand at American patriotism by saying that his heart bleeds for the Americans coming back in body bags and then ends up saying that Islam will triumph. I wonder were his loyalty lies - with America or Islam. Remember we Americans are fighting Islamic terrorism in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Ansari needs to check his loyalty before he writes another piece.
Skanda
San Francisco, California (Oct 24, '05)


I know I shouldn't expect more from apologists for Japanese neo-fascism, but what mind-altering drugs is Brij of Chicago [letter, Oct 21] on? According to the bizarre analogy quoted, in the history of the past century, all the Japanese did was to kill one person in China, it seems to be Mao [Zedong]'s uncle, and Mao went on to send millions to concentration camps and kill millions in Tibet, and so Mao doesn't deserve to seek justice on his uncle's behalf. I'm sure inquiring minds at Yasukuni Shrine would be interested in the history books you read. Earth to Brij, just so you understand the concept of "scale" and "proportion", tens of millions throughout Asia from China to Indonesia were killed by the Japanese, a substantially larger number than the Nazis' Holocaust victims, not just "Mao's uncle", and neither the Holocaust nor this can be described as a "past offense". The victims and survivors, ranging from slave laborers to comfort women, and their descendants in China, Korea, Malaysia, etc are also not mass murderers or their relatives as alleged ... If you or Chrysantha Wijeyasingha [Oct 21] wants to address Mao's excesses or Tibet, Hiroshima or Dresden, I urge you to demand that ATol cover those stories in detail and write long letters about them and their perpetrators. Further, I have been to Tibet, there is no urgent "ongoing genocide" as you insist or I would have noticed and sent [a] postcard. Don't take my word for it, you can fly there yourself on a tourist visa to personally stop the river of blood. I'll be glad to recommend good eats and comfortable hotels. Going back to the subject at hand, we are talking specifically about the Holocaust in Asia and the efforts by neo-fascists to distort history and rehabilitate war criminals. My analogy stands - if Jewish and other nationals decry a (hypothetical) wave of German denial of the Holocaust and worshipping of top Nazis, will any mentally sane gung-ho human-rights activists tell them to shut up and let the Germans glorify the Third Reich because of what Israel is doing to the Palestinians today? Any logically inclined person will understand these are two separate issues which do not cancel each other out, and both deserve to be aired. Separately. Fortunately, there are still some conscientious, not to mention sane, Japanese readers like Ikeda [Oct 20] who truly regret the horrors of World War II and express a desire for reconciliation with Japan's former victims which will bring about genuine peace and stability for the region. They are a credit to Japan, and carry the hope of putting to rest the ghosts of World War II. If only they [were] the ones running the country instead of the Koizumis.
L Kirchhoff (Oct 24, '05)


Without mentioning names I can sympathize with these "freedom-lovers" for their hatred toward China for having possession of Tibet, which is undergoing modernization and [whose] people are enjoying a better life [than at any time] in the history of that region. Crying over spilled milk is their privilege. The Chinese people would understand.
Li (Oct 24, '05)


Allow me to add my two cents to the debate regarding Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine. I think focusing on the prime minister's visit misses the point. The mistake is in enshrining the war criminals in the first place. War criminals should be publicly denounced, shamed and made an example of, not venerated. If a religion does not distinguish between the victims and perpetrators, one seriously doubts the religion's and, by extension, its practitioners' sense of moral judgment. Even if no one visits the shrine, it is still an abomination to enshrine war criminals and a great insult to the victims of the war. If the descendants wish to honor their war-criminal ancestors, let them practice it in private. If we turn the tables, how would the defendants of the visits feel if president Harry Truman and the pilots of the Enola Gay [were] enshrined and honored alongside the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Japanese politicians have also made numerous "apologies" over Japan's World War II atrocities, but then they turn around and honor their war criminals, which gives the impression that they are insincere in their apologies and play the rest of the world for a fool. This is worse then no apologies at all. It is also insulting for the Japanese government to think that they can substitute ODA [overseas development assistance] in lieu of a sincere repentance. This is akin to a convicted rapist telling his victims: "Here is some money, you should stop complaining." Not only that, the rapist proceeds to tell all and sundry that he did not rape the victim, but rather "entered" her, and he did it for "mutual prosperity". With every visit, with every whitewash of history, they re-scratch the scab of the World War II wound, which is why the wound never heals for the victims of their crimes, which is why all of their apologies fell short. Some defendants of the visits on this forum cite the crimes perpetrated by the victims, Mao Zedong being the prime example. Be that as it may, the accuser's sin does not absolve the defendant's crime. Besides, Mao's crime was not against the Japanese.
S K Wong
Malaysia (Oct 24, '05)


I would like to reply to [the letters below] from Raymond Cui, Wombat, Chan Ah Tee and L Kirchhoff. Why are we here discussing all these things? I believe we are here not to feed rage or revenge, but peace and friendship between people. Otherwise, it doesn't make any sense ... I think one problem we have is about assumptions that some Chinese make about Japanese, and vice-versa. Raymond Cui, for instance, guesses that the Japanese argument is: "We are a proud nation with our own history and tradition; leave us alone when we follow our own rituals and remember our ancestors" ... The fact that Japanese pray for their war dead doesn't mean that they approve of what was done during wartime, that they don't face the past, or that they want to commit the terrible mistakes again. On the contrary, after World War II, Japan has followed a way of peace and friendship, normalizing relationships with other nations and helping them in many ways. Being democratic, [Prime Minister Junichiro] Koizumi and the Japanese government [seek] conversation, [but] others not used to [open discussion] just run away from it (for example the case of the last visit of Chinese Vice Prime Minister Wu Yi to Japan). And all Japan's demands about territorial issues are being made in a pacific and civilized way. Nowadays, what worries Asians and other people is the fact that the Chinese government threatens regional peace, considering that it's not democratic, and violence is a real option to be used by this government. There are issues with India and Tibet; threats to Taiwan; internal human-rights demands; the Tiananmen Square incident; submarine intrusions in foreign seas; support to the dictatorship of North Korea; military increase and control over many nuclear weapons (what for?), etc. With these few examples we can understand why the Chinese government is not contributing in a positive way to peace in Asia. If we want peace and friendship between nations, it's essential to discuss the past, but we should not close [our] eyes to the present too.
Tatsuo Sasaki (Oct 24, '05)


One wonders whether the intent of this online news site is "Asia Today" or "Greater China Today". I could not help but notice that in your zeal to cover Greater China, a separate section for India (which is Asia's second-largest country by most parameters) is absent even though there are separate sections for several much smaller countries. This is definitely a big disappointment to the millions of Indians and Indian diaspora spread all over the world. At least the form and content of your website leave me wondering whether AT can be considered an unbiased, uninfluenced news source.
Neil (Oct 24, '05)

Besides "Greater China", which consists of several unique political entities, only Japan and Korea, among the dozens of countries we cover, have their own sections; all others are grouped in a way designed to help readers navigate the site easily and efficiently. This is not a political decision, it's a practical one. Besides, if it's size that matters, Japan's economy, in terms of total GDP, is more than six times bigger than India's, and China's is more than double. We cannot deny, however, that India is rising and it won't be long before it demands its own "India Business" section. - ATol


Unfortunately, the scientific/public health community has it wrong about H5N1 evolution, and thus is recommending a less effective (and ultimately futile) method of preventing a human pandemic of bird flu. Rather than the H5N1 bird-flu virus becoming efficient at person-to-person transmission through a single reassortment event, the virus is slowly evolving through a series of recombination events. Using genetic sequencing, a person can take a strain of H5N1 and analyze it for polymorphisms that are identical to strains on file from different geographic areas, and from different species. This forensic microbiology tells us that different mutations are incorporated from distant places. In other words, the mutations that are slowly changing the H5N1 virus are recombined from other influenza strains, not spontaneously occurring. Currently, the emphasis is on culling domestic fowl to prevent amplification of the H5N1 virus. The reasoning goes that amplification may spread the virus to a human or pig (ie, a viral mixing bowl) which is infected with another strain of influenza that efficiently spreads in that species. If the H5N1 virus reassorts with such a strain, it will acquire the ability to spread efficiently in that species too. Yet the genetic sequencing of the 1918 flu strain shows that it jumped directly from birds to humans. Furthermore, we can see the H5N1 bird flu slowly evolving to do the same. In fact, we can analyze these slow changes to determine where each of these polymorphisms came from geographically. The reason I am writing to you is because, instead of culling domesticated flocks, the real culprit behind this slow evolutionary process is the cross-pollination of disparate strains of influenza far and wide. In other words, the real engine behind the evolution of a flu-pandemic strain is migratory birds. The evolution of a highly pathogenic avian-influenza strain (HPAI) H5N1 in Qinghai Lake, China (whose polymorphism on the PB2 segment site E627K came from a strain of influenza from European swine undoubtedly spread to Qinghai Lake from a migratory bird), is an opportunity to observe dramatically the cross-pollination of influenza far and wide by migratory birds. This cross-pollination has been going on all along, but never so dramatically and clearly as is shown by the trail of dead birds. I understand the hesitation to cull wild reservoirs of viral infection, even if they are the main engine in the evolution of a pandemic strain of flu ... We could save hundreds of millions of lives and stop a worldwide economic depression - or we could watch as a H5N1 pandemic (as severe as the 1918 one) naturally and methodically evolves.
Brad Arnold
St Louis Park, Minnesota (Oct 24, '05)

Re US policy and the 'Oval office cabal' [Oct 21]: Retired Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson has spoken out against the cabal that has by stealth taken over America's foreign policy. To bring to public light the machinations of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice in subverting rules of decency and of constitutional legitimacy is but an indication of how fast recently the seamless cloth of George W Bush's imperial rule is unraveling. The president is weakened but not yet a full lame duck without [the] ability to maneuver. Nonetheless, his power has flagged to such a point that that those formerly in his own administration who kept counsel of their own now find the courage to speak out. Has a night of long knives begun?
Jakob Cambria (Oct 21, '05)
USA


Finally a semblance of sanity (Promoting US values in Muslim lands by Ioannis Gatsiounis, Oct 20) on ATol. Gatsiounis correctly points out [US] foreign-policy failures and what is needed to win the hearts and minds of moderate Muslims around the world. I agree with this strategy and hope that the Islamophobes will try to learn from their mistakes in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is poignant that Muslims were not included in the 9-11 [Commission] report and that the think-tanks "generally paid scant attention to Muslim sensibilities, as has most dialogue and literature emanating from policy circles urging revision to the country's foreign-policy strategy". Recently the [think] tanks have hired [people with] Muslim-sounding names, [but] these "potatoes" (brown on the outside, white on the inside), neo-con clones, have been rejected by mainstream Islam because of the vacuity of any original ideas and the recitation of the PNAC ([Project] for the New American Century) Xeroxed and AEI (American Enterprise Institute) transcribed scripts. [US Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs] Karen Hughes got an earful in Saudi Arabia from assertive, dynamic and prolific ... Saudi businesswomen and professional women who did not want to be stereotyped as docile and did not want to be "scantly clad", but were intelligent, eloquent, aggressive and independent. "Keeping on in this way runs a serious risk of emasculating Washington's battle for hearts and minds, as we saw the Tuesday before last in Saudi Arabia," [Gatsiounis writes]. I disagree with Gatsiounis that American values are different than Islamic values. Imam Faisal in his book What's Right with Islam says what Muslims around the world know: "The USA is the most 'sharia compliant' country in the world." This means that it is a country of good, hard-working people, where honesty, rule of law, and justice [are] available to all. Those who are scared of Muslims on American shores must know that Muslims sailed with [Christopher] Columbus (Panzone brothers), before Columbus (Admiral [Zheng] He) and after Columbus (25% of slaves) to America. Those who still [cling] to the now-debunked "clash of civilizations" must realize that the USA is a conglomeration of Judeo-Christian-Islamic and other values ...
Moin Ansari (Oct 21, '05)


In his article Is China headed for a social 'red alert'? [Oct 20] Francesco Sisci exhibits a deep understanding of the Chinese reality, both her past and her present. No less a revolutionaire than Sun Yat-sen remarked that the Chinese nation was a "tray of loose sand". And even Mao Zedong remarked to the Japanese leader [Kakuei] Tanaka that he had to thank the Japanese invasion of China for his success in uniting the Chinese people in a communist revolution. This was his way of confessing to how difficult it would be to unite the Chinese people in a national course. This Chinese reality also explains the very justified fear of Deng Xiaoping and the Dengists who came after him for the "Chinese chaos". A revolution of whatever ideology would most likely end up in complete chaos or extreme tyranny. Either of these outcomes would be disastrous for China. This is a lesson that "democrats" both within China and abroad had still not learned. Even a thoroughly Westernized intellectual and politician like Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore did not fail to see this Chinese reality. Long before the rise of Deng Xiaoping, Mr Lee remarked that the Chinese nation [was] a mosaic on which Mao Zedong had tried to draw his "one size fit all" communist revolutionary plan. But, in Mr Lee's words, 'When the rain comes, it (the Plan) will all be washed away." According to Mr Lee, the Chinese are individualists and are not "groupies" like the Japanese or the Russians. Even Margaret Thatcher came to realize that the Chinese are natural-born "capitalists". For the last 20-odd years Chinese capitalists [have] come into their own. What the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] needs to do from now on is to maintain this particularly Chinese "capitalist chaos", which in my opinion is far easier to maintain than the other kinds of chaos. Is this Chinese "capitalist chaos" all that different from the American one a century or so ago?
Chan Ah Tee
Malaysia (Oct 21, '05)


L Kirchoff's analogy (letter, Oct 20) is specious. A better analogy between China-Japan tension and Nazi Germany would be more like this: Heinrich Himmler filing a lawsuit against someone who killed Himmler's uncle. And this lawsuit is filed while Himmler is sending people to concentration camps where they will be starved and gassed. As a part of the lawsuit, Himmler wants the family of the defendant to condemn him, while at the same time Himmler is planning to steal from this family some of their wealth (like natural-gas reservoirs). Wouldn't such a trial be absurd because Himmler is killing millions while seeking revenge for past offenses? Isn't it more important to prevent the ongoing genocide of Tibetans, rather than dwelling on past offenses? As for "war criminals", all wars have them. Mao Zedong was a war criminal for Tibetans - so how come the Chinese venerate him? Was it not a war crime to annihilate Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden etc? They how come Harry Truman is not demonized? Why should the Japanese be singled out for worshiping the spirit of the men who fought for their motherland? Why is the dead Japanese Empire any more evil than the current Chinese empire of the Chinese Communist Party - when 60 million Chinese died unnatural deaths under the CCP? I ask again: Is it not better to stop the ongoing murder of the Tibetan nation rather than focus on memories of past offenses? Apology is given to victims, not to murderers. I also wish to write about Kenneth Tennyson's pejorative letter (Oct 20), where it seems that Indian writers just get his goat. While his (like Seattle Frank's) infantile discomfort made me laugh, I would like to tell him that Swati Kundu's article [Global handset majors answer India's call, Oct 20] did mention the "low-base effect", and mobile-phone sales in 2005 are expected to be 35 million in India) and 85 million in China, but sales are flattening out in China. A low-base effect and high growth [are] certainly a lot better than a low base and little growth. As for the Indian navy, it uses a small VSTOL [vertical/short takeoff and landing] aircraft carrier commissioned by the UK in 1959 and decommissioned in 1984 before being sold to India. India has started construction of its own aircraft carrier while acquiring a Russian one (1982 Kiev class). Apart from the USA and Russia, I do not believe that there is any other navy today that can beat the Indian navy within 500-1,000 miles of the Indian coast.
Brij
Chicago, Illinois (Oct 21, '05)


Syed Saleem Shahzad: I read with great interest your [Oct 20] article Waging jihad against disaster. Several reports have highlighted the role that militants have played in the aftermath of the earthquake as well as the possibility that the disaster may have been a serious blow to their organizations. It's difficult from this distance (ie, just reading press reports) to assess the extent that certain groups such as Jamaatud Dawa [JD] are playing in the affected areas. As I read over one report by the UPI [United Press International] international editor Claude Salhani, who wrote: "Unless the West acts very fast, areas of rural Pakistan affected by [the] devastating earthquake will turn into a breeding ground for Islamist recruiters looking to sign up jihadis from among the hundreds of thousands of victims. This crisis should be treated with the same sense of urgency as the war on terrorism," I couldn't help but wonder if this, while it may be true on some level, was also a bit of an alarmed and exaggerated cry. I believe that groups such as Jamaat-e-Islami [JI] have helped out in natural disasters before (such as in Indonesia after the tsunami struck), but can one assume that while they did indeed help out and may have done some proselytizing/dawa on the side, the people they helped naturally became persuaded by their ideologies? I suppose in the case of Kashmir it's a little different because it's a focus region for militants. The question that's been running through my mind is, "Yes, the militants were out and about helping within an hour of the earthquake, but over time dozens of other organizations and NGOs have been on the spot as well. Why would Kashmiris be more persuaded to become militants simply because of their contact with JD or JI, when they may have had just as much contact with the army relief units or Eidhi Foundation?" In short, my questions would be: To what extent do you think that militant groups' influence will have extended because of their relief efforts? And to what extent has it been broken because of the disaster?
Nadia Shoeb
Graduate Student, Georgetown University
Washington, DC (Oct 21, '05)

Though non-governmental organizations are supplying goods to quake victims, the fact is that the mujahideen are perhaps the only ones who survived and, more important, stayed on the ground. All other organizations, including Jamaat-i-Islami Azad Kashmir suffered a lot in term of human losses; otherwise, all political liberal forces in Kashmir either already had homes in Islamabad or left the region immediately after the earthquake. Naturally, in such situations mujahideen would get sympathy, but some section of the press is inferring too much that this kind of service would turn Kashmir into a breeding ground for radicals. The Kashmiri struggle has a history of more than 70 years (well beyond the partition of British India). Assess through the pages of history the contribution of people living in Muzaffarabad and people living in Srinagar and you will find that active players have always been on Srinagar's side. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Oct 21, '05)


Great article in Asia Times Online about the mujahideen and Pakistan's earthquake [Waging jihad against disaster, Oct 20]. Relationships are being forged there now that will last a lifetime.
John G Scherb (Oct 21, '05)


M Ramdas in his mail to ATol (Oct 20) built many capricious sepulchers of so-called Kashmiri pundits over the graves of thousands of innocent Muslims who have been brutally and inhumanly massacred by the bestial Indian military for many years ... No arguments could debunk that at present Kashmiri Muslims are in a state of war to gain their much-cherished freedom from the clutches of a culpable Indian government. The Muslims in Kashmir stay like refugees in their own homeland, subjugated by the laws of the jungle and betrayed by the traitors who go by the name "Kashmiri Pundits". If the mentality of Indians remains so hypocritical ... I guess there cannot be any genuine peace between India and Pakistan ...
Mohd Salekun Noor
UAE (Oct 21, '05)


I have never felt so disgusted and abhorrent after reading M Ramdas' letter of October 20. When the whole world is crying tears for the victims of the earthquake disaster, he is indulging in gutter politics ... At a time when a gesture of reconciliation would be most welcoming, he has taken the opportunity to blow his whistle to gather his mendacious compatriots to spread hate against those who are trying save lives and provide the survivors with daily amenities to reduce their sufferings. Thousands of innocent men, women and children are fighting for every breath to survive in horrendous conditions and sadly, we have amongst us people who are trying to propagate revulsion for the sake of their silly ethos ...
Saqib Khan
London, England (Oct 21, '05)


In response to Wombat, Chah Ah Tee, L Kirchoff and Jennifer [letters below] regarding my comments on the article Koizumi plays it his way [Oct 18]: they all have pertinent points regarding the brutality of the Japanese Empire during World War II. But they all missed the point regarding China's role since the end of that war. Jennifer points [out] that the Chinese deserve an apology from Japan for [its] role in the massive invasion and subjugation of the Chinese during World War II. But she (nor the others) never mention that the Tibetans too deserve even more from the Chinese government. After the war China not only invaded Tibet and destroyed her culture and carried genocidal acts on the Tibetans, [it] also invaded India and annexed part of Indian territory. In the case of Japan the perpetrators were tried in an international tribunal and many were sentenced to death, others to life, and still others followed the [tradition of] suicide by the Samurai sword. Not so with the Chinese leaders, chief of them being Mao [Zedong], who orchestrated the invasion and annexation of Tibet and part of India and was responsible for the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, which resulted in the genocidal death tens of millions of Chinese and whose tomb sits in the vast Tiananmen Square. [Neither] he nor his cohorts were tried in an international court for their crimes. Some of them are still ruling from Beijing dreaming of those "rosy" days when non-Chinese were expendable and their lands confiscated. I am not being sarcastic in this statement because the Chinese leadership still has that attitude now in the year 2005 as they threaten Taiwan [with] a Tibet-style invasion and annexation of Taiwan if Taiwan's leaders dare to declare independence and guarantee freedom and democracy to [their] people ...
Chrysantha Wijeyasingha
New Orleans, Louisiana (Oct 21, '05)


By calling Junichiro Koizumi a "great leader" for visiting a war-criminal shrine, Tatsuo Sasaki ([letter] Oct 19) certainly speaks for a good part of the Japanese population, especially the younger generation (remember last month's landslide parliamentary election victory of Koizumi?). Their argument is: we are a proud nation with our own history and tradition; leave us alone when we follow our own rituals and remember our ancestors. Who can blame them for that? We have also seen quite a few World War II Japanese veterans visiting China each year to apologize for what they did during the war. They and people like letter writer Kikuharu Ikeda (Oct 20) definitely represent a large number of peace-loving Japanese. What neither the Yasukuni visit supporters nor opponents in Japan seem to understand is that it has nothing to do with regular Japanese citizens. It's the prime minister, stupid (to use an American expression)! Nobody would blame Hideki Tojo's children and grandchildren for whatever way they choose to pay tribute to their father or grandfather. But for someone who happens to wear the title of prime minister of a country, it's a different story, because that title goes with responsibility and projects the image of a nation. Few people outside Japan care about Koizumi's hippie outlook or whether he is a good husband/father or not, as many Japanese voters certainly would. The world outside Japan does care how he leads Japan, in one direction or another. In this respective, Koizumi is hardly a qualified world leader ... Koizumi refuses even to sacrifice his so-called personal "belief" and "integrity" for the benefit of his country, including a UN Security Council seat, better political and economic relations with its Asian neighbors, China's and Korea's more amicable handling of their territorial disputes, or even their support for Japan's demand for the return of the Northern Territories from Russia.
Raymond Cui
Beijing, China (Oct 21, '05)


Raymond Cui [letter, Oct 20] gives the impression that there is a thriving free press in China. Critical articles may have begun to appear in the press, but China is still a harsh tyranny. Daring editors and reporters have been jailed just for publishing the truth. The "communists" ruthlessly crush anyone trying to organize workers to resist exploitation by the sweatshop barons ... No matter how many different excuses are made by the expat community, China today is simply a fascist dictatorship, much like Imperial Japan or Chiang Kai-shek's Republic of China. The major difference is that the Chinese communists have been astonishingly successful at eradicating almost all vestiges of China's culture. Scholars were exterminated soon after the revolution. The physical remnants of China's culture continue to be replaced by concrete abominations. And the universities are filled with people with an embarrassing ignorance of China's classical language and civilization. Were it not for Chiang Kai-shek's rule in Taiwan and British rule in Hong Kong, China's classical culture would have been totally lost by now.
G Travan
California, USA (Oct 21, '05)


Frank thunders [letter, Oct 18]: "If India wants to gauge itself, it should look to its history. China should not be India's gauge." Well, let India's 1 billion-plus people decide how to gauge their country. Arrogant [people] from China cannot have that right. Let the Chinese communists first give rights to their own people ... For Frank's information, I and millions of Indians like me are investing in the Indian private sector, and at the same time giving to charity organizations, so he better stop arrogantly assuming things and accusing an entire mass of people. Let me tell Frank about one more thing - India has the largest system of reservations and quotas for the underprivileged. This is a reality which Frank simply cannot shrug off. No, things are not perfect. But most relevant Indian authors are at least being honest by criticizing our own governments. Having said that, things have been gradually changing for the better in the past four decades. Poverty has gone down and literacy improved, more so in the past decade when India opened up its economy. This means the repeated attacks by regressive-minded communists against the middle class, upper castes and capitalism are ill-founded, and are actually counterproductive. It is the corrupt and inept public sector, [which] controls infrastructure, that is the real culprit, not the middle class. Most middle-class people are ordinary white-collar hard-working people and want poverty to be eliminated, and more jobs to be created for everyone. However, if Frank and his Frankensteins continue to vilify people like me and others by portraying us as anti-poor, and plan to steal our hard-earned money, yes, we will retaliate. As Mohan rightly pointed out [letter, Oct 19], China by and large does not have a free press. Yet no Indian letter writer here seems to be saying bad things about millions of Chinese people. All we have said is against the regime and its policies, which Frank is unable to digest because of the typical intolerant and bigoted communist mentality. Like a little kid itching to throw [a] stone, he cites the unfortunate condition of Malaysia's ethnic Indians. Frank, trust me, you don't even want to go there - the Chinese people are spread all over the world, in part due to the repressive regime at home, and it is hardly a difficult task to find Chinese groups that are in less than envious positions.
Rakesh
India (Oct 21, '05)


We are thankful to Frank [letter, Oct 20] for allowing [letter writer] Mohan title to his opinions. What does Indians trying to be wanna-bes have to do with Frank or China? All humans will always "wanna be" something better than they are. I am sure Frank would "wanna be" more intelligent, too. Frank chose not to hear the comments made by another writer about India's common man throwing out BJP [the Bharatiya Janata Party] perceived to be favoring the "upper-caste Internet elite" through the ... "anarchic" democratic system. Frank, for the last time, no one is saying there are no problems in India; no one is saying India is better than China. Some readers were highlighting the differences and strengths in certain fields of each country over the other. So (take some pills and) relax.
Partha
Australia (Oct 21, '05)


It is not that [letter writer] Frank has touched any raw nerve but it is nauseating to read his racist rants about Indians. He is guilty of all things he accuses Indians of. He writes in English and not Cantonese or Mandarin or what have you in China. He lives in Seattle, Washington, which is not [in China]. I am sure he preserves his dignity and honor by putting all the greenbacks in the trash bin and transacts only in yuan. Even his name is not Chinese. So what on earth is he advocating to Indians? According to him China is superior to India as it won more medals in the Olympics and sent [men into] space. But then, is China inferior to others who win more medals than China and have sent more men and women to space? ... China did invent gunpowder but the white man invented the gun while you just used it [gunpowder] to scare birds. The same fireworks the lowly white man turned into rocket science which you so (shamelessly?) use ... Sure, Chinese invented paper, but had to wait for the lowly white man to turn it into tissue paper for you to use. Was Karl Marx Chinese for China to adopt communism? So what is your itch if India adopted democracy? ...
D Bhardwaj
Illinois, USA (Oct 21, '05)


The editors of Asia Times Online need to filter out repetitive rants in their Letters section. How on earth can Frank claim that his arguments have not been refuted, less so accepted? On the contrary, my constant portrayal of a markedly common past shared by India and China and the inherent hypocrisy underlying his arguments have been met with nothing but deafening silence. He argues in his [Oct 20] letter that India did not invent anything of substance. I quote Albert Einstein when he was awarded the Nobel Prize: "We owe a lot to the Indians who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could be made." What about the path-breaking work in astronomy in ancient India by the likes of Aryabhatta and Brahmagupta, who showed through their mathematical models the Earth's rotation and revolution? This was many years before Galileo. What about Panini's grammar, which forms the basis of modern Indo-European grammar? What about Baudhayana's proving of the theorem that took centuries for Pythagoras to figure out? What about ayurveda? If Frank has heard of none of these, he must have heard of the Kama Sutra. I consider myself a "common Indian" - the one which Frank claims stays quiet, resigning himself to his fate. He'd be surprised at the high turnout rates in Indian elections, especially in the rural areas. Indians are empowered people living in a free society, and they know how to express their will. Just recall the 2004 elections. This discussion is fast sinking to the levels of pure mudslinging, treading dangerously on the line between argument and racism. I hope sanity prevails before the line is crossed, by Frank of course. This discussion belongs to The Edge and not Letters, which should be for discussion articles in the newspaper.
Aruni Mukherjee (Oct 21, '05)


Frank from Seattle, please stop talking to the Indians. That they don't leave China alone doesn't mean the Chinese have to be sucked into this meaningless low-level brawl. What they say doesn't hurt China or her people in any real sense. If that's how they find pleasure in their lives then leave them be.
Lloyd Lan
Beijing, China (Oct 21, '05)


Kenneth Tennyson's letter [Oct 20] talks about India hype by Indian authors, but others have written positively about India as well, most recently Tom Friedman in his book The World Is Flat. If one were to objectively look for today's "top Asian economic story", it would have to be India's ascendancy. A close second would be fretting if China will implode, because it went through its own hype cycle seven to 10 years ago already, just as Japan Inc had its moment in the '70s and '80s. This is the nature of the news business, and there's no conspiracy here. In the big-picture historical perspective, a Google search produced an article in the International Herald Tribune (by a Japanese author, to set Ken's mind at rest) [reporting] that in 1820, China accounted for 29% of global GDP and India for 16%. So what we're seeing today is actually a correction of a short-term misstep by these two regional powers, and working to a more natural equilibrium.
Jonnavithula ("Jon") Sreekanth
Acton, Massachusetts (Oct 21, '05)


Aruni Mukherjee [letter, Oct 20] decided to compare China's transition to market economy to that of India's West Bengal state. While both of them might be run by nominally communist governments, the comparison seems to end there. Perhaps I might take the opportunity to remind her what happens in West Bengal under the so-called communist regime. Coal companies that are economically unviable are kept "alive" as a way to ensure employment. So are numerous other industries. Besides wasting good money on bad projects, keeping alive non-viable companies also creates enormous amounts of "environmental" waste in terms of offices, factories, raw materials and so forth. The list goes on. While [Chief Minister] Buddhadev Bhattacharya might be considered "progressive" by West Bengal standards, until he fixes the problem of issuing ration cards to illegal Bangladeshis he is not even scratching the surface. For true sustainable development to occur, instead of dabbling in "political" aspects of land reform, Buddhadev might spend his time (and taxpayers' money) to improve rural infrastructure to ensure better access to markets for rural goods. I actually have a very good example for comparison. The Gujarat model for milk distribution would be one such example, where milk that [would be] otherwise wasted is being converted into other products or sold where needed. In fact, if India were a true "federation", good money from western and southern states would not have been thrown to basket cases like West Bengal and instead would have been channeled into more viable projects. This is what I would term the First Law of Sustainable Development.
Rocky (Oct 21, '05)


To R Davoodi [letter, Oct 19]: Bravo! Lovely, accurate, and sharply to the point re Spengler's fashionably cynical droolings.
Joseph J Nagarya
Boston, Massachusetts (Oct 21, '05)

Is China headed for a social 'red alert'? [Oct 20] is another excellent article by Francesco Sisci. It doesn't contain the usual bias and subtle China-bashing from the regular Western media. Instead, it gives an insightful big-picture view of the true situation, the government's stance on the problems and possible solutions to deal with them. [I] certainly wish he [would write] more often.
James Chandra
Sydney, Australia (Oct 20, '05)


At the risk of oversimplification, it could be argued that Francesco Sisci's article [Is China headed for a social 'red alert'? Oct 20] on protests in "socialist" China over the increasingly visible inequality levels (higher than in capitalist America and Britain) [is] a testimony to what an opportunity cost China is incurring due to its opaque political system. The value of qualification, deliberation, scrutiny and accountability are of utmost importance when it comes to realpolitik or political economy, especially in an important issue such as economic transition. A comparative situation could be seen in India's West Bengal, where Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya is receiving flak from the opposition over laying a red carpet to foreign capital, or the government in Delhi, which faces questions from its communist allies in parliament. Such practices might delay reforms, but they will ensure that all arguments for and against have been laid on the table, and the consequent decision has a greater probability of being justified in the long term. China's environmental degradation, raging inequality, non-performing assets in banks and a rampant cadre-company nexus are all attributes of translucency. As the author mentions, it is only when the party decides to unveil fresh data that the world gets to know what lies dormant behind the gleaming Pudong skyline. We need an "Argumentative Chinese", and we need her now.
Aruni Mukherjee (Oct 20, '05)


Re Is China headed for a social 'red alert'? [Oct 20]: The People's Republic of China is driving in the fast lane to full-bloom capitalism. To pacify internal unrest and the growing gap between the rich and the growing army of impoverished workers and peasants, the vanguard of the revolution, the Communist Party is encouraging settling of the poor western provinces and overwhelming the ethnic populations of Tibet and Xinjiang. In this, the leadership is taking a leaf out of the Chairman Mao [Zedong]'s book on the Cultural Revolution. Yet frontiers close and the stage is set for putative class warfare in the classical Marxist definition, as the country rapidly industrializes, accumulates capital, expands exports, and sets the foundation for the triumph of finance capitalism.
Jakob Cambria
USA (Oct 20, '05)


Pepe Escobar has an accurate take on the trial of Saddam Hussein [The occupier's trial, Oct 20]. It's a kangaroo court that will never have legitimacy as long as the US occupies the country and controls all government action. It is probable that Saddam Hussein has committed criminal acts and if this is so, let a fair trial under international rules find him guilty and take the appropriate action. If George Bush and his cohorts were brought to trial for all of their criminal acts, they would be branded as butchers and murderers of a caliber worse than Saddam Hussein. Of course, this applies to most of the US presidents in my lifetime. The demise of the US and its warmongering as well as its foreign policy based on greed and control can't come soon enough for me. The US government is the world's biggest hypocrite, hiding behind the Protestant Bible and an extremely ignorant population. The trial of Saddam Hussein will be another public relations coup for George Bush - nothing more.
Ken Moreau
New Orleans, Louisiana (Oct 20, '05)


The commentary on the dollar by [Jack] Crooks [Daily forex commentary, Oct 20] lives not up to the journalistic standards I got accustomed to when reading Asian Times [Online]. It is a stylistic mess. I would like to stress that I do not write this because of the content of the article. Actually, Asia Times [Online] has been forecasting a fall of the dollar for a very long time. Analytically it would be very interesting to write an article [on] why this isn't happening so far.
Dr Arthur Bruls
Nijmegen, Netherlands (Oct 20, '05)


In reference to Waging jihad against disaster by Syed Saleem Shahzad (Oct 20): The author once again ... fails to tell the whole story, or maybe he sincerely doesn't get the latest news in Pakistan. Allow me to break the news to him: the same "jihadis of mercy" in Kashmir who were busy dishing out help to their co-religionists were busy slitting throats of innocent Hindus (mostly women and children) in the name of their god and freedom. Furthermore, let us not forget (Saleem Shahzad never mentioned that, as the bulk of people are Hindus anyway) the thousands of Kashmiri Pundits who are ethnically cleansed every day from Kashmir and driven into squalid refugee camps in New Delhi. Ironically the Indian government (Manmohan Singh and Natwar Singh, are you listening?) has all kinds of tents, medicines and stuff to send over to Pakistan but has forgotten its own poor refugees driven out by fanatic Muslim radicals from their rightful homes. What a shame! Now these "merciful jihadi" wolves have turned to sheep, have donned a new garb of butchers turned to doctors, nurses and cooks overnight. They can't fool us - their propaganda (Syed Saleem Shahzad is a good mouthpiece) is to get the Muslim public sympathy for their devilish cause, hide their bloodstained hands and continue their killing mission with their Pakistani ISI [Inter-Service Intelligence] masters ...
M Ramdas
San Francisco, California (Oct 20, '05)


Since I last wrote you, it would seem that your articles have improved somewhat but are still lacking in their neutrality and accuracy. Most of the articles written by Indian authors continue to be strewn [with] biased statements, withholding of information, [and] misinformed facts, or are plainly wrong. It would seem to me that this hype that currently is occurring about India being the next great investment place is being produced mainly by Indian authors from India or Western authors who are writing after discussion with Indian authors. Case in point is the article India bids to rule the waves [Oct 19] by Ramtanu Maitra, whose only claim to fame in the journalist world is being an "independent journalist and researcher". What exactly is that? What are his credentials that you have let him publish in your journal? The title itself suggests a biased frame of mind and is sensationalist. Second, it is unlikely that India can rule the waves given the fact that the Indian navy, like most Third World navies, is barely even able to maintain coastal protection against modern countries. It utilizes an aircraft carrier from the World War II era that other modern navies have shelved due to the outdatedness of the technology. Another article is by Swati Lodh Kundu, Global handset majors answer India's call [Oct 20], which states that the Indian market is the largest in terms of cell phones, automobiles, travel and tourism, DVDs, digicams and laptops. The only reason it is the fastest [growing] market by percentage is because there was basically no market to begin with a few years ago. And guess what? The author is a student at [a] Calcutta university. It just seems to me that if you wish to become a respected journal, you should at least screen out the [biases] and credentials (or lack thereof) of your authors.
Kenneth Tennyson (Oct 20, '05)

The mini-bio on Swati Lodh Kundu's article said she "has a master's in economics from the University of Calcutta". - ATol


In relation to the coverage and discussions on [Malaysia's minority Indians drift, Oct 19], I would also blame it on the use of or non-use of the nation's assets in assisting all the population and not just the selected few. While the New Economic Policy was a good idea to equalize Malay wealth, it has been implemented recklessly and discriminately. Taxpayers' assets have been used without any thoughts for fair distribution, and none are bigger then Petronas. [Supposedly] Petronas contributes billions of dollars in government revenue and we should be thankful to it. I beg to differ and am sure many others do as well. Petronas is not Shell or Esso, which are essentially private companies funded by private funds, so using the tax and dividend scenario is acceptable to gather how much they contribute to government/tax coffers. Petronas is ... basically a government asset that has been corporatized without any revenue in return ... Petronas was handed free to the group of people who are running it now. The government did not sell it to the public such as the BP scenario in the UK. So all the revenue and profit belong to the government of Malaysia as well as the taxpayer and public. To argue that Petronas pays massive dividends and taxes is confusing the issue, as 100% of the profit and cash flow should remain with the public ...
Nation's Wealth
Petaling Jaya, Malaysia (Oct 20, '05)


This in reference to The blood is the life, Mr Rumsfeld! [Oct 12] by Spengler and agreeing [with] Moin Ansari's reply of October 19. First of all, I would ask all non-Muslim writers, before attempting to write on any aspect of Islam, [to] study it with clear and honest mind and not ... in order to sully Islam for the sake of perfidious verbosity and fun ... Let me tell Spengler that Shi'ism is not a religion but a sect; it is not theology but an ideology. The difference between the two sects, Sunnis and Shi'as, is based on a political question, whether the succession to the Prophet should take place by election or by inheritance among the close relatives of the Prophet Mohammed. This became a question of dogma to the Shi'ites and the schism split into many branches of its own and many civil wars ...
Saqib Khan
London, England (Oct 20, '05)


I won't argue with Spengler about the meaning of the Muslim sacrifice [Spengler responds, letter, Oct 17]. However, while I have not read the book he reviewed on Late Antiquity, I have spent a fair amount of time excavating at Late Antique sites in Israel, and have visited many others. Somehow, there are just a butt-load of villages, churches and synagogues dated to the Byzantine period by coins, pottery [and] inscriptions. They often had impressive cisterns and dew-catching systems for agriculture in desert regions which today seem utterly deserted. Friends who've done research in Jordan tell me it's the same there: dense settlement. Many of the Hellenistic cities, like Hippos, were not abandoned until the mid-700s, when earthquakes seem to have destroyed the aqueducts. By the way, on the subject of intellectual contact, Spengler should visit Petra some day, and see just how Hellenized an Arab kingdom could be at the time of the High Roman Empire. The Umayyad palaces are impressive, too. When South Arabia is better known archeologically, I suspect that it will turn out to be one of the great primal civilizations, like Egypt and Mesopotamia, India and China, with lots of commercial and intellectual relationships in every period.
Lester Ness (Oct 20, '05)


This letter refers to the response [letters, Oct 18] of Tatsuo Sasaki and Chrysantha Wijeyasingha [to] Koizumi plays it his way, (Oct 18). The Second World War was a conflict different to the first and other major wars in at least two respects. First, the fascist movements, which included Imperial Japan at that time, made extreme nationalism a central theme of their governmental policy and carried out deliberately planned and methodical [prosecution] of genocide. While genocide is nothing new in human history, the sheer scale and horror that came with it was second to none since biblical times. The removal and suppression of national languages and cultures in the classrooms, the forced adoption of Japanese names (for Koreans and Chinese in the northeastern part of China), the coerced veneration of the Japanese military and emperor, exploitation of the occupied populace under extraordinarily brutal and inhuman conditions and [wholesale] elimination of large populations. These could only lead historians to believe that the Japanese policy was geared to eradication of nations with extreme prejudice. Being a place for national remembrance, Yasukuni should never have been the final resting place of the 14 Class A war criminals, starting from Hideki Tojo right down to Shigenori Togo. These 14 persons not only [perpetrated] the above-mentioned crimes, they also oppressed heavily the Japanese people by deceiving the general populace about the true nature of the war, brainwashing impressionable students with ideas of nationalistic and racial superiority, arresting and torturing political opponents at home and attempting to cow any intellectuals resisting their policies into submission. While [Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro] Koizumi may excuse himself by declaring his intention of memorializing solely non-war criminals, he should have dissociated the names of these 14 persons from national worship by removing their remains from the shrine. His negligence served only to enforce the misconception to the Japanese people that these Hitler-like 14 were true patriots of the noblest ideals and their acts were anything but criminal. Politically, his error only compounded the misunderstanding and tensions now existing between Japan and her neighbors. On this point, he is definitely not a great leader ...
Wombat
Singapore (Oct 20, '05)


Tatsuo Sasaki's letter published on October 18 in answering to the article Koizumi plays it his way [Oct 18] contributed nothing to the understanding of the issue at hand. First and foremost I must state that the act of some Japanese leaders making a few choice words of apology in the international arena for the purpose of promoting the Japanese image of "lover of peace" cut no ice among her former victims when viewed in the larger context of the dismal measures adopted so far (let's assume for argument's sake that there really [were] such measures) to educate its own citizens of the true nature of their previous crimes against humanity. Such reluctance to face up to, and learn from, history by the Japanese can only increase the unease felt by many of her neighbors that when the time is right and the international environment favorable, the Japanese leaders can easily redirect the energy of their people in the pursuit of an imperial agenda. Many Japanese people believe that invading Korea was good for the Koreans and the invasion of China was actually caused by the Chinese themselves, and that the invasion of Southeast Asia was for the purpose of liberating these peoples from the colonial rule of the Europeans. Then what is to stop them from becoming an imperial power once more, or acting as the hit men for another imperial power when the right excuse is available, like "countering terrorism" or "bringing democracy to underdeveloped regions of Asia"? Japan cannot be viewed or treated as a "normal" country unless and until the Japanese people have a correct view of history and make sufficient effort to learn from it. They must be seen by others to have acknowledged their own past before other people can believe that the Japanese are ready for a fresh start as [a] leading nation. One last observation: the world does not worry about the Mongolians reliving the dream of Genghis Khan in spite of their history, but the world cannot be just as assured about the Japanese. The Mongolians are no longer capable, but the Japanese are regarded by many as being capable, willing and ambitious in this imperial connection.
Chan Ah Tee
Malaysia (Oct 20, '05)


I am amazed at the illogical excuses readers are repeatedly using to defend [Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro] Koizumi's visits to the [Yasukuni] shrine. Tatsuo Sasaki talks of other nations' (especially China's) respect for the Japanese war dead in his October 18 letter, yet did he ever ask himself or Koizumi, what about Japan showing some respect to [those] who died as a result of Japanese World War II aggression, the tens of millions who were killed by those enshrined in Yasukuni? Did Koizumi ever pay his respects to the victims of his country's aggression? By honoring their killers in the Japanese army at Yasukuni, what is the message sent to the victims? The aggressor owes the victim, not the other way around. Japan, a nation which prides itself on honor and protocol, should know better. If [the Japanese] had not invaded and killed so many outside their country, I'm sure no one outside Japan would care about how the Japanese honor their dead today. Which brings us to the issue of China not deserving the right to protest because of what happened to Tibet, as raised by Chrysantha Wijeyasingha in his October 18 letter. Pot/kettle? How about apples/oranges? Take the example of Israel and Jewish World War II suffering. The UN has repeatedly condemned past Israeli policy against the Palestinians, yet no one argues that this "cancels" the rights of the Jewish people to demand that the memory of the Holocaust be honored. Imagine [Gerhard] Shroeder or [Angela] Merkel paying yearly visits to a shrine that honors [Heinrich] Himmler, [Joseph] Goebbels and [Hermann] Goering along with other dead German soldiers. Is that at all defensible, no matter how anyone feels about Israel today? After all, didn't the Nazis also die for a "greater Germany"? Shouldn't the Germans honor them? Shouldn't others respect the Germans' right to honor their dead? How many apologies should suffice to atone for the Holocaust? Seventeen? Twenty? In the end, the Germans recognized that World War II was a terrible mistake and they needed to make restitution and reconcile with their neighbors. The Japanese need to show by concrete action that they truly believe the same, instead of the opposite.
L Kirchhoff (Oct 20, '05)


I have a solution to the issue of strained relations between the Chinese and Japanese. Why can't we assemble a committee of Japanese and Chinese people willing to propose a strategy of collaboration and peace? We can devise a proposal to the Japanese government regarding the inaccuracy of textbooks, proper apologies and other accommodations that are long overdue. Maybe the prime minister can show his respects (not to the war criminals, of course) in privacy. We could propose a solution to the Chinese government that would encourage [it] to promote harmony in Asia. I think communication is important to promote healing and resolve. It is not in Asia's best interest to stall these inevitable resolutions for other generations to bear. We must endure these burdens now to eliminate hatred. I would be the first to apologize to the victims if it would promote peace. Had I lived in World War II times, I swear I would have died trying to fight against the Japanese Imperial Army had I known of their atrocities against humanity. I give my word of honor that I will fight against those [who] rape and torture the innocent. You have my assurance that the Japanese Imperial Army will not commit those crimes ever again. While this may seem naive, I believe it is this type of thinking that encourages friendships and alliances that will become increasingly important in the upcoming years.
Kikuharu Ikeda (Oct 20, '05)


AL [letter, Oct 19]: I just want to ask two questions: (1) What do you understand about "full responsibility for history"? (2) When someone visits Yasukuni it doesn't mean that he or she is proud of Japanese war criminals. I don't know what your religion is, but if you have one, you probably have some kind of prayer for your ancestors. So don't Japanese people have the right to pray for the war [dead] and think about the past, following their own religion? (Religion is a right, isn't it?)
Tatsuo Sasaki (Oct 20, '05)


I am responding to DirtyDog's vitriol ([letter] Oct 19) against me. Instead of discussing any points, you simply stooped low. I would respond to the name-calling but am very happy to note that the American people and the world have seen through the bigotry and racism that is endemic in your writings. More than 80% of the American people like me accept the fact that [the invasion of] Iraq was a mistake. A tectonic shift is taking place in the attitudes of Americans. The 15 minutes of fame of the neo-cons is almost over. With serious indictments, the "groupthink" that "manufactured consent" in the USA is about to be decapitated by public will that has seen through the malaise and lies. Inability to speak truth to justice is blindness that afflicts some who neither have the desire nor the conscience to seek truth. Those who are unable to accept responsibility for the foreign-policy failures are condemned to reap the harvest of fire. As my kids continue to die in Iraq, and as my children continue to come back in body bags, the body politic of my country is changing. Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world and none of your letters can or will change that. Islamophobia will be sent to the dustbins of history, just like we defeated McCarthyism, and as [we] fight against anti-Semitism [and] blatant racism in the land of the free and around the world.
Moin Ansari (Oct 20, '05)


Mohan [letter, Oct 19] is entitled to his opinions about China. However, I fail to see [that] China's problems have anything to do with my arguments. My theories are that most Indians are taught to be wanna-bes by their masters. Lower castes want to be the upper castes. Upper castes want to be the same as their white masters. This observation is supported by many historic events, India's reality and the massive displays of servitude from Indian writers at ATol. For example, none of the things Indians are proud of belonged to or [were] created by Indians. I also proved that India's democratic system only works for the rich and powerful. To most of the common Indians, India is anarchy. So far, none of the Indian writers [disproved] my theory. They confirmed my observations either [by] direct agreements or by silence.
Frank
Seattle, Washington (Oct 20, '05)


Is there any way of being rid of [letter writer] Frank's tedious, pretentious and gratuitous sermons? It has gone beyond the ridiculous and boring. Please shunt him off to the forum, where there are plenty of participants who will no doubt be happy to engage him in a slanging contest.
Kivalur (Oct 20, '05)


While I sympathize with some of the Indian readers' frustration about [letter writer] Frank's seemingly apathetic criticism of India's social problems and agree that China is a country with its own share of problems, it is my impression that many [letter] writers on ATol, while hammering on China's lack of a free press, are themselves victims of Cold War-type propaganda of Western media. Mohan (Oct 19) disserved ATol's readers by misinterpreting China's ID system as one to prevent poor people from getting into the cities. It could not be further from the truth. The ID card in China, like the Social Security Number in the US, is for people to provide the proper identity when they apply for jobs, go to schools, order phone services, buy airline tickets, check into hotels, etc. It does not prevent anyone from traveling or staying in any city in China, whether you are poor or rich. To learn about China's social problems, you do not have to go to a local college in Germany or the US and get second-hand information from Chinese students, the easier way is to learn a bit of Chinese and read one of thousands of Chinese newspapers published in China (yes, mostly owned by the Communist Party), many of which also have an online version, and indulge yourself in the endless coverage on official corruption, police brutality, poverty, crimes, crisis of the medical system, drug trafficking, death penalties for money-embezzling bank officials ...
Raymond Cui
Beijing, China (Oct 20, '05)

Or go to Asia Times Online's own Chinese-language site, www.atchinese.com - ATol


Jonnavithula Sreekanth writes [letter, Oct 17]: "It seems that [Joseph Nagarya's] definition of 'bigots and racists' is a bit expansive, such as eliminating 'civil rights and labor etc protections'." In fact, Mr Sreekanth, immediately after Hurricane Katrina, [US President George W] Bush's first acts were to suspend the Davis-Bacon Act, a 1931 federal statute that requires recipients of federal contracts to pay [the] prevailing wage, ie, a minimum wage, and affirmative-action requirements for those same recipients, in the area devastated. Thus those who lost everything are denied even minimum wage. All but roughly 1% of federal contracts were given, without bid, to Halliburton and the like. Federal requirements are that ... a minimum 5% be granted to small and minority businesses. It isn't my definition of bigots and racists which is "expansive", but rather the actions of Bush and his pro-apartheid gang. Yet Mr Sreekanth wonders "if affirmative action in its present form is still helpful". It is certainly not helpful to those it is intended to protect from indentured servitude (which the constitution prohibits) when it is suspended in behalf of the mega-wealthy, such as Halliburton - which is not a problem with the law, but rather with the suspension of it. As for plumbers charging more than Sreekanth is willing to pay: for one, welcome to the US, where one should not expect to either be paid, or pay, slave wages; for another, he is willing to pay more than necessary via, as example, an Alaskan corporation to build housing for the evacuees in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi - to a company in Georgia. One would think the taxpayer would be hiring those who lost everything, instead of yet again giving no-bid contracts to Bush-connected corporations everywhere else but in the affected states ...
Joseph J Nagarya
Boston, Massachusetts (Oct 20, '05)


I want to comment on your editorial board. I used to believe that the policy of Asia Times Online is different from those of other newspapers I usually read in India and the US. But now I believe it is the same; the fact is that it is the same everywhere. The uniform policy of the editorial board of any newsmagazine/paper, including Asia Times Online, is that they want their readers to read their point of view. They do not care [about freedom of expression] - does it exist anywhere? I responded to one of your letter writers who expressed his opinion on Hindu temples ... but you did not allow me to express my opinion because my view did not suit your line of thinking - is [that] not it? My response [was] not derogatory at all, at least as compared to what your readers generally write. It is my habit to read many newspapers in a day - New York Times, BBC, or Times of India, and Asia Times Online; I rarely write a letter to them or to you. This time, I thought of making you realize that you are hypocritical because other news boards do not claim they are fair, but you have claimed it in one to two of your comments in response to some of readers' letters. Although my real intention is to make your readers know about your dubious policy, which I might not, because you have control over as what news should be transmitted to your readers.
Shekhar
Chicago, Illinois (Oct 20, '05)

We receive many letters and cannot publish them all; those that are too long, rambling or poorly written, or are deliberately offensive, stand the best chance of being rejected. - ATol

Ramtanu Mitra's otherwise comprehensive article [India bids to rule the waves, Oct 19] has one point where it needs to be updated: India has recently indicated that it is going to re-route the proposed gas pipeline through its northeast rather than go through Bangladesh. Presumably this is due to Delhi's dissatisfaction with Dhaka's security arrangements, and its frustration [at] the latter's delaying tactics over the deal. This potentially significant development has been ignored by the author. Frank [letter, Oct 18]: if not learning English means preserving your "pride and dignity", shall we conclude that China is hell-bent on giving up its store of these, as its leaders go all out to increase English proficiency in the country?
Aruni Mukherjee (Oct 19, '05)


[Re] Malaysia's minority Indians drift [Oct 19]: Even in the days of the British Malay states, Indians remained at the bottom of society in the main. Independence hardly changed this. Independent Malaysia simply took over where the British left off. The Malay majority instituted and institutionalized an apartheid policy based on ethnicity, and so the Indian minority remained where it always was - at the bottom of the totem pole. That policy remains firmly in place. The sops [that] Malays, for example, throw to Indians, who have 5% of seats reserved at the university, are risible at best and blatantly offensive to standards of decency at worst. Little wonder delinquency is high, and half the felons in prison are Indian. Are these the Asian values which former prime minister Mahathir [Mohamad] so proudly lauded?
Jakob Cambria
USA (Oct 19, '05)


Malaysia's minority Indians drift [Oct 19] delivered a loud message that pride and dignity are very important. What else can cause 8% of the population to account for a disproportionate 15% of juvenile delinquents, to commit 40% of all violent crime and to make up nearly 50% of all convicts in prisons?
Frank
Seattle, Washington (Oct 19, '05)


This is with reference to The blood is the life, Mr Rumsfeld! by Spengler (Oct 12) ... I really did not know why Asian Times Online allows Spengler to constantly deride the religion of Islam with impunity ... He says, "Never before has the Shi'ite current in Islam, the religion of the [disfranchised], held power in the Persian Gulf." This is historically incorrect. What would one call the Abbasid caliphs who eliminated the Umayyads? The Sassanid and the Ismaili governments were also Shi'a. Muslims do not have to submit to the will of any ummah. Islam means submission to God, not the ummah. Ummah simply means "nation", and could be multi-religious (Spain 711-1492) or multi-ethnic (Pakistan). Spengler erroneously defines the ummah as an exclusive club for Muslims. Mohammed did not create a "new ummah", rather he called Islam deen e Ibrahimi (religion of Abraham). Mohammed himself was married to a Christian woman for two decades and she was surely part of the ummah. Any student of Islamic history would tell Spengler that the ummah in Medina included the Jews and the Muslims. The ummah is certainly not based on religion. Again Spengler mistranslates the concept of Dar-al-Harb. Dar-al-Islam is not the land of Islam, but the "land of peace". Dar-al-Harb is the land of war, and could include Muslim lands run by Muslim tyrants. For example the caliphate of Yezid would be Dar-al-Harb, and the USA today would certainly be Dar-al-Islam (land of peace). It was not Arab armies but Muslim saints [who] spread Islam to the world. Arab armies never conquered lands where 80% of the Muslims live - Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the former Central Asian states of West Asia, etc. "Arab tribesmen" creating "New Israel" is unintelligible psycho-[babble] that only Spengler can understand. Quoting Professor Khaleel Mohammed is fine, but he has been ostracized because of his anti-Muslim views not accepted by mainstream Muslims.
Moin Ansari (Oct 19, '05)


Re Spengler and his The blood is the life, Mr Rumsfeld! [Oct 12]: it is astonishing to find such a level of conspicuously slanted neo-conservative vitriol on an otherwise very informative news source. This ... regular contributor to your paper actually retains the unmitigated gall to cite [Franz] Rozensweig, Bernard Lewis (a former MI6 spy, not an "Islamic scholar") and George W Bush as authority figures in his piece, thereby discrediting much of his credibility on Islam, certainly as far as that particular article is concerned. We are curious, though, as to why he stopped with just these learned luminaries? Why didn't Spengler continue with adequate doses of Moses Maimonides and Leo Strauss' vitriolic writings on how inferior Muslims are in general, just for good measure? Please. [Shi'ite] Muslims are much more concerned with issues involving individual and collective justice than they are with the spilling of their own, or anyone else's, blood. It is the core concern of all [Shi'ites] and Muslims, be they Arab, Persian or converts from other cultures and nations. Getting hold of a few photos of past Ashura demonstrations may serve propagandistic purposes for Spengler, but it hardly enlightens your global readership on the true past, character and nature of [Shi'ite] Islam. Too, Spengler assigns the term "quietism" to the Christian viewing of Armageddon, issues of Return and the like. As if the quasi-evangelical Bush administration's demonstrably belligerent drive towards securing the requisitely deemed Zionistic environs for the Messiah's scheduled "Return" can be credibly qualified as "quietism".
R Davoodi (Oct 19, '05)

To Tatsuo Sasaki ([letter] Oct 18) re Koizumi plays it his way (Oct 18). Politicians the world over have lied, committed fraud, stolen from their people, sent their poor to slaughter in foreign wars and retired demanding respect. Such men don't deserve respect. Such men are repugnant. Japanese politicians and Japanese governments since 1945 have never taken responsibility for their war crimes. On the contrary, they have shown by their actions that they are proud of their war criminals by honoring them in their Yasukuni Shrine. What on earth does it take to convince Japanese politicians and the Japanese people that none of their Asian neighbors and millions worldwide will trust them or respect them until the Japanese take full responsibility for their history? And one man saying "Oh my gosh I'm sorry!" does not cut it.
AL
Canada (Oct 19, '05)


I've been lingering around the Letters section for some time now and the highlight of this section is the argument between a couple of Indians (Rakesh, Aruni [Mukherjee], etc) and Frank from Seattle. As I look at it, Frank's counter-arguments to Rakesh's and Aruni's arguments are at best a-mature - he sings the same tune of "don't compare India with China", "India follows its masters' (white men's) footsteps" and "India has a caste system" and he breaks into an insulting frenzy about India and its people. The truth is Frank knows precious little about China and what Chinese people think ... Frank, let me be frank, what you say is true, agreed. But do you think Indians like me will take your insults lying down? ... the caste system is there; what you don't know is that the situation in India is changing. India follows white [men's] footsteps; so what, it works for us, and how could you possible know about the caste system and discrimination unless we [had] a free press and democracy and you read it from Indian or international newspapers? I am a student in Germany, and let me enlighten other readers of ATimes about the plight of Chinese people - [this was] information I gathered from the Chinese students here. To start with, all the Chinese citizens must have an identity card, and they must carry this card with them always wherever they go, and this ID card is used especially to block poor Chinese and peasants from villages from entering the cities. This one action is enough to show the Chinese interpretation of equality. Maybe that's why Frank says not to compare democratic India and communist China. Most of the Chinese students here believe the students who were butchered in Tiananmen Square were "stupid" ... The communists have brainwashed these young students into believing that the students' success on that day would have led to a breakup of China ... Their parents won't talk about that, teachers say the topic is taboo. There are no books or news articles to read from, so these young [people] just believe what the Communist Party says and sing the same tune wherever they go. Maybe that's why Frank says not to compare democratic India and communist China. What else Frank, do you need more information on your country's situation? Go straight to [the] nearest university and talk to some Chinese students. Frank, India too has problems, major problems, but there is a free press too to highlight these problems to the society, and this helps in solving the problems, not overnight but gradually. And China does not have a free press - only God knows what more problems are there and the future of China.
Mohan
Germany (Oct 19, '05)


I wish to respond to Chrysantha Wijeyasingha's letter of October 18. You're entitled to your own opinion on China and the question of Tibet. However, please don't link it to the Japanese invasion of China. These are two separate issues. We, the Chinese people who have lost family, relatives and friends in the brutal Japanese invasion have every right to protest Prime Minister [Junichiro] Koizumi's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine. To say that we do not have a case belittles the millions of innocent victims who died at the hands of the Japanese. And yes, they were victims of Japanese aggression.
Jennifer
USA (Oct 19, '05)


[Moin] Ansari [letter, Oct 13]: You are typical of all jihadis [in blaming] others for Islam's problems with the world. You are entitled to your speculation about my groupthink and manufacturing-consent abilities. Nevertheless, I am pleased that you acknowledge [that] the larger world view (world groupthink) of Islam is negative. If you were to dwell on the cause, it is clear that Islam's demonizing of infidels [and] women and use of suicidal extermination of people with opposite world views has resulted in such a situation. Muslims like you are more interested in blaming others than [in] taking remedial steps. Self-denial is your steady state while the jihadis are enjoying their 67 virgins in paradise.
DirtyDog
San Francisco, California (Oct 19, '05)

[Junichiro] Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni this Monday showed, once again, how great a leader he is [Koizumi plays it his way, Oct 18]. He just doesn't run away from what is considered right. This time, the right [thing was to] keep the beliefs and the mutual respect between nations. Respect doesn't mean to subtract our beliefs to please other people. Respect means to acknowledge another nation as we would like to be acknowledged. Japan, as any nation, has the right to pay tribute to [its] sons dead in wars in its own pacific way, hasn't it? So why doesn't the [Chinese] government respect Japanese people? Besides, Japan has apologized about the past and stated its belief and commitment with peace many times, and made huge efforts to help [its] neighbors in many ways. It's a matter of mutual respect. Mr Koizumi is showing it, despite all risks. And that's the reason why he is a great leader for a healthy and peaceful world.
Tatsuo Sasaki (Oct 18, '05)


The article Koizumi plays it his way [Oct 18] points to both China's and Korea's objections to [Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro] Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine. In the case of South Korea's protest it is understandable, but in the case of China it is the pot calling the kettle black. China, which invaded Tibet, destroyed 6,000 of her monasteries, which contained the bulk of Tibet's culture, and butchered the Tibetan people and annexed their land, is all so sensitive about Japanese aggression against her during World War II. It would be best if China cleaned her dirty laundry before citing other nations' clothing. In terms of [the] sheer number of people killed under a government edict, China far surpasses the excesses of the Japanese Imperial Empire, and now China wants to wear the proverbial halo of a "victim" of Japanese aggression while quaintly ignoring her massive brutality towards Tibet and her own people. How hypocritical could a nation be?
Chrysantha Wijeyasingha
New Orleans, Louisiana (Oct 18, '05)


This is with reference to Syed Saleem Shahzad's article Song and dance on the terror trail (Oct 14). There is nothing new to the old accusation on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden. If Mr Shahzad or the State Department ... knows the whereabouts of the criminal, then it is treasonous not to reveal this knowledge. Mr Shahzad must immediately claim his reward of [US]$25 million. His repeated claims of some sort of Pakistani collusion with the Taliban flies in the face of evidence that [Afghan President Hamid] Karzai allowed the Taliban intelligence chief to run in the elections and the insurgency in the western part of Afghanistan. This anti-Pakistan theory also flies in the face of facts on the ground which show that Afghanistan is the No 1 producer of opium in the world and that the old Pashtun elements (and Taliban sympathizers) control 12 Afghan provinces. Mr Shahzad's wishful thinking about the dissent in the Pakistani army is also presented without any proof. Mr Shahzad is wasting his expense account if after spending 21 days [with] the State Department all he could come up with is the publicly known fact that the US has been unable to infiltrate al-Qaeda. Michael Scheuer's books purchased for $20 or an article by Hamid Mir could have given him a lot more deep insights.
Moin Ansari (Oct 18, '05)


If India wants to gauge itself, it should look to its history. China should not be India's gauge. Constant boasts are not the right ways to gauge your development. Being naturally argumentative and deliberative can also mean [being] full of bull. That should not be the base of pride. Hard work should. Hard manufacturing jobs may be trinkets to India's upper caste. If Indians do not want to [do] those jobs, that is none of India's business. Instead of investing [in] China and demanding [that] Chinese follow his master's rules, I hope Rakesh [letter, Oct 14] can invest back [into] India's poor. Build them a restroom, so India can have a clean street. Build them a crematory, so poor Indians do not have to dump dead bodies into the water resources. Most important, build them a leveled playing field, so lower-caste Indians can compete with the upper ones at the same level. Indians are trilingual people? Let them be proud of speaking their mother languages. I hope Aruni Mukherjee [letter, Oct 14] can understand pride and dignity are far more important than greenbacks.
Frank
Seattle, Washington (Oct 18, '05)


Thank you very much for your feedback on my letter dated October 17. While I sincerely appreciate your clarification, I am afraid I have to disagree with you at many places. I have some suggestions regarding what you explained in your response. It is not only you, but publications all over the world follow the same pattern; certain rules and principles while publishing articles and letters in their publications. For instance: grammar, syntax, punctuation, spelling, size of the printing material, printing viability of the matter etcetera. [These are] standard criteria and the publisher doesn't need to remind every time individually. Secondly, writer and editor are two different people. Every single writer on this planet mostly concentrates to put together his thoughts in the perspective of the topic he is writing. A writer does know that if by chance he misses some punctuation, made some grammatical mistakes or misspelled some words that would be fixed and corrected by the editors before going to the printing. Thus every writer could not be necessarily watchful about his typing mistakes, omissions and errors. If it does happen, it's not because he is a loggerhead but he takes latter aspect as casual as basically he is focusing on the mainstream subject matter (please refer the last line of my earlier letter where I spelled "establish" as "eatblish". It is simply a typing mistake or omission and doesn't mean that I don't know the spelling of the word "establish"). If you still feel that you want to caution every writer what you explained to me in your reply, you could simply put this information on the top of the Letters page for a permanent notice to all writers to defuse this confusion instead of doing [it] discretely every time.
Shafiq Khan
Canada (Oct 18, '05)

Most editing changes are minor and are not indicated, but in some cases, fairly substantial changes are necessary. As well, our editors cannot in every case be certain what the letter writer meant and must make an educated guess. The devices you object to such as bracketed insertions are meant to caution readers that the editor, not the writer, decided this was the most likely interpretation. - ATol


Your letter was distorted, G Travan [letter, Oct 17]? Oh really? How was it distorted, I wonder? Did you not write, "You will find no Xinjiang people in Beijing today"? OK, you backtracked and wrote, "they were once rather prominent on any of Beijing's streets, whereas they are now hidden away in ghettoes" ... Being a native of Beijing, it has never been my knowledge that Xinjiang people were once prominent on any of Beijing's streets. You made it sound like as if they were once all over the place in Beijing, [but] unfortunately that's not true. Before the municipal government of Beijing revamped the areas of Weigongcun and Ganjiakou, Xinjiang people were mostly found in those neighborhoods, rather than on "any of Beijing's streets". Sure, some roadside kabob stands and restaurants were gone thanks to the "makeover" effort, but many Xinjiang people can still be found in Weigongcun and Ganjiakou today, which still are the primary locations for the so-called "Xinjiang Village". Ghettoes? What ghettoes? Where are they? Please inform and enlighten me, Mr Travan. First you accused Beijing of suppressing the Xinjiang people by claiming that there were no Xinjiang people in Beijing; after being rebutted, you are now saying they are hidden away in some ghettoes? Excuse me, Travan, I thought your point was that Beijing drove them away, and now you are saying they are still there, but in hiding? What exactly are you saying? Make up your mind, will you, Mr Travan? As for those Uighur programs offered by universities in Xinjiang ... they are not some "language courses for curious foreigners" that you made up, they are courses taught in Uighur or extensive Uighur language study courses. If courses are no longer taught in Uighur at universities, if people are forced to give up their language for college education, one would draw the easy conclusion that many Uighur college graduates today can 't properly speak Uighur. I haven't found a single Uighur college grad, or Uighurs from Xinjiang for that matter, who can't speak Uighur. "Beijing's ongoing brutal suppression and assimilation campaigns against ethnic minorities"? What do you mean? By the way, is Niujie (the biggest Hui Muslim neighborhood in Beijing) gone too? I have friends from minority groups ranging from Manchurian, Kazakh, Hui to Buyi and Yao; none of them reported suppression and assimilation campaigns against them. Having lived in Beijing for several periods doesn't automatically make you a "Beijing expert" or "China scholar"; apparently some of your knowledge is inaccurate and out of date. Of course, like I said, China has a lot of problems (probably more than any other nation does). If you are the smart guy who picks one every day and beats it to death, this discussion will go on forever and probably outlive both of us. Again, I suggest that we take our next round of exchange to The Edge forum, instead of clogging up the Letters section.
Juchechosunmanse
Beijing, China (Oct 18, '05)

Re Song and dance on the terror trail [Oct 14]: You are right on target. Nailed it! And in a highly accessible - and visceral - way. Well done.
Bryant (Oct 17, '05)


I wish I could cut open my heart and tell the whole world how I am feeling about the earthquake tragedy; it is simply beyond words to express the grief and sadness. I weep for every soul that has perished, and for all those who are going through the terrible ordeal of surviving in pain and anguish, and for all those who lost their loved ones.
Saqib Khan
London, England (Oct 17, '05)


The internal Pakistani response [to the earthquake] has been heroic, superhuman, and "goose bump" stuff of which legends are made [Earthquake relief on a war footing, Oct 14]. The fantastic spirit of volunteerism is a case study for the Harvard Business Review. Within 15 minutes of the falling of the Margala Towers [in Islamabad], the police and hundreds of good Samaritans were there scraping at the rubble with their bare hands. Within two hours the president and the prime minister were helping at the site. Hordes of volunteers are collecting supplies from every nook and corner of Pakistan. From dusk to dawn the air force flew 800 sorties, a world record. The roads to the most inaccessible areas have been rebuilt several times, and today there are mountains of relief supplies in the remotest of the remote areas in Kashmir manned by thousands of troops and volunteers. Today more than 100,000 Pakistani troops are fanning out in the mountains of Azad Kashmir looking to help Pakistanis. The international response to the quake has been atrocious. The Pakistani state machinery is too polite and too overwhelmed to say anything except "thank you". They are grateful for any scraps that are doled out. The fact remains that the world response to the Pakistani quake has been beyond pathetic. The Pakistani earthquake is a bigger catastrophe than the tsunami. The tsunami countries got over [US]$10 billion. While many agencies and governments are "going through the motions", serious efforts have not been made to help Pakistan and Pakistanis. The reasons may be similar to the reasons why the black [Hurricane] Katrina victims got little help and white [Hurricane] Rita victims got a lot of aid. Racism and Islamophobic bias are at the root of this nonchalance not covered by the media ... The US has 8,000 helicopters in Afghanistan. Pakistan needs about 200 helicopters and heavy moving equipment to assist the victims. Eight [helicopters] were released and then an additional four were released by Secretary of State [Condoleezza] Rice after President [General Pervez] Musharraf literally begged her for more ... equipment. The NATO forces in Afghanistan refused to release any choppers. What makes it more hurtful is the fact that Arab racism is at its worst today. Muslim countries have different scales for white American victims and different scales for brown Pakistani lives. Kuwait and Qatar gave the 20,000 Katrina victims $400 million each. For the 3 million ... Pakistanis $100 million was deemed enough. The Palestinian Authority has not given anything. Egypt gave $50,000. The Japanese teams were so late that they could not save a single life in the schools where 1,500 children lay buried. The good news is that Pakistanis have come together like never before ... Volunteers are everywhere sending materials and volunteers to the affected areas of Azad Kashmir. Pakistan and Pakistanis will remember the friends ... Pakistanis see help coming from India, and Israel and the Jewish organizations in the USA. This will be remembered. The world knows that Pakistan cannot be ignored. Pakistani foreign policy realignment is under way. This will have long-term consequences for the world.
Moin Ansari (Oct 17, '05)


Spengler responds
Lester Ness (letter, Oct 14) claims that the Muslim feat of Eid al-Adha, at which Muslims slaughter a lamb, reveals a "careless mistake" in my observation that Islam has no "cult of sacrifice" (in The blood is the life, Mr Rumsfeld! Oct 11). On the contrary: I am merely restating the standard Muslim view of the matter. The slaughter of the lamb on Eid ad-Adha is not cultic at all, in that it seeks no expiation from the Divine. Rather it commemorates Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son (Ishmael in the mainstream Muslim account). Muslims emphasize the difference between their practice on Eid al-Adha and the Judeo-Christian cult of sacrifice. As the website AboutIslam observes, "It is very important to understand that the sacrifice itself, as practiced by Muslims, has nothing to do with atoning for our sins or using the blood to wash ourselves from sin. This is a misunderstanding by those of previous generations: 'It is not their meat nor their blood that reaches Allah; it is your piety that reaches him' (Surah al-Hajj 22:37)." Similarly, Islam Online, a mainstream Muslim website, published a fatwa stating, "Sacrifice is not a pillar of Islam ... Not only did the pagan Arabs sacrifice to a variety of gods in hopes of attaining protection or some favor or material gain, but so, too, did the Jews of that day seek to appease the One True God by blood sacrifice and burnt offerings. Even the Christian community felt Jesus to be the last sacrifice, the final lamb, so to speak, in an otherwise valid tradition of animal sacrifice (where one's sins are absolved by the blood of another). Islam, however, broke away from this longstanding tradition of appeasing an 'angry God' and instead demanded personal sacrifice and submission as the only way to die before death and reach fana or 'extinction in Allah'." Mr Ness also disputes my statement that 7th century Byzantium suffered from a population decline. Again, the facts are clear; I refer interested readers to Bryan Ward-Perkins' excellent volume The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization, which I reviewed on this site on September 7 [Deep in denial (or in de Mississippi)].
Spengler (Oct 17, '05)


I refer to the article The blood is the life, Mr Rumsfeld! by Spengler (Oct 11). Spengler's article is full of distortion and misrepresentation. Iran, which is almost 100% Shi'a, has not seen any bloody infighting since the Islamic Revolution. Since kicking out the Americans in the Islamic Revolution, Iran is one of the most stable countries in the Middle East, and has achieved tremendous development in spirituality, culture, economics, and military. It is the only developing country that can stand up to [the US]. The greatest part of the bloodshed in Iraq is caused by the occupiers, who have killed over 2 million people since the first Gulf War, through 12 years of daily bombings and sanctions ... In one breath [Spengler] speaks of the Shia's and then goes on to say: "Unlike Christianity or Judaism, Islam has no ritual of sacrifice, nor does it need one, for the sacrifice that Islam demands is that of the Muslim himself. That is the secret of Ashura." The Shi'a custom of breast-beating and self-wounding at the time of Ashura is strictly a Shi'ite tradition and is not practiced by the Sunnis who form roughly 88% of the world's Muslims. His statement "Islam has no ritual sacrifice" is misleading. Islam has a ritual sacrifice [that] is a tradition based on the episode when Abraham was asked to sacrifice a thing most dear to him, his son Ishmael. When he was about to sacrifice his son, he [Ishmael] was replaced by a sheep, and therefore Muslims sacrifice an animal after completion of the annual hajj. It is wishful thinking by Spengler that the Iraqis will end up in a civil war and fratricide, and that is exactly the result the Americans and the Israelis like to see, but it will not happen. Just as Israel tried every trick in the trade to cause a civil war amongst the Palestinians and failed, they are going to fail in Iraq and we are going to, instead, see a civil war in America and Israel in not too a distant future.
Vincent Maadi
Cape Town, South Africa (Oct 17, '05)


On Joseph Nagarya's letter [Oct 14], we could go on all day, but it seems that his definition of "bigots and racists" is a bit expansive, such as eliminating "civil rights and labor etc protections". Why, I'm sure I've been guilty of thinking such thoughts myself, when I wonder if affirmative action in its present form is still helpful, and if a plumber should really cost [US]$140 a visit. By Nagarya's definition, most Americans are bigots and racists, which of course is the proper frame of mind that he would encourage, so as to keep them receptive to his now thoroughly discredited solutions.
Jonnavithula ("Jon") Sreekanth
Acton, Massachusetts (Oct 17, '05)


"Long Live Korean Self-Reliance" (aka Juchechosunmanse [letter, Oct 14]) has distorted my previous letter. He has also carefully avoided my main argument that Beijing has a benighted view of culture, particularly that of minorities. When I wrote that no Xinjiang people were to be found in Beijing, I meant they were once rather prominent on any of Beijing's streets, whereas they are now hidden away in ghettoes. When I wrote that Uighur language instruction was ended in Xinjiang, I did not mean there weren't a few language courses for curious foreigners, but that the language of instruction in universities is no longer Uighur, forcing the Uighur people to give up their language for the sake of a university education. The window-dressing of a few Xinjiang ghettoes in Beijing and a few Uighur classes for foreigners are irrelevant in the wider suppression of the Uighur peoples and other minorities. Does anyone deny Beijing's ongoing brutal suppression and assimilation campaigns against ethnic minorities? I have lived in Beijing for several periods in the past decade and have watched how the Uighur people suddenly disappeared from the streets. As for the issue of Shanghai cracking down on accents, I never stated that the government was universally enforcing the new regulations, in preparation for the 2010 world expo ... "Long Live Korean Self-Reliance" should know from the example of his beloved North Korea that oppressive laws enforced against a few will create enough fear for the majority to comply.
G Travan
California, USA (Oct 17, '05)


I am fairly a mature guy in my early 50s and highly educated with four university degrees including one MA (honors) in English major. Journalism is not my cup of tea and I write sometimes freelance as my passion. In my life, I have never come across such an unwarranted and disproportionate inundated application of parentheses and brackets in writings as you do in your Letters to the Editor page. I understand this is a free world and you have every right to exercise your occupancy, not because we like it but you own the publication. Sometimes it is really too annoying and distracting. You are reading a letter and are being stumbled over and over as you go further and it also breaks the sequence and concentration. It's okay if one or two parentheses are used to highlight the point but an excessive use is not only a nuisance but creates an impression that you or the writer is in a situation of self-diminishment and are yelling to seek attention. I also understand that these punctuations are not marked by the writers but by your editorial people. Please pay attention to Moin Ansari's letter (Oct 13) commenting on Dirty Dog's letter. I quote one and a half lines from the letter: "in Algeria [Islamic Salvation Front], Pakistan ([Benazir] Bhutto) [and] Iran ([Mohammad] Mossadegh)". You can see, there are five parentheses and brackets, even Benazir Bhutto and the word "and" have been punctuated three times separately. I don't know what English language, syntax and syntheses you are using and what you want to eatblish [establish? - ATol] to your readers.
Shafiq Khan
Canada (Oct 17, '05)

Our policy on the Letters page is to keep the tone and syntax of the contributions as intact as possible, while editing for grammar, clarity and consistency with our editorial style. It is sometimes necessary to insert material, and this is done in square brackets; ellipses indicate that some original material has been deleted. In the example you cite, Moin Ansari's original said: "in Algeria (ISF), Pakistan (Bhutto), Iran (Mossadagh)". Our policy is to spell out the names of organizations such as ISF, and to write out people's full names on first reference; the "and" was inserted for grammatical correctness. If letter writers find our editorial devices confusing, they can help us out by following our policies themselves when making their submissions, and by checking their spelling (this would also save us some time and effort and ensure their original intent is preserved). - ATol

Syed Saleem Shahzad: Thank you for your article [Song and dance on the terror trail, Oct 14]. You rightly point out that the basic weakness of this "war" is lack of reliable intelligence ... For those whose memory [has become] hazy, consider that after the first Gulf War (1991), the routed Iraqi army was drawn back around Baghdad, and president [George H W] Bush called upon the Shi'ites of southern Iraq to "rise up against the tyrant and we will help you". They did and were joined in revolt by the Kurds. The US Army, the mightiest military force ever assembled, sat back and did nothing. Saddam Hussein came back and massacred both the Shi'ites and the Kurds. Neither has forgotten just what the word of the US is worth. Consider then that [this and other] incidents have damaged US credibility beyond repair, to the point that nobody in the region will provide serious, reliable "humint" [human intelligence], which is fundamental to prosecution of any war, let alone the shadowy war against terrorists. I'm sure you can follow the thread to today's events, through the regular fiasco of false terrorist alerts in this country [US]. In short, what should be a police problem in hunting for the terrorist mosquito has been warped beyond repair by hunting with a military sledgehammer, wrecking the homes of the neighbors who might have helped us. But for a police investigation to succeed across the world, there must be cooperation with other police forces; alas, the word "cooperation" does not exist in the US government dictionary.
Mike Tsoukias
Houston, Texas (Oct 14, '05)


[Re] Song and dance on the terror trail [Oct 14] by Syed Saleem Shahzad: Here we go again. I am not sure whose payroll you are on - CIA [US Central Intelligence Agency], Mossad or RAW [Indian Research and Analysis Wing]? Please write truth and not fabricated stories.
Bob (Oct 14, '05)

And you please do not make blind allegations. Rather debate the contents of the article. - Syed Saleem Shahzad


Chietigj Bajpaee makes too much of energy rivalry between the United States and China in Africa [The eagle, the dragon and African oil, Oct 12]. China takes about as much [interest in] its own energy needs as does [the US]. Take Sudan for example. It has proven reserves of 563 million barrels of oil. Lest we forget, the United States under the Clinton administration imposed sanctions on Khartoum, and the Bush administration has publicly denounced the policy of genocide that Sudan is waging against its own African Muslims in Darfur. Nonetheless, Washington has not blinked to see China drilling for oil in Sudan while the [US] company Marathon Oil is prospecting there in its own oil patch. Let's face it, there is not such a scramble for oil by China in Africa which would challenge American oil companies, giant or independent. The flapdoodle over Union Oil had more to do with domestic policy in the United States than in a heated international race for staking out one's claim for oil here, there and everywhere.
Jakob Cambria
USA (Oct 14, '05)


Spengler has made quite a lot of careless mistakes in his [Oct 12] essay The blood is the life, Mr Rumsfeld! The phrase "the blood is the life" is [from] Deuteronomy 12:23: "Only be sure that you do not eat the blood; for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh." Most of Bram Stoker's readers would have recognized this. Muslims sacrifice annually, on the Eid al-Adha; even a Catholic like me knows this. Christians do not see the Second Coming of Jesus as a quietist thing; rather "he will rule them with a rod of iron" (Revelation 2:27). Paganism is not a single thing (rather it is a blanket term for everything outside the Abrahamic tradition), but Roman religion was based on do ut des or "I am doing you a favor; you do me a favor." Greek religion was quite similar. Inscriptions "to the god who listens to prayers" are very common from Greco-Roman Syria. The Roman Near East was not in a population decline in late antiquity; quite the reverse. The 7th century CE Arab conquerors were intimately familiar with the countries bordering Arabia, had been for millennia. Certainly they were familiar with the Christians, who were not rare in Arabia. All this is not just a matter of scholarly pedantry. "He who is faithful in little will be faithful in much" (Gospel of Luke 16:11) and if Spengler can't get something as simple as "the blood is the life" or the Muslim sacrifice right, why should we trust what he says on more esoteric subjects, like Shi'ism, Iraqi politics, etc? By the way, is that Spengler's photo at the head of his article?
Lester Ness
Kunming, China (Oct 14, '05)

Could be. - ATol


Re Frank's last half a dozen letters that are loaded with nothing but misinformation and prejudice ... Frank claims some Indians think they are superior to other colored people and that is because they follow "white man's" [systems]. Well, let me say that his mind-reading abilities leave much to be desired. Little does Frank know (or I bet would even care to know) that most Indians are proud not because they follow "white man's" [systems], but because our country's freedom fighters had the vision to fight in a non-violent way to liberate ourselves from exploitative colonial rule, and at the same time to firmly establish a structure that provides the necessary checks and balances and vents for people's opinions. True, there are some institutions that we carried over from the colonial days, but the people [who] wrote the constitution and guided our fledgling democracy were Indian, and they did so keeping in mind the huge diversity of India. We Indians thank them for this ... In one of his previous letters Frank made the argument that India takes orders from the US, while China does not. Well, I am not sure which planet he is from, but let me remind him that for three decades, India has been either spearheading the [Non-Aligned] Movement or had firmly aligned with the Soviets. Aruni Mukherjee [letter, Oct 7] correctly pointed out the misinformation that Frank was spreading about Iranian oil, but I guess Frank's allergies to Indian writers makes him run away from reason. One other unique pearl of wisdom Frank throws in is that India always looks good on paper. Just recently, India became one of the top five investment destinations, but I guess all those people/corporations investing are just plain stupid. In Frank's world, it seems, real wisdom, real hard work and real entrepreneurship exist only in Shanghai and Beijing. Not satisfied with the amount of investment China is getting, Frank pleads [with] the readers in one of his recent letters to invest in trinket manufacturing in China. Hey, Frank, I don't mind investing in your trinket-manufacturing companies - I like trinkets, really - but my only condition is that the Chinese government doesn't try to gag me, my countrymen, and the poor workers [who] toil in slave-like conditions.
Rakesh (Oct 14, '05)


The saying goes, "You can't clap with one hand." In my past [two or three] letters I have tried to explain to Frank how he rapidly needs to qualify his views about India and her people, most of which are not even pro tanto close to reality. This is where I rest my case. But not before I point out the fallacies in his [Oct 13] letter. First, the interest that many Indians share about the developments in China are quintessential for a country that sees itself as a developing power and wants to gauge its relative strengths and weaknesses vis-a-vis other countries on similar trajectories of development. In strategic terms, China has always compared its military power with that of Taiwan and the United States. Second, I fail to see any superiority complex among Indian letter writers of Asia Times [Online] about their proficiency in English. As I have mentioned almost innumerable times, Indians are trilingual people - they speak their local tongue, Hindi (usually) as well as English. If there is something so inherently degrading about learning a foreign language, then why is China desperately trying to catch up on its own English strengths? Wake up and smell the coffee, Frank - it brings us the greenbacks. Third, Indians are naturally argumentative and deliberative people. This is recorded in our ancient traditions. British colonialism has merely given us a modern modus operandi to translate this into a democracy Westminster-style. Even there, India is a unique hybrid between American federalism and British unitarism. Fourth, if Frank admits that China too is learning from the West aka India, then his argument has no locus standi. For if India is learning from the West and acknowledges the fact (according to his own letter), and China doesn't, then this [amounts] not only to "differences in attitudes", but [to] intellectual plagiarism - plain and simple. In any case, since when did socialism or capitalism (depending on whether you're looking at the political or the economic China) become Chinese concepts? ...
Aruni Mukherjee (Oct 14, '05)


I am humbled that I have fans and a forum discussing my letters. If you pay attention, I only commented about the funny articles comparing India with China. I meant no harm to Indians. I just want them to leave Chinese people alone. The ideas of democracy originated from ancient Rome and were adopted by many countries. I am sure the democratic political system will eventually be adopted by China. However, history proved that if a political system was adopted voluntarily, not imposed by force, that system would last longer and work better. Indians did not adopt democracy themselves. White men imposed their political system on Indians. That is the reason India's system [has] worked well. For example, the laws in India are either references or bargaining chips for bribery. The caste system is superficially outlawed. However, that law means nothing to Indians. The situation of dalits is the same as before. If you ask every Indian you know, you [will] find out that none of the wealthy ones [is a] dalit. Twenty percent of Indians are dalits. Let me challenge all Indian readers and writers here. Show me one dalit reader of ATol who likes the current situation of India. The so-called Indian democracy means nothing to them. They want clean water, basic food, clothes, shelter, health care and schools. The existence of [the] caste system is a serious human-rights violation. It is a shame that those Western human-rights supporters will look the other way when it comes to India's dalits. Some white masters think if Indians can keep their servitude, why care about India's poor? They do not have the media resources or English skills to voice their objections anyway ... Poverty is the largest enemy in Asia, not your neighbors. Please leave them alone.
Frank
Seattle, Washington (Oct 14, '05)


G Travan made so many wild and laughable claims in his letter [Oct 13] which consequently cost him his entire credibility. "Anyone speaking Mandarin with an accent in Shanghai will now be fined and forced to attend classes"? Are you kidding me? Almost every person in Shanghai speaks Mandarin with a Shanghai accent; as powerful as the Chinese government might be, there is no way that it can forcefully put 20 million people to Mandarin classes. Mr Travan, maybe you are implying that China's economic success, particularly Shanghai's, is funded by fines from people who speak Mandarin with an accent? "You will find no Xinjiang people in Beijing today"? Again, are you kidding me? Come to Ganjiakou and Weigongcun and see for yourself. Some neighborhoods were bulldozed as part of the grand effort of "reconstructing Beijing", which did affect Xinjiang Village in those areas, but there are still plenty of Xinjiang restaurants and Xinjiang people left. As a matter of fact, there is a Xinjiang restaurant in the very hutong that my home is at, and I have grown familiar with one of their employees, a Kazakh lad by the name of Askar. Mr Travan, obviously you have no idea what's going on in Beijing, writing from your home thousands of miles away in California, and I figured that I, being from Beijing, might have a better say than you on this matter. As for whether or not Uighur is being taught at universities in Xinjiang, since I don't want to bore other letter readers with the details here, I suggest that you visit the thread that I created on The Edge forum titled Uighur is not being taught in Xinjiang? where you will find information of a couple of universities in Xinjiang which have quite dynamic Uighur programs. In short, either the BBC's reports were unintentionally inaccurate or they were blatantly lying. Mr Travan, this isn't about pro-China or not, this is about facts, one of which is [that] China has made huge strides in the past two decades, no matter how some people like you might choose to ignore or twist it. That being said, it is clear to everyone that China is far from being a "harmonious society", it has got its plate full of problems such as corruption, unemployment, the widening gap between the rich and the poor, the deteriorating environment, public health and education etc. But who doesn't have problems? If the US is so awful as you have suggested, why don't you worry less about foreign countries like China and spend more time worrying about your own and try to make it a better place?
Juchechosunmanse
Beijing, China (Oct 14, '05)


Jonnavithula Sreekanth (while avoiding the issues in my letter) writes [letter, Oct 12]: "Joseph Nagarya must have correctly concluded from my name that I'm not of white Christian origin, so the charge of racism is the nuclear weapon meant to bring me scurrying back into the fold." My statement of the fact about the Republican Party as concerns deliberate use and exploitation of racism is intended to wake Mr Sreekanth to that reality; if he thinks he is exempt from it, he doesn't think, he sleepwalks. He continues with avoidant rationalization: "There are scary individuals on the fringes of each party." Wake up: [Richard] Nixon was not on the "fringe" of the Republican Party, yet it was he who designed and implemented his "Southern Strategy", the essence of which was to go after - as "base" - those disaffected with the Democratic Party because of its furtherance of civil rights. That meant welcoming with open arms the hardcore racists who opposed - and oppose - civil-rights legislation. Most around [US President George W] Bush are leftovers from Nixon, and others carrying the racist banner have such names as DeLay, Lott and Ashcroft ... And those extremists, Mr Sreekanth, are hardcore bigots and racists - not "soft racists", whatever that means. Their entire agenda is based upon the elimination of civil rights (and labor, etc) protections; and their appeal could not be more obviously and directly - and deliberately - to the full range of fellow-traveling extremist bigots, primarily white supremacist racists. Many of the latter hide behind "Christian" pieties - while basing their racism directly upon the "Bible" itself ...
Joseph J Nagarya
Boston, Massachusetts (Oct 14, '05)

I very much appreciated your article Hu brought down to earth [Oct 13]. Detailed news about China is hard to come by here in Canada and one of the reasons I check into Asia Times [Online] every day. I wanted to know more, though. For example: "Instead, the communique issued at the close of the plenary session concentrated on economic reforms. There was no endorsement at all of macro-control nor the enhancement of China's stance on the international stage. Political reform did get some space in the final plan. It was cited with the qualification of 'proactively and stably' and placed among a list of miscellaneous issues, such as building a spiritual civilization, strengthening defense, maintaining the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong and Macau, and the betterment of relations with Taiwan. These issues were all mentioned only briefly, meaning that while they might not be trivial, they were not a focus of the plenary session." It would be very helpful to have more detail on what actually was endorsed, and those issues that were not. Perhaps a follow-up article? Second, the way in which [President Hu Hintao and Premier Wen Jiabao] were blocked is very revealing. I think most Westerners imagine the Chinese political system to be very similar to Big Brother in [George] Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. This sort of large-scale internal - but official - conflict shows that the system is typical of most political organizations where there is a continuous battle of ideas, influence, policies and perception rather than simply one small group of old geezers sitting around in a plush office behind closed doors charting out the course for hundreds of millions of citizens. In this context, any articles that help show in more depth and detail how the political process in China actually works in practice would be most helpful. Finally, within the article were several references to local versus central issues. I suspect that this will be the major battleground in China's internal affairs for decades to come, now that the coastal and industrial sectors have essentially rejoined the post-Industrial Revolution world economic system, so more articles on this would also be most welcome.
Ashley Howes
Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia (Oct 13, '05)


The problem with Rabindra P Kar's article [The flip side of outsourcing to India, Oct 13] is that he tries to gauge the "general" from the "particular". He necessarily draws a brazen conclusion without looking at the overarching picture. First, outsourcing is not the cornerstone of the Indian IT/ITES [information technology enabled services] industry. In fact, it is only worth [US]$4 billion or so vis-a-vis $16 billion that is contributed by software development. Indian companies are now developing bespoke applications tailor-made for companies such as ABN Amro. Second, there is a difference between offshoring and outsourcing, which the author has erased. In China, Western companies have opened plants to produce and export commodities. In India, Indian companies are developing solutions for Western companies. Third, the author has no understanding of the concept of "positive externality". Even if the IT/ITES sector is not a mass employer, the cumulative effect on the economic engine of the increased disposable income of the hundreds of thousands of software professionals is tremendous. Their increased consumption will aid industries and employment across the sectors. Fourth, India submitted the second-highest number of proposals for patents at the WTO [World Trade Organization] after the US last year. It shows that ... companies have a lot to gain from the intellectual-property regime - they can protect their innovative applications, and even market them to generate additional revenues. Fifth, the [Indian] government should indeed be spending more on water resources and reusable energy sources (a curious argument, since the government has kept out of the IT industry), and it can only spend more with the increased tax receipts it gets from the burgeoning IT/ITES companies.
Aruni Mukherjee (Oct 13, '05)


Your China Travel map has an error. It says Hong Kong has really bad winters and dust storms. I suspect someone pasted the wrong data in the box.
Mark Bardwell (Oct 13, '05)

Our web host server in the US malfunctioned briefly and served you an early version of the map from the design stage, not meant for public viewing. The problems are over now, and if you click the refresh/reload button on your browser you will get the correct version. Apologies to you and all readers who may have been served the wrong pages lately. - ATol


This is [regarding] DirtyDog's letter (Oct 12) in response to my comment on [Ehsan] Ahrari's article [It's the radicals, stupid, Oct 8]. I guess DirtyDog suffers from the "groupthink" and "manufactured consent" that demonize Muslims and consider Muslims as "them". The immigrant population in the US have always lived in barrios and ghettos and always been discriminated against. The Jews lived in New York ghettos, isolated from the rest of the community, as did the Italians, and the Greeks, the blacks and the Puerto Ricans. Today Queens in New York City is a Pakistani and Indian ghetto. [That is] what differentiates Muslims from other immigrant communities. Most of the media outlets in [the United States of] America are owned by six companies. They never allow Muslim speakers on their programs. The discussion is between the ultra-rightist and the rightist and neo-cons and the paleo-cons. The 9-11 Commission could not find a single Muslim to participate as an author. Imam Faisal [Abdul-Rauf], a wonderful Jewish rabbi and a great Christian pastor [were] interviewed by a major network right after [September 11, 2001]. All of Imam Faisal's condemnation of [the events of September 11] were edited. On democracy in the Muslim world, may we remind the writer that Indonesia, Malaysia [and] Bangladesh are all democracies and Pakistan is very close to [being] one. Additionally, may we also remind him and others that democracies have been specifically smothered due to foreign influences ... in Algeria [Islamic Salvation Front], Pakistan ([Benazir] Bhutto) [and] Iran ([Mohammad] Mossadegh) by eliminating the elected leaders just like the leaders were eliminated in South America ([Salvador] Allende, etc).
Moin Ansari (Oct 13, '05)


"Long Live Korean Self-Reliance" (aka Juchechosunmanse) writes that Uighur is taught at Xinjiang University [letter, Oct 12]. This is contradicted by reports in the BBC and other sources that Beijing has ended Uighur-language instruction at the university as part of an aggressive effort to suppress the Uighur language in favor of the "superior" Chinese language. Interestingly enough, the home page of Xinjiang University has an English version, but no Uighur version. Even Chinese dialects are being suppressed in an effort to promote standard Mandarin. Anyone speaking Mandarin with an accent in Shanghai will now be fined and forced to attend classes. Anyone who watches China's English-language television will see that culture, to the "communist" leaders of China, is nothing but a trinket to be displayed in a glass case. In the late 1990s, Beijing was filled with people from Xinjiang. Many of them had roadside kabob stands and restaurants in Xinjiang Village and Xinjiang Street. Their neighborhoods were razed and the people apparently expelled. You will find no Xinjiang people in Beijing today. The "communists" are so paranoid that they fear restaurants and roadside stalls. Further, the fact that the US is not a wonderful society is obvious. Just because the US is awful in many ways doesn't make China any less awful. China is fast becoming as heartless a society as the US. The only argument of the pro-China group is that things are better now than under Mao [Zedong]. Well, by those standards, I suppose Russia is a utopia compared to [Josef] Stalin's time. When will people stop looking for a savior nation to shield them from the truth?
G Travan
California, USA (Oct 13, '05)


Please allow me to say a few words to the readers [who] replied to my letters. First, I was just complaining [about] Indian writers' obsession about China. If you visit the South Asia section, there are a large number of articles about China. Why? China is not a South Asian country. Then the discussions of India's political system and language were brought up by Indian readers. Some Indian readers think they are superior to other colored people because they have white men's language and political, financial, and judicial system. Chandan [Oct 11] apparently summarized my observations correctly. However, he forgets my main points of the argument. Both China and India are learning from the West or whites. The only difference is the attitude. I criticize the attitudes of those upper-caste Indians. I respect India's unique cultural and history. Those are what Indians should be proud of, not their capabilities of imitating the white men. I find it funny that Indian upper-caste men would accuse others [of being] racist. They are the largest racist group in the world today. By the way, do we have any sour spacecraft comments?
Frank
Seattle, Washington (Oct 13, '05)


No explanation can convince Frank. But there are a few more facts which Frank must know before he writes another India-bashing letter. Democracy is not a unique qualification which Indians are proud of maintaining. We know it is successfully practiced in many countries and even [has been] for centuries. But they are not proud because it has many followers there. We [are] able to maintain democracy in a region [in other parts of which] democracy [has] failed to survive. Our neighbors don't understand that corrupt politicians can hinder progress but cannot destroy a nation, while dictators and kings can. Indians are not following English or democracy just because it is their master's language. English successfully penetrated the world and became the only language which finds many followers (including Frank), and Indians are simply taking advantage of it. As regards democracy, it is the best way to govern people, and any system that helps the people, we humans must accept. If following others' footsteps is a shame, then what about China, which has followed communism and later capitalism? China also embraced Buddhism, and Buddha [was] technically an Indian and a Hindu. People taking to the street for their just (or unjust) cause is not uncommon in democracies, since elected governments are always afraid of taking stern action against lawbreaking citizens due to their vote-bank concern. And even if they do they will never use tanks (Tiananmen Square) to threaten their own citizens. As regards the Indian caste system, it is truly a disease which we are trying to eliminate. And the only remedy is making people educated. Half a century may be enough for small countries to make progress, but for a big country like India it is Herculean task. India [has been] unable to spend more on education because, at the time of its birth, it inherited (90%) uneducated people, weak infrastructure, [and] culturally divided neighbors, due to which it had to spend a large portion of money for defense. The Western democracies, luckily, are not in that position.
Shivanantham
Cuddalore, India (Oct 13, '05)


It amuses me how many nerves (mostly Indian nerves) Frank's letters have touched here in ATol. I hope my comments won't add fuel to the fire. It seems to me the Indians do have a tiny little bit [of an] issue when thinking about the Chinese. Remember a few years ago [when] the Indian government and its prime minister openly criticized the Chinese government about cooking the books for annual growth? Ironically, later that year the Chinese government revised [upward its] annual growth, while the Indian government [downward its] growth rate three times in the same year. Remember the Indian government's moon-landing plan immediately after the Chinese sent a man to the space? Well, [the Indians] abandoned their plan the next year. So chill, Indians, and keep it up, Frank. By the way, this is no endorsement [of] your writing, Frank, but you did make this board funnier, which is a good thing after so many lives lost in this bad year.
A Frank fan, sort of
California, USA (Oct 13, '05)


In Asia, when one talks about morality, it is always about pornography or sex. We must get rid of these obsessions with sex when discussing morality as morality is far more then just narrow-mindedness among some nincompoops. It seems that our youngsters are to be watched like a hawk as they cant do anything right. It appears that in our country, when those in power [say our morality] has deteriorated, they only talk about pornography as well as dressing and the free mixing of people of opposite sexes. While this may not necessarily be wrong, I think the fixation with this sort of definition has camouflaged an even bigger malaise: we are a nation that is morally corrupt in many, many things. We don't value excellence apart from giving award days and publicity stunts. Many don't think twice before giving or accepting bribes. Some so-called big CEOs get ghost writers to write articles appearing in the papers for them. People are not ashamed to be earning a humongous salary while away at golf courses and tea stalls. If we are serious in wanting to address moral deficiency, we should start with our elders; stop all this corruption and the senseless bickering in public and lead by example. I doubt if anyone can show the correlation between pornography and morally decay. If that is true, how come certain states in Malaysia which watch our youngsters and females like a hawk keep reporting high incidences of sexual crimes and incest? Let's us have a meaningful discussion rather then hysteria and paranoia.
Have a Break
Petaling Jaya, Malaysia (Oct 13, '05)

OK, Mr Spengler [The blood is the life, Mr Rumsfeld!, Oct 12], you've been tantalizing us for years with your analysis of the mistakes made by the US in confronting radical Islam and the psycho-religious underpinnings of the confrontation. Time to belly up to the bar and devote a column to the advice you would give [US President George W] Bush for the successful prosecution of the "war against terror". You've made the "why" clear enough, let's move on to the next step: how, in your view, can the US win or at least extricate itself from this quagmire with some semblance of dignity?
A Faithful Reader (Oct 12, '05)


In reference to the article Tehran builds bridges with India's left by Siddharth Srivastava on Asia Times Online on October 7, I regret to say that I as the spokesperson of the Iranian Embassy-New Delhi have been completely misquoted. I had clearly said that "[Siamok] Burhani hasn't met any person from [a] left party" and in reply to his question: "Isn't Mr Burhani first secretary-political?" I pointed out, "There are several first secretaries in [the Iranian] Embassy, even in [the] political section." But he has written that "a spokesperson of the Iranian Embassy told [ATol] ... "Several officials of the Iranian Embassy have been meeting left party leaders" and mentioned "Siamok Burhani and a couple more officials" as who met [Communist Party of India national secretary D] Raja. Moreover, I clarified to him that Iranian diplomats have had [casual] and regular meetings with the personalities of different parties ...
S Asadi
Press Section
The Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran
New Delhi, India (Oct 12, '05)

At no point did the spokesperson say that the Iranian diplomats have had casual meetings with different political parties. I had asked a specific question about meetings with left parties in the context of the International Atomic Energy Agency vote, to which the spokesperson said, "Yes, there have been interactions by not one but several Iranian diplomats." I then asked whether I could speak to any of the officials involved in the talks, to which the spokesperson said, "This will not be proper, I hope you understand." Regarding Siamok Burhani, it is true that the spokesperson said that Mr Burhani did not personally meet the left party leaders as "he does not talk to people directly". But in the article the said information about Mr Burhani meeting left party leaders is not attributed to the spokesperson. There are credible sources who do confirm interactions between Iranian officials, including Mr Burhani, and the left parties. My asking the spokesperson about Mr Burhani was only to double-check, but the Iranian spokesperson is well within his rights to deny it, just as I believe that the meetings have happened. - Siddharth Srivastava


Dear Spengler: Your article [China must wait for democracy, Sep 27] made a salient, valid point that China must deliver urban democratic systems. The framework that is appropriate is already in existence and you may be surprised to know was a child of the French Revolution. It can be found in such diverse examples as Montreal, Canada; the Tokyo Metro Government system; Seoul, Korea; Hamburg and Berlin, Germany; London and Birmingham, UK along with the three-tier non-urban system of England (its first foreign adaptation); the Twin Cities Metro system and Portland Metro system in the US amongst numerous variations. The examples I mentioned are all urban systems, with the exception of the British systems. But rural systems exists as well; and for the Indians it will come as a surprise that an urban system was [the] beginning of what they recognize as the panchayat system of rural India. But how to effectively implement such a system where illiterates constitute a significant constituency can be found in the example of the panchayat system of the state of West Bengal, India, which in the late 1970s revived the British export of their non-urban framework to the Indian colony in the colonial era. Other Indian states have panchayat frameworks, which were encouraged by the 1990s constitutional amendment in India inspired by the West Bengal success; but the West Bengal example remains unique in what has been delivered in this context. This difference lies in the mentality of the state government, which has applied a framework exported by the UK, but which ironically it has used to greater effect in a more challenged environment than the British themselves. By the way, the weakness of your argument lies in your holding the US as an example. It seems you haven't been keeping up with changing dynamics there ... You should also know that the UK government commissioned a study of cities that contributed most in GDP [gross domestic product] to their country. The result was the unpleasant proof that German cities led by huge margin, not only top-tier German cities but also second-tier ones. There were some non-German cities in the mix, but the majority were German (the top three were Frankfurt, Karlsruhe and Paris). The UK's highest entry was London at 23. The top 20 was chock full of German cities. It seems to me you have some outdated materials that you are considering when discussing the US example.
May Sage
USA (Oct 12, '05)


Moin Ansari [letter, Oct 11]: Your point [that] Muslims who reside in the West with shared values are the ones to be given a patient ear is a noble one. Unfortunately it's unrealistic, since [the] numbers of Muslims with shared Western and democratic values are marginal. It's the very problem that every single media outlet in the West, whether in the USA or in Europe, or even for that matter Asia Times [Online], harps on: That is the incompatibility and lack of assimilation of Muslims within a secular and democratic fabric and framework of any country [where] they are in a minority. Let's not even go near the case of full majority, since except for Saddam [Hussein]'s Iraq no Muslim country had a secular constitution, not to mention democracy. (Saddam of course had no use for democracy.) Take a look at the Iraqi constitution - is this is what the USA had in mind? Of course not. I rest my case.
DirtyDog
San Francisco, California (Oct 12, '05)

The world's most populous Muslim country is a democracy. - ATol


G Travan [letter, Oct 11] underestimated the flow of information in China and the power that comes with it by citing the absence of "a free press". True, the Chinese media are frequently censored by the government to deny the public access to certain information and news stories. However, the Internet has increasingly become the source for all sorts of information, both real and fake. No matter how hard the Chinese government tries to control it, the information on the Internet has [proved] to be too difficult to monitor and control. In addition, the more conventional media in China have gone a long way in terms of revealing the ills of the Chinese society; some of the stuff you read today [was] considered taboo just a few years ago. So Mr Travan, most of us are well aware of "the hundreds of millions of poor Chinese" you mentioned. Most parts of China today (Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are the exceptions) are not yet democratic, but that's not to say "the wonderful Chinese society" only exists in Taipei and Kaohsiung (by the way, did you enjoy the latest brawls in the Legislative Yuan?). You don't have to be a democracy to have a wonderful society, and having a democracy doesn't guarantee you a wonderful society, does it? For many people, it took events like [Hurricane] Katrina to find out the champion of democracy is just like the rest of us, far from being invincible and ills-free. By the way, Mr Travan, I wanted to tell you that Uighur is being taught at universities in Xinjiang, contrary to what you have alleged.
Juchechosunmanse
Beijing, China (Oct 12, '05)


Joseph Nagarya [letter, Oct 11] must have correctly concluded from my name that I'm not of white Christian origin, so the charge of racism is the nuclear weapon meant to bring me scurrying back into the fold. There are scary individuals on the fringes of each party (dare I say penumbra?) such as Pat Robertson, who described Hinduism as "demonic", and Jesse Jackson, who described New York as "Hymietown". From my personal experience, [the US] is about average in terms of "soft racism", meaning loose self-association of like ethnicities, and I've seen little "hard racism" among individuals or politicians. Your personal mileage may vary.
Jonnavithula ("Jon") Sreekanth
Acton, Massachusetts (Oct 12, '05)


[Letter writer] Frank's constant criticism of India's caste system, her mastery of the English language and her democracy is becoming tedious, so let's turn the tables and look at the US democratic system and culture. I was born and raised as an English-speaking Christian in Sri Lanka. My father chose to immigrate to the US mainly for the above reasons. Once here we went through many "cultural shocks". For myself as a Christian I immediately found that the largest Christian nation seldom practices the words of Christ ... Love, forgiveness and compassion are seldom truly practiced in this highly, racially divided US ... If one needs first-hand truth, just ask a black woman, ask a native American. Frank talks of America's "affirmative action". Well, do a poll of how many Americans support affirmative action - most don't. Frank points to India's "anarchy" when America has more prisoners than any industrialized nation (bar China) and her streets in all her major cities are not safe to walk at night; compare that with many European cities and America fails the grade ... Forgotten the scenes of [Hurricane] Katrina? The world got to see, maybe for the first time, ... the ingrained poverty of the black people in the US, so sharply. Behind what reasoning can the Christian leaders of this democracy hide for the bad effects of an ever-persistent racial issue in the US? ... India on the other hand is fighting a battle whose roots go back 3,500 years at least and is supported within the holy scriptures of the Hindus. The caste system isn't going against any Hindu tradition, it was and is part of it, and yet India has managed to pass laws against it and actively fight against its hold on Hinduism and Indian society as a whole ... Finally on the issue of democracy being solely a Western idea, [that] is incorrect, as India herself has had city republics such as the city of Vaishali and has had a grassroots democracy in almost all her villages across the nation where the village council, elected by the town, speak for the people.
Chrysantha Wijeyasingha
New Orleans, Louisiana (Oct 12, '05)

Ehsan Ahrari [It's the radicals, stupid, Oct 8] correctly identifies the problem for all of us: it is "religious extremists" who may be Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists etc. Bicultural Western Muslims are not only ambassadors to the West, they are also representatives of the West to the Muslim world. Those Muslims like Ahrari who reside in the West enjoy the shared values. We need to listen to these ideas that will help eliminate terror and terrorism. It is imperative that we win this "war of ideas" that will rule the hearts and minds of the moderates. Stealth bombers, M-16s, or cluster bombs cannot destroy terror. Terrorism has to be destroyed by draining the swamp of injustice and finding the kernels of truth in "the war of ideas" ... Ahrari makes a brilliant point also made by Thomas Friedman on poverty in Pakistan. The US government spends $6 billion on subsidies to American cotton farmers. If this subsidy were eliminated (over the dead body of Senator Jesse Helms and others), this $6 billion would flow to the poorest cotton farmers in Pakistan who would then send their children to the "enlightened moderation" schools. [But] Ahrari falls prey to exaggerated and non-factual Neocon propaganda on madassas in Pakistan. This is a bogey created by those who want to obfuscate the line between good Muslims and bad Muslims and demonize all Islam. According to a seminal study conducted for the World Bank, less than 1% of school-going children go to the madrassas... The madassas are but a reflection of society and their elimination serves no purpose other than denying hot meals to kids who are learning the Koran. Even if all the madrassas were closed tomorrow, the swamp of illiteracy, unemployment, hunger and disease would continue to fuel the class divide in Pakistan, Kashmir and Palestine ... The problem is that the media gives a pass to the "white looters" (McVeigh, Dahmer, Calpoe, Baruch Goldstein), without blaming their religion, but never fails to identify a Muslim evil-doer by his religion. The "terrorist" in Ecuador or Guatemala is not called a Christian terrorist. The British bombers were educated in British public schools. Should we shut down the British education system? The 9-11 bombers trained at the flight school at the University of Oklahoma. Should we shut down the state's education system? The "Unabomber" came from the Ivy League. Should we examine the MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology curriculum to see what problems lie there? ...
Moin Ansari (Oct 11, '05)


I must admit, I have read the debate between Frank and Rakesh [letters below] and admire their patriotism for their respective countries. But it is evident the flavor of the debate has taken a vicious turn where “Frank” has chosen to lean towards racists overtones that no longer make this an intelligent exchange of opinions. I have learned much from both sides’ commentary but the learning curve has reached its limits as we degenerate to petty, foolish comments from Frank. It is easier to toss profanities at your adversary when you aren’t face to face. When exchanging opinions, the winner is not necessarily the person with the popular views but rather the person who remains composed. Although Frank appears to be an intelligent reader, the counter arguments by Rakesh have forced Frank to lose self-control. Regretfully, Asia Times Online has found the perpetuation of these letters to be within their mandate of free speech. And I applaud the effort, but do not trivialize it to the extent where Frank degenerates your publication to the likes of a tabloid. Take the higher ground.
Martin
Toronto, Canada (Oct 11, '05)


In case someone somehow takes Frank's endless insulting of India seriously ...The difference between China and India is that a free press in India has shown the ills of that society, while the "communists" in China have succeeded through censorship in sweeping the hundreds of millions of poor Chinese under the rug. Why? To entice the white (and Japanese) men to build more sweatshops with the illusion of stability. The wonderful Chinese society Frank dreams of does exist, not in Beijing or Shanghai, but in Taipei and Kaohsiung, which are run according to the "white men's" democratic principles of Sun Yat-sen.
G Travan
California, USA (Oct 11, '05)


Frank from Seattle seems to have an unending gripe about India and all things Indian. He has a problem with Indians speaking English, the native tongue of our former colonial master . He also has a problem with Indian democracy which he has frequently claimed to be a white man's political system. Essentially, what Frank is trying to put across is this ... the extensive use of English in our daily lives and the adoption of the white man's democratic form of government even after our independence is a sign of our servitude to our past masters and also a sign of our lack of pride in our own culture and civilization. Well, Mr Frank, Indian (or Hindu) civilization has always been open to accepting new ideas from all cultures from times immemorial. We have never been a closed society for most part of our history except during periods of Islamic and colonial power, which is to say only the last few centuries when we were subjugated. Indian civlization has repeatedly demonstrated a tremendous capacity to absorb external ideas and influences and ultimately Indianize them and make them its own. The absorbtion of democratic ideals and the English language is yet another example in this on-going saga of assimilation and Indian civilization's quest for self-improvement. Just like Hindi, English has become a link language connecting the diverse Indian people. Over several decades, millions of Indians have learnt and mastered the English language, so much so that today English is an Indian language and a Western one. Indians have already contributed to the growth of English literature ... and the day is not far off when the soul of English will shift to India. The same is true of democracy; though we borrowed it from the British we have made it our own ...
Chandan
Bangalore, India (Oct 11, '05)


Jonnavithula Sreekanth writes, regarding my letter, "... let's not discuss Bush, since that obviously sends you into a frenzy". Your effort to avoid the issue - Bush - by being "provocative" is a failure. Bush is the issue, as are his serial violations of US and international law, such as those prohibiting the war crime - defined as such by the US - of torture. You are "right" to want to avoid discussion of the facts about Bush, as those refute your irresponsible and irrational fuzzy-feelgood sleep-walker's illusions about him and his fellow white supremacists. Sreekanth further writes: "... law is too important to be left to the lawyers". Slogans are a substitute for thought. In contrary reality: better that law be "left to" those who actually have an education in actual law, and thus actually understand it, and its evolutions, than to those incapable of distinguishing between, on one hand, extremist ideological propaganda, and on the other, actual law. As concerns Griswold and your illiterate smearing of it with rightwing extremist distortions: that case simply expressly recognized a right of privacy which already exists in the constitution; it is not only not especially complicated, but is also thoroughly and solidly grounded. As for my "indignation": I leave the cheap ad homina shots to you, the fruits of your hollow, smug arrogance; I am too old to waste my time with false supremacisms and the foolish conclusions which flow therefrom. And further writes: "... you'll notice that I did not say that Americans should not have the right to contraception, it's that it was [sneaked] in by the back door". When will you be reading the actual decision, and by that means learn that the question before the court concerned the right of married couples to use contraception? Nothing at all "sneaky" about it ... I've noted from time to time that I am a legal professional. I've also noted that a central focus of my legal studies is constitutional law, that grounded in extensive study in legal history. You'll lose any "argument" on that topic - as you do above - so I recommend you avoid the issue yet again by calling me names, exactly as is the practice of Fox fake-news addicted extremists who swallow rightwing extremist anti-constitutional lies as if legitimate. Perhaps soon you'll wake up and realize that the fake "conservatives" you worship - including Bush - base their politics on racism - look up Nixon's "Southern strategy"; and contrast that with Lyndon Johnson's statement, upon signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, that his doing so would lose the Democrats the Southern vote for a generation. You clearly know nothing about the history of racism in the US, as demonstrated by your infatuation with the very political party which welcomes rightwing white supremacists/racists with open arms, and does everything it can to arouse and exploit racism.
Joseph J Nagarya
Boston, Massachusetts, USA (Oct 11, '05)


Obviously Mr Cambria [letter below] does not have good information when he blames the Bush administration for failing to stop the September 11, 2001 attacks. Perhaps he should be reminded that it was a Democrat president, Bill Clinton, who did basically nothing to get back at the al-Qaeda elements in spite of numerous attacks on US interests during his eight years in office. Clinton and his Democrats ignored all these ominous signs. Bin Laden was offered to him on a silver platter but he chose not to accept this offer from the Sudanese authorities. As to some of the current espionage cases, this is not unusual. There [were] several similar incidents during Clinton’s time. At least at present these are being uncovered. One wonders how many spies Clinton allowed to escape undetected while he was distracted by his domestic troubles.
J Chua
New Jersey, USA (Oct 11, '05)


Dear God, next time you talk to George would you please tell him to resign? And do tell Georgey that screams from American torture chambers do not bring joy to your heart.
Alexander "Sandy" Treutler
New York, USA (Oct 11, '05)


[Re] Todd Crowell's article For Taiwan, American rock, Chinese hard place [Sep 30], a few facts. The biggest arms purchase deal in the history of Taiwan, concocted by the Chen [Shui-bian] government and the Americans, and consistently rejected by the [Taiwanese] opposition, suffers from two glaring flaws. The major items are those that Taiwan does not need for her defense, and secondly those that Taiwan would need to rely on were priced at two to three times the market rate. For reasons known to both the Americans and Taiwanese and never openly discussed, this deal was extortionistic in character. Many Taiwanese on the street believe that the Americans do not want to sell to Taiwanese sophisticated weaponry while at the same time they want the Taiwanese to continue to pay [the US] high "protection" money for standing by Taiwan. Taiwanese believed that the stolen second-term presidential election for Chen was endorsed by Washington precisely because Chen agreed to this arms deal. Now the opposition, with a majority in the legislature, will fight to ensure that this "defense budget" will never get through the house.
Chan Ah Tee
Malaysia (Oct 11, '05)


I refer to your coverage Working for Malaysia's workers (Oct 6) ... [There is a] perennial complaint that we Malaysians ill-treat our foreign workers who are supposed to be helping us. While there are some truths to that matter, not all of us are evil monsters waiting to squeeze the last pint of foreign blood dry. On the other hand, one would expect the respective embassies to be top notch in looking after their own people, which is not always the case. Every day I drive past the Indian High Commission and often spot workers sleeping on the pavement outside in pitiful conditions. Surely it is incumbent on the high commission to ensure that if there is no space inside the high commission, decent accommodation is provided until the matter is sorted out ...
Compassionate
Petaling Jaya, Malaysia (Oct 11, '05)


Alas, it is not "almost a physical pleasure to watch President George W Bush fall from grace", as Ira Chernus writes [Where fear can't take us, Oct 7]. Mr Bush's talk [on Oct 6] before the National Endowment for Democracy was a sorry sight to see. The American president served up old bromides; he tugged at his audience's hearts by repeating tired sound bites. His listeners responded lukewarmly on cue. It is anachronistic to state that Mr Bush has lost momentum. He is sinking deeper into the quagmire of his own mendacious making in Iraq. He is willing to sacrifice to the last drop of blood American lives as the jaws of defeat eat up American troops and Iraqis of all walks of life. On the very day Mr Bush held forth on the need to wage a war against terrorism, the United States press ran stories on allegedly low espionage in Vice President [Richard] Cheney's office. It is [common sense] to ask whether we are looking at a repeat of an administration [that] is either so inept or lackadaisical or sluggish in character and [that] is so unmoved by the necessity to batten down the hatches of security of the nation and its citizenry as Mr Bush & Co were in August 2001 when they disregarded a warning of a terrorist attack on the United States. Mr Bush is the personification of what Talleyrand is supposed to have said of the Bourbons: "They have learned nothing, and they have [forgotten] nothing."
Jakob Cambria (Oct 7, '05)
USA


The position of leftist political parties in India over the country's recent vote at the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] to report Iran to the UN Security Council displays flagrant lack of credibility (Tehran builds bridges with India's left, Oct 6). For one, the cadres were silent in the early '90s when V P Singh's government went back on its word so blatantly and denied Iran the supply of a nuclear reactor. They were supporting the government even then - so why this sudden volte-face? Moreover, as Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran pointed out, it was India that pushed for a particular clause in the resolution that left open the path of further dialogues between the European-3 and Tehran. Therefore, India was instrumental in providing leeway to Iran - how could it go back on a resolution it had helped draft? Finally, the leftists forget that by its own independent analysis, Iran does need to do more to comply with the standards of the IAEA. So do the Marxists prefer nuclear proliferation to following a moribund foreign policy? Moreover, the Iran they support - just like their other favorite, China - is not exactly an exemplification of a free society where human rights are respected. Therefore, all that the cadres have based this on is anti-Americanism, pure and simple. Also, Frank's preposterous statements [letter, Oct 6] know no bounds in his most recent - as with his earlier - letters. Who said India doesn't like Iranian oil? There is a strong consensus within the South Bloc to prefer renewable energy sources over perishable ones, but the fact remains that India still imports 70% of its oil needs. Moreover, the very fact that Indians are never happy with their leadership is the beauty of democracy - you don't see people under tyranny complain because they will vanish and/or they don't have a choice but to live with it. Indians can go out to the polling booth and do something about it. Finally - but by no means lastly - if Indians don't know how to speak English, why do all the BPO [business process outsourcing] firms prefer India vis-a-vis other countries? Even in the most remote village, you will probably be able to find an English speaker. Before he returns to the "slave mentality" again, note that (1) Indians generally speak three languages, local, Hindi and English; and (2) China itself is trying to catch up in English proficiency.
Aruni Mukherjee (Oct 7, '05)


Ehsan Ahrari's article Ousting Assad without a backup plan [Oct 5] is an interesting read, but Ahrari fails to state what benefits Syria would accrue by assassinating Lebanon's former prime minister, Rafik Hariri. Yet in the same article, he mentions how Israel has benefited from this sordid murder and will continue to do so for the immediate future. Unlike some nations, Syria is not led by a bloodthirsty psychopath with ulterior motives. The US military is literally in Syria's back yard. And with the White House neo-cons willing to use the flimsiest of excuses to invade Syria and bring the shock and awe of "American-style democracy" to Damascus, Syria would have to be suicidal to assassinate Hariri. Bottom line, there is no benefit for Syria or its leaders. However, one country stood to benefit immensely from Hariri's murder: Israel. For proof, we need to go no further than a report prepared in 1996 by the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies [titled] "Study Group on a New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000." The authors are the usual collection of suspects that puts Israel on a pedestal and then castigates the rest of the region as a troublesome problem to work on, with brute force. Throughout the report, the authors repeatedly mention Syria and how much trouble this country has become and discuss ways to neutralize this threat and believe me, the authors aren't touchy-feely types when it comes to dealing with Syria. To help facilitate Syria's demise, the authors also opine that removing Saddam Hussein would be beneficial. Of course, all of this would be accomplished by having Israel's 900-pound gorilla in place, namely the US. So again, one must ask who truly benefits from Hariri's murder. An emasculated Syria? Hardly. But how about the nation that will no longer worry about those pesky borders and can now roam at will in the Middle East, without facing consequences? One that can now turn its complete fury against the last impediment for it creating its own empire by nuking Iran. Yes, Israel is the true winner in the Hariri murder sweepstakes ...
Greg Bacon
Ava, Missouri (Oct 7, '05)


[Vincent] Maadi should be congratulated for his pertinent comments [letter, Oct 6] regarding what basically are further attempts at so-called "shell games" of the West. [A recent] major news item makes note of [British Prime Minister] Tony Blair's studied conclusion that military hardware used by the Iraqis [is] definitely of Iranian origin. Which obviously makes Iran an automatic "evil enemy". As compared to the millions of bullets that the Coalition of the Willing either buys from Israel or are probably donated to the cause of bringing democracy to Iraq at the rate of some 250,000 bullets per insurgent. Leading one to posit the following: Is the West any closer to accepting the East as co-equal? Or will it have to commit more in human and financial sacrifices before accepting the words to the ... song, "Those were the days, my friend, we thought they would never end." That could be the challenge promised on ATol's Edge between [Pepe] Escobar and Spengler.
Armand De Laurell (Oct 7, '05)


Regarding Joseph Nagarya's letter [Oct 6], let's not discuss [US President George W] Bush, since that obviously sends you into a frenzy. In one of your previous letters, I think you said you were a lawyer (or a law student?), but law is too important to be left to lawyers. It's interesting that you should cite Griswald [vs Connecticut], of the famous penumbras and other emanations, certainly a solid foundation to build upon! Also, if you suspend your perpetual indignation for a bit, you'll notice that I did not say that Americans should not have a right to contraception, it's that it was [sneaked] in by the back door, as opposed to legislative intent. On partial-birth abortions, a quick Google search shows the bill passed in the House by 282-139 and in the Senate by 64-33, with many Democrats voting in favor, and a Gallup poll supposedly showing 70% of Americans supported it. Which exactly proves my point, which is that extremists like yourself prefer the back-door approach of judicial activism to enforcing your peculiar brand of opinions upon the majority, rather than the legislature.
Jonnavithula ("Jon") Sreekanth
Acton, Massachusetts (Oct 7, '05)


Rakesh [letter, Oct 6] never claimed that all Indians speak English? Well, read his [Oct 3] letter and judge yourself ... I can tell that Indians are proud of their English. Why? Is that because that is their master's language? The same goes to their white men's political system. India shows the strength of democracy and freedom of expression? That is the joke. None of the democratic [countries] has a sick caste system. Yes, the caste system is outlawed in India. So are many other things practiced daily inside India. Law and order are the most important elements distinguishing democracy and anarchy. India is a country without laws. If you want to know if India is anarchy or not, just look for the trash, human and animal waste on India's major streets; half-baked dead bodies inside poor people's water sources; public displays of disrespect of the laws; and those uncontrolled noises. Compare that with other democratic countries which never boasted about their shining. Then make a judgment yourself. If the rich and [powerful] Indians have to hire armed guards in front of McDonald's to protect their 99-cent cheeseburgers inside India, it would be hard to believe that India is not anarchy. I was suggesting an American way to level the [playing] field for the lower-caste people in India. That is called affirmative action in the democratic [countries]. We do not see that in India, do we? That is because India's democracy is on paper only. All the beauties are inside the hot air.
Frank
Seattle, Washington (Oct 7, '05)

I refer to the article Western-trained, Western-armed, enemies [Oct 6] by Ramtanu Maitra. As long as Americans, the British and other European powers occupy foreign lands and try to impose their domination over other people, they will learn that local people will find ingenious ways of fighting them. Cleverness is not confined to the white-skinned people only. Peoples of occupied lands have every right to find ways and means to abort the occupation and drive the invading armies out. The Americans went into Afghanistan and Iraq thinking that they [would] use their technology and their bribes to conquer these people, but no people want any foreign occupation and especially not the military, cultural and economic type. Europe, which has received a large number of ordinary refugees and people who have been driven out of their lands by ... the European powers and their wars, are now becoming xenophobic and want foreigners out. Neo-Nazis in Europe are setting fires to homes and hotels housing immigrants. Why should not then the occupied people turn the tables on their occupiers?
Vincent Maadi
Cape Town, South Africa (Oct 6, '05)


The eye-opening effulgence and profound investigation decorously narrated by Syed Saleem [Shahzad], US back to the drawing board in Afghanistan (Oct 6), is the most disquieting perspicacity that I have seen in years. I must congratulate Asia Times [Online for] giving us a vignette to the stark truth ... By attacking Iraq, we have created an export industry. The export industry is not oil. By occupying Iraq, we seem to have created a university of terror that is now fueling the insurgency in Afghanistan far away from the Pakistani border. This seems to indicate that the insurgency is independent of any link to the heavily guarded border areas with Pakistan. While many who have selective amnesia have been wrongly blaming Pakistan for the failure of the NATO forces in Afghanistan, President [General Pervez] Musharraf and many in the US government have gone hoarse saying "I told you so." It must be remembered that the incompetent Northern Alliance-led non-Pashtun government minority government was not the idea of Islamabad. Pakistan did not want these incompetent and corrupt people in office ... Had the policymakers not been blinded by Pakistanphobia, and had they not been swayed by the bad advice of New Delhi, there could have been a better result in Afghanistan. Had they listened to sanity and their Pakistani allies, the war in Afghanistan would have been over. Building Afghanistan as the next Switzerland [or] Dubai would have been under way ... The nation-builders of Afghanistan wanted to force a non-Pashtun government in Afghanistan. This had never happened in the past 500 years in Afghanistan. The sad truth is that the survival of the whining incompetent jokers in Kabul is improbable. This dark prediction is not mine but [that] of Michael Sheuer, Mark LeVine, and others who know the Afghan landscape well. Today our boots on the ground are fast reaching exhaustion and unable to deliver more. The problems for the NATO forces [in] Afghanistan are the tip of the iceberg. If two universities begin exporting terror, then the dominos will begin to fall, from Duhambe to Bokhara to Khorasan, and may engulf Islamabad, and Istanbul. So how do we get out of this one? The solution is the total and immediate outsourcing of the war effort in Afghanistan and Iraq to the friendly governments of Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey. This Muslim army should help create [a] face-saving exit strategy in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Moin Ansari (Oct 6, '05)


Re Talking Turkey: Now the hard part [Oct 6]: Federico Bordonaro cites several reasons why the US supports Turkey's accession into the EU [European Union]. I believe the second reason, which he mentions rather casually, is by far the most important. The fact is that the US and UK know that rejecting Turkey will precipitate some sort of Islamic Economic Union in the Middle East. That prospect is the most frightening scenario to the Brits and Americans. However, the consequences of absorbing Turkey into the EU, and bringing the EU's borders to Iran, Iraq, and Syria, will significantly weaken the EU. With Turkey in the mix, the EU is constitutionally and politically dead. This is the price the Europeans, especially non-Britons, will pay for sabotaging an Islamic unity in the Mideast. From the US viewpoint, two birds have been killed with one stone - a weaker EU and a disunity of the Islamic Middle East.
Roy (Oct 6, '05)


Frank's attacks and double standards continue unabated [letter, Oct 4]. A large chunk of the Indian population has some basic knowledge of English, even though a majority may not speak English at home. This fact is common knowledge, but Frank's inherent prejudice never stops chewing on it. I never claimed that all Indians speak English. All I meant was that Frank and his intolerant brigade hate those Indians [who] speak English. And I dare say that they do so because they are ignorant of the past [and/or] present and/or are jealous because the large number of outsourced jobs that are going to middle- and lower-middle-class Indians. Frank should make a trip to India instead of relying on what appears to be typical devious communist propaganda aimed at vilifying middle classes. How many Indians can express their opinions freely, he questions. Answer: 1 billion plus. And through various means - not just through the Internet alone. Let me remind Frank of a momentous event he might have missed since he is usually busy arrogantly vilifying Indians. A little more than a year ago, the nationalist BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] government was shown the door because the benefits of the economic reforms did not reach the rural poor. This shows the strength of democracy and freedom of expression. The Chinese regime slaughtered innocent students at Tiananmen Square; it makes its Chinese workers toil in slave-like conditions while the "white" CEOs of the Western corporations mint money; it is a regime that throws poor people out of Shanghai and Beijing just because they don't have a job and can't afford a place and jails honest journalists. Yet there seems to be nothing that the ordinary Chinese can do about it. The Chinese government seems to be telling them, "Here, accept Western-style consumerism and shut up. Don't ask for rights, or else we'll throw you in jail." Frank boasts about leveling the play[ing field] for the lower classes ... Well, the brutal manner in which the Chinese communists have stolen hard-earned money of [their] own people under the guise of "leveling" is hardly acceptable and fair. The real leveling is what happens when you uplift the poor by creating opportunities, and not by playing Robin Hood. Oh, and I searched for the Chinese search engine Baidu that Frank was bragging about in his previous letter. All the top references that came up were related to how top music companies are suing Baidu for indulging in mindless piracy, and how Baidu filters all opinions that the Chinese government doesn't like. Also, most interestingly, Baidu became popular in China only after the government blocked its users from accessing Google and other search engines for two weeks. There is also evidence that the higher the educational level among the Chinese, the more likely they are to use other search engines like Google. Interesting!
Rakesh
India (Oct 6, '05)


Frank's comment [letter, Oct 4] that India does not speak English is partly true. In a nation like India the term "continent" is more appropriate [than "nation"] considering her geographical size, population and diversity ... India is one of the largest English-speaking nations in the world, even surpassing the population of England. India is also a nation with the most number of newspapers in the world. Many of India's languages far surpass in numbers [of speakers] the languages of Europe. Tamil alone has at least 60 million speakers. But when dealing with a continental-sized nation like India any pluses can easily be negated by the negatives, simply because of dealing with the astronomical scale that is India. Yes, India has a large pool of highly efficient English speakers, but they are dwarfed in comparison to her population. If this English-speaking population were to form a nation it would have more English-speaking people than Australia, Canada or England. As for the rural population living in "anarchy", time and time again these rural folks have ousted Indian governments and elected governments that reflect their point of view with uncanny wisdom.
Chrysantha Wijeyasingha
New Orleans, Louisiana (Oct 6, '05)


I refer to Frank's letter of October 4 and would like to inform him that when Indians and Pakistanis write English, they are grammatically correct because from a very early age in their schooling great importance is given to constructing a sentence and its grammar ... With regard to speaking English, Indians do speak with an oriental accent but they do their best to use correct grammar ...
Saqib Khan
London, England (Oct 6, '05)


I think Partha [letter, Oct 5] confused democracy with elections. In [anarchic] states or villages, there are elections too. Gang leaders are usually elected. In the animal world, there are elections. The strongest animal is usually elected to be the group leader. India has elections too. However, the voters do not know exactly [whom] they are voting for. The real Indians cannot express themselves in public because they cannot speak English. It is funny that those so-called Indian elites are also frustrated with their leaders. At the same time, these Indians ask other people to trust their leaders, and keep investing their money in India's manufacturing sectors. [As] Rakesh indicated [letter, Oct 3], Indians do not like manufacturing jobs. Those jobs are trinkets. So why not invest [in] China? Let Chinese people work hard to earn your money. Chinese people like [hard work]. They want to build things for this world. They have been doing that for more than 2,000 years by supplying this world with silk, pottery, porcelain, compasses, paper, stirrups, etc. Let Indians keep their sour-grape fantasy, empty talks and shameless boasts. I also find it laughable that some Indians told us that India does not like Iranian oil. Even America [would like] to have Iranian oil. Those are not sour oils.
Frank
Seattle, Washington (Oct 6, '05)


Jonnavithula Sreekanth writes [letter, Oct 5]: "Joseph Nagarya took the trouble to filter out exactly his hot-button topics" - without cliche, Mr Sreekanth: my central point, of which you make no mention, is that [US President George W] Bush is a phony, and a liar. He is neither a conservative, despite your sleepwalking swallowing of that lie, nor a Christian: compare his actions with not only his mouth, but also with the rules which apply to Christians in both word and conduct. Further: "I'm not a Christian, but I'm speculating that 'thou shalt not kill' does not mean that Christianity is a suicide pact." Tell that to Christ. And I also pointed to the rule, of which you make no mention, "Thou shalt not lie." One of Bush's lies was that of lying the US into the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq. Lying to Congress and "We the People" is not only a federal offense, a felony, a felony is a high crime. Read the constitution you will doubtless defend out the other side of your non-conservative mouth. ... "On the topic of abortion ... [Roe vs. Wade] was plainly judicial excess and invention." When you get an education in law, perhaps you'll cease to be superficial - and uninformed about the history and foundation of Roe. In 1968, in Griswald vs Connecticut, the US Supreme Court held that married couples have the right to use contraception - which to that point had been illegal - and thereby enunciated a privacy right which obviously exists in the constitution. (Freedom of conscience is itself a right of privacy.) Roe is based upon and is an extension of Griswald; thus it properly recognizes an additional right of privacy in reproductive matters. In so doing, it also recognizes that abortion can be required as medical necessity - a reality your anti-abortion fanatics refuse to recognize for anyone whatsoever; thus the effort to criminalize the falsely named - by lying "Christians" - "partial-birth abortion". Last but not least: I suggest you overcome your greed-based dreamy-eyed infatuation with a fake "conservatism" which is in fact anti-constitutional - which you'd know if you had grounding in actual law instead of extremist excuse-making for the sociopathic. And I suggest you outgrow the dishonesty inherent in attacking as "haters" - of Bush, in this instance - those who tell truths you hate: in fact, Bush is a proven liar; and it has long been well known that he went AWOL [absent without leave] from the Air National Guard. And even a superficial look at Bush's history will see the glaring consistency of his being AWOL from responsibility, most recently being both hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Stating those known facts does not ipso facto constitute hatred of Bush; but attacking me instead of the issue does imply hatred for those who tell the truth about such a transparent fraud as your hero Bush. "Further discussion is useless." Especially when one hopes to avoid the issue yet again.
Joseph J Nagarya
Boston, Massachusetts (Oct 6, '05)

Kunal Kumar Kundu (India's road to glory strewn with potholes [Oct 5]) told us that Indian business leaders are much more optimistic about the future than their international peers. Isn't that true for all Indian writers at ATol? Then he argues that India has better potential than China and Brazil. Does he sound like a gypsy fortune-teller? Kunal admits that India has infrastructure and corruption problems. What is the solution he offered? Liberalization. Wow ... It should not take a genius to figure out India needs ... more construction to resolve the infrastructure problem. Sure, [that is] hard work only for Chinese. Upper-class Indians would not do such low-level work. However, I agree with the comments [on] the Front Page. India always looks good on paper. All the Indian beauties are on the lips.
Frank
Seattle, Washington (Oct 5, '05)


I refer to the article by [M K] Bhadrakumar [A storm sweeps the post-Soviet space], Oct 5 ... Ukraine's prime minister is not an ethnic Russian as the author claims. [Yuri] Yekhanurov's mother is Ukrainian and [his] father is a Buryat from Yakutia. In addition, there is no indication that Yekhanurov is pro-Russian. He is acting on instructions from President [Viktor] Yushchenko and is doing what is in Ukraine's interests. Stop publishing trash which is speculative and inaccurate, and stop being so Russo-centric in your approach.
Orest Steciw (Oct 5, '05)

Yakutia, now known as the Sakha Republic, is in northeastern Siberia, which is part of Russia. Buryats are ethnically mixed, but those in the Buryat Republic - also in Russian Siberia - speak a Mongolian language. - ATol


[Ehsan] Ahrari's article The indefatigable insurgency [Oct 4] sounds on the surface logical, but in the details it reads like a litany of praise of the Iraqi insurgency and a doomsday scenario for the US coalition. For example, he points to the success of the mujahideen without mentioning once the enormous support they received from the US (such as intelligence logistics and training, the funding of arms and cash etc) in defeating the USSR. Secondly he mentions the "suicide attacks" by the Islamic terrorists as "unfathomable to the US military". How far from the truth is that statement? During World War II the US military faced a formidable enemy in the Japanese Empire and the Japanese soldiers were zealous in their quest to dominate Asia and knock off the Western powers. The US military had to face scores of kamikaze fighters whose planes were loaded with bombs and did take down many US naval ships, and yet the US won. The US military knows well about the use of suicide bombers during war, and after [September 11, 2001] during peace. The US military in the Middle East is not just [confined] to ground troops but has a strong naval presence (including nuclear-powered submarines with satellite-guided missiles) in the region. But most important, the Islamic insurgents, unlike the mujihadeen, don't have a global power backing them up. Finally "the war zone" is located in the Middle East where most of the world's oil is derived. Whether the US wins or loses the battle against these insurgents in Iraq is not the issue. In order that the Middle East is not drawn into a regional upheaval, affecting the global economy, the US coalition will have to stay.
Chrysantha Wijeyasingha
New Orleans, Louisiana (Oct 5, '05)


I hope [letter] writers such as Frank (who said on October 4, "For the poor common Indians, India is anarchy") and Saqib Khan (Oct 4, "strip-tease dancers and whores as in the Western countries as well as in India") will think before making sweeping generalizations. Frank, if anything, the opposite of what you say is actually true in the case of India. Many of us whom you call "educated Internet elite" are sometimes frustrated but resigned to the fact that we have to live with the leaders that the "poor common Indian" elects. But that's democracy. Saqib, again, the question is about the choice given to women in Islamic societies to wear a burqa, drive a car, or even be a model in a commercial (which you appear to detest). Let the women exercise such a choice. In other words, you (men of Islam) please don't choose for them ...
Partha
Australia (Oct 5, '05)


Saqib Khan's lengthy essay [letter, Oct 4] is nothing but a depiction of paradise that simply does not exist. As usual, his response is loaded with the habitual denial. Just like a fundamentalist, he cites scriptures as evidence to support his denial. He says many Muslim women are doctors, academics, teachers, lawyers, solicitors, engineers, nurses, social workers, policewomen, army officers and even pilots. Well, I have to say that "many" is a highly relative term. Statistics speak for themselves. Most women [in Islamic countries] are not allowed to obtain education and work and the reasons cited are from the scriptures ...
Rakesh
India (Oct 5, '05)


Saqib [Khan] probably doesn't realize it, but his letter [Oct 4] is similar to the historical prejudices and justifications that American whites made about blacks, or the dalit situation in India, something like "they are happiest working in the fields, they don't need an education". In both the US and India, there is awareness about the problem, and corrective action, but it baffles me that a seemingly educated person would continue to defend discriminatory treatment of women. As usual, Joseph Nagarya [letter, Oct 4] took the trouble to filter out exactly his hot-button topics from my original letter, which was about the treatment of women. Interesting arithmetic about the two-thirds - darn, they must have miscounted the votes in 2004 (again). I'm not a Christian, but I'm speculating that "thou shalt not kill" does not mean that Christianity is a suicide pact. On the topic of abortion, I'm not necessarily trying to disturb today's fragile equilibrium, but it was plainly judicial excess and invention. There have been discussions on other forums as to whether the American founders intended the government to be religion-neutral, or irreligious, and it's tedious to reproduce them here. Your comments about [President George W] Bush make it clear that you don't have a normal political difference of opinion with him, but hate him at a visceral level ("liar Bush", AWOL), so further discussion is useless.
Jonnavithula (Jon) Sreekanth
Acton, Massachusetts (Oct 5, '05)


Chrysantha Wijeyasingha's letter (Oct 4) reminds me of one of those typical pro-India letters - long on bombast, short on substance. With India unlikely to have Iranian oil, he paints a picture to comfort himself that India won't lose much on not having Iranian oil. Or is it a case of sour grapes - China won't really get to enjoy much since the "world" (another coalition of the willing?) and the US will force Iran to abandon its nuclear program and make its supporters (like China) [eat] humble pie. India has supplicated to one Western power before, so I guess it's probably a case of "old habits die hard". Why, he even brags about the alliance that the US has signed with India as if it mattered to the US. Even India's businesses and media have complained about the treaty's bias to the US. And one more thing - Wijeyansingha signs off from New Orleans. You mean they have power back on already? Wouldn't Hurricane Katrina have given us an understanding to the limits of a "superpower"?
Asad Ul-Haq
Lahore, Pakistan (Oct 5, '05)

Again Spengler with this tired thesis of "America is not an empire." In his review of Robert Kagan's Imperial Grunts titled Do you call that an empire? [Oct 4], Spengler uses flawed arguments to explain how the US is not an imperial power. First, he bases much of his commentary on the comparison between the US and the British Empire. But if there's one thing there is no lack of examples of in history, it is empiredom. The British could (and I'm sure they did) compare their own empire favorably to the Spanish or the Ottomans or even the French. Many things go into the application and even the nature of an imperial agenda - history, culture, religion, demographics and even the geopolitical structure of the time. The Spaniards descended on the New World with a brute, bare lust for precious metals. Their initial "empire" was one big exercise in ravaging. As Spengler points out, the English were masters of inculcation, but they had to be. Compared to the civilizations they were leeching from, their available manpower was minuscule. Many of Britain's former colonies still love the Empire. The Spanish are loathed throughout Central and South America. American imperialism is just as varied. First, it's a tremendous contradiction from a society that disavows empire. But the will-to-power isn't part of national character, it's a human urge. [The United States of] America has imperialists and aristocrats, and even serfs and peasants. Spengler argues that the US is not an empire because its foreign policy is inept and its soldiers aren't smooth. That's faulty reasoning. Just because the tools are lacking doesn't mean there isn't the desire to do the job, or that the job can't and hasn't been done. And frankly, Kagan might already be the American Rudyard Kipling, because the latter was certainly critical of both the tools and implementation of the British Empire. The US makes up for its brutishness by having a thousand times more guns than everyone else and a million times the money, both used to quite lethal effect - especially in Latin America. Then there's this "flow of wealth" argument that America can't be an empire because it's not extracting wealth directly from the subject world. No jewel-laden procession of camels is marching into New York. But again, this is the 21st century. The English weren't forcing the native American tribes to dig for silver and gold. Does that mean they weren't an empire? You can extract wealth from another country in many ways. You can bribe or coerce them to sell their mineral wealth at far below its value. You can force them to open their markets to your massive corporations, against whom they cannot compete. You can force them to sell off their public utilities to your massive corporations, who can then price-gouge the native people. That's how 21st-century imperialism works. Who knows what the next empire will look like, but I'm sure they'll have their apologists as well.
Hollis Henry (Oct 4, '05)


[Ehsan] Ahrari in his article [The indefatigable insurgency, Oct 4] speaks of two ways to deal with the Iraqi Insurgency. There is a third way. That is to negotiate a peace with the insurgents.
Robert Shule (Oct 4, '05)


[Siddhardt] Srivastava's article Payback time [Sep 29] fails to take into account what will happen to China's mega-investment in Iran if sanctions fail and a military confrontation were to take place. It is now clear that Iran will protect her nuclear program no matter what the international community demands are. Iran is now actively using her oil reserves to punish those nations that don't back up her nuclear stand and reward those [that] at the least stayed neutral. Unlike China, India had signed a broad, comprehensive alliance with the US coalition, and partly due to that agreement sided with the coalition and world opinion at large. China on the other hand does not have any equally significant alliance with the US and was instrumental in helping Iran with her nuclear program, assuming her investments will be safe under any condition. The drums of war have already begun. Recently the leadership of Israel has threatened to take out Iran's nuclear program with or without US help, citing that a nuclear-armed Iran poses too great a risk to Israel. When military confrontation breaks out between Iran and her opponents and they see that China's is the single biggest investment in Iran, with promises of more cash which Iran will use to fund her defenses, those pipelines, refineries, and oilfields will be the first to go after Iran's nuclear program is taken out. Since India has been "penalized" by Iran, India like Japan will find greener pastures, she like Japan will sit pretty, while China may see blockage of gas from Iran, a "colder" relationship with the US coalition, and a negative effect on her economy from the gas shortage and from nations [that] trade with China, like the US and her coalition. One will then see who really "sits pretty".
Chrysantha Wijeyasingha
New Orleans, Louisiana (Oct 4, '05)


In light of [G] Travan's [Sep 27] letter, I would also like to take a different view on Spengler's China must wait for democracy [Sep 27] in that those who have less of an "education" in Chinese society might be even better suited to govern themselves since they are less apt to follow established patterns and therefore make decisions that are relevant to each specific township rather than ones based upon theory. The education and migration from the countryside of energetic youth [serve] to keep them pacified with a decent standard of living in centralized areas and to make sure that the eldest and least likely elements of society to cause instability remain in the relatively unchecked portions of the countryside. It should also be noted that those I know who make money in the cities currently send not a small percentage of it back home to support their families. Now Mr Travan, I don't want to take anything away from your synopsis of the current demographic disaster taking place here as each of your points is well validated, but the Chinese government has no choice but to gamble with some pretty draconian measures by Western standards, and the ends may well justify the means. What I think the government understands is that in order to keep the "backward countryside from overwhelming the progressive metropolis", the citizens of the interior must be allowed to experience the prosperity of the cities reaching the countryside and the permission to manage their own affairs by a strong central government that guarantees the right to do so. Whether this aggressive urbanization and simultaneous loosening of the reins of government in the countryside will indeed have this effect, only time will tell. While Spengler's lecture on the necessity of faith in democracy and his description of peasants may have offended some, the fact cannot be overlooked that while many nations have experimented with democracy in one way or another, none have experienced the rapid urbanization of a generally poor and uneducated populace on this scale. Therefore we must realistically discuss the various means of performing this feat while being willing to dream of a government that allows the most freedom possible.
Jody Barr
Shanghai, China (Oct 4, '05)


Just want to send you a kind "thank you" for [adding] the new China Business Section to your already wonderful content and insightful journalism. As a longtime reader of ATol this addition is very much welcomed. Thank you and keep up the good work.
Ryan Oklewicz (Oct 4, '05)


[Re Jonnavithula] Sreekanth's letter of October 3 ... I am baffled as to why he should be so obsessed with the notion that for a Muslim [woman] to have a driving license would mean some sort prestigious award, when so many of them are doctors, academics, teachers, lawyers, solicitors, engineers, nurses, social workers, policewomen, army officers and even pilots. It is a preposterous and perfidious thing to say that Muslim women are restricted and housebound and maidservants when as a matter of fact, they are ones who are at the wheel and driving force in the running of their families and the households. They are far [more] empowered than the non-Muslims think and in many cases are the decision-makers, and good ones. Muslim women are participating fully and equally in the construction of Islamic societies and contributing positively in the development of their countries. They are respected; have their dignified status and are not considered as objects of bare flesh, lust, good for TV commercials, good-time girls, strip-tease dancers and whores as in the Western countries as well as in India. Finally, I would like to say that Islam demands that a woman should remain a reasonable being as everyone else. It does not expect her to become either an angel or a demon. If non-Muslims wish to compare or contrast her position with other civilizations or legal systems, one should look into all facts and not merely isolated practices as wearing a burqa or not having a driving license etc. In fact, with regard to certain aspects of morality, Islam is more rigid and more puritan than other systems and non-Muslim societies. Since Islam attaches particular importance to morality, it [suppresses] promiscuity by every means. Muslim women are entitled to enjoy and exercise those rights which are considered to be [the] privilege of men, as Islam treats both men and women at par as far as their rights are concerned. In the Koran it is mentioned that if women have duties, they have equal rights also. Both sexes have distinct roles but their duties and rights regarding marriage, divorce, inheritance, property, litigation, family matters etc have been defined in clear-cut terms and transgression is forbidden. Islam does not permit a woman to be subjugated by a man/husband but [she must be] treated with affection, respect and dignity; and above all afforded all rights entitled to her as a wife, mother, daughter and even if she becomes a widow with children. Men and women are subjected to same restrictions or prohibitions upon themselves as far the tenets of Islam are concerned but some leniency has been allowed to women in many matters concerning biological and physiological compulsions.
Saqib Khan
London, England (Oct 4, '05)

Rakesh [letter, Oct 3] claims Indians speak English. That is a lie. Most of the Indians do not speak English ... And how many Indians can express their opinions freely on the [Internet]? Only a very limited few of those so-called upper-class Indians have access to [the Internet]. The so-called Indian democracy and freedom of expression are only available to English-speaking wealthy Indians. I seriously doubt that the poor Indians would prefer to live in the same conditions they are in right now. Only the English-speaking upper-class Indians prefer the current situation. That way, they can take poor Indians' money to buy motels, cars and other luxuries in the USA. I advocate that China needs to learn from the USA. I am proud that China will not take orders from the USA. India is completely opposite. India's government never leveled the playground for lower-class Indians. Yes, for the rich and powerful, India is a democratic country with a political system imposed by Englishmen. For the poor common Indians, India is anarchy ...
Frank
Seattle, Washington (Oct 4, '05)


Jonnavithula Sreekanth writes [letter, Sep 29]: "The American left is up in arms against Bush." US politics isn't so simple-minded and black-and-white as being limited to "left" and "right"; in fact, the broad range from far left through to and including moderate middle, and even some actual conservatives, is "up in arms" against [President George W] Bush; ie, at least two-thirds of the US population. "Because as a self-described born-again Christian" - there are rules to being a Christian; one is "Thou shalt not kill"; another is "Thou shalt not lie." Bush's actions shout while his mouth lies. "He does not" - according to whom? liar Bush? - "recognize a natural right" - the US is not a "natural law" system - "to view pornography, have abortions on demand" - those being choices properly obscured by the right of privacy in a multi-valued culture - "never mention God" - for the existence of which hypothesis there is no evidence - "in public, and so on. So Bush's 'crusade' would probably be the opposite of lewd, and more towards conservative" - "conservative" means "to conserve", which excludes wiping out the surplus and growing the largest deficit in world history - "or conventional morality". There is nothing whatever about Bush's non-existent "morality" which is conventional, as extremist anti-intellectualism and incompetence are not usually considered to be conventional. Neither is his seriality at being AWOL [absent without leave] from responsibility - at latest concerning two hurricanes in a row. A true conservative was Teddy Roosevelt, who established the US's national parks system - which Bush has done everything he can to turn over to private corporations for their profitable destruction.
Joseph J Nagarya
Boston, Massachusetts (Oct 4, '05)


[We in the] US now have three choices. We need to make our choice now before it is too late. (1) Let Saddam Hussein make up for his crime (the best choice). (2) Transfer him to [an] International court. (3) Delay his trial until Iraq is stable. Our best choice is to work with everybody and the UN to let Hussein out and run for the national election. He [will not] win ... This shows US compassion to help rebuild Iraq. The Sunnis will be happy to participate in the constitution and the government. The US went to war alone. Now we cannot ask anyone to joint us helping Iraq. The whole world will be glad to help if the US shows compassion. After the election, Iraq will have a legitimate government of all citizens. It [will be] under the UN supervision, not under US pressure. The UN suddenly becomes very important. It makes the UN look very good all over. Russia, China, France, Germany and many Muslim and Arab nations for their great benefit and their interest for business - that is really an attractive invitation for them to jump in. We are home free. Who killed Saddam? This question will be asked by a lot of people for a long, long time. Of course the majority [will] blame the US, especially President [George W] Bush, even if Saddam [is] killed by [Iraq's] Shi'a government. The US could play a delay tactic saying that Saddam could be given a second chance f at the same time US could talk to the Sunnis, the al-Sadr group and all parties involved to participate in what we want (a legitimate strong government for all Iraqis). All Iraqis will decide their own future without much needed from the US. Later we could persuade the new government to transfer Saddam to the international court [which] will decide his fate. US soldiers become the liberators. We go home with all the fanfare from all over the US and the world. Now our president could smell ... victory. He writes [a] very important chapter in the US history book for many generations to come. This is the second-best choice. The last thing the US can do is to make a very big noise that Saddam [will] get a second chance if this will lure Sunnis to participate in establishing the new constitution and their own new government. The power between the Iraqi Sunnis (including Syria, Saudi Arabia and many others) and Shi'as is balance. The threat of a bloodbath and civil war now disappears. Again the Iraqi government depends less on the US. They will be happy to escort our military out of that country. Our liberators go home with joy and happiness. A smart US decision helps to have peace not only for America but also for the whole Middle East and perhaps for the entire universe. The US mission is now actually a complete victory. The US president, George W Bush, is a world hero. Terrorism, Iran, North Korea [are] now easier to handle. America is still the only great superpower (in love and compassion). Our wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq are justified. There will be no civil war, no more killing, no more bloodshed.
Van A Nguyen
USA (Oct 4, '05)

With reference to Pepe Escobar's article Who's in charge, Qom or Najaf? [Oct 1], I would like to make these comments. By creating two centers of gravity within Shi'ism, the real goal of the "divide and conquer" schism is not to create a civil war between Shi'as and Sunnis, but to create a civil war within Shi'adom; between the Mahdi Army and the Badar Army, between Khalq e Mujahideen and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, between two founding fathers of SCRI (Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq), Iranian-born Iraqi Ayatollah [Ali al-]Sistani and Iranian-born Ayatollah [Ruhollah] Khomeini's successors ... Does Pepe describe three power centers, Najaf, Qom and Beirut? A similar fratricidal drama in Catholicism is known as the "Great Schism". It had devastating consequences for the world ... The "schism" and civil war sowed the seeds of unimaginable bigotry. By March 30, 1492, the inquisitor general Tomas Torquemada had drummed up the worst possible tragedy for Europe - the expulsion of Jews and Muslims from Spain. The Great Schism's religious rivalry unleashed events in Europe that ended the 800-year-old Jewish-Christian-Muslim symbiosis in Spain. This Great Schism along with political intrigues, greed, and other events were responsible for exacerbating anti-Semitism, Islamphobia [and] the Spanish Inquisition and creating the conquistador monsters that rained untold misery on South America for centuries. This was the beginning of colonialism that brought sorrow to India, China, and the world, ultimately ended in World War II and the Holocaust. With the entire Middle East and West Asia in turmoil, are we sowing the seeds of a human tragedy the world has not seen? I take strong umbrage to the comments of Partha (letter, Sep 26) in which she incorrectly suggests that I, in any way, hope for or desire or support the Taliban in any form ... To set the record straight, I do not support the Taliban in any form whatsoever. My letter was in response to M K Bhadrakumar's article predicting the demise of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government (Karzai grabs a tiger by the tail, Sep 23). I simply point out the widely reported fact that Mr Karzai's "Vichy on the Kabul" poor excuse for a "government" running on opium dollars is in serious jeopardy of being torn apart by the warlords and the Taliban who already own most of Afghanistan ...
Moin Ansari (Oct 3, '05)


Jeffrey Robertson [North Korea plays politics with food aid, Oct 1] makes a good point: food donations from South Korea and China fall outside the United Nations' and foreign humanitarian organizations' purview and accounting. North Korea thus has a margin of maneuver to elude the United States' eagle eye, and frustrate Washington's never-ending pursuit to declare check and checkmate in the shadow game of chess it has engaged in with Pyongyang. America has yet to learn that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is fiercely proud of its independence, and that [to] any move which it feels threatens its sovereignty, Pyongyang will react swiftly and decisively. So it should come as no surprise [that with] North Korea's perception of Washington's playing politics with food in the United Nations, and with John Bolton as its [the United States'] spokesman, Pyongyang has taken its distance from Washington's blackmail. And lest we forget, it was the bellicose words of John Bolton at the six-power talks in Beijing that caused North Korea's withdrawal for a year from negotiations. We should never lose sight of the fact that [US President George W] Bush's objective is complete victory at the expense of North Korea - which is doubtful given the crumbling foreign and domestic policy goals of his administration.
Jakob Cambria
USA (Oct 3, '05)


Saqib Khan's letter [Sep 30] about "licentious statues" shows, among other things, a lack of historical awareness. The squeamishness about sexual matters was a Victorian-era hangup which propagated to the colonies, and still seems to be alive in his mind. The more ancient cultures were refreshingly straightforward about the topic - just do a Google search for Richard Burton and his translations of Arabic, Persian and Indian writings of his time. It's a pity that some people who are inheritors of those traditions should want to turn back the clock to an even more repressive system, such as the restrictions on women that I mentioned (even though the rent-an-audience in Saudi Arabia assured [US Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy] Karen Hughes that they didn't mind).
Jonnavithula (Jon) Sreekanth
Acton, Massachusetts (Oct 3, '05)


In Saqib Khan's September 30 letter to Asia Times [Online], he defines lewdness as "encompass[ing] adultery, fornication, homosexuality, sexual perversion, nudity, pornography, promiscuity, giving free contraception injections to girls as young [as] nine to 10 years old and supplying free condoms to youngsters, incest and perverted under-age sex by adults". What's more, he seems to be implying that these "values" are rife within, and promoted by, the "West". His list reads like he just rattled off a number of subjects that made him uncomfortable, but two in particular come across as very amusing ... incest and under-age sex. Islamic nations are the only societies outside of sub-Saharan Africa that still allow, and defend, marriage between adult men and prepubescent girls. And he should bear in mind that the "West" has much stricter standards than Islam when it comes to defining incest - most "Westerners" see marriages between first cousins as distasteful, if not outright illegal ...
Andrew M
Canada (Oct 3, '05)

It is arguable whether "most 'Westerners' see marriages between first cousins as distasteful"; such marriages are legal in Europe, Australia and your own country, and in some US states. - ATol


I think I wasn't clear enough in my [Sep 28] letter, ergo [Moin] Ansari is quoting a dubious argument [letter, Sep 29]. The states of Hyderabad or Junagadh could not have joined Pakistan because any princely state that didn't border East or West Pakistan could not [cede] its territory to anyone but India. Only those princely states that shared a common border with Pakistani territory (which was previously under direct British rule) could join the Pakistan. Hyderabad and Junagadh had no legal leg to stand on when it came to trying to join Pakistan. Besides, at that time the nawabs had no Islamic credentials at all as they were mostly drunks and perverts ...
Aryan Singh Rathore (Oct 3, '05)


Frank [letter, Sep 27] claims I am putting words in his mouth. Hey Frank, any person with a little bit of intelligence will get a similar drift by reading your e-mails, which are consistently loaded with loathing for ordinary Indians. A loathing that is based largely on exaggeration, lies, and ignorance - on mere facts that Indians speak English and Indian writers don't have problems expressing their opinions freely on the website. Yes Frank, most of us Indians don't have problems taking our own government bodies and politicians to task. We don't have problems talking about our country's problems, including poverty, illiteracy and corruption. Similarly, we don't have problems expressing opinions about other regimes. This may be a culture shock for China's communists [who] try to gag every mouth that sings a different tune, but such gag policy cannot succeed for long. Sooner or later, people will ask for more rights, greater freedoms, and accountability. What is your regime's plan then? It is common for people [who] fear such freedoms and rights to brand other countries as "anarchies" without trying to do any impartial analysis. Yes, the government bodies that control our infrastructure are corrupt and inept. Yes, they have failed to establish a private sector that can create jobs and provide employment for the poorest of the poor. But still, Indian democracy works. Period! And Frank, a lot of people would prefer this "anarchy" rather than living under a kind of regime that sets up regulations on which of [its] citizens can settle in the glossy areas of Shanghai and Beijing. So much for the much-hyped communist equality. Frank, you admit China needs to learn from America - in other words, you are okay with being a "white man's" pupil yourself. If so, ranting about other countries just because they follow democratic systems is nothing but hypocrisy. Oh and by the way, before bragging about some search engine, please find out how many books written in China are actually virtual duplicates of stuff written in English. How common is real R&D [research and development] versus, let's say, trinket manufacturing?
Rakesh
India (Oct 3, '05)

September Letters