new internationalist
issue 218 - April 1991
The New Internationalist welcomes your letters. But
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They may be edited for purposes of space or clarity.
Include a home telephone number if possible and send your letters
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Positively hopeful
I
was sad that your issue on biotechnology (Test tube coup NI
217) said so little about the positive achievements of this new science.
Of course there are risks, but let us not throw the baby out with the bath water.
Any technology which can potentially cure AIDS has to be grasped with both hands.
Of course we must monitor biotech. But let us keep our eyes open to its positive
potential too.
Gertrude Michael
London, UK
Return journey
Chris Brazier suggests in his editorial (Journey to the heart of Vietnam
NI 216) that issues focussing on a single
country are less popular than theme issues. Well, if so, this magazine must
be an exception for I found it fascinating in the extreme. In particular, I
was reminded of my experiences in Northern Italy just after the war when Italy
was ‘down and out’ with massive unemployment and extreme shortages
of everything. The rank-and-file ex-partisans and their Communist leadership
were optimistic about the future but the attitude of most non-political Italians
was that there was no hope for Italy and the only way out was for Italians to
get to the US.
EC Apling
Norwich, UK
Pot luck
Just one criticism of your excellent issue on Vietnam
(NI 216). When mention is made of Cambodia,
the impression is given that Vietnam invaded Cambodia. But the truth is that
Vietnam was itself invaded by the forces of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, resulting
in the deaths of thousands of Vietnamese and Cambodians who had fled to escape
the reign of terror. These acts of aggression were ignored by the UN, and on
Christmas Day 1978, Vietnamese and Cambodian forces went into Cambodia to defend
themselves.
It was during this act of liberation that the full horrors of Pol Pot's rule were brought to the attention of the world. The danger of the return of Pol Pot and his forces is one that our association has and is still campaigning against.
Len Aldis
Secretary of the Britian / Vietnam Association
London, UK
Yummy kangaroo
The red meat I eat is almost always kangaroo (Animal Rights NI
215). It is lower in fat and cholesterol than beef. And where I live it
is marketed under strict controls. ‘How can you eat your national symbol?’
some of your readers may ask. And the answer is that we cull kangaroos in Australia
because our huge human population has taken so much of the kangaroos’ habitat
to graze sheep and cattle. Farmers see ‘roos as pests to their crops and
thieves of their pastures. Of course I am concerned that the hard hooves of
the new grazers may damage our fragile Australian soils. But I support kangaroo
farming and consumption, provided the culling is controlled and the killing
humane.
Don Gobbett
Summertown, Australia
Save the fly
Your animal rights issue (NI
215) was incomplete. When will you speak out against the global genocide
being conducted against such ‘fellow travellers’ in the world as the
tse-tse fly, the syphilis microbe and the smallpox virus? Or do you prefer to
campaign for the rights of cute puppies, piglets and calves? Seriously, I was
angered by your decision to devote pages to such trivia. It speaks volumes about
your bourgeois, sentimentalist staff that this garbage is given the same attention
as real issues like global warming and third world debt.
Eric Topp
Florey, Australia
Happy porkers
As a farmer, I have to admit that though highly emotional, the articles in your
animal rights issue (NI 215)
were factually accurate. However just because some farm animals are badly treated,
it does not mean that all are. I work on a fully organic farm which is situated
on steep and mostly poor land and which depends on our pig unit for survival.
We are able to farm the pigs intensively and keep them to high welfare standards
by selling them at a higher price than usual in our own farm shop.
JR Watson
Totnes, UK
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Straight face
I am moved to write following receipt of your issue about animal rights
(NI 215). The opening ‘shamelessly
anthropomorphic’ article must rank as one of the stupidest things I
have ever read. It is maudlin, patronizing, cretinous and ever-so-pointless.
An ant by the way is an invertebrate with a chitinous exoskeleton. Even if it
had the emotional capacity to smile, its face (unlike my own) is too stiff.
Ann Subscriber
Reading, UK
Bloody animals
Some of your writers in the animals rights issue (NI
215) rely on the unfounded assumption that there is ‘no morally relevant
difference between ourselves and other animals’. It is the reverse side
of the same argument which Nazis used to justify experiments on humans. If there
is no difference then let us exploit our fellow humans as we exploit animals.
After all the animal world is cruel and bloody.
Mike Wakely
Bromley, UK
Indian conspiracy
Interesting and brave talk by Mari Marcel (Letter
from Tamil Nadu NI 215). But how
convenient for us Indians to put all the blame on the US for Pakistan’s
nuclear troubles. I sincerely wish that Ms Marcel had made an honest effort
to address Indians’ own (home-made with a little stealing) nuclear industry
and its conspiracy of silence, misuse, abuse and profiting, all done in the
name of national security and ‘Peaceful Nuclear Research and Use’.
It’s time there was more campaigning in India by Indians for Indians, and
less concern about what Europe and the US have got to say.
K Pushpanath
Lusaka, Zambia
Comic slant
The World Bank issue (Pinstripes and poverty NI
214) leaves several vital issues unresolved. You do not explain the overall
increase in national revenues in countries where the bank has been operating.
And you fail to consider that individual Sri Lankans derive benefits from climate,
religion, culture and lifestyle that North Americans have to pay for.
NI holds a naively optimistic view about the superior morality of the Third World. What makes you think that people with non-white skins are any less greedy, selfish and cruel than we? And why do you crudely label all employees of the World Bank as caught up in their own careers and selfish drives? Collective insularity seems to prejudice your mandate as investigative reporters. Get a larger picture of the world, not a comic hero slant.
Stephen van Beek
Toronto, Canada
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