A Love-Hate Relationship Expect no honking from me, America (“Honk If You Hate America,” special report, Jan. 31). When you have lived as long as I have among Europe’s “intellectuals” and have the opportunity to access a second opinion, you know that you cannot base your views of American society on their provincial, bigoted, misinformed, tribal ideas. I am not saying that America is perfect. Far from it. The death penalty, the gun problem and the waste of resources are all very serious problems. So, improve yourself by all means, America, but stay true to your fundamental qualities, because you are the world’s best hope.
Vitor Pereira
Lisbon, Portugal
“Those who hate America hate themselves”? It is exactly the arrogance, hypocrisy, self-overestimation and ignorance expressed in this one sentence that make so many people dislike America.
Martin Hetzendorfer
Heidenreichstein, Austria
Even an American, albeit an expat, can see that what irks people is the implicit assumption that American values are the only good values. We assume that our version of market economics, our version of democracy and culture are the models to shoot for. We use our global military, political and economic dominance to convince ourselves and everyone else that we have a monopoly on the truth while our own culture suffers from rampant poverty, illiteracy and savage violence.
Keith Silverang
Espoo, Finland
Your cover picture does a disservice to the millions of American professional expats who work and live abroad by perpetuating the myth that all Americans wear cowboy hats, belts and denims, are sloppy and overweight and shove their American flag and their values down other people’s throats. Thanks, NEWSWEEK, for nothing.
Mike Babb
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
I am French, and I don’t hate America. I have made two trips to your country, and I study English at university. You Americans complain about not being loved by some people, but you don’t accept anything that is not American; you are quite narrow-minded about French culture, our music, our movies. In Europe we’re surrounded by American culture–fast foods, beverages, brand-name clothes, cinema and music. So who hates whom?
Emilie Blanc
Ales, France
The spread of a mass culture is wiping out smaller cultures and traditions. The United States, however, is not the sole perpetrator of mass pop culture. It is filling an ugly role that might exist even if America did not. Of course, this is not an excuse for the States to act irresponsibly. Steps need to be taken to preserve cultural identities, but it is a waste of time to hate the United States for producing Mickey Mouse.
Lied Eckblad
Iloilo City, Philippines
If America is such a bad place, why are there queues at every visa department at every U.S. Embassy around the world? The truth is that America is an amalgamation of every culture in the world and has thus captured the best and the worst the world has to offer. So far, the best seems to be winning.
Stephen Previs
London, England
The reason for people’s hating America is jealousy and envy at our economic success, technological advances, quality of life, superpower status and freedoms. Frankly, I don’t see any other country using its international and economic power as morally as the United States does. Consider the alternative. Would you rather have America be the megapower that it is or have North Korea, Cuba, China, Iran, Iraq or Sudan wield this force?
Keith W. Brown
Stara Zagora, Bulgaria
You have got to be kidding! McDonald’s fries are “quite good”? Reconstituted pap. McDonald’s is an international embarrassment for Americans abroad. Right up there with KFC, 7-Eleven and the like.
Thomas E. Kennedy
Copenhagen, Denmark
Your article prompts me to voice a worry. American-led globalization has made us all, across the globe, watch, feel, hear, eat, read, wear and understand the same things. As a result, each of our unique essences is being diluted irreversibly. Each race, region and individual is losing its proud and priceless identity. We may well become the global village, but all its inhabitants will look like clones of each other. The challenge is, will we be able to preserve the special aroma, the spice of each of the constituents of this village?
Maneesh Narang
Mumbai, India
America is a great nation, stronger and wealthier than any other. It may do whatever it pleases, but let it please stop claiming morality for its actions–from punishing children in Iraq to arbitrarily bombing sovereign states. Let America first reduce the number of its prisoners, improve safety for its schoolchildren, stop polluting the environment with greenhouse gases, pay its U.N. dues, treat Rwanda and Kosovo alike and ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty before it rails against other nations.
Moses Ceraman
Lodz, Poland
Yes, the U.S.A. is not perfect, but it is hard to beat, which is why the whole world wants to go there. As a European who has traveled and worked all over the world, I can attest to the fact that America is great because it gives an honest man who is willing to work hard more opportunities to succeed than any other country in the world.
Jacques G. Migeotte
Menlo Park, South Africa
Let Eli??n Mourn It saddens and disheartens me to see that psychiatrists don’t seem to be involved in deciding what is best for Elian Gonzalez (“Grandma Diplomacy,” WORLD AFFAIRS, Jan. 31). With all that is known about childhood loss, trauma and recovery, it is criminal to treat this boy as a political pawn and cause celebre. Eli??n, at the tender age of 5, watched his mother die, saw the deaths of 10 others, survived at sea–terrified for his life–and is treated as if he had marched in a parade. He needs to mourn in an environment of safety and familiar continuity. Give him the one parent he still has and grandparents who can help him make sense of what losses he’s sustained.
Deena R. Harris, M.D.
New York, New York
This family matter is getting too political. Doesn’t anyone want to know whether Eli??n Gonz??lez wants to stay in the United States or return to Cuba? Although he is only 6 years old, he is the victim of this conflict and therefore has the right to give his point of view and let his voice be heard.
Eva Ho
Cupertino, California
Please withhold judgment on Eli??n’s mother and the thousands of Cubans who risk their lives every day until you’ve walked in their shoes. Or to put it better, until you’ve taken a single paddle stroke in their raft. My mother took me out of Cuba when I was 10 years old, and in the process she left behind her own mother. That was 32 years ago. I can assure you that the 50 stars on the American flag and America’s Constitution mean a lot more to anyone who has sailed to freedom than they do to someone born in it.
Rigoberto Lacaba
Pembroke Pines, Florida
Real or Reinvented? After the New Hampshire primaries, the question was: “Who reinvented Al Gore?” Reinvented him to gleam and shoot sparks, that is. Your article “Smiles and Sharp Elbows” (U.S. AFFAIRS, Jan. 31) lists his brilliant team, who may very well have encouraged him to use the word “fight” repeatedly. But pull out your video of Gore at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Jan. 15, 1998–and look at those sparks! When let out of the closet as vice president on a personal mission, he had a crowd of 3,000 African-Americans on their feet, cheering and laughing. Not a mean feat for a white man, and on Martin Luther King Day. We haven’t been allowed to see the real Al Gore, a passionate and complex man who will be the next American president.
Nora R. Safran
Charlottesville, Virginia
Don’t Be Daunted by Dyslexia As headmaster of a school for learning-disabled adolescents, I was excited to see your story devoted to dyslexia (“Dyslexia and the New Science of Reading,” SOCIETY & THE ARTS, Jan. 31). I applaud your insight and courage in objectively reporting on a very complex subject. Although dyslexia is labeled a “learning disability,” it is best approached as a “learning difference.” Sound remedial practices coupled with emotional and social support allow students to see themselves as valued learners with unique talents to offer society. I hope that your article will alert parents and teachers to the need for early detection and remediation before the student suffers from unfortunate labeling and isolation. Thank you for helping educate the public on an issue that has long been misunderstood at the expense of our children and society.
Douglas Dague
Williston, Vermont
I hope NEWSWEEK’s excellent story on dyslexia will be a wake-up call to those teachers who blame slow readers for their problem. I remember a teacher who told me, “Elizabeth, there is a special hell for students who are smart enough to do the work, but just won’t.” She might be surprised now that I am the author of seven mystery novels featuring a sleuth who is a memory-trick expert. We dyslexics are creative because we have to be!
Elizabeth Daniels Squire
Weaverville, North Carolina
Congratulations to NEWSWEEK for tackling dyslexia and for explaining the medical and scientific implications of on-going research into this disability. While the story provided an in-depth analysis of techniques that may help students with dyslexia tackle the printed page, I was disappointed that you did not mention textbooks on tape as another important educational resource. While there are many effective reading strategies for students with dyslexia, we must draw a distinction between “learning to read” and “reading to learn.” Studies show that reading speed and comprehension are improved when students with dyslexia can see and hear the words simultaneously. More than 50,000 students with dyslexia in more than 3,000 schools around the United States used taped textbooks from Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic last year. These students can surely attest to the value of this unique accommodation.
Richard O. Scribner
Princeton, New Jersey
Are some children dyslexic? most certainly they are. But let us not rush to stamp the label on every child who takes a bit longer than average to learn to read. Some kids just do not learn at the same rate as others. There may be a host of reasons for that other than just dyslexia. Some children enter my kindergarten classroom as “zero-book kids,” those who have never been read to, never handled books, never invented their own stories by looking at the pictures, never picked up a pencil or crayon to write and draw. Will it take them longer to become readers and writers than their peers, the “thousand-book kids” who have had wonderful preschool and home experiences with literacy? You bet it will. But my experience has shown that given the time and attention they need, these children, too, shall definitely learn provided they are not stigmatized early on in their student careers.
Devon Hamner
Grand Island, Nebraska
Japanese Values In your Dec. 27 article about Masayoshi Son (“Japan’s Rising Son,” TOP OF THE WEEK), an ethnic Korean multibillionaire born and raised in Japan, and your choice for Asian of the Year, you say “outsiders are treated as outcasts” in Japan. In that case, how come Son has done so well? When Japan, in 1977, instituted the award of National Hero of the Japanese People, the first recipient was Chinese, the popular baseball star Sadaharu Oh. Japan’s attitude to foreigners is much more complicated, and often much more favorable, than most outsiders realize.
Gregory Clark
Tokyo, Japan
I found your article rather overdone. The bust of the bubble economy taught us that money doesn’t necessarily result in happiness, and therefore we are now re-evaluating what is important in life. Over the past decade, the government has taken away regulations. Certain businesses are doing really well. On the other hand, more and more people are losing their jobs and going bankrupt. As you portrayed in this piece, American dreams are being realized by Japanese. However, we don’t want our country developed into the American type of society, in which there’s a huge gap between rich and poor.
Kazue Noso
Hiroshima, Japan
Favoring Free Trade Free trade has generally been, as you say, a factor of progress throughout history (“The Siege of Seattle,” SPECIAL REPORT, Dec. 13). Free trade, however, means just that: to allow everybody to trade freely. This is, unfortunately, not a feeling shared by Boeing or Microsoft (cohosts of the meeting), who believe they should be able to trade freely and be allowed to cheat smaller competitors with cartel policies. That sort of system only leads to monopolies and, eventually, to self-destruction.
Rene Gardea
Prague, Czech Republic
Interest groups are not solely a Western species. Representatives of poor countries oppose environmental and workplace regulation, which would benefit the masses, for the sake of a minuscule minority–the only ones in developing countries who can afford world-class goodies. The Brits opened India to “modernization.” The consequence? Exploitation and impoverishment–a favor to the poor indeed! The Seattle coalition needs to hang together as long as the threat of globalization dangles over us.
S. D. Jog
Mumbai, India
Save the Shark I was very happy to see your commendable article “(“Sharks Up Close” (SOCIETY & THE ARTS, Dec. 6). It is so sad that these beautiful animals are now threatened. People have lost respect and admiration for the shark because of films like “Jaws.” Also detrimental to the shark population is the ruthless way that they’re hunted for their fins, which are used for shark-fin soup. The fins are cut off, and the shark is thrown back into the sea to die painfully because its meat is not tasty or valuable. I wish someone would make a film about a cute and cuddly shark so that the next generation will grow up to boycott shark-fin soup and protect these magnificent sea creatures.
Eva Malmstrom Shivdasani
Kunfunadhoo Island, Maldives
