Mail Call: Green-Challenged

I was surprised to see your feature article "The New Green Leaders" illustrated with a golf course on the facing page. Golf courses are the most environmentally unfriendly sporting venues, needing huge volumes of water to keep the grass green. Water is the scarcest resource we have on our planet. If we are to be truly green, water conservation is the first step.
Rick Hsu
Taipei, Taiwan

What McCain Might Get Away With
John Mccain's Los Angeles foreign-policy speech excluding and alienating Russia and China belies a statesman's diplomatic approach to world issues ("McCain vs. McCain," May 5). If anything, the speech solidified the neoconservative influence on his campaign. These are the same folks who crafted and directed the ill-fated war of no end in Iraq. Their big guns are now trained on Iran, while they keep an eye on a restoration of the cold war. What we need is a justification for a military budget that exceeds the combined spending of other prominent nations. One would think that we were at war with the rest of the world.
Joseph Borrajo
Dearborn, Michigan

Africa in Black and White
I would like to know where the writers of "Liberate Us From the Liberators" in the May 5 issue got their information. I keep trying to think of when Robert Mugabe actually turned Zimbabwe into one of the most agriculturally productive countries in Africa—or, for that matter, one of the most stable. I can't, because it never happened. Zimbabwe was a food-exporting country for only 10 years after it overthrew white-minority rule. Only under the old regime was Zimbabwe ever the food cradle of Africa.Ten years after Rhodesia fell, Zimbabwe became a net food importer. Many white settlers left the country after being forced off the land, and after blacks were given preferential treatment for jobs, regardless of ability. When are we going to read some balanced coverage from the Western media about all of this? When it comes to racial tension between blacks and whites, the media tend to favor blacks, because doing otherwise could be construed as racist. So the press largely refrains from criticizing a dysfunctional government like Mugabe's. Western coverage of South Africa has the same problem. You don't read that Jacob Zuma, president of the governing party there, threw white journalists out of a press conference, supposedly because the meeting didn't concern whites. No one seems to care that South Africa is slowly returning to an apartheid system, with blacks possessing an advantage over whites. Nor is attention being paid to the crimes perpetrated in that country. When are we going to get the whole picture from the media?
Nicolaj Segato Pedersen
Randers, Denmark

Bringing Back India ' s Tigers
The effort by NEWSWEEK to highlight the threat faced by tigers in India will be appreciated by all ("India's Missing Tigers," May 5). The pressure on the big cat from the surrounding human habitation is on the rise. Reports about poaching are also mounting alarmingly. Selfless service by those responsible for protecting the wildcat is the need of the hour. Unfortunately, the number of such officials is minimal. Even though the government has spent millions of dollars on Project Tiger, present results are not at all encouraging. Coordinated efforts between India, Nepal and China are needed to check transnational trade of the endangered animal. If wholehearted efforts aren't taken before it's too late, the picture of a royal Bengal tiger prowling in the Indian wild will disappear forever.
Salin Thomas
Karukachal, India

Torture and the High Life
I find it difficult to reconcile the "Snapshots of Horror" article in the May 5 issue with the frivolous articles in The Good Life on the following page. All that luxury cannot wipe away the horrific treatment of prisoners on the part of people who represent the United States. As a dual Mexican-American citizen, I feel it makes me lose the respect and love I had for my country, the United States of America.
Susana Perez
Mexico City, Mexico

Snakeskin: Selling Our Conscience
Again, I am so saddened to see how designers violate the use of endangered species and how NEWSWEEK helps them promote it ("Tempted by the Serpent," May 5). Magazines and newspapers should take a more responsible approach and not promote unethical items. Some snakes are on the endangered list today, and even going through international customs with a pair of python shoes might leave one shoeless, as they will be confiscated (and rightly so). As they say, when the buying stops, the killing will as well. So when the promoting stops, the buying will as well.
Eva Malmstrom Shivdasani
Bangkok, Thailand

The Unelectable Pope
The author of "Why This Pope Doesn't Connect" (April 21/April 28) states that Benedict XVI pales in contrast to his predecessor in a number of respects including "looks, vitality, charisma, showmanship, tenure and popular appeal." Is she referring to the head of the Roman Catholic Church or the lead in a high-school rock band? Surely these specific characteristics are of scant importance in a person leading the largest Christian denomination on the planet. She goes on to state that certain other elements make him unsuitable or unpopular (in the United States) as an ideal pope, including his "unfortunate visage," his predilection for traditional papal fashion and the fact that he served as John Paul's "theological enforcer." Again, one can only wonder why the author would deem these features important in determining Benedict's acceptance among Roman Catholics. Surely his religious devotion, intelligence and peculiar application of church dogma would be of far greater interest. The article further opines that the church operates in a "chaotic world" and then ends by saying that American Catholics understand that they will not be satisfied in their desire for the church to change. It does leave one wondering whether the world would not be less chaotic if it were less American and more in line with church teaching.
Johan Marnewick
Johannesburg, South Africa