Our June 30 report on how the quake changed China won mixed responses from readers. Two who were present in China then wrote, "Thank you for a well-researched article." But another said, "Your claims are naive, even offensive." A third wondered, "Was it solely the negligence of rogue local officials?"
China
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s Transformative Calamity
Reading your June 30 article "All Shook Up" was a very emotional affair for us. We were in Chengdu, 90km from the epicenter, when the earthquake hit. Those were the two longest minutes in our lives. Every word of your article reflects how we have felt since then. As we said on our Web site, "it is overwhelming to watch how the whole country sticks together and unites to show their support for the many victims." The TV coverage on both the Chinese- and the English-language channels was everything you would expect from professional journalism. Even the shoddy construction of the schools was addressed on TV, in open criticism of the local government. This four-week trip through southwest China was an immense eye-opener, and some of the negative preconceptions we had of this country were corrected or simply vanished. We changed our minds not only because of the heartbreaking images in the aftermath of the earthquake, but rather because of what we experienced on a daily basis in this country. Thank you for this very well-researched article.
Heidi Sequenz andGilles Barbier
Vienna, Austria
The tone and focus of several articles in your June 30 issue made me think you must have recently relocated to Bucharest, where the Romanian Parliament recently approved a draft law calling for at least half of all news to be "good." Several of the claims made in "All Shook Up" (the account of how responses to the Sichuan earthquake supposedly illustrate positive new political and social developments in China from the grass-roots level on up), are naive at best, offensive at worst. For example: "New allies are pushing the party in the direction of which it has wanted to go for some time but for which it has, until now, lacked the courage." China's Communist Party doesn't want to go anywhere; it wants to retain absolute political control and will do whatever it takes to quash any real dissent. That stance doesn't indicate a lack of courage, but clear-eyed ruthlessness. Just ask Zeng Jinyan, whose husband, Hu Jia, a leading HIV/AIDS activist, was arrested earlier this year. If that's an example of the newfound respect for and influence of civil society, then let's hope such a neutered and cowed version doesn't spread elsewhere. I'd also suggest going online to read articles and blogs critical of the government, but you better not do that from China: most such sites are blocked. And let's not even get started on the manipulative whipping up of nationalist frenzy in the wake of the March crackdown in Tibet.
Jeff Hoover
Cape Town, South Africa
It is good to read that a natural calamity in Sichuan has become a cause of public awakening with people raising their voices against corruption. The Chinese central leadership, especially Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, reached the quake-hit areas within hours of the incident, and camped out there for days, supervising rescue and relief operations. Such visible acts by top leaders are confidence and morale boosters for the masses. Issues like poor construction quality and corruption are bound to come up, and Chinese leaders will, no doubt, punish the guilty as in the past. Let's hope that a new society emerges in China—one based on reason, equality and transparency of public action. In the meantime, it is heartening to learn that the new rich in China are pitching in for social transformation. NGOs like the CSEF have volunteered their commitment to social upliftment of the masses. But Chinese leaders now need to permit freedom of speech. If China wants social transformation, it will have to learn to live with dissent.
R. K. Sudan
Jammu, India
You portrayed the recovery process of Sichuan province after the big earthquake beautifully, describing it as "the emergence of a new Chinese order." Sure, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao rushed to the site very quickly to ease the anger and pain of the suffering people. But it seems like smart propaganda, doesn't it? Many of the school buildings were reduced to rubble, and many schoolchildren became victims. Is it appropriate to attribute the tragedy solely to the negligence of a bunch of rogue local officials and to say that their removal will be a good solution? They are only parts of huge system, so it is necessary to review and fix whole governing system managed by the Communist Party. So far, the current situation is not promising at all. The protests of the parents who lost their beloved sons and daughters have been suppressed by authorities. In some cases, they are prohibited contact with foreign journalists. The way to the "New Order" seems long and treacherous.
Kyoichi Kunimi
Fujisawa, Japan
Gallic Sound-Bite Diplomacy
I read your cover story on French President Nicolas Sarkozy's domestic-reform plans with great interest ("The Summer of Sarkozy," June 30). While I don't necessarily share your optimism concerning Sarkozy's rupture of overdue domestic-policy reforms, your writer completely ignores Sarkozy's grandiose overtures on the foreign-policy level. Like most contemporary heads of state, Sarkozy seeks refuge in sound-bite diplomacy that, in the end, is much less dependent on concrete results. His idea of a Mediterranean alliance (the Barcelona Process) risks an implosion of the already overstretched European Union. And as for domestic reforms, there is no such thing as a "big bang without social explosion." To think otherwise is to ignore the traditional mind-set of the French people. Plusça change is still a mantra dear to the heart of the French.
Karl H. Pagac
Villeneuve-Loubet, France
Advising Obama on Iraq
Fareed Zakaria's June 30 point of view column, entitled "What Obama Should Say on Iraq," sounds like patriotism powered by intelligence, wisdom and pragmatism. I hope November returns to the White House a man who will make the country stronger with policies free of militancy and belligerence. Uncle Sam needs a president with practical ideas, not a destructive attitude.
Michael G. Driver
Ichihara, Japan
Frankly, I do not believe that Fareed Zakaria has anything to recommend to Barack Obama concerning his Iraq policies. Obama has proved to have very good judgment on the Iraq matter right from the beginning. What one can recommend to Obama is to increase the U.S. education budget so that future U.S. presidents and journalists alike will know their moral duties and responsibilities and advocate and support peace all over the world.
Dirk Provoost
Munich, Germany
Reducing the Risk for Cancer
Again, the experts are missing the obvious and looking for complicated reasons and explanations, and overlooking simple logic in "Your Lifestyle, Your Genes, and Cancer" (June 30). This and other such articles state that overweight people who exercise, within reasonable bounds, are just as healthy as slimmer people who exercise. Why? It is exercise, of course. Ask anyone who knows anything about the human body and he will tell you that exercising stimulates the lymph system: the lymph system fights infection and dumps the waste into our bloodstream, where it is filtered by the kidneys. The more our heart beats, the more our blood circulates around the body and the more it is filtered and passed into our urine. It is pure common sense.
V. L. Williams
Neath, Britain
Your article on lifestyle and cancer was very interesting. I was especially glad to read that most common cancers appear at very different rates in different areas of the world. All too often it seems that such information is not looked at in medical studies, even though such data provide the largest subject populations. However, in the same paragraph, the authors go on to state that "as Japanese have embraced Western habits, their rates of colon, breast and prostate cancer have skyrocketed." While this is true, the rates of stomach cancer, the most common type of cancer in Japan, have dropped. This drop in stomach cancer and the increase in most other types of cancer are said to have a strong relationship to diet. The Japanese diet has changed dramatically since the 1950s. This sort of international epidemiological data is, I believe, a gold mine of useful information on the effects of diet and lifestyle. It would be nice to see it used more often, as it is in this article.
Bob Potter
Asaka-Shi, Japan
Thanks for the article about lifestyle, genes and cancer. Chronic inflammation as a promoter of cancer growth has been known, if disregarded, for a long time, and is well documented. A regular dietary intake of omega-3 fatty acids (fish oils, etc.) is the best way to regulate the chronic inflammatory response, and is the least studied in clinical (randomized and others) studies. Of course, there is not a penny to be made from fish oils for the shareholders of the pharmacological industry.
Jacques Aguilera, M.D.
Former Fellow, Dept. of Neoplastic Diseases
Mount Sinai Hospital and School of Medicine, New York
Lyon, France
Good Life or Endangering Species?
Your May 5 issue addressed many important topics on the environment. I applaud NEWSWEEK for these features. However, tucked in the back is the Good Life section, where snakeskin sandals are pictured and glorified. Though not always intentionally, producers and particularly makers of high fashion fuel the black-market trade in furs and skins. Such behavior, along with magazine advertising, cause uninformed consumers to contribute to black markets that put both the Earth's biodiversity and our planet at large in jeopardy. I ask that NEWSWEEK editors remain cautious and reconsider publishing such writing that can reverse the positive change other articles may bring about in the world, especially on sensitive issues such as the fight to save endangered species.
Rachel Zuercher
Peace Corps
Suva, Fiji Islands
The Truth About Islam
Your article "The New Face of Islam" (June 23) prompts me to thank you for writing something positive about Islam. This is the first time I have found a Western magazine highlighting the truth about Islam. Although this great religion remains unchanged since its beginning, some followers misuse and misinterpret it. Like Osama bin Laden, there are thousands of religious/political leaders using it to kill people. We Muslims hate such people, as Islam does not approve of killing under any circumstances. Finally, I request you not to use the word "Islamist" instead of "terrorist" or "fanatic," as Islam does not support terrorists.
Shaikh Kamruzzaman
Dhaka, Bangladesh
FIJI Water
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s Carbon Accounting
Your July 7/July 14 article "Save the Planet, Lose the Guilt" does a disservice to all well-intentioned people who are trying to make thoughtful decisions about the environment. The article makes misleading statements about FIJI Water and our carbon-negative commitments. First, I am not the president of FIJI Water. Second, we are not buying carbon offsets to reduce our emissions. We have a commitment to reduce actual carbon emissions by 25 percent by 2010; and our partnership with Conservation International to develop our own carbon offset program in Fiji that would involve a reforestation project. Nearly 60 percent of Fiji's rainforests have been destroyed, and this is a serious commitment to restore the original rainforest habitat. Leading climate scientists around the world agree that rainforests sequester carbon. By restoring native tree species, this project will provide offsets to meet FIJI Water's carbon-negative commitment over the next 30 years. Finally, it is not correct to imply that there is no way to measure a carbon footprint and that we have based our carbon-offset program on "dubious math." We used the Greenhouse Gas Protocol to calculate our products' entire life-cycle emissions. This protocol is the most widely adopted greenhouse-gas accounting tool in the world, used by the Kyoto Protocol signatories, the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, the International Standards Organization and hundreds of corporations. We also took the added step of having ICF International, a leading climate-strategy firm, provide third-party verification for FIJI Water's carbon accounting.
Rob Six,Vice President
Corporate Communications, FIJI Water
Los Angeles, California
Editor's Note: In the article, Rob Six's title was misstated; it is vice president. NEWSWEEK regrets the error.