Hail to the Chief?

A New Generation of Robots
The implicit intention of "Why Should We Be Friends?" (Aug. 18/Aug. 25) seems for readers to get the impression that Japanese robotic companies are inferior to their American counterparts due to the obsessiveness for a "humanoid" style. But most of the robotic products you mentioned, such as Asimo, are just prototypes and still in the process of development. Thus it is inappropriate to compare those Japanese products with, say, Roomba. My attention was riveted by the fact that American robot design derives from military technology.
Kyoichi Kunimi
Fujisawa City, Japan

What ' Chernobyl ' Describes
The term "cultural Chernobyl" seems to have entered the American vernacular—I see it even appears in Webster's New Millennium Dictionary of English online—but that doesn't mean it should have, or that NEWSWEEK ought to use it, as it does in its Periscope headline for an article on the spread of the Ultimate Fighting phenomenon to Europe ("A New Cultural Chernobyl," Aug. 11). Is it really in good taste to appropriate another country's national tragedy and use it as shorthand to mean "something terrible" in reference to just about anything? On another front, in the Aug. 18/Aug. 25 issue, writer Steve Tuttle refers to America's obsession with Crocs footwear as a "fashion Chernobyl" ("Anything But Crocs"). In order for this phrase to make sense, I have to empty the word "Chernobyl" of most of its meaning. I have to strip away its connotations; forget the radioactive dust that contaminated a town not far from Kiev, and the fallout that traveled to do harm elsewhere; forget the lives that have been lost or otherwise undermined from that day in April 1986 forward, the cancer victims and the children born saddled with various deformities. That's a lot I have to forget if I just want the word to mean a disaster of some sort, which surely, in this context, I do. The word "meltdown" may have taken on a figurative meaning, but "Chernobyl" refers to a specific tragedy. Careless use of the word disrespects victims of that tragedy and also degrades the English language.
Kirsten Giebutowski
Poltava, Ukraine

Return of Overseas Chinese
China's weakness lies in its "inbred" closed culture and in its discomfort with the historical fact the West surged ahead of China starting in the 15th century ("Rise of the Sea Turtles," Aug. 18/Aug. 25). Until China overcomes this inferiority/superiority complex and until it accepts other cultures as world partners, China cannot lead, no matter how industrialized it becomes. China will follow the path of Nazi Germany or Communist Russia and will set the rest of the world against it or implode from the lack of freedom. I hope the thousands of Overseas Chinese returning to China, especially those from the United States and Britain, will miss things like not being intimidated by the authorities and freedom of expression. I am hopeful those Chinese will be like a Trojan horse and help China awaken its latent human aspirations for freedom.
Victor Lopez
Seville, Spain

Your perceptive report on china's students returning from study abroad recalls the following: where enough visiting students from one foreign culture cluster together—familiar food, language, etc.—they engage far less with their host country. If they are sent to study, say, electronic engineering, outside of classes they can form a comfortable home-culture cocoon and get their main impressions of American life only from TV and the nearest mall with fast takeout. I have also observed, at two universities in Pacific Russia, clusters of People's Republic of China-sponsored students contracted for two years' study of Russian and a technical specialty. They lived in one enclave, had classes just for them and never mixed with students of their host country. How's that for "international understanding"?
Dale M. Heckman
Davis, California

© 2008