The Internet Revolution

I read your Special Report about e-life and how the Internet is changing the way we live–but will life really change for everyone (“The Dawn of E-Life,” Oct. 11)? The world’s poor people do not have the knowledge and money to use the new Internet technology. This unfortunate situation will widen the gap between our social classes, or may even create a huge wall that the offline people can’t possibly cross. It’s high time to consider how we can make e-life happen without leaving anyone behind. Cristiano Tavares de Mattos Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Like many other 65-year-olds, I often feel hopelessly left behind in the Internet revolution. But then an article like your “The Dawn of E-Life” comes along, and I gain hope that an effort to “cyberize” myself will be worthwhile–if for nothing else, at least for survival! Karl H. Pagac Villeneuve-Loubet, France

Thank you for your insightful and well-researched e-life report. However, saying that Europeans “are already accustomed to sending e-mail over their phones, albeit a stripped-down version that doesn’t use the Internet” is incorrect. Only the Short Message Service (SMS) does not use the Internet. It’s possible to send and receive e-mails (no more than 160 characters) from the Net via a gateway service: you just register your mobile phone with the provider, thus the phone gets its own e-mail address. Short messages you designate as e-mail before sending are converted into Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) by your provider and relayed to the recipient via the Net. Vice versa, incoming POP3-standard e-mails on your phone’s e-mail address are converted to SMS-standard and transmitted to your phone. This is a useful service if you want to stay in touch with friends who do not have a mobile phone but have access to e-mail. Daniel Haas Rodermark, Germany

It was encouraging to read that South African President Thabo Mbeki is an enthusiastic “Web surfer” (“The Digital Democrat”). Sadly, for other South Africans, merely getting a new line or a phone transfer is a frustrating ordeal. Deregulation of our apartheid-era telephone monopoly is not scheduled to start until 2002. As a result, the damaging brain drain of business expertise is likely to be followed by an e-drain. Desperate Internet start-ups will increasingly be forced to relocate to other countries simply to get phone lines. I hope Mbeki will have the courage to hasten the deregulation of this unreliable monopoly. Without action we will not survive the Internet revolution. John McCann Johannesburg, South Africa

The NEWSWEEK Special Report on e-life was interesting. But the constant use of words like “us,” “we” or “everybody” when referring to the use of the Internet is misleading. At the moment about 200 million people use the Internet. The world population is about 6 billion. Simple math tells us that less than 3.5 percent of the total world population uses the Net. That hardly qualifies as “everybody.” Mika-Petri Lauronen Oulu, Finland

How is the technology of the Internet changing the United States? We’ve just gone from one boob tube to another. When will we ever learn? R. Jensen Kula, Hawaii

In the United States, if I want to be on the Internet 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the monthly telephone and Internet connection fee is just over $40. But in Germany, if I want to spend the same amount of time on the Internet, it will cost me more than $1,200 per month. Until the cost of using the Internet drops to U.S. levels (and preferably equals the cost of listening to the radio), the dream of a new Internet-connected world will, to people in Europe, remain just that–a dream. Charles Kaufman Nussloch, Germany

Japan’s Nuclear Accident

Referring to the recent nuclear accident in Japan: in the history of mankind there was never a technology with such an unblemished record of safety, more environment-friendly and with such a vast and inexhaustible potential as atomic energy (“A Dangerous Wind,” World Affairs, Oct. 11). Its advantages are, in fact, so convincing that it could be stopped only by creating mass hysteria around trifling incidents, including the Chernobyl accident. Predrag Raos Zagreb, Croatia

As an American living in Japan, I appreciated your thorough coverage of the nuclear accident in Tokaimura. It was sobering to witness the inefficiency and sluggishness with which the government reacted in the hours (and days) following the accident. Confusion was compounded by a frustrating dearth of local and national media coverage. As the rest of the world worked to apprise the severity of the situation, most of my co-workers were calmly bicycling to work. A friend was told by her supervisor that she would be penalized if she missed work on account of “irrational” concerns about the accident. It’s amazing to see how the Japanese could demonstrate such disorganization and apathy in the face of an incident that could easily have been just as disastrous as the most violent earthquake or typhoon. Kevin Greenberg Iwai, Japan

When its almighty financial system collapsed, embarrassment struck Japan Inc. Today humiliation is an understatement for Japan’s accident-prone technology. Japan ridiculed American architecture after the San Francisco earthquake, then Kobe shook to embarrassing rubble. Today the same arrogant people who mocked Soviet-designed technology after the Chernobyl accident have their tails between their legs. Kamal Ramani Lublin, Poland

You suggest that the accident at Japan’s Tokaimura nuclear-fuel-reprocessing plant occurred because of human error and also possibly inadequacies in technical design. Technology–which, after all, comes out of human effort–can never be perfect. Nuclear power is generated by our exploiting nature to its very limits, and in case of human or technological failure, the consequences are bound to be severe, whether in Tokaimura, Three Mile Island or Chernobyl. The primary lesson that Japan–or any other nation–can learn is that no external nuclear threat, like North Korean missiles, is necessary to create a major catastrophe. The threats already exist internally. Kangayam R. Rangaswamy Madison, Wisconsin

In the United States, the activities associated with generation of electricity from coal, oil and hydro sources have caused many injuries, deaths and heavy environmental damage. On the other hand, no lives have been lost here because of direct radiation from nuclear power plants. George Madgwick Oriental, North Carolina

On Sino-American Relations

After reading NEWSWEEK’s review of the 50th-anniversary observance by the People’s Republic of China (“A Goose Step Into the Future,” World Affairs, Oct. 11), I went for a walk to calm down. While you are right to dwell on Formosa-Taiwan-China, how can you not mention occupied Tibet? Congress counts Tibet as an occupied country. Beijing, however, counts on gullible Americans to accept the fiction that Tibet was really always part of China. Only if a free press continues to remind its readers will the world remember: Tibet is a country that Mao’s China has been violating and occupying for most of the past half century. Dale Heckman Sacramento, California

It seems that America is always surprised when non-Western leaders meet and agree with everything that the Americans have to say, and then go home and do almost exactly the opposite. It’s time Americans learned that smiles and nods from Jiang Zemin (which, according to national-security adviser Sandy Berger, brought “U.S.-China relations… ‘back on track’ “) do not mean anything unless accompanied by concrete actions. Then again, why should China move to action when a gracious and friendly leader can pull the wool over Americans’ eyes–again and again? Maria McAdam Mwenezi, Zimbabwe

Monitoring Debt Relief

Pranay Gupte’s suggestion that donor countries institute standards of economic and democratic compliance before canceling the debts of the world’s poorest countries hits the nail right on the head (“Forgiving and Forgetting,” World View, Oct. 11). Without these conditions, corrupt government officials will have a grand fiesta and the donor countries’ gesture will be for nothing. The common people will not benefit. Please go ahead with debt cancellation but do so while tightening the screws on corruption. Manuel Z. Sison Cagayan de Oro, Philippines

Anyone Can Be President…

Your story on the “band of quasi” presidential candidates was quite illuminating and witty (“Look Who’s Running,” U.S. affairs, Oct. 11). I hope the Reform Party becomes a viable entity in the very near future, so U.S. voters will have an alternative to the present system, which encourages political gridlock and keeps national problems from being solved. Tom Simpson Oakland, California

When I was a child, my teachers told me that America was a country where anyone could grow up to be president. Now it sure looks like they were right. Don Davis Newburgh, Indiana

The reason Jesse Ventura has such a grip on America is that he not only says the things people wish they had the nerve to say, he is also right a lot of the time. He is outrageous, but he stands up for his beliefs and he is honest. I would rather be represented by a person with integrity than one who constantly glances at polls to see which way the wind is blowing. Jason Homorody Worthington, Ohio

Your story should have carried a banner proclaiming “The Granola Bunch.” Considering the flakes and nuts involved, it would certainly have been appropriate. Bill Bailey Pasadena, Texas

Only in an America where the office of the presidency has been so cheapened and demeaned for the last seven years could the “Wild Bunch” featured in your article aspire to the nation’s highest office. Such is the Clinton legacy. Jeffrey Heakin Chicago, Illinois

Earthquake in Taiwan

Thank you for your article on the devastating earthquake that struck Taiwan on Sept. 21 (“The Night Heaven Fell,” Asia, Oct. 4). We Taiwanese are grateful for all international help, particularly the rescue teams that risked their lives for a humanitarian purpose. H. H. Lee Kao-Hsiung, Taiwan

You state that Taipei “took the cash–but refused the Chinese team,” but you failed to point out why Taiwan refused the assistance from mainland China. China saw the earthquake as a political opportunity to exert sovereignty over Taiwan by suggesting that all United Nations and international aid be funneled through the Chinese. The Chinese were simply political opportunists who were blind to the humanitarian tragedy of the earthquake. Taikuang Ho Cologne, Germany

The Brooklyn Museum Debate

I’m glad you chose to print a photo of Chris Ofili’s “The Holy Virgin Mary,” because it’s too easy to condemn something that you’ve never seen (“Shock Grows in Brooklyn,” Periscope, Oct. 11). I was prepared to be offended and outraged after hearing about his dung-decorated rendering of Mary. To my surprise, I think it is a terrific work. Yes, it is different. But this very contemporary rendering tells me that if Mary were a young woman today, she would be bombarded and surrounded by sexual images at every turn–television programs and commercials, movies, pop-music lyrics and magazine ads, to name a few. The title of the work–“The Holy Virgin Mary”–says it all, that a contemporary Mary would reject the barrage of temptations, remain a virgin and do God’s will. If New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and the United States Senate can’t see this, I feel sorry for them–and for the Brooklyn Museum of Art, which has to deal with such narrow minds. Susan Loughran Lewiston, New York

The Catholic Church has survived centuries of shooting itself in the foot: the Crusades, the Medicis, the greed and scheming of Pope Alexander VI, the persecution of Galileo and others, the Inquisition, and the obscene silence over the Holocaust at the center of this century. It most surely will survive a painting of dubious artistic merit at the Brooklyn Museum. Nancy L. Dell’Aria Brooklyn, New York