Time tempers all headlines
Hans Rosling’s piece Ease up on the drama (20 April) highlighted what I experienced when I read eight back copies of The Guardian Weekly after being away from home. My belated reading illustrated the “overdramatic worldview” and “stressful and misleading” headlines. It is interesting to see what we were so exercised about a few weeks ago. Some dire headlines proved, weeks later, to be not only passe, but exaggerated or even untrue. Consider your piece World’s view on Trump cancelling North Korea summit; by the time I read it the summit had happened. Or your 20 April Let’s follow Finland’s homeless solution; then, on 27 April, Finland to end universal income.
Rosling’s “factfulness”, that is, keeping perspective, is helped by reading the Guardian late and seeing that some dire headlines have proven not so dire after all. I certainly do need to “control [my] drama intake” and reading my Guardians much later helped.
Oliver Burkeman corroborates this in his 27 April column Are the headlines giving you anxiety?: “The passage of time is the best filter for determining what matters. Modern news can’t afford being late to a story, but you can.” This is partly why I read my Guardian Weekly from back to front knowing (hoping?) that the headlines in the first pages by now can be read with some perspective.
Kathy Hoffmann
St Paul, Minnesota, US
Tragedy of Eurydice Dixon
Well done, Gay Alcorn, for her balanced summary of the national debate sparked by the tragic death of Eurydice Dixon (29 June). The gender debate focussed on sexual relations has reached a high pitch of intensity down here in Australia, and it is balanced reporting such as this that will help bring us to a better understanding of the way forward in achieving the civilised gender sexual relations that we all want for our society.
Terry Hewton
Adelaide, South Australia
The art of the forgery
Samanth Subramanian’s article on art forgery and its detection (The master detective, 29 June) was fascinating, with its concluding thought experiment: imagine an “immaculate forgery” in which the artist’s technique, style, themes and materials are all perfectly recreated.
I understand that authenticity is commercially necessary, and I am thrilled by it emotionally when I encounter a great work, but the article failed to ask the crucial question. If the forgery is perfect then is not it, too, great?
Our answers to that will tell us a great deal about what we believe art to be. Perhaps the use of the word “immaculate” is a clue.
John McCallum
Stanmore, NSW, Australia
No real debate before Brexit
The “fatuous claims about shimmering Brexit gold” that Matthew d’Ancona refers to (22 June) are still in circulation because the “mature debate on the subject” that should have been held before the referendum was called was passed over.
A referendum is the process of referring a proposed new constitution or a law to the electorate for approval. It would be generous to describe the vote of June 2016 as a plebiscite, a means of discovering the popular view on the subject of EU membership. If the vote on continued EU membership had been a referendum, the terms of a divorce from the EU would have been negotiated and approved in principle by parliament and the EU before submitting the deal for a final yes or no decision to the people.
Everyone knew what a decision to remain in the EU would mean when the vote was held. However, with more than two years having gone by since then, neither the government nor parliament – much less the voters – have any idea at all about what leaving the EU will ultimately mean.
The Brexit vote was not a referendum; it was a mischievous and capricious act of political gamesmanship.
André Carrel
Terrace, British Columbia, Canada
Briefly
• The review of the book Journeys in Desert Places (29 June) refers to the “shifting sands of Oman” where “just as the desert is not silent, it is far from still”. My wife and I can testify to that.
A few years ago, we ventured into the desert to see the frankincense trees. The peace was suddenly disrupted by automatic weapon fire, as commandoes came over the dunes around us. After the initial scare, we realised that the Omani army was on manoeuvres.
Anthony Walter
Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
• Good God! Two items about New Zealand in the issue of 29 June (‘We’re retired sex symbols’ and Ardern’s lesson in modern life) with no mention of sheep in either. Is this a record?
Tony Simpson
Wellington, New Zealand
• I sympathise with Danish burqa wearers, but local politician Emrah Tuncer overreaches in saying they will be “trapped in their homes” under a ban (15 June). I like going naked, but that doesn’t mean Canada’s law against public nudity renders me a prisoner.
Greg DePaco
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Send letters to weekly.letters@theguardian.com. Please include a full postal address and a reference to the article. We may edit letters. Submission and publication of all letters is subject to our terms and conditions.
