Stunting children’s lives
I found deeply depressing the comment from World Bank president Jim Yong Kim about stunted children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) not reading a single letter after going through three or four years of schooling (7 October). Fortunately, Peru is showing the way in addressing this dreadful problem of stunting, notably, by giving cash grants to mothers and monitoring children to ensure they are getting the nutrition they need.
It worries me, however, that the mother cited in the article, although doing all the right things with the money to prevent stunting in her younger four, had eight children all told. Whether this was by choice or not, the fact remains that for poor families it is easier to feed two children than eight.
Perhaps it is correlation rather than causation, but those countries that have a high incidence of stunting also have high fertility rates. Thus it would seem logical, indeed humane, to provide voluntary family planning services in association with the cash handouts and monitoring of children. Most sub-Saharan countries still have very strong cultural preferences for large families; nevertheless, if mothers could be persuaded to space their children a minimum of three years apart, it would allow for better nutrition of babies and toddlers, and indeed of the mothers themselves if they become pregnant again.
Jenny Goldie
Michelago, NSW, Australia
The Dalai Lama’s worth
Squeezing him out is probably not the best solution, but is the Dalai Lama (7 October) worth all the fuss? Having been to Tibet and seen how Dalai Lamas lived – thanks to the scrimping of the poor – and are worshipped in death – massive tombs in solid gold – I have become somewhat sceptical.
When the Chinese returned to Tibet in 1951, they discovered a country that had fallen back into the Middle Ages; Lhasa stank – only one flush toilet existed in the whole country and that was in the Dalai Lama’s new summer palace along with a British-made bathroom. And what did the Dalai Lama of the time do? Did he stay to give moral support to his people who made such sacrifices for him? No, he scuttled off out of it.
Admittedly, the Chinese have been heavy-handed in their clean-up, but those who regret this most are probably camera-wielding tourists eager to record Tibet “as it was”.
Alexandra Tavernier
Marcq-en-Baroeul, France
• It is despicable that the world leaders and religious leaders kowtow to the Chinese and fail to acknowledge and condemn the atrocities committed in Tibet and to outlaw probably the world’s wisest man: the Dalai Lama.
Caryl Dickson
St Ives, NSW, Australia
Hungarian referendum fails
Thank you for providing George Szirtes a page to explain the background and contexts of the apparently ambiguous result of prime minister Viktor Orbán’s anti-refugee referendum (7 October). Since a whopping 98% of those who did vote favoured the proposal, Orbán’s deputy head could claim a “sweeping victory” over the EU – a sort of Hungarian Brexit. Except that it wasn’t. By simply not voting, a majority of the Hungarian people brought it down, constitutionally: to pass, it had needed a 50% turnout and only got 43.9%.
Szirtes was a young boy among the quarter-million Hungarians who became refugees after the heroic uprising of 1956 against the Soviet Union’s puppet state. What a heartless irony that a Hungarian prime minister should seek to turn present-day refugees away. And what a strange one that he is in bed with the ruler of Russia. And strangest of all that a candidate for US president would love to join them.
John Ridland
Santa Barbara, California, US
Brexit future looks bleak
As Jonathan Freedland points out, there is a significant minority in the UK who did not vote for Brexit, as well as many dissenters amongst those who did, who cannot accept Theresa May’s Thatcheresque posturing from a position of demonstrable weakness (14 October). The only visible deal to be negotiated is one of a “soft Brexit” that appeases both the Ukip anti-immigration faction as well as the still-dominant Merkel faction, who insist on all EU members accepting some level of free movement and acceptance of refugees. A difficult fence to straddle, if the ultimate goal is to maintain as a minimum the favoured-nation trading status enjoyed by Norway.
May’s poker hand is very short on winning cards – the bluff that the rights of current EU citizens in Britain could be at risk if Britain fails to get the terms it demands seems little short of suicidal, as the current falling value of sterling indicates. May’s only recourse if her terms for a continuing relationship with the EU are rejected, would be a closer relationship with either China or the US, clearly risky options as well as being mutually exclusive.
This is clearly a case where the longer-term national interest must take priority over individual or party interest, but where are the champions of this interest? In the unlikely event of the legal challenge to the validity of the Brexit vote succeeding, we might see a consensus of parliamentarians whose vision is broader than that of the current leadership, but without such an outcome, the future looks bleak.
Noel Bird
Boreen Point, Queensland, Australia
Car travel is far too cheap
George Monbiot is, of course, right to point out how we have become addicted to cars, but I wouldn’t hold my breath about this changing anytime soon (30 September). Far from “sitting fuming in a toxic cloud”, most car journeys are actually quite convenient and cheap. And this where the problems start.
The marginal cost of running a car is so low that if you own a car you would be mad (or really dedicated) to consider paying at least twice this to use an infrequent bus or train or even walk. We have friends who think nothing of driving a few hundred metres to visit us.
Perhaps modern smart-card technology will eventually allow drivers to pay the full cost of their own car as they use it. In our village we have a community car club where cars can be hired by the hour at a fully inclusive rate, but it is still difficult to wean people off their own car. If the fuel duty were increased significantly this would help, but what government would have the courage to do this?
Our behaviours that cause climate change are so embedded and habitual, and climate change is seen as so distant, that change will be difficult. If we are serious about tackling climate change we need a combination of the imaginative solutions George Monbiot describes and some real sticks (such as fuel duty increases) to fund these.
Martin Mansell
Lochwinnoch, UK
• George Monbiot is correct that if a transportation system were designed today with the objective of moving people efficiently, it would not focus on the private automobile. However, at least in North America, our transportation systems were not designed for efficient movement, but rather for auto industry profit.
The car companies bought up the streetcar systems of almost every major North American city – Toronto and San Francisco alone successfully resisted – in order to tear up the rails and create a market for their product. This eventually resulted in an antitrust conviction – and a fine of one single dollar.
Greg DePaco
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
A love letter to the Weekly
Sitting at the Oslo Central rail station with my coffee and the Guardian Weekly for 7 October, I am reminded again why I love this paper. The article about Colombia puts the announcement by the Nobel peace prize committee in a sharper light, and that is just one of many worthwhile articles.
I felt silly wanting to write you a love letter but then I turned to page 20 and found David Ferguson’s If you see me somewhere, say hello. Hello, David Ferguson and all you other readers of this unique newspaper, which binds us together in a particular way. Would that the journalistic and editorial traditions of the Weekly were more common, because I am convinced it would give rise to more of the “delicious sedition” that Ferguson and I – and I hope many more – hold dear.
Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway
Briefly
• Zoe Wood’s article Ashley Madison on rebound (7 October) doesn’t mention the probable side effects of the behaviour being advocated by this website – HIV, gonorrhoea and other sexually transmitted diseases, the harm done to the children by marital break-up, and the unhappiness of one or both of the husband and wife couple.
Rob Segal and James Millership’s bottom line seems to be how much they can line their own pockets, and the rest of humanity can go to hell in a handcart. They may end up doing just that themselves.
Jennifer Gibson
Worthing, UK
• You published a fascinating article on rats (7 October). Two things struck me: in the US alone 12,000 children per year are accidentally poisoned by pesticide meant for rats. Can this be true?
I suppose we tolerate this collateral damage because of “our inability to live responsibly within our environment; our tendencies toward hedonism and greed; and our failures to look after the weakest among us”. Which is a powerful, if chastening, summing up of human behaviour.
Alex Siddall
Reading, UK
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