Monbiot’s call to arms was truly inspirational
While travelling on the Austria Railways I had the pleasure of consuming George Monbiot’s splendid article, No one is coming to save us (19 April), about the need for protest. This is a journalistic awakening – more: a revelation. It says everything that’s so important for us. Reading it should force us to act: acting in responsibility.
What? Maybe many can’t understand the meaning of the word. Take a look in an old dictionary. There you should find the solution. Think about it!
Reinhard Bimashofer
Millstatt, Austria
Article on Quebec bill was disappointing
I was disappointed by Martin Patriquin’s article Montreal recoils at Quebec’s ‘historic step backwards’ (12 April). His subject was Quebec’s Bill 21 on laïcité [secularism].
I was particularly struck by the fact that the writer seems only to have talked to people opposed to the legislation. There was no attempt to explain why successive Quebec governments have tried to legislate on this subject, or why a large proportion of the Quebec population is in favour of it. Where was the historical background?
I have been reading the Guardian since I was at university in the 60s, but this piece has undermined my faith in your reporting.
Jane Philibert
Morin-Heights, Quebec, Canada
Berlin’s poor air quality should not serve as model
It seems that Berlin’s air is not nearly as pure as Beth Gardiner believes in her book Choked (19 April). The reviewer highlights Gardiner’s claim that the increasing availability of alternatives to passenger cars in the German capital “has delivered substantial improvements in transport connectivity, quality of life and health”.
Not according to a recent issue of Exberliner magazine. “Contrary to popular belief,” it announces, “Berlin’s air quality is one of the worst among EU capitals.” In evidence, the article gives figures from the EU’s Common Air Quality Index showing that, on 11 March 2019, Berlin’s pollution hit 82%, compared with 60% for Paris and a mere 32% for London. And that Berlin figure applies “on pretty much any given day”. The article also reminds us that both the EU and environmental activists sued the city last year for violating EU air pollution regulations.
Germany is a nation of car addicts. No one should imagine it is a standard bearer for clean air.
Martin Platt
Berlin, Germany
Question of footwear requires more analysis
The algebra of deprivation is more complex than Billie Eilish invokes when she recalls a childhood owning just one pair of shoes (12 April).
Having a second pair hardly heralds financial ease, but it significantly enhances podiatric hygiene in that alternation between pairs allows optimal airing and drying of footwear. Additionally, the long-term economics of owning a second pair of shoes is not as onerous as some might argue: two pairs are expected to wear, more or less, twice as long as one pair – especially if there is resistance to the seductions of fashion.
What is more pitiable, then, than young Eilish’s family’s inability to afford a second pair of shoes for her is a system without effective means to educate the public and support them in sensible ways of spending limited resources.
Jack Aslanian
Oakland, California, US
History is repeating itself in a disturbing manner
Regarding Gary Younge’s piece White supremacy is feeding on mainstream encouragement (12 April): sadly, history repeats itself. Increasing inequality and burgeoning poverty. Scapegoating innocent minorities. Unscrupulous public figures misdirecting the blame for their own ends. It all seems tragically familiar.
Edward Butterworth
Victoria, British Columbia,
Canada
Pete Townshend had even better material
In Simon Tisdall’s piece Endgame in Sudan (19 April), there’s a wonderful quotation from The Who’s anthem Won’t Get Fooled Again. However, you missed the better bullet from Pete Townshend and company: “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”.
Stephen Lewinsky
Canterbury, Victoria, Australia
