Letters
We reported on how Chinese products are competing in markets historically dominated by Europe. Some readers blamed Europe's decline on its inefficiencies. Others criticized China's labor practices
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The article "Twilight in Italy," on the competition that Italian manufacturers are facing from Chinese firms, hit the nail on the head [Dec. 5]. Italy is going to resemble China before it achieved economic success. In order to compete, Italians will have to give up the buying power and social security they are used to. Italy has been living under the delusion that the manufacture of quality chairs is rocket science. It has failed to invest in research, education and high technology. Now the reality is hitting home, and Italy will go down. The question is how far down.
Diego Amicabile
Munich
TIME's cover art is always original and meaningful, but the illustration for "Italy vs. China," depicting Michelangelo's David and a Chinese terra-cotta soldier arm wrestling, was extraordinary. My congratulations to the artist.
Montano Riva Barbaran
Longare, Italy
The competition between these two countries will serve only to enrich the profiteers and impoverish the rest of us. China pays low wages and has weak environmental standards. Its practices keep the poor poor. That isn't progress; it's modern-day slavery.
Gerd Schönthaler
Remscheid, Germany
Exit Strategy
Re the implications of withdrawing U.S. military forces from Iraq [Dec. 5]: American troops need to stay in Iraq until that country can take care of itself. U.S. foreign policy helped shape today's Middle East. If we don't take responsibility for our past actions and remain to clean up the mess we have made, we'll have to go back into Iraq to hunt down the next wave of terrorists. God grant that we lose no more soldiers. But let's not leave before the job is done.
Michael Martinez
Houston
The average American is simply sick of the U.S. spending our money and our young people's lives for political ideals. What would Americans do if Saddam Hussein or any other world leader believed that Bush was evil and decided to trump up charges to end his term? I'm a Vietnam veteran, and if that happened, I would start making some car bombs. What right do we have to police the world? Iraq is an Arab problem and should be solved by the Arab world. How about sending more politicians into combat?
Charles Delling
Waterford, Michigan, U.S.
No matter what happens in Iraq, it won't end the war on terrorism. We must stay the course in the 21st century, or there will be no 22nd. There is only one way to shorten this war: we must win. We must start thinking about universal service for our young folks. Citizenship simply requires that during wartime, one class of people not be allowed to pile up wealth and power while another makes the ultimate sacrifice of their lives.
Milton Y. Keith, Sergeant
U.S.M.C.
St. Petersburg, Florida, U.S.
It makes no difference when the U.S. leaves Iraq. The genie has been let out of the bottle. The Bush Administration has ensured a supply of terrorists for the next 25 years, extinguished any chance for a secular Iraqi state, potentially destabilized the Middle East and presented the cost in lives, personal freedom and dollars to our grandchildren.
Michael L. Schneider
New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
The planning for the war in Iraq was poor and short-term. The U.S. may have won some games in Iraq, but it has definitely lost the championship. Yet it dares to speak of win-win withdrawal scenarios.
Christo Christopoulos
Athens
Car Trouble
Your article "How GM Can Fix Itself" did a fine job of enumerating the problems created by General Motors' management [Dec. 5]. But it didn't address why advisers say hourly workers should take cuts in pay and benefits when the automaker frequently touts the quality of its products. If assembly-line workers are putting cars together so well, they should not be the ones to suffer so much in a restructuring.
Sandy McLendon
Marietta, Georgia, U.S.
I lived in Flint, Michigan, for 27 years and worked for GM. The company's problem is simple: arrogance of the worst kind. Its management will not listen to others. GM cars are poorly designed. Corporate officials and the outdated, unionized workforce can't get along. The result is a company in which cars are produced by two antagonistic groups—an unhappy union and an overbearing management.
Lou Rife
Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Prized Paleness
Alex Perry's letter from Bombay, "Could You Please Make Me a Shade Lighter?" [Dec. 5], reported that the desire for a lighter skin color is a national obsession in India. But Indians are not the only people who view fair skin as an ideal. It is no secret that many throughout the world feel the same way. Indeed, most of mankind does. Some of us as children were exposed to fairy tales like Snow White, in which the wicked queen asks, "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?"
Nizam Virmani
Rolling Meadows, Illinois, U.S.
A Gallant Venture
It defies my understanding why the success of the Chinese space program [Oct. 17] should make other Asians critical of it, as was the reader who wrote a letter to TIME [Nov. 21]. If China wishes to push its space technology to its highest extreme, there is no necessity to pour cold water on that gallant effort. Indeed, as Asians, we ought to be proud of such an unprecedented accomplishment. Let's look forward to the day when Asia's space endeavor lands an Asian on the moon.
Venze Chern
Cameron Highlands, Malaysia
The Book vs. the Movie
As an avid Harry Potter fan, I take issue with Richard Corliss's view that the movie version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is better than the book [Dec. 5]. As beautiful as the movie is, it sorely lacks the true magic of the book. Corliss noted that the film is better because it "telescopes the book's first 100 pages into a thrilling 20 minutes." But without the detail of those 100 pages, the beginning of the movie is disjointed, sketchy and no doubt confusing to those who haven't read the book. The film falls flat. As for the idea that the book is perhaps overlong, if a book is an excellent read, it can never be too long.
Jenny Turco
Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, U.S.
Remembering Hugh Sidey
How very sad to hear of the passing of TIME columnist Hugh Sidey [Dec. 5]. Over the years I have always found his writing inspiring. Somehow, as he commented on Presidents and the office they held, he was able to show the significance of the seemingly insignificant in their lives and that the door of history often swings on tiny hinges. Sidey brought the best of what the U.S. stands for to those of us who are not American. We shall miss him deeply.
Derick Bingham
Belfast, Northern Ireland
•You can read a selection of Sidey's columns at time.com/sidey.
Gender Sensitivity for All
In the interview with newly elected Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf [Nov. 28], TIME asked, "Is there something extra you bring to the job as a woman?" She responded, "Sensitivity to human needs. Maybe that comes from being a mother and interacting with other women, many of whom carry the biggest burden in times of war and peace." Johnson-Sirleaf should know that there are millions of males on the planet who are raising their families and carrying a burden. Our message should not be that one sex is more sensitive than the other. We must lead by example, not meaningless rhetoric.
Erol Palantekin
Dublin, Ohio, U.S.
Gorgeous Georgie
Soccer's bad boy George Best, who died in November [MILESTONES, Dec. 5], was among the first to combine celebrity cachet with sports superstardom. His off-field antics were surpassed only by his dazzling skills as a player, TIME noted in a May 18, 1970, article:
"Schoolboys strive to emulate him. And girls by the thousands dreamily chant his name whenever he appears ... George Best is the name, and his fans hail him as the most glamorous, most electrifying soccer player ever to come out of the British Isles. Says Danny Blanchflower, a onetime soccer great in his own right: 'Best's movements are quick, light, balletic. He is a master of control and manipulation. And with it all, there is his utter disregard for danger.' Long of hair and short of temper, Best, 23, has been a marked man since 1968, when he led the Manchester United eleven to their first European Cup championship and was named Footballer of the Year. At 5 ft. 9 in. [1.75 m] and 150 lbs. [70 kg], he looks like a sparrow in shorts next to the burly 'hatchetmen' who triple-team him ... Best's revenge is 'to make them feel so inferior they'll never want to play football again.' He does it with speed, deception and an uncanny skill for controlling the ball ... After home games, Best mans one of his fleet of sports cars and leads a caravan of 'Best Setters' on boozy all-night rounds of the pubs ... He claims to have dated more than 1,000 eagerly willing 'Georgie girls.'"
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