Town Hall Titans

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Time's report on Europe's most influential big-city mayors was a good thing [May 16]. I agree with the views of one of your choices, Klaus Wowereit, mayor of Berlin. He stated that despite financial and economic constraints in our city, "You must show a sense of enjoyment in life." Most people forget about doing that when times are hard.
Chipepo Chibesakunda
Berlin

I cannot understand Time's praise for a politician like Berlin's Wowereit. It was outrageous to feature a Clinton-like character whose sole contribution to Germany has been to paint a feel-good façade over the catastrophic financial woes besetting the economic engine of the European Union. No amount of fashion shows, film shoots and political correctness can distract Berliners from the fact that Germany is facing its most serious crisis since World War II. Wowereit and other Social Democrat party leaders still haven't realized that socialism, in a globalized world, means nothing more than institutionalized mediocrity. Wowereit, like Clinton, makes us feel better, but life must not be about "a sense of enjoyment" when young Germans cannot find work. Nobody in Germany invited the current economic disaster, but it's happening. Wowereit and his party's cronies typify "old Europe." The Americans are right. Europe is like an old man: totally lacking the strength to tackle the challenges of the new millennium.
Albert Brenner
Bad Voeslau, Austria

London's mayor Ken Livingstone solves problems with brio in the energetic spirit of New York City's legendary Fiorello La Guardia. Livingstone deals with the problems of cars, buses and the underground with pragmatism and technocratic efficiency, using American-style executive authority. Londoners have warmed to his common sense.
Martin Grey
High Wycombe, England

It was rather sad that your story on London's Livingstone suggested that the congestion charge, the fee scheme for vehicles entering central London, has not been an unqualified success. The fact that the congestion charge has not raised as much money as projected to invest in public transportation is a measure of its success in discouraging unnecessary journeys. It has had a major impact on me — even though I work just outside the charging zone. The air outside my office is far cleaner than it was before the fees were introduced. A few businesses have suffered a drop in sales, but they were probably the ones that were dependent on people who parked their cars illegally. For most Londoners, it is a great help to be able to get their goods around the central area promptly. I would commend a congestion charge for all large cities whose residents would like to be able to breathe clean air.
Malcolm Dymott
Uxbridge, England

Re your selection of Rome's mayor Walter Veltroni: Although I work in Vienna, I am Roman, and not very young. I have never seen Rome in as poor condition as it is under Veltroni's administration. He apparently is a kind man who believes that to manage a city, it is sufficient to visit old ladies and the disabled.
Piero Risoluti
Vienna

You included Stockholm's Annika Billström among your selection of mayors who are making a difference. I can't really see why, since she has only brought us misery. Billström's party, the Social Democrats, promised in the 2002 election not to establish tolls on cars in Stockholm's inner city the way that London does. But after gaining power, that is exactly what Billström did. [The test period will begin next year.] Apparently, a politician can promise a certain amount of things but break those promises if the election outcome is good. That's too Machiavellian for my taste.
Christian Westling
Stockholm

Trauma Clinic
I was appalled by the grisly realities described in Aparisim Ghosh's harrowing account of a day in the emergency room at Baghdad's Yarmouk Hospital [May 16]. Conditions couldn't be worse for the medical staff and the unfortunate victims of insurgent attacks. But most frustrating is the bungling ineptitude in providing Iraqis with basic health-care essentials. After all, the U.S. Congress just gave the Bush Administration an added $82 billion to spend on the war. So now even more U.S. taxpayer money will go to Iraq reconstruction efforts, and some of it will disappear in the process. Companies like Halliburton will profit, and wounded Iraqi citizens will struggle to survive as overwhelmed Iraqi doctors and nurses fight to save them with outdated or inadequate medical equipment. Good luck winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi populace with such underfunded and mismanaged efforts.
Eric J. Morrow
North Cedar City, Utah, U.S.

In the Event of an Emergency
In "How To Get Out Alive," you described new research about how people react during emergency evacuations [May 16]. As a world traveler, I always try to figure out, in an unknown environment, how to save my skin in case of a crisis. The risk is always just around the corner if one considers, for example, how many public buildings have their emergency exits locked with chains. I also have an idea for safer airline travel. At present, airlines check to see whether the passengers sitting in exit rows understand that they may have to open the door and help other passengers if there is an emergency evacuation. In addition, the airlines should organize, for frequent flyers who volunteer to take them, training courses on how to evacuate a plane. Maybe that would help save some lives.
Franco Viotto
Cittadella, Italy

Thank you for the helpful advice on how to avoid dangerous and even deadly situations. As a result of reading this article, I will be more likely to notice evacuation diagrams, especially on airplanes and in other places that are not familiar to me.
Sarah Fontaine
Somers, Connecticut, U.S.

Summer Reruns
One thing Richard Corliss overlooked in "Once More, with Feeling," his story on this summer's film remakes [May 16], is that adaptation is a common practice in Western culture. Greek drama and the works of Homer were based on familiar legends and stories from the oral tradition, and the plays of Shakespeare were often adapted from literary sources. It's what you do with the material, and how you make it new, that counts.
M. Thomas Inge, Blackwell Professor of the Humanities
Randolph-Macon College
Ashland, Virginia, U.S.

Stargazing
I was pleased to read about the third episode of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith [May 9]. When I was a little kid, how many times did I reach out for galaxies, planets and stars far, far away? There's no greater happiness than a kid's wish granted. Back then, my jaw dropped when the screen filled with spaceships of all varieties, battles with supreme fighters and characters I wished could be my closest relatives. As an adult, I hope the new Star Wars movie makes me sigh like a child again.
Federico Fossombroni
Rome

The Hillary Factor
Joe Klein's column "Hillary in 2008? No Way!" spelled out why it's a bad idea for Senator Clinton to run for President [May 16]. I agree with much of Klein's assessment of Hillary's possible candidacy. What the Senator will find out, should she run, is that all the old questions regarding Whitewater, her plans for revamping health care and her conduct toward her White House staff will come back to hit her with the fury of a tsunami. It will be a massive political and media sideshow.
John Simpson
Nashua, New Hampshire, U.S.

As a European, I couldn't agree more with columnist Klein's position: "There is something fundamentally un-American — and very European — about the Clintons and the Bushes trading the office every eight years, with stale, familiar corps of retainers, supporters and enemies." American democracy demands new faces. Klein also noted that if Hillary runs for President, it would be "a circus, a revisitation of the carnival ugliness that infested public life in the 1990s." I'm afraid that whoever the candidates will be, the campaign will be ugly. In American politics, the parties seem to think that no matter how preposterous and grossly fabricated a charge is, it pays to slander. The Bush Administration has set a tone that works for it. You can count on the Republicans to do whatever it takes to win.
Laurent de Wilde
Paris

Sharp Businessman
Your article on the sharp corp., Japan's hottest electronics firm, and its president, Katsuhiko Machida, showed that slow and steady wins the race [May 9]. That's exactly how Machida overtook Sharp's rivals Sony, Matsushita and Samsung. When Machida was running Sharp's television business in the 1980s, the company was struggling, and most people knew nothing about him. But when Sharp brought its liquid-crystal-display TVs to the global market, it began making record profits. To be the best, a company has to have sound knowledge about market demand, design and manufacturing — plus technological strengths. Machida has succeeded because of his company's sharper focus.
Kakoli Senapati
Frankfurt, Germany