Letters

Our cover story reported how the spending power of China's shoppers is helping to keep the global economy buoyant. But some readers warn that consumerism is taking a toll on the country's culture

Your story on China's shopaholic consumers highlighted an important phenomenon that is changing our country and the world [May 16]. But despite the economic benefits, I have reservations about this development. The new obsession with money, fashion and materialism may be good for business, GDP growth and China's international image. But when we drink Coke and wear Nike, we can't help but lose some of our cultural identity. Foreign companies don't care what happens to China; they just want to make a quick buck. It's up to Chinese people to be responsible consumers. Otherwise, our country will turn into a clone of America. Does the world really need that?
Angela Lai
Shenzhen, China

I just got back from a trip to Shanghai and I can attest to the fact that, as you report in your story, China is in love with global pop culture. So much so, in fact, that I kept forgetting that I was in China!
Theodore Pipe
London

Should Hillary Run?
Joe Klein's essay "What About Hillary?" spelled out why it's a bad idea for U.S. 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.

Klein put it best when he stated, "Bill Clinton was a good President. Hillary Clinton is a good Senator. But enough already." Am I the only one who feels that Hillary is overly ambitious? Does she want to ascend to the highest rung of the political ladder just for the sake of it? If she runs for President, she will further polarize Democrats and Republicans. Who needs a more divided country? Hillary is a good politician and a hard worker who delivers on her promises. I respect her, but I don't want her in the Oval Office. We need new, new, new options.
Adrian M. Gonzalez
Chicago

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

Why not Hillary? Especially if the Republicans go with Condoleezza Rice? What a race that would be! I say bring it on!
Uma Subramanian
Arlington, Texas, U.S.

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 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.

Ghosh's report brought into focus the sheer horror of daily life in Baghdad. For those like me who have become almost inured to the TV images of the aftermath of daily bomb attacks, Ghosh's article surely was journalism at its best: sharply etched, unsentimental. Articles like his are crucial in aiding our understanding of what actually goes on in Baghdad. You should have put the heroic doctors and nurses of the Baghdad ER on your cover.
Sara Kozak
New York City

Sharp Businessman
Your article on 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

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.

As an avid movie buff, I found the report on this summer's hot movies a breath of fresh air and a break from your more serious news stories. Even though some of the films are sequels or remakes of movies from decades ago, they promise to bring enjoyment to us moviegoers.
Joseph P. Paris
Rochester, New York, 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. Consider, 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 the exit rows understand that they may have to open the door and help other passengers if there is an emergency evacuation. The airlines should also 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

Your report mentioned that of the survivors of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, nearly 1,000 people unwisely took the time to shut down their computers before they headed downstairs. But those employees may simply have been following their companies' emergency policies. I have worked for foreign companies, and with most of them, the fire and earthquake drills began with employees saving all active computer files as instructed. I dutifully joined my colleagues in shutting down or turning off computer monitors and lining up to exit. Drills in which you have to wait for orders and follow set procedures—more than your instincts—should be modified.
Jesy Flor Alejo
Malabon City, the Philippines

"How To Get Out Alive" contained the best advice I've read in years. As a frequent business and personal traveler, I found the information on how to survive a fire or a wreck to be of paramount importance. I passed it around the office for my co-workers to read.
Judy Corona-Karpowiczu
Woolwich Township, New Jersey, U.S.

Green Warriors
Our Milestone on the death of Bob Hunter, co-founder of Greenpeace [May 16], noted that he coined the term Rainbow Warriors to describe the group's more militant members. In an Aug. 1, 1983, story, we reported on a foray they staged:

"The Rainbow Warrior is a tough old British trawler whose blunt bow has frequently poked into waters where it has not been welcome. It belongs to Greenpeace, an international environmental group that opposes whaling. Last week Greenpeace carried out its most daring protest yet. The ship narrowly escaped being captured, but seven Greenpeace members, six Americans and one Canadian, were detained by Soviet authorities ... Greenpeace believed that the Soviets were violating the [International Whaling Commission's] recommendation that only native groups be allowed to hunt the California gray whale. With 23 men and women aboard, THE RAINBOW WARRIOR STEAMED ACROSS THE BERING STRAIT TO THE SIBERIAN WHALING VILLAGE OF LORINO. Six Greenpeace members went ashore to hand out leaflets to workers at the whale-processing plant. Suddenly a contingent of Soviet soldiers arrived and arrested the six ... Minutes later two Soviet ships appeared and gave chase [and captured the seventh member, who was escaping in a rubber dinghy] ... Only after the Rainbow Warrior was well into international waters did the Soviet ships turn back ... At week's end, Moscow released the protesters."