Letters

Our

conversations with the children of Asian immigrants to the U.S. explored growing up between two cultures. Readers were supportive of their opportunities to enrich themselves and America

Re "Between Two Worlds" [May 1]: How subtly Korean-American Suzette Won Haas described the sense of "feeling like the hyphen in between" Asian and American in Asian-American. It's really hard for the current generation of Asian Americans to cherish their roots and seek their fortunes at the same time. Older immigrants' dilemma of whether to embrace their ethnic culture and community or be carried away by the American environment is like dealing with oil and water, and nowhere is that incompatibility more deeply felt than in romance. As Bob Ragasa, a Filipino-American teacher said, "Maybe we are like our parents. We are going to be pioneers too."
M. Saleem Chaudhry
Karachi

Your story said first-generation Asian-Americans were able to blend into American society because of their high education and skill levels. They also possess a quality I call achievement orientation. Most Asian migrants to the U.S. left their homelands in search of a better quality of life not only for themselves but particularly for their children. They worked hard to achieve their dreams. Their goal was to excel in whatever they did. The second generation has assimilated into multicultural American society. The children of Asian migrants are at home in the U.S., and many of them will outdo their parents in their contribution to society. America is lucky to have its Asian-American achievers.
Homi Bhabha
Bombay

The second-generation Asian-Americans in your story discussed the difficulties they have experienced being accepted in U.S. society. But how many of them whole-heartedly accept African-Americans or Mexican-Americans as their equals? Would those Asian-Americans care to live in black or Latino neighborhoods? Bigotry is not practiced exclusively by whites. When it comes to discrimination, it suits people when they are on the giving end and hurts them when they are at the receiving end.
Sriram Srinivasan
Bangalore, India

Bolten's Uphill Battle
TIME reported on new white house chief of staff Josh Bolten's "recovery plan" [May 1]. The trouble is that Bolten's campaign is designed to elevate the President's poll numbers rather than solve the ugly problems the Administration has created for the country. It is hard to imagine any American finding valid reasons to defend George W. Bush's performance. There are new revelations almost every day about questionable conduct and incompetence among the President's staff and appointees. Let's hope they never again have the guts to lecture us on patriotism, character, integrity or family values. At a time when the world needs leaders, that crowd has disgraced public service.
Margaret Ray
Pearisburg, Virginia, U.S.

Can Bolten rescue the Bush presidency? No. To save it, he would have to remove the root cause of the problem, the President himself.
David Airth
Toronto

Luckily for Bush, he can revamp his Cabinet whenever he pleases. But the American electorate—barring an impeachment—unfortunately has to wait four years to be able to replace the occupant of the Oval Office.
Stanley Richard Olivar
Vista, California, U.S.

Iraq's Missing Girls
Brian Bennett's "Stolen Wway" [May 1] painted a vivid picture of the abduction and sexual abuse of girls in Iraq. Someone has rightly said that war has no winners, only losers. And perhaps the biggest losers in Iraq for the moment are its girls. Sexual exploitation causes not just physical trauma; there is mental anguish as well. When disowned by their families, such girls are in danger of committing suicide or living the life of a prostitute. The Iraqi government should make it a priority to curb the evil of sex trafficking and rehabilitate its victims.
Sunil Kumar Kumawat
Sanganer, India

I commend Bennett for shedding light on a little-known, crucial issue. It pains me that young girls are forced to find safe haven in jails and orphanages to escape sex trafficking, and I'm horrified that this just recently became a problem, following the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. The lack of law and order in Iraq is enabling the exploitation of those poor girls.
Morgan Wileyv Fairway, Kansas, U.S.

I was appalled to learn that Iraqi girls who are kidnapped are not always taken back by their families and are sometimes even killed. How can a society that does not value equality, freedom and justice embrace our version of democracy? Iraqis play by a completely different set of rules. Why do I, a stay-at-home mom with one year of college, realize that, when the top people in Washington do not?
Cassandra Hagedorn
Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S.

The starkest element in this heartbreaking story about Iraqi girls being kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery was the observation by a Western official in Baghdad who monitors the status of women in Iraq that sex trafficking was virtually nonexistent under Saddam. So was the violent persecution of Iraqi Christians, and so were terrorist attacks. Was regime change really necessary?
Robert P. Waxman
Cairo, New York, U.S.

The story about Iraqi girls broke my heart. If Islam is truly a religion of justice and humanity, then change must come from the so-called street. There should be outrage in the community that matches the reaction to the Muhammad cartoons—and that outrage should be directed at the perpetrators. Let that be Islam's test.
Don Kang
Speicher, Germany

"Stolen Away" was a sad and horrifying article that would send shivers down anybody's spine. Kidnapping girls for sex trafficking is a great sin and causes a lot of embarrassment for tribal cultures that value women's sanctity. The failure of Iraqis to report the kidnappings is a sign of the disgrace and shame that they experience when a daughter disappears. Look what Bush and Tony Blair have done to Iraq.
Tanvir Vaqar
Mirpur Mathelo, Pakistan

Obsolete Monarchy
Re your thought-provoking report "Battle of Wills" [May 1] on the political turmoil in Nepal: The country is one of the poorest in the world, and its people have suffered a lot. Their anger is targeted at not only King Gyanendra but also the entire edifice of monarchy, an anachronism in the present day. Gyanendra should follow the example of contemporary royals who are confined to being figureheads within democratic monarchies. I remember that when King Jigme Singye Wangchuck of Bhutan volunteered to give up absolute power as monarch, he said, "The country is more important than the King." And prospects for political stability would increase if the army submitted to the supreme authority of parliament.
Vinod C. Dixit
Ahmedabad, India

Opus Dei and Faith
Thank you very much for your objective reporting on the controversial Roman Catholic society Opus Dei [April 24]. I have been a supernumerary member for 13 years, and I am still struggling to do my work well in order to please God. Are we conservative? Well, if you consider Opus Dei's efforts to conserve the core values of Christ's ministry, then yes, that is indeed true. But terms that are more descriptive of the character of Opus Dei are faithfulness and fidelity to the teaching of the Catholic Church. Studying Christ's teachings as expounded by the church and trying to live my life as a good Christian—as well as smiling through the irritations of each and every day—are more than enough self-mortification. Those I consider my cilice [a chain] and discipline [a small whip].
Regina M. Rendal
Negros Oriental, the Philippines

She Saw it Coming The question at the heart of the fraud trial of Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling involves the men's awareness of Enron's accounting and financial manipulations—a minefield that Sherron Watkins, one of TIME's 2003 Persons of the Year, recognized long before the company collapsed [Dec. 30, 2002]:

"By spring 2001, the technology bubble was bursting, and Enron was slipping along with it. In late June, Watkins went to work directly for [chief financial officer Andrew] Fastow, who charged her with finding some assets to sell off. But everywhere she looked she found the same thing: fuzzy off-the-books arrangements that seemed to be backed by nothing more than now deflated Enron stock. No one she asked could—or cared to—explain what was really going on. Knowing that others had got into trouble after challenging Skilling, who by then was CEO of the entire company, Watkins began scouting for a new job ... But on Aug. 14, Skilling abruptly quit, and Lay invited employees to put any concerns in a comment box. The next morning Watkins sat at her computer and tapped out her first anonymous one-page memo in a single two-hour flourish. 'I am incredibly nervous that we will implode in a wave of accounting scandals,' she wrote." Read more at timearchive.com.