Voyages of Discovery

Our Summer Journey double issue tracing Marco Polo's epic trail followed an intellectual path, exploring the ways in which East and West now meet each other. In response, readers shared tales of travel, thoughts on ideas that changed the world and meditations about noodles

Paul Smethurst's essay "A revolutionary from Venice" [Aug. 7] pointed out that, before Marco Polo shed some light on the subject, the Western (Christian) world's geographic and political center had been Jerusalem. That reminded me of Copernicus' famous assertion that the sun, not Earth, is at the center of the heavens. Both discoveries were important milestones for mankind because they led us to embrace hitherto unimaginable and unfathomable ideas.
James Louis Ndirangu
Nairobi

Your special issue on Marco Polo's travels was fascinating. I was born in Scotland, migrated alone to Canada at 21 and have had the privilege of working and living in Libya, Hong Kong, Kyrgyzstan and Japan. As a global citizen, I count myself fortunate to have learned so much about humanity from the diverse places I have lived.
Ian A.M. Robertson
Kobe, Japan

Liam Fitzpatrick's article, "Noodling together," about the intersection of Italian and Chinese food in Hong Kong, was interesting, but the notion that Hong Kong kids are "pestering their parents for 'Italian wontons' (ravioli)" seems to have dropped from the sky. People in Hong Kong are more accustomed to eating Cantonese fresh shrimp dumplings, which have a thinner wrap than the Italian version. The reference to the "shared use of thick tomato sauce as the basis of many dishes" in Italian and Chinese cuisine was also puzzling. Go to any Cantonese restaurant, and you will be hard-pressed to find a dish whose sauce is based on ketchup.
Jude K.C. Lam
Hong Kong

Defining the Crisis
Lisa Beyer's analysis of why the Middle East crisis isn't really about terrorism [Aug. 7] was an incisive assessment of the U.S.'s misguided foreign policy in the region. She further explained why that policy is virtually guaranteed to fail. The disastrous outcome of our policy in Iraq should have prompted U.S. leaders to see the terrorism problem in a more comprehensive way. The lives of thousands of innocent soldiers and civilians are in jeopardy.
Richard Busch
Leesburg, Virginia, U.S.

Israel repeatedly claims that the necessity of its efforts to hobble Hizballah's operations justifies endangering Lebanese civilians. Meanwhile, the U.S. speaks volumes in its silence and continued support of Israel, Britain hides behind the cloak of diplomacy, and other European countries are crippled by their indecisiveness. Even Middle Eastern nations are doing little to support Lebanon. Clearly the U.N. is a dying institution that cannot protect those who are most in need. Who will be next in terrorism's variation on Russian roulette?
Putri Norlisa Najib
London

Al-Qaeda, Hizballah and Hamas may have slightly different agendas, but they all have the same goal: to spread Islamic rule throughout the West. Americans have three choices: submit to their will, convert to Islam or fight. I prefer that we — and all freedom-loving people — stand up to terrorism no matter who is sponsoring it.
Robert Reichert
Punta Gorda, Florida, U.S.

Beyer's statement that Hizballah's main goal is "to defend Lebanon from Israel" is appalling. Anyone who understands Arabic or has listened to Hizballah's occasional statements in English knows that the group aims to destroy Israel. To doubt that is to accept the doublespeak of Hizballah propagandists and apologists.
Aryeh Green
Beit Shemesh, Israel

Radical Islam vs. the U.S.
Columnist Charles Krauthammer argued that the Middle East is a new front in the U.S. war on Islamic terrorism [Aug. 7]. After mocking radical Islamists for daring to call for a return of land that was under their control more than 600 years ago, Krauthammer ends his essay by pointing out the irrationality of such an agenda and calling the struggle against it "enduringly surreal." Welcome to the disorienting surreality many of us have experienced in trying to figure out why Zionists feel they can lay claim to the Holy Land, which they have not possessed for two millenniums.
(The Rev.) Timothy M. Solomon
Meadville, Pennsylvania, U.S.

The crux of the Middle East crisis is Israel's refusal to vacate the occupied territories. People like Krauthammer were wrong when they advocated attacking Iraq, and they are wrong now in creating the bogey of radical Islam. The problem is closer to home. The imperial hubris of the U.S. and its support of Israel contribute to the mess in the Middle East. One wonders if the people of Israel will benefit in the long run.
Ijaz Ahmad Khan
Rawalpindi, Pakistan

In his counterpoint on the Middle East conflict, Krauthammer explains that Hamas wants to recover any lands Muslims have conquered by force because those lands belong to them forever, in keeping with an Islamic precept. Are Americans really any different? Don't they want to keep forever those lands they took from the Indians?
Malcolm Subhan
Tervuren, Belgium

Krauthammer invoked the wisdom of history by alluding to "the century-old Arab-Israeli dispute." The history lesson he conveniently omitted, however, is 15 centuries of anti-Semitism by Christian Europe, without which there might never have been an Arab-Israeli dispute. Europe needs to take more responsibility. And the U.S. needs to adopt a neutral stance and refrain from characterizing the conflict as solely the fault of terrorists.
Steve Walach
Pawtucket, Rhode Island, U.S.

Condi's Clout
Re Mike Allen's White House memo [Aug. 7]: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice should be congratulated for wanting something more than a quick-fix, Band-Aid solution to the Middle East conflict. Diplomacy can work only if both sides abandon their unattainable goals, stop squandering their wealth and their children's future in pointless conflict, and start exhibiting the maturity needed to reach a compromise.
Roy Weston
Burnaby, Canada

Rice's style of diplomacy is stalled at the level of a sixth-grader. Girls that age start making two lists: one naming their best friends and an even longer one of the people they will never, ever talk to. Rice and U.S. President George W. Bush are best friends, but the list of people, parties, organizations and countries they won't talk to is endless. It's time they grew up.
Danute V. Handy
Santa Barbara, California, U.S.

Hotel Cells
In "Jail breaks" [Aug. 7], Max Wooldridge claimed: "We've heard of office buildings and farmhouses being turned into hotels — but we had never heard of converting prisons." Please send him to Stockholm's Langholmen Hotel, a former prison that was closed in 1975 and then converted into one of Sweden's most "captivating" accommodations. You sleep in a cell and can eat a prison meal. Some parts are left as a museum — also a captivating experience! Could this be an idea for the island of Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay?
Carmen Bach Ceder
Göteborg, Sweden