Letters

Our

cover story on Asian kids being pushed to succeed sparked some thoughtful mail on parental pressure, and how the urge to make our children excel stems from religion, culture and history

Re "Asia's Overscheduled Kids" [March 27]: In Hindu mythology there are three goddesses of power. Durga represents physical power and courage, Lakshmi the power of wealth and Saraswati the power of knowledge. In the present context, you could say Saraswati occupies the commanding seat. Asia is emerging as a new power center, so it is natural for the continent's youth to focus on academic excellence. In order to produce world-class business leaders, the Asian parents and their children are becoming the devotees of goddess Saraswati.
Jagdish M. Ovasdi
Jaipur, India

Throughout Chinese history, education has been the chosen path to serving the imperial courts and improving one's life. In today's fast-growing China, the race has only become more competitive. Chinese parents are pressuring their children to make up for what they missed during the lost years of the Cultural Revolution. China sacrificed a generation to the Cultural Revolution, so its youth today are living partly for their elders. If given a choice, the younger Chinese kids might choose to live their lives a little differently.
Lau Yeow Sin
Singapore

Questioning the War
I commend TIME for the forum of views on the Iraq war, "Was It Worth It?" [March 27]. While the question may not have immediate relevance to our policy options in Iraq, it provides an important framework to evaluate future actions. I was disturbed, however, that none of the experts you gathered weighed the cost of the war abroad against investments at home. Had the U.S. taken the billions of dollars spent on the war and instead invested in a moon-shot-style program to gain energy independence, would such a war even have been necessary? What about investments in education and port security, and in shoring up Social Security? I am no expert, but it would be nice to hear that debate from those who are.
Jules Kopel-Bailey
Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.

Iraq is a strategically important country in the Middle East, a region whose resources the whole world depends on and one that is rife with ruthless dictatorships that spawn much of the world's terrorist activity. So was the war worth it? That depends. Is human freedom worth it?
Garry Chapman
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S.

Your "wide array of experts and thinkers" was largely characterized by hand-wringing, worrywart American élites (save for Tommy Franks) who opined that Iraq is a disaster. Those who live in the Middle East and have a direct investment in democracy, however, see the value of the U.S.'s hard-fought quest to stabilize Iraq, defeat Islamic terrorism and bring liberty to oppressed peoples. Our Founding Fathers would be proud of the latter and disgusted by the former.
Kelly Wood
Bozeman, Montana, U.S.

I have one question for George W. Bush & Co. Why did they choose Iraq and not Saudi Arabia—one of the worst offenders regarding human rights—as a location for implementing democracy in the Middle East? American troops have been stationed in Saudi Arabia since 1990, and I cannot understand why, over the past 15 years, the U.S. has not pressured the Saudis toward democracy. Twenty-six million Saudis are controlled by 7,000 members of a dictatorial royal family. That King Abdullah adopt democratic reforms seems only secondary to the oil needs of the U.S. I suppose democracy in Saudi Arabia would not be in America's best interests.
Krishnadas Mukundan
Etobicoke, Canada

Momentous Design
Re your milestone on the death of Oleg Cassini [March 27]: When Jacqueline Kennedy selected Cassini to design her wardrobe, it was a rare event, of note not just in the fashion world but also in politics. As a team, they turned elegance into power. For one brief shining moment, our country was the epitome of grace and style.
Patricia Dimassa-Rida
West Haven, Connecticut, U.S.

The Price of Victory?
I broke down while reading "One Morning in Haditha" [March 27], the story of the Iraqi civilians killed by U.S. Marines. Military excesses should never be covered up and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The lives of the children who lost their parents are permanently devastated. Rather than paying the relatives of the victims $2,500 each, the U.S. government should work with nongovernmental agencies to see whether those innocent children could be adopted into Western homes and have new parents to love and care for them for the rest of their lives. Victory in Iraq seems hardly worthwhile when the very people who are to be protected by U.S. forces are slain under questionable circumstances.
Rex S. Arul
Smyrna, Georgia, U.S.

Why doesn't TIME try to show some of the many positive things resulting from the war in Iraq? In various parts of the nation, life now is vastly improved over what it was like under Saddam Hussein. You go out of your way to publish negative photographs and editorials. Your articles are so slanted, it's ridiculous.
David Prothero
Irwin, Pennsylvania, U.S.

Au Revoir to Job Security
My advice to the students demonstrating and rioting throughout France over the youth labor law [March 27] is: Get over it. Job security no longer exists. I am an American who graduated from college in the early '90s when the U.S. economy was in a serious recession. I spent the next two years working as an unpaid intern. At least Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's "first employment contract" would offer graduates the equivalent of paid internships. The global marketplace is changing rapidly, and without employment flexibility, France will not be able to compete. People of my generation in the U.S. learned that we're the only ones who can secure our future. That would be a good lesson for French students to start learning today.
Carolyn Davenport-Moncel
Courbevoie, France

I am an 18-year-old French student. I agree with your article about the French fear of change. While France has a particularly powerful and efficient public system of free tuition, medical and unemployment insurance and pension plans, all these lead us to be very demanding of the government. We want it to assist us with every difficulty, even if the current economic situation makes that impossible. The French have to think now about the government as a guide—not a miracle worker.
Gabriel Beaudonnet
Nantes, France

On one hand, I rage against the French for their unwillingness to change, to accept new ideas. On the other, I rather admire them. In a time of globalization, wherever I go I see the same shops, the same food chains and the same clothing, and yet the French want to maintain their distinctiveness. They don't want to be like everyone else, and for that maybe we should be thankful. France is itself, quite simply and stubbornly, even though McDonald's and office lunches have made some inroads. In the end, the resistance will lose the battle. Eventually the inexorable tide of globalization will wash over France. Is that good news? I feel pretty mixed about it.
Ron Katz
Paris

A Man with a Brand
Designer Oleg Cassini, who died last month at age 92, created costumes for movie stars, defined Jackie Kennedy's style and was among the first to franchise his name. TIME's report of the 1963 fall-collection previews highlighted Cassini's couture as well as his quips [June 21, 1963]:

"Almost everything but the mannequins themselves seemed to have come off a ranch. Ponyskin and calf were favorites. Designer John Weitz cut a pair of pants out of saddle leather, lined a coat of the same fabric with a horse blanket. Adele Simpson put some of her models in outfits with matching boots, either knee- or ankle-height, all high-heeled. No one did anything with an armadillo. The hit of the week, as much for his hot running commentary as for his clothes, was Oleg Cassini. NATTY IN A NAVY BLUE, NIPPED-IN-WAISTED SUIT, CASSINI PEPPERED HIS COLLECTION WITH PATTER ('I got this British accent when I became successful'), describing his clothes with the tact of an unemployed salesman ('This long dress is for girls with bad knees'). Best of his clothes were the suits and suit ensembles, made mostly of tweed or velvet and worn with matching hats (jockey caps, berets, bowlers and pillboxes) and boots. And even better than the clothes were Cassini's prices, lower this year than ever; some dresses retailed for as little as $50."

Semester Break
Our March 27 story on the student protests in Paris reported that the rebels lacked the revolutionary optimism of those who shut down the Sorbonne in 1968. TIME devoted a cover story to that strike, the start of a revolt that changed history [May 31, 1968]:

"In a swirl of red flags, black anarchist flags, Cuban flags and Viet Cong flags, nonstop political talk-ins began in the Sorbonne's quadrangle. More or less revolutionary graffiti soon appeared on the sandstone walls: DON'T LOOK BACK NOW, GOD, BUT THE WORLD IS COLLAPSING BEHIND YOU! THE MORE I MAKE REVOLUTION THE MORE I WANT TO MAKE LOVE! Shaken and scared, the university called in the police, and in the bloody fighting that followed, the students gained their rallying cause—and the overnight sympathy of much of France. Alarmed, Premier Georges Pompidou, acting as [President Charles] De Gaulle's regent while the general was off on an ill-timed state visit to Rumania, called off the police, let the students roam freely through the Latin Quarter. Then the lesson of the Left Bank dawned on the leadership of France's workers: that a few thousand students had forced the Gaullist regime to back down. Within hours, a spontaneous reaction swept all across France ..."

Read more at timearchive.com.