Inbox

Eating Around the World
While reading through your Summer Journey Special Issue [June 25-July 2], featuring a novel’s worth of reporting on food, I noticed comments about people being very conservative and preferring the particular flavors they encountered as children. That is not always the case. When I was 18, I became a vegan and tried tofu for the first time, but I was not put off by its strangeness. When I was 20, I went to France from Canada and tried the best food I had ever eaten.
Daniel Owens,
Paris

It’s good that different countries and regions can influence one another’s cuisine. And while we might expect that globalization and changing lifestyles would make people abandon their ancient diets, we still find happiness in the basics. India has a number of varieties, from state to state and region to region. Within India, Kerala is famous for its lunch of more than 20 dishes followed by four or five sweets, a feast found at almost all wedding parties. Kerala meals could be an added attraction for hungry foreign tourists.
A. Jacob Sahayam,
Thiruvananthapuram, India

Thank you for your deliciously tasty coverage of world food trends. I can’t help pointing out that there seems to be little point in healthful eating for those of us who insist on an early death by way of cigarettes or alcohol—or both.
Ian McKenzie-Vincent,
Nairobi

Your cover story provided a wonderful bird’s-eye view of what people consume on different continents. It is informative and indeed a pleasure to read. With the advent of Western fast food and its onslaught in developing countries, the middle classes all over the world devour more and more food that has little nutritional value. And overeating results in unwelcome and dreadful obesity. We must be most careful in what we choose to eat. The bottom line is, eat simply and eat little. That is the road to good health and longevity.
Tan Boon Tee,
Chukai, Malaysia

Your “We Are What We Eat” issue was great, but there is something missing in the article “The Food Chains That Link Us All.” You did not include a family from an Arab country. What about Lebanese food? What about Morocco’s finest gastronomy? If food is a part of culture, does this mean that there is no culture in the Arab countries? I often read TIME and feel as if we Arabs exist only in stories about violence, war and bombings. When it comes to art, food, sport, culture and all the other things that happen every day in the Arab world, we are nonexistent.
Khalid Aabid,
London

The write-up on How the World Eats made for interesting reading, but it also inadvertently brought to light the grim reality of the divide between rich and poor. While the average food expenditure of a family in Germany runs to $500 per week, a poor refugee family in Chad survives on the barest minimum, with only a $1.23 food expenditure per week. I would welcome another cover story that reveals the global family’s expenditure pattern.
Sanjay Kumar,
New Delhi

Arboreal Awnings
The value of trees in our cities can truly be seen in places like my hometown, sometimes called Tree City, U.S.A. [July 9]. Taking in the view from the nearby mountains, I sometimes find it hard to believe that there’s a city down there. On hot days, we’re really thankful for all the shade. I hope that city planners everywhere can follow Pasadena’s example.
Sam Huddy,
Pasadena, California, U.S.

Untapped Potential
While it is fascinating to see touch-screen technology used in the iPhone and other devices [June 25-July 2], a part of the population is greeting it with much distress: people who are blind. Equipping appliances such as microwaves and washing machines—not to mention voting machines—with touch screens will cause a “one step forward, two steps back” situation. If designers can figure out a way to not leave the blind behind, we can truly celebrate the technology of touch.
Thomas J. Murphy,
Bridgeport, Connecticut, U.S.

This technology has potential applications for online learning. To use a present-day computer, you have to learn how to use a keyboard and mouse, which may be hard for those who have little or no experience typing. But with touch screens, people will be able to send handwritten messages to children and receive hand-painted pictures in reply.
Masatoshi Nishikawa,
Tokyo

On the Road to Democracy?
Re “Pakistan’s Reluctant Hero” [June 25-July 2]: The tussle between suspended Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and President Pervez Musharraf seems to augur well for the country’s pro-democracy movement. At least the sacked Chief Justice has been able to convince the democracy lovers that there is light at the end of the tunnel, that it’s not impossible to end the rule of dictators backed by men in military uniform. Now it’s time for other pro-democracy leaders to get under one umbrella and offer a progressive vision. Now is the time to sow the seeds of democracy in Pakistan and marginalize the nation’s extremists.
Arvind K. Pandey,
Allahabad, India

Duped, Drop by Drop
I cannot believe that TIME would use an entire page to review bottled water [June 25-July 2]. Most people can’t even distinguish between tap water and bottled water. I heard of a test in which different water bottles were filled with tap water from the same tap. Surprisingly, most participants thought they were drinking genuine bottled water and claimed that the (same) water from different bottles tasted different. That is nothing more than the power of suggestion. Unfortunately, our minds are being deceived not only by water bottlers but also by alternative medicine, psychics and even alien-abduction stories. Sure, such things might make people feel good, but the purveyors of such gimmicks shouldn’t be making a quick buck from our pockets.
Jan Lin Chan,
Singapore