Inbox

Burma Deserves Better
Thanks to Andrew Marshall for his wonderful first-person account of the recent peaceful protests in Burma [Oct. 22]. As I read it, I thought that perhaps this was the country Vice President Dick Cheney was thinking about when he said our invading forces would be greeted as liberators. It’s a shame that Saddam Hussein was so evil that we had to get rid of him by force. Yet Burma, a country rich in culture and tradition, can only wait for U.N. sanctions that will take a while to go into effect and will only hurt the people instead of the junta the sanctions are aimed at.
Kevin Heise,
Rochester, New York

Your story told us how brutal the repressive junta is, but I’m afraid that prayer alone will not change it. The Burmese have been praying for 45 years, and the situation seems to be getting worse. If the free world can bring Saddam and Slobodan Milosevic to justice, why not do the same with Burma’s junta? If we are waiting for China to pressure Burma to change, we will have a long wait. China has to become a democratic country first; otherwise, how can China credibly advise others to be democratic?
John C.M. Lee,
Hong Kong

A Patient’s Gratitude
I read your article on breast cancer with great interest [Oct. 15]. Kenyan Mary Onyango’s comment that if you can’t travel overseas for treatment, “you just sit and wait for your death,” prodded me to respond. A year after learning I had breast cancer, I am once again fit and healthy. Contrary to being urged to go abroad for treatment, I had surgery, chemotherapy and radiation in Nairobi, and I have nothing but praise and gratitude for every person involved in my treatment.
Hettie Tooley,
Eldoret, Kenya

Your article neglected to highlight the significance of breastfeeding, which has been shown in several studies to help protect mothers against breast cancer. For every 12 months a woman breastfeeds, her risk of breast cancer decreases by 4.3%. Mothers in many societies breastfeed each child for up to five years. The Western pattern of early weaning or artificial feeding correlates with higher breast-cancer incidence; sadly, these practices are spreading to the developing world. Key strategies for combating breast cancer worldwide will be promotion of the current World Health Organisation recommendation that mothers breastfeed for two years or more, and support for them in achieving this goal.
Dr. Julia Moore,
Perth, Western Australia

As a breast surgeon, I was saddened by the conclusions of your article. Is the answer to this disease’s increasing incidence in developing countries really more mammograms and breast health centers? The article presented compelling evidence that breast cancer is primarily a consequence of a First-World lifestyle. It is not inevitable, even in the West, that all women must accept a 1 in 10 lifetime risk of the disease. In light of increasing evidence that the risk of breast cancer can be significantly reduced by simple dietary changes, regular vigorous exercise and reduced alcohol consumption, we as a society owe it to our daughters to alter our lifestyles. We should be thinking much more ambitiously about prevention rather than the costly and disappointingly ineffective strategies of cut or burn and poison that the conventional war on breast cancer has to offer.
Trevor Smith,
Auckland

It Isn’t Easy Going Green
The article “Green Motors” was more fantasy than reality [Oct. 22]. GM, like the other American car manufacturers, misread the market, and foreign car manufacturers have filled the void. I remember when President Jimmy Carter first took office and called a meeting of the major American carmakers to tell them we needed small, fuel-efficient cars. Their response was that there was no market for them. Several years ago I saw a magazine advertisement for GM that showed all of its models and indicated that each would soon be available in a hybrid version. Great promise — no delivery. When it comes to GM, I’ll believe it when I drive it.
Jeff Halpern,
Highland Park, Illinois

While I applaud gm for going hybrid, i question the wisdom of debuting the technology in an SUV. Twenty miles per gallon (12 liters/100 km) is nothing to brag about, regardless of vehicle size. I get 32 m.p.g. driving a Chevy Malibu in rural Vermont. By putting hybrid power in an SUV, GM shows it still doesn’t quite get the idea.
George Simpson,
Pittsfield, Vermont

I don’t believe GM has really gotten on board with the future (as evidenced by its m.p.g. foot-dragging). I suspect it will try to sell its huge SUVs until the company goes under rather than behave rationally.
Michael Crumpton,
Miami Beach

Phony Friendship
Joel Stein’s “You Are Not My Friend” was a hilarious and true portrait of “friendship” online [Oct. 15]. Facebook can be a fun diversion — it’s a great procrastination tool — but it serves mainly to allow streams of self-important updates from people who are not true friends, and to make users more concerned with monitoring others’ lives than with living their own.
Elizabeth Findel,
Steamboat Springs, Colorado

Stretching the Truth
There is no doubt yoga can be harmful when practiced incorrectly, and your article highlighted several problems [Oct. 15]. According to yoga texts, all poses should be done with alertness and relaxation, which should be attained through awareness of the body and breath. The breath should be smooth and the body relaxed. Not all poses are beneficial for each person. It is therefore important to discuss health issues with the yoga teacher when starting classes. Your article gave little regard to the vast array of benefits that can be obtained when yoga is tailored for individuals.
Philip Ginsberg,
Cape Town

Missed Opportunity?
As Nancy Gibbs put it, the city of new York prevented Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from laying a wreath at ground zero because New Yorkers were revolted by “the prospect of a tyrant’s hand touching sacred ground” [Oct. 8]. Wouldn’t it have been good diplomatic form to have allowed Ahmadinejad to lay a wreath in honor of all the 9/11 victims killed by Islamic fanatics? What kind of impact would his gesture have had on dogmatic, anti-Western Muslims? Maybe New Yorkers should have waved the flag of peace first and waited to see what might happen.
Bernhard Schroeder,
Freiburg, Germany

Comparing Candidates
As an Argentine, I have to disagree that Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is a “Latin Hillary” [Oct. 8]. To mark some differences: Fernández does not care to debate policy, she doesn’t dare be interviewed by local newsmen, and she certainly has never worked on behalf of poor people. Fernández is a frivolous woman.
Norberto Mazzoni,
Buenos Aires