Inbox

Mr. Spin
Kevin Rudd’s term of office has seen him remain popular, although he has junked many of the economic promises he made [July 13]. He has failed to deliver results to indigenous Australians and he has delivered no substantial results to reduce carbon emissions. I understand the realpolitik of managing the Australia-U.S.-China relationship, but Rudd is the master of self-promotion: great on words but short on action. I would have called him Mr. Posturing, not Mr. World.
Martin Gordon,
Canberra

In Australia, our national ethos is to give everyone a fair go and by comparison with other countries we are conservative. Kevin Rudd has had his fair go and the jury is in. Unfortunately, Rudd has proven to embody the current zeitgeist in liberal democracy: that of spin and the contrived press conference over any substance or long-term vision. Australians, spoiled by boom times that fiscal discipline and staunch leadership had delivered over the course of the previous decade, treated themselves to a new pair of shoes when electing Rudd back in late 2007. Great marketing in the purest sense. As a result of flash-in-the-pan stimulus packages, we are saddled now with terrifying, record debt. Rudd has also been lecturing other countries on how to wrestle with global challenges — and perhaps is given a fleeting audience in China and the U.S. But trying to be all things to all people in the end makes you nothing to everyone. Please put on the cover of TIME whichever future Australian PM is able to truly restore our international credibility and the disciplined economic example we as a country were only a few short years ago.
Marcus Blackie,
Perth, Australia

The Legacy of 1989
Thanks for your double issue [june 29 – July 6]. Twenty years ago I was a 5-year-old starting school. My world was untouched by violence, hatred and division and the only web I knew was Charlotte’s Web. The Wall, Tiananmen Square, Gorbachev and Mandela are of course familiar to me, but now I understand and appreciate the history, importance and indelible impact of these people and events. In 20 years’ time I look forward to your issue on the significant events from 2009 that would shape our world. Obama’s presidency? The global financial crisis? Twitter? Only TIME will tell.
Anjali Parbhoo,
Melbourne, Australia

Re your articles about the political events that led up to regime change in Central and Eastern Europe, we Hungarians are very proud of our contribution. We have just celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Pan-European Picnic: the opening of the border with Austria that allowed hundreds of East Germans to cross to the West. But this was preceded by many other events, such as the demonstrations by tens of thousands of people in Heroes’ Square in Budapest in the summer of 1988 against Ceausescu’s bulldozing of ethnic Hungarian villages in Romania, at a time when gatherings by just a handful of people were illegal.
Christina Rozsnyai,
Szentendre, Hungary

Re the fall of the Berlin wall 20 years ago, I pray that I will see the day that the world manages to force Israel to demolish the wall of hate it has erected illegally. That wall and Israel’s illegal settlements are making a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict virtually impossible. You recollect that President Reagan famously urged Moscow to “tear down this wall.” It is high time for President Obama and Western leaders to say exactly those same words to Israel — and to impose sanctions if it doesn’t comply.
Samir Hawa,
Prangins, Switzerland

B. Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann must be felicitated by mankind for their attempt to create cold fusion — to reproduce the energy of the Sun. They may have been unsuccessful and eventually faded into obscurity, but their contribution in the field of cold fusion will always enlighten researchers. It is encouraging to read that some dedicated researchers are busy in the field despite the so-called evidence, to date, that their efforts are just a beautiful idea. Mankind must pray for their success.
Balram Mishra,
Ghaziabad, India

Iran’s Uprising
I was disappointed Joe Klein spent only 10 days in Iran, mostly in and around Tehran, and wrote a story speculating that nearly 50% of the Iranian people voted for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [June 29 – July 6]. He should have talked to us Iranians who travel all over Iran and know how detested Ahmadinejad is in most jurisdictions. Please talk to more Iranians; you’ll see that they overwhelmingly support a pro-Western, democratic government and not the rule of force and dark obscurantism.
Darius Adle,
Los Angeles