Dear Diana Cariboni,

I was greatly impressed by your article about RCTV in Venezuela and the hypocrisy of some of the responses to the government’s non-renewal decision. It was very refreshing to read an article that put the RCTV question and the often ill-informed debate it spurred into the broader context of Latin America.

As a media analyst at the Venezuela Information Office, I often distribute IPS stories to our affiliates. I find that they deal well with complex issues, show remarkable balance, and often uncover newsworthy events that are not picked up on by the mainstream press. Thank you very much and I hope we can stay in contact.

Best regards,

Megan

Megan Morrissey, Media Analyst
Venezuela Information Office
2000 P St. NW, Suite 240
Washington, DC 20036

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Sir:

We do not care. The reason I state this is we do not have the measure of the carbon emissions and how to pack this carbon, market these, to whom and at what price. We have lived with nature and hopefully we want to die like DRC, Burundi, Somalia, Darfur, poor and helpless. I just saw in BBC TV the Aborigines in Australia are having the same problem. Poor health, the living age 36, but Australians reach 79. So who do I send my complaint, to UN? that is USA’s baby. We have limited right of speech. Just listen and shut up. No questions.
Tell me have you a silver bullet there in the South. May be you can send this to us by the slow trains .

Firozali A Mulla MBA PhD
Tanzania

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Dear Editor,

I just read your news item on Hepatitis in Romania and the crisis there from years of neglect and poor medical and nursing practice. I am an RN and have traveled to Romania three times in the past year. I work with an organization called Watchman’s Call for Romania, a non-profit mercy based organization bringing much needed help and relief to several villages, hospitals and prisons in and around Timisoara, Romania.

I recently returned from my third medical mission where I set up medical clinics in six different villages. I was astounded at the number of older Romanians who have been diagnosed with Hepatitis. What was more astounding was the lack of treatment available to them. I offered a six month supply of vitamins and encouraged medical treatment, but with the devastating poverty in these villages I know that these precious people will not spend the money for doctors or treatment. This is a huge health crisis.

I thank you for your article and pray that there will be a solution with the upcoming change of government. Thank you for raising awareness about this travesty.

Sincerely,

Sunny Goodyear, RN
Watchman’s Call for Romania
Camp Hill, Pennsylvania

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Dear Editor:

Could it be that the people making 20,000 a year are too frazzled working and taking care of their families on that pittance that they can’t take the time or have the leisure time to be up to snuff like those making a 100k? was this taken into consideration in the poll?

Frank McCusker

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Dear Editor:

Mr. Rohan Gunaratne is perceived as a Sinhala Nationalist and his comments can never be considered to have integrity of a true analyst. Indian intelligence is mostly North oriented and always had a tainted view on the Sri Lankan ethnic strife. Like the Sinhala nationalists, they also consider this to be a terrorist problem rather than a civil war.
BR
Winston Thangaraja

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Dear Editor:

If the Sri Lankan government wasn’t so intransigent, they wouldn’t have this headache on their hands. Give the Tamils the autonomy they deserve and the Tiger menace will be neutralized. This is the position that is backed by the E.U, the U.S. and India. But Colombo continues to be hardheaded and refuses to entertain any meaningful devolution proposals.

As for where the Tigers got this new capability, all you have to do is look across the Palk Straits. Support for their Tamil brethren is and will continue to be strong in Tamil Nadu, no matter what New Delhi has to say. For this reason alone, Sri Lanka will never win the war.

It is about time that the EU, Britain, the U.S., Japan and India drove some sense into the cowboys running the government in Colombo.

Dayalan Kasilingam, Ph.D.

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Dear Editor:

The achievement of the LTTE terrorists is bound to be studied with interest by the al-Qaeda and other international terrorist groups. Western countries that have been lukewarm or hostile towards Sri Lankan government efforts to quell the LTTE problem should now take note. Such planes could soon appear in Afghanistan and Iraq manned by terrorist groups.

Kenneth Abeywickram

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Dear Sir/Madam

I shall be grateful if you would take more care when wording your news reports. An Air Force is conventionally attributed to a State. The LTTE’s air wing should not be called an AF (fledging or real). Using such terms have unwitting long-term consequences. The main consequence is that we begin to believe the word without questioning its origins, and develop concepts based on their usage.

There are many examples of this. Take the term ’sole representatives’. Sole representative is a misnomer. How can a society, group or community have a ’single’ representative? Isn’t a ’sole’ representative a dictator? How can this representative be ‘elected’ without a single election to do so? You can’t have sole representation by ‘proxy’.

We have another example from the international media: prisoner abuse vs. torture. After electrocutions, having dogs attack them and kicked to death, Iraqi prisoners underwent ‘abuse’, not torture!

Thank you

K Amarasiri

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Hello!

I am so happy with this article and send around your link to our students!
Direct action to real development is needed, and Thai public health officials, deserve my respect and admiration! Thanks a lot for your always fantastic and informative newsletter!

Best wishes!!!
Antonio Condinho
CICD
http://www.cicd-volunteerinafrica.org/

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Dear Editor:

“The rural poor, who make up close to 70 percent of this country’s 64 million people.”

How can this possibly be? The WB’s economic monitor published in November 2006 puts the absolute figure for poverty in Thailand at less than 2 million people. Please note that “rural” and “poor” are two completely different concepts. The way it is used in the article reflects a very old cliche that does not correspond to reality.

Best wishes,
Michael Nelson
Germany

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Dear Sir
I am a shareolder of SUE (Sulliden Exploration) since the beginning of the company and never saw an adventure like this. I wonder why the government of M. Garcia doesn’t resolve the problem so that things move forward. I do not think that this situation is good for the country of Peru. All the investment community is looking and watching how this will be resolved.
Hoping the best for the country,
M.J. Joyal

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