America is not a paragon of virtue

Dear Editor,

I was rather surprised to read Dr Cheddi (Joey) Jagan (Jr)'s simplistic and ill-informed letter in Stabroek News of September 15, 2001, especially given his genetic antecedence!

While every right-minded person is appalled at the deliberate killing of civilians, to refer to America as, in effect, a paragon of virtue, is to ignore the killing that America has repeatedly visited on the world. He forgets about the 115,000 Japanese civilians callously killed by America in their dawn hydrogen bomb attack on the city of Hiroshima, to say nothing of inter alia Nagasaki, Vietnam, and indeed Guyana in the early 1960's!

He refers to the Palestinians dancing in the streets, but makes no mention of the laughter and merriment of American air crews as they bombed Iraqi cities as shown on CNN, etc, at the time. Or of the massacre of 3,000 Palestinian refugees in Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon by the Christian militia, agents of Israel, a nation supported by the United States.

He refers to Presidents Washington and Lincoln as never using "terrorist tactics" - whereas they cold-bloodedly presided over the decimation of the indigenous population of the USA!

He ends with a biblical quote "…And His enemies will lick the dust." Perhaps the quote, "Let ye who be without sin, cast the first stone" would have been more appropriate!

Yours faithfully,

Lalu Hanuman (Back to top)

America is a beacon of religious freedom

Dear Editor,

Nearly six days ago, I witnessed on television a terrible evil being done by religious fanatics in the world's greatest beacon of religious freedom and democracy.

Mr Editor, I would like to plead from the bottom of my heart with all religious leaders in our country and our global village at large to let us stop remaining silent about this terrible evil, and start aggressively condemning it with our pens, our mouths and every other thing that the Almighty God has blessed us with.

Remaining silent will surely contribute to the spread of this terrible evil of terrorism.

Almighty God, bless America! The greatest beacon of religious freedom!

Yours faithfully

Brother Mark Nigel James

Freedom of expression allowed the world to witness tragedy

Dear Editor,

Following the recent tragedy in the USA, the world has been exposed to intensive competition in the media as they jostle with each other to convey the events, the aftermath and other pertinent news.

The tabloids have been disadvantaged, as they have to give way to meeting deadlines for publication whilst the TV has been the more popular media communication with live scenes and breaking news in text form at the bottom of the screen.

If you are fortunate to have cable, then you have a good comparison of the more popular news channels, eg CNN, CBS, ABC, BBC, etc. Each one striving to report something different from the other - stories from loved ones, economic impact both domestically and globally. The foreign correspondents also compete to inform us as much as possible of Osama bin Laden and the country Afhganistan, etc.

Yes, the importance of media reporting has never been more showcased as in these last few weeks. What were graphic scenes were screened as we all witnessed the horrific sight of the two planes plunging into the two towers. Of course politics was on show. Even our local news media tried with their limited resources. I hope we can at least learn something especially those who handle press conferences (time is money).

As the weeks, months - years (hope not) roll on the stories will change, but the world will be watching, listening and reading through the benefit of freedom of expression.