Mail Call: The Shape Of Things

Readers of our Oct. 27 cover package on design were split over how objects shape our lives. One claimed, "Design has the power to change culture." Another groused, "Ugly and uncomfortable chairs are not changing my life." The "capital of style" we missed? Dubai, argued one reader.

Designs You Can Live With

As a professional graphic designer, I was very excited to receive the first of what I hope will be occasional issues of NEWSWEEK dedicated to how design can better people's lives ("Design 2004," Oct. 27). So often, when people ask me what I do for a living, I will delve into the problem-solving aspects of design and explain how something they wear, or read or drive was created with purpose and usability in mind. Many businesses struggle with whether a true return on investment can be attached to an innovative approach to a company's identity, products, office spaces and environmental impact. The selections you chose to highlight illustrate conceptual excellence and attention to detail on both national and global levels as well as in home and business environments. These timeless icons will, I am sure, outlast their creators and, I hope, nudge American culture in the direction of greater design awareness.
Elliot Strunk
Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Your Oct. 27 issue on capitals of style was most interesting, but it left out the place where the most visionary and spectacular developments are occurring today. That is the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Palm Island and the Burj al Arab are wonders that should have topped your list for best design.
J. S. Wiegand
Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia

The fancy toothbrush you feature may be "a thing of beauty," but it still will not fit in a regular toothbrush holder.
Chris Patterson
Eatontown, New Jersey

Reading about design in everyday use, I noticed the giant Mac keyboard pictured behind Apple's Steve Jobs. If he is such a design fanatic, why does he not design a keyboard that follows the natural curve of a hand and curves down? This change could be just as artful, and perhaps help millions with hand and wrist problems use a keyboard with less pain or fewer injuries.
Timothy Hornseth
Rochester, Minnesota

as a recently retired purveyor of good taste to 3,500 retail stores--and having sold items from such functional designers as Timo Sarpaneva to such imaginative ones as Gianni Versace--I can confidently assert that designers of household objects are generally peculiar and offbeat. There is also a strong sense of unnecessary elitism (and insecurity), probably stemming from the fact that they must sell their $200 chairs (or china, lamps or wine stems) for $10,000 while they pray for the next insecure, status-seeking customer to materialize.
Robert Ganshorn
Boynton Beach, Florida

I looked at your cover package and discovered that I am not attracted to anything much there. All those objects you featured are just more examples of fads that will be different next year--so that we can go on buying replacements.
Emil J. Posavac
Skokie, Illinois

General Boykin Under the Gun

Fareed Zakaria's column "And He's Head of Intelligence?" (Oct. 27) is right on. Gen. William Boykin is in a position where it is necessary to be both understanding of and careful about religious issues. Boykin's poor attitude toward Muslims and their faith is simply unacceptable. His statements are in bad taste, and any intelligent person in his position would understand that suppressing them is key to his job.
Brock Alton
Rice Lake, Wisconsin

After reading Zakaria's Oct. 27 World View column, I honestly believe that General Boykin's views are shared by the present U.S. administration. When President Bush retracted the use of the word "crusade" I had my doubts, but now, with Boykin's views out in the open, it makes me wonder whether we Muslims should expect to be converted soon.
Salah Ghriba
Tripoli, Libya

How dare anyone criticize Boykin for using his freedom of speech to share his religious convictions before--of all places--a group with similar convictions. Boykin has proved his love for his nation by courageously leading troops into battle with a willingness to lay down his life for freedom. How can anyone suggest that he be censored because he used his right of free speech?
Mark Bordeaux
Sumter, South Carolina

I agree that Boykin's words about "my God" and Allah were utterly naive and surprising to hear from a person in his position. But what do you expect from anyone in George W. Bush's administration or anyone in the United States, where Christian superstition seems to prevail? I remember from the days of World War II how Hitler and Churchill were convinced that God was fighting on their side, while in my country, leaders knew that God held his hand over neutral Sweden. Isn't it time now to leave out all that nonsense about supernatural forces' having an impact on the problems of the world today? These are difficult enough to solve without people's believing in old fairy tales.
Harald Astrom
Eskilstuna, Sweden

Zakaria's fulminations against Boykin are otiose. Boykin is a soldier--he shoots straight. He's had the courage to speak out fearlessly and say what he thinks about Muslims. He should be rewarded rather than criticized. And I say this as an orthodox Muslim.
S. G. Jilanee
Karachi, Pakistan

A Saint for Our Times?

In your article on Mother Teresa, you say that "no one has ever been beatified in so short a time" on her way to canonization ("The Fast Track to Sainthood," Oct. 20). This statement can be misleading, as some candidates have got onto a faster track to sainthood. Just check the canonization time for Saint Francis of Assisi or Saint Anthony of Padua. Such misleading information may be one of the reasons that the Vatican has been extra-careful to treat her case so rigorously. All the people who knew Teresa, her work and her charisma want to avoid as many sources of misunderstanding as possible. The important message is that if we pay more attention to her teachings and follow her example in our own way and, geared to our own circumstances, we might become better persons regardless of our religion. We are not perfect (as she was not), but Mother Teresa showed us that it is possible even for ordinary people like most of us to aspire to being kinder, gentler human beings.
Maria E. Cruz
Mexico City, Mexico

Thank you very much for your good article on Mother Teresa's beatification. I'd like to point out that during the process of beatification of Josemaria Escriva, Opus Dei members themselves did submit (to the Vatican tribunal in charge of that process) a list of witnesses who had openly criticized Escriva, so they could be heard officially. Nevertheless, it was the tribunal that refused to listen to some of their declarations for lack of objectivity.
Nicolas Zambrana
Madrid, Spain

While the beatification and prospective sainthood of Mother Teresa is irrelevant to most of the world's population, it is appropriate in this age of the terrible blight of AIDS to put Mother Teresa's--and by extension, the pope's--actions in proper perspective. Your brief paragraph touching on criticism of the beatification and canonization failed to address an even more serious objection to the tiny nun's hypocrisy: despite Mother Teresa's ministering to the sick and the downtrodden, she expended considerable effort at preventing the use of contraception that would have saved the lives of thousands of men, women and children who have fallen victim to the deadly HIV/AIDS virus through unprotected sex. These can scarcely be considered humanistic actions qualifying a person for sainthood... except of course in the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church, whose prelates are even now spreading the lie that condoms are ineffective at protecting against AIDS.
Don Bay
Froson, Sweden

I read the article on the beatification of Mother Teresa with interest. Allow me to add some information that might be of interest to record-minded readers. The record set by Josemaria Escriva that is mentioned in the article was surpassed by the patron saint of my home state of Hesse, Germany, although it was quite some time ago. Elisabeth was born a Hungarian princess in 1207. At the age of 4, she was engaged to the son of the landgrave of Thuringia, whom she married in 1221, at the age of 14. She gave birth to three children, became a widow in 1227, left the Wartburg Castle at Eisenbach and spent the rest of her life tending the sick and ailing in a hospital in Marburg that she had founded for that purpose. She died in 1231, at 24. Barely five years later, she was canonized in a magnificent ceremony in the presence of several archbishops and the king of Germany, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen. The king had made the journey all the way from Sicily for the occasion. Saint Elisabeth, a fascinating woman, was a "Mother Teresa" of her time.
Hartmut Muller
Kassel, Germany

The Costs of Toppling a Tyrant

I'm always eager to read Fareed Zakaria's column, but I was disappointed by his Oct. 20 essay, "Why the War Was Right." While he correctly enumerates the benefits of the war, which could be cited as justification for the toppling of many of our world's tyrants, he fails to weigh those benefits against the true costs: specifically, the erosion of U.N. authority and setting a precedent for unilateral action. The United States is now in a position of having no credibility in objecting to future unilateral action by other nations.
Jeffrey Coble
Arlington, Texas

On the Loose, Still

Shortly after 9/11, George W. Bush stated that "we will make no distinction between the terrorists... and those who harbor them." Apparently, this no longer applies. As you point out in "Why Can't We Get Him?" (Sept. 22), Taliban forces and Al Qaeda--perhaps including Osama bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman Al-Zawahiri--are being harbored by the people of Waziristan. If that is the case, then it is Bush's duty and responsibility to live up to his words and to deliver to the tribal leaders of Waziristan that same ultimatum, and to act against them if they refuse. Or perhaps, as is the case with the Saudi princes and sheiks who finance Al Qaeda, these people are also exempt from the president's stated policies. Bush may hope that if he doesn't mention bin Laden's name, we might forget him. But I can assure him that this is one Republican voter who has not forgotten.
Jon Anderson
New York, New York

Why can't we get him? The U.S. administration isn't even trying to catch Osama bin Laden anymore. The worst mistake was to lose focus. Instead of concentrating on one issue, breaking the Qaeda network, the United States decided to fight on all fronts. This has led to having U.S. forces stretched too thin around the globe, losing international support (thereby increasing anti-American sentiment) and having young, inexperienced soldiers killed every day. Let's just hope that the Bush administration either finishes its job (meaning actually installing legitimate democracy) or hands Iraq over to the United Nations, which is way more experienced in the matter (even if it takes time). Because one thing is sure: if the job's not done right, sooner or later, Iraq's course can backtrack, just as it seems to be doing in Afghanistan.
Wafy Yazbeck
Paris, France

My son just returned from eight months in Afghanistan with the 82d Airborne, chasing bin Laden and the Taliban. Why can't we find him? One reason may be our inability to chase the bad guys back into Pakistan, Bush's "friend and ally" in the region. And the Pakistanis can't (or won't) go into Waziristan, a province controlled by a well-armed warlord who supported the Taliban. Or perhaps we can't find him because the administration has poured its energy into the deepening quagmire in Iraq, while seemingly ignoring the unfinished but obviously still important job in Afghanistan.
Terry Keith
Charlotte, North Carolina

A Three-Tier School System

I was surprised to read that Germany suffers from an educational system that lays greater emphasis on formal vocational training than upon sending an arbitrarily chosen percentage of its population to university ("Class Revival," Aug. 11). We in Britain have every reason to believe that the German balance is the right one. I also hope that Stefan Theil did not mean us to think that the United States is a land of high social and occupational mobility for its poorest citizens, notwithstanding its 43 percent university enrollment. The shockingly low level of social mobility in the States is its best-kept secret and lasting shame.
Colin Rendall
Haltwhistle, England

Stefan Theil brings up the fact that only some 30 percent of German high-school students go to university. He compares this with Finland that sends a "whopping 71 percent" to university. I want to point out that the situation is not so rosy in Finland either. It is finally being realized that too many university graduates cannot find jobs corresponding to their studies, or find employment at all. There are simply not enough academic jobs for everyone. Secondly, the industry has now started to feel the fact that vocational education is not appreciated as it should be and that the country is running out of skilled workers. So university education for all is no road to eternal bliss. Even in education, a balance is better than exaggeration in either direction.
Hanna-Maria Tarjamo
Helsinki, Finland

I agree with Stefan Theil's criticism of the lack of modernization in the German educational system and recent findings that German students are doing badly in international comparisons in contrast to a few decades ago. He says that the German three-tier secondary-school system is "patently unfair." Tell that to the Dutch, who live in one of the world's most egalitarian societies. We have a similar system to the Germans' and no political party, right or left, is thinking of changing it to the American, one-size-fits-all approach, which has led to a race to the bottom to accommodate less academically gifted students. U.S. secondary education is the laughingstock of the world, something most Americans would agree with. However, Theil is right to point out the necessity of unbiased selection--or, self-selection--for the three secondary-school tiers, where Germany may be failing in many instances. If this were confirmed to be widespread, it would be a scandal requiring urgent political action.
Michael Blok
Amsterdam, Netherlands

It is legitimate to criticize Germany for its "split and splitting" education system: children are still segregated at the age of 10 and fed into a three-tier school system. This allocation of knowledge and chance is carried forward in the higher-education system. But it would be wrong to assume that only one third of German youth get a proper higher education--they get a more or less proper academic education while the majority of the other two thirds still get a proper vocational education.
Ulrike Winkelmann
Berlin, Germany