Bamiyan Buddhas, global warming and others

Afghan people want to see their Bamiyan Buddhas rebuilt

Sir: The leader "Don't rebuild" (28 July) expressing an opinion over the future fate of the remnants of the Bamiyan Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban regime three years ago was misguided. The opinion expressed was that the Buddhas should not be rebuilt, but that the gaping wounds where they once stood should stand as testimony to the atrocities of the Taliban regime.

I feel that this overlooked a fundamental point expressed in the article "Afghanistan's Buddhas may rise again" in the same edition, namely that the local community in which these Buddhas had existed for thousands of years wishes to see them rebuilt.

The Muslim population of Bamiyan was one of the last pockets of resistance against the Taliban. When this resistance finally fell, as the rest of the world looked on, the Taliban displayed the area's subjugation by massacres of the local population and by destroying it's beloved Buddhas. The governor of Bamiyan province, as quoted in the article, expressed the value of these Buddhas to the community, "a symbol of our history and culture, something that introduced us to the world".

The debate over whether or not these Buddhas should be rebuilt has been answered by the wishes of the community in which they are a lived reality, not by a western, moral high-ground. The reconstruction of these statues need not obliterate the crime that was done against them, just as the brutalities of the Taliban against the local population will not die in folk memory. By restoring the Buddhas another layer will be added to these statues as archaeological monuments charged with social, political and cultural meanings.

The west should use its extensive economic resources and knowledge to assist the Afghans in achieving what they desire. We have turned our back on this troubled country too many times, we must look through their eyes and answer their needs. Rebuild the Bamiyan Buddhas.

SIOBHAN MCDERMOTT
Galway, Ireland

Scottish sea birds and global warming

Sir: The failure of breeding among the seabirds of the Orkney and Shetland islands ("Disaster at sea: global warming hits UK birds", 30 July) is unfortunate and, when seen out of context, is distressing. However, the marine eco-system has a natural tendency to show extreme variability. Most seabirds are very long-lived and the failure of breeding is a mechanism that helps to tide them over to breed again in future.

The seabirds and marine mammals of the northern isles and the North Sea depend to a great extent upon sandeels, which are a fickle resource. On a world scale these events are not unusual, and they do not normally signal drastic long-term changes in the environment. Some of the best-known examples are associated with El Niño events along the western seaboard of South America where shifting patterns of sardines and anchovies are the cause. Other examples come from Antarctic penguins and seals which feed on krill. Whether the food for seabirds is anchovies, krill or sandeels the effect is the same: if the food moves or if there is reduced food production because of changing patterns of ocean currents then there is breeding failure.

To suggest that "a giant ecosystem that has functioned for millions of years has begun to break down" is unhelpful. Certainly, a single event like the one being observed now should not be interpreted as a "global warning".

Professor IAN BOYD
Director, NERC Sea Mammal Research Unit
University of St Andrews

Sir: Your timely report of the devastation of British birds by the first breaking waves of climate change impacts was both moving and frightening. It is not just sea birds who are suffering. Recent research suggests that as many as one in five land dwelling species on earth will be committed to extinction by 2050.

People who claim to be concerned about wildlife cannot ignore the deadly havoc being wreaked by climate change on our animals, birds and plants, nor can they with any credibility oppose the solutions that we must develop in order to avoid the worst ravages of climate change in future.

We must use less energy and we must clean up the energy we do use. Wind power is the only clean energy source ready to deliver on the scale needed today. Anyone who believes in the survival of British wildlife must support wind farms now.

ROB GUETERBOCK
Director, Climate and Energy Policy
Greenpeace UK
London N1

Sir: There is a strong political push for global warming initiatives and it would undoubtedly benefit some people's agenda to claim global warming as the reason for these birds starving and not breeding.

There is only one reason for this catastrophe, and that is the over fishing of the oceans world wide. The stocks simply cannot keep up. The stresses on wildlife due to human activity, pollution and over plundering of the resources cannot go on indefinitely without the bottom eventually falling out. Dolphins show up emaciated, sharks are scarce, the larger predators are disappearing as we take and take from this planet. I myself cannot eat seafood any longer knowing that I am overfed while the animals in the sea are going without.

Instead of global warming, consider the real and immediate impact of the plundering of our oceans.

SHARON KIRK
Orange,
California

Sir: On April 3, 2004, you reported that seabird numbers have risen steadily from 5 million to 8 million over the last 30 years. Population numbers cannot increase without limit, and over- exploitation of a common food resource resulting in breeding failure is a commmon ecological phenomenon.

Dr SEAN NEE

Professor ANDREW READ
University of Edinburgh

Tragedy at Deepcut

Sir: Thanks to Brian Cathcart ("What really happened at Deepcut barracks?", 29 July) for his exposition of the endlessly protracted, inventively convoluted, hermetically secretive, obstructively partial and bewilderingly overlapping procedures that prove yet again that justice delayed is justice denied.

We are relatives of the couple whose wedding function was being held at Deepcut the night James Collinson died and neighbours of Geoff Gray's parents, Diane and Geoff Senior. We have seen officialdom stonewall and evade with cynical aplomb.

It is bad enough to face the loss of a loved one without having to gird your loins to fight every inch of the way. Public enquiries are one way forward for the many people who face this Kafkaesque faceless obfuscation.

MARY PIMM

NIK WOOD
London E9

Mensa puzzles

Sir: One act in my life of which I am most ashamed is that, years ago, I was persuaded to sit for Mensa ("There's more to Mensa than silly puzzles", 2 August). Having passed, I went to several meetings, always emerging in deep depression. The experience taught me that IQ tests prove absolutely nothing other than an ability to pass tests which people, of inevitably finite intelligence themselves, think might be a measure of their own limited view of what intelligence should be.

I learned from the experience that I am not one whit more intelligent than others who have failed the tests, or are too intelligent to bother with them. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that a fair test of intelligence is to steer clear of idiotic ideas that purport to measure, to a single unit point, something as complex and diversified as human intelligence. By this very standard I am ineffably stupid, and accept the fact.

IAN FLINTOFF
London SW6

Protected sex

Sir: Janet Street-Porter rightly criticises the Football Association's failure to prevent star players from endorsing unhealthy foods (29 July). But to suggest that Sven-Goran Eriksson, David Beckham and Wayne Rooney should be punished by the FA for their off-the-pitch sexual exploits seems prudish, particularly for a woman who has been married several times.

The Government's release of new sexual disease statistics on the same day as the story of the Sven-Alam-Palios affair first broke is, of course, manna for satirists. Yet Ms Street-Porter focuses on the sex per se, rather than on the more relevant question, to which we shall probably never know the answer, of whether the sex was protected or unprotected.

PEKKA SAARINEN
London SE16

Women in medicine

Sir: Professor Carol Black claims there are just too many women doctors who, surprise, surprise, won't play little boys' games (report and leading article, 2 August). To answer her question, perhaps the new professor of cardiology will be a woman who runs her personal life in the way she aspires to run her professional life - in the 21st century and not stuck in the 17th, where many senior doctors still languish, desperately clinging on to outmoded work practices and the quaint idea that the medical profession's status and influence are by products of over inflated egos and endless committee meetings.

Every organisation must become feminised, even if that means men and women working together in new ways.

JULIAN FIFIELD
Witney, Oxfordshire

Sir: When my senior partner retired from our general practice 14 years ago, at a time when we had one full-time woman GP and five men, we had 40 applicants for his job. When I retired from the practice two years ago, at a time when we had four full-time male doctors and four part-time females, we only had two applicants for my job.

For perfectly understandable reasons women are more likely to want to undertake part-time work. This means there has to be a much greater number of medical graduates to make up the shortfall. This has not happened.

The high A-level grades required to get into medical school are an unnecessary barrier to this increased requirement. While natural intelligence and a good degree of knowledge are required to be a capable doctor, three As at A-level certainly do not guarantee a good GP.

Dr NICK MAURICE
Marlborough, Wiltshire

Sir: In the last few years we have seen increasing examples of women choosing family over board room, encouraging media conclusions that it is "still a man's world". The world of work and business was constructed over hundreds of years and, until recent times, designed around the needs and aspirations of men.

Working long hours to reach the heights of medicine and other areas is a criteria for success because that's what men liked doing in the past (and arguably still do). We must work to retain women in the higher echelons of jobs, while at the same time making family a more credible choice in the eyes of society.

MARK KELLEHER
Wokingham

Sir: Professor Black's analysis simply does not stand up to scrutiny. The problem is not "too many women doctors", but a society which continues to value less those jobs which women do. Despite her complacency, sexism is unfortunately alive and well both within and outside medicine. This is exacerbated by a long hours culture which does no one - male doctors, female doctors or patients - any favours, and it is this that needs to be tackled urgently.

Dr ROSALIND GILL
Gender Institute
London School of Economics

Self-harm reactions

Sir: Is the problem self-harm, or is the problem society's reaction to it (letters, 29 July, etc)? It is interesting to note such a phenomenon is nowhere near as widespread in less developed countries, where rates of mental illness are comparable if not higher. It is in these societies that such behaviour is discouraged, whereas it appears that a fashionable aspect is now prevalent in the UK.

DAVID MUSKET
Middleton, Greater Manchester

West End curfew

Sir: When my 15-year-old daughter and her boyfriend go to the theatre in the West End next week will they be arrested ("Children to be barred from the West End after dark", 30 July)? Or does it only apply to the children the Home Secretary doesn't like, such as working-class children, black children and the offspring of asylum-seekers?

FRANCES CROOK
Cambridge

Strawberry answer

Sir: Last year my local Tesco was also selling strawberries from the United States in the middle of the British strawberry season (letter, 28 July). When I asked for an explanation I was told that British suppliers could not be relied on to meet Tesco's demand throughout the season. In reply I suggested giving our fruit growers reliable contracts at a fair price and for a period long enough to make their investment worthwhile. The company promised to look into it, but here we are again still unnecessarily damaging the environment.

GILLIAN MARRIS
Lymington, Hampshire

Recycling envelopes

Sir: The recycling advice Sue Arnold received on your letters page (2 August) was very good but suggested that envelopes with windows could not be recycled. They can, and should be once the window has been torn out. Given that these form the majority of envelopes the paper content should not be wasted.

Incidentally, through recycling and conscientious purchasing I have not disposed of any domestic rubbish for over 20 months. No council tax rebate, alas.

TOM CORNISH
London SW17

Time to panic?

Sir: I have yet to receive the Government's Preparing for Emergencies booklet. Should I panic?

NICK McARDLE
London E2