Letters: New Renaissance

Sir: I thought the title of your article of 22 December on the capitals of the world was a misnomer, as many of the 60 cities listed were not in fact national capitals. However, Joan Bakewell's article (28 December) on the drift from country to town and her reference to the Renaissance, driven by the power of city states such as Florence and Venice, made me think that many of the places listed are in fact modern city states, with London at the top.

The Mayor of London heads a population and a GDP well in excess of many countries of the world. Drawing, as it does, people from all over the world, London is completely cosmopolitan to the extent that it can almost be regarded as no longer part of England. In fact not so long ago an elderly born-and-bred Londoner complained to me that his native city no longer seemed to be English . A Frenchman on Eurostar, who was returning to his home in London from a visit to his native country, remarked to me that, while he did not consider himself to be an Englishman, he most certainly did consider himself to be a Londoner. The same applies, to varying degrees, to many of the other cities you listed.

Bearing in mind that national frontiers, particularly in Europe, are becoming increasingly irrelevant, are we going to see, as the units of real power and influence in the coming century, nation states being replaced by city states?

There seems a real possibility that Scotland may follow the large number of other small countries in Europe by becoming independent. However, it seems that Ken Livingstone is in an even stronger position than Alex Salmond to declare UDI.

Nigel McNeill

Waddington, Lancashire

Sir: As someone who has lived in London for 42 years, I was delighted to see that London was proclaimed as capital of the world in your paper. I do find it strange, however, that a city can be capital of the world when there is no public transport on Christmas Day in that city. At the very least, the night bus service should run continuously from the end of regular services on 24 December until resumption of normal services on 26 December.

Michael Young

London SW15

Scenes from Israel's 'forbidden highway'

Sir: It's early afternoon and I am on a bus travelling through Modi'in, picking up passengers on its way to Jerusalem. Since Israel does not practice apartheid, as many in the west think, about a dozen Arab workers on their way home from work get on the bus, and it continues its journey along the 443 road to Jerusalem.

As these Arabs get on the bus, I automatically look to see how bulky these men look under their clothing, just in case any may have explosive belts strapped to their bodies. I have to give them the benefit of the doubt that they are honest, law-abiding workers trying to make a living to support their families, and not the sub-human bombers who don't give ordinary innocents a chance. I am sure that some of these Arab workers to whom Donald Macintyre referred ("Israel's forbidden road", 2 January) quietly bless their Israeli employers for helping them to survive.

Or another scenario: It is daybreak, and Arabs from neighbouring villages such as Bet Sira, enter the still sleeping city very quietly on bicycles fitted with baskets or boxes. They busily rummage through the dustbins and skips, looking for anything that can be made use of, or repaired and sold, then quickly leave with their loot, before the city's residents wake up.

It is a sad and pathetic sight to witness these men, who obviously need to work. For their own leadership has kept them impoverished for decades, which tragically turned so many of them to terrorism. Checkpoints are in place, and roads are blocked for security reasons, to protect the country's citizens, be they Arabs, Jews, or foreign tourists or journalists. If terrorists ever stop their evil doings, there will be no need for the security precautions.

Marion Stone

Modi'in, Israel

Sir: Donald Macintyre's article on Highway 443 exemplifies, pro-Israel supporters' denials notwithstanding, the growing similarity with apartheid South Africa. To any discerning historian of the conflict, it has always been clear that Israel has wanted as much of the land of Palestine, with as few of its indigenous people, as possible, an early indication being Theodore Herzl's own diary entry of 1895, recognising the need to transfer Palestinians out of the land, so that Jews could settle it.

Without a current pretext for expelling more Palestinians, Israel has decided to consign them instead to ghettoes. To their shame, Britain and its fellow EU states are complicit in this hateful process by not insisting that Israel adheres fully to the Fourth Geneva Convention. These states wish to offend neither the United States nor Israel. Yet it is hard to imagine any Western policy more inimical to the future of the Jews of Israel.

At Annapolis, Ehud Olmert himself warned Israelis of a South Africa-style struggle for equality if a two-state solution could not be found. But the time is already virtually past for a two-state interim solution. Over 40 years have elapsed since the 1967 war, during which Israel has tried to digest the indigestible. Within the next 40 years, Israel's internal demography will change, with its own marginalised Palestinian citizens achieving well-nigh numerical parity with Jewish Israelis. It is impossible to imagine their struggle failing to coalesce with that of their long-suffering kinsfolk in the Occupied Territories.

What we now so badly need is Jews, Palestinians and Western politicians with the moral courage to work and plan for an eventual bi-national state, since this is the only win-win solution now possible.

David McDowall

Richmond, Surrey

Democracy at stake in Kenya

Sir: A week ago, when I was holidaying on the Kenyan coast, I watched the initial election results. Initial counts all pointed to Raila Odinga being elected as the new President. Incumbents had been walloped at the ballot box for their failure to curb corruptions. Kenyans looked set for peaceful change.

I even read a press article that highlighted how Kenyan democracy would set an example for sub-saharan Africa, including South Africa, where another succession struggle is just beginning. The Kenyan economy looked set, with a growing middle class chattering about the prospects of the Nairobi Stock Exchange in the coming year.

Two days later, the tide had turned. President Kibaki had the most mysterious last-minute electoral surge.

As children get burnt in churches, Kenyans must understand that violence is not the means to a changed Government. They must retain faith in the democratic process and have their representatives send the strongest possible message of complete no confidence to Kibaki and his cabal.

At the same time, the West needs to disregard the fact that Kibaki may be a bit-part player in the war against terror, and make a stand for African democratic justice.

Samir Satchu

General Counsel & Head of Government Affairs, Telecom Development Company Afghanistan Ltd, Kabul

Prostitution is about money, not morality

Sir: The debate over prostitution rumbles on in The Independent, but consider:

In Bolivia 35,000 prostitutes refused medical checks in protest against violent attacks; others threatened to bury themselves alive if they were not listened to. "If we don't work, who is to feed out kids?" they asked.

In Delhi 4,000 prostitutes marched through the streets in protest against legal amendments which would deny them a meagre living.

In China prostitutes and their clients have been forced to parade through the streets in a naming-and-shaming exercise.

In Pakistan two prostitutes were beheaded by militants for "acts of obscenity".

In Malaysia a government minister recommended that foreign prostitutes should be whipped to discourage them from travelling there.

We live in a globalised world with extremes of wealth and poverty; poor people will continue to travel and take their chance in a dangerous trade, whatever the legal restraints. A sensible debate ought not to centre on approval or disapproval of prostitution but upon the economic inequalities and lack of opportunities open to women and men. Also, to what extent the rich world is responsible for these conditions.

Dr Helen Self

Boxley, Kent

Sir: The debate about sex workers has produced little testimony from the female sex workers themselves. I am not convinced of the advantages of "flexible-working and good money", which seems to be a dubious way of validating sex as a career.

I wonder how many of them would answer Yes to the question "Do you enjoy your work as a prostitute?" and No to "Would you prefer to do something different?"

Julia Doherty

Uckfield, East Sussex

Utopian dream of a low-meat diet

Sir: Jeremy Laurance's idea that if we eat less meat, less often, we could afford to pay more for it, and farmers would be able to raise fewer animals in better conditions because they would receive a higher price for them, is a beautiful vision of Utopia ("Shouldn't the RSPCA be advocating vegetarianism?" 3 January).

Unfortunately, it does not reflect the reality of a world where talking about livestock farmers being paid more for products is far easier than actually bringing about any increase, and fails to take into account the major contribution extensive livestock production makes to the environment and landscape, benefits that outweigh its relatively minor contribution to total greenhouse gas emissions.

Grazing livestock are essential to the maintenance of some of our most important upland landscapes and the wildlife that depend on them. And while the farming sector does account for some greenhouse gas emissions, it is important to note methane emissions from cows have fallen by 13 per cent since 1990 and agriculture accounts for only around 1 per cent of the UK's total CO2 emissions.

Meat and dairy products are an essential part of a balanced diet and the NFU is committed to finding solutions to reducing methane emissions from livestock by changing diets and using anaerobic digestion to produce biogas as an energy source. All this means UK farmers can be, and are, part of the solution to climate change, not part of the problem.

Anthony Gibson

Director of Communications, National Farmers' UnionStoneleigh, Warwickshire

Why British children struggle to read

Sir: Walter Cairns argues that teaching methods, not the difficulties of English spelling, are to blame for poor literacy (letter, 3 January). That argument might have some validity if it were only a question of British education.

However, as I understand it, research reveals a two- to three-year gap in learning to read and write between children of all English-speaking countries compared with their counterparts who speak other major languages.

Unless education in English-speaking countries is particularly bad, then the spelling of the language must surely have some part to play in creating the discrepancy. This is the "elephant in the room" that defenders of traditional spelling are so desperate not to see.

Stephen Linstead

Solihull, West Midlands

Briefly...

Religion of eco-guilt

Sir: Hear, hear, Laurence Kelvin (Letters, 3 January). Truly, "saving the planet" is the new religion. It gives its practitioners the luxury of feeling guilty combined with the impossibility of doing anything about it.

Nick Chadwick

Oxford

Sir: Laurence Kelvin complains that hair-shirted environmental "miserablists" want to ban security lights. Disregarding the hair-shirt arguments, perhaps he could tell us the use of the abhorrent outside lights which illuminate the neighbourhood every time a cat enters the homeowner's garden?

Angie Elliott

Welton le Marsh, Lincolnshire

Welcome the sinner

Sir: In view of all that is being said of the reception of Tony Blair into the Catholic Church, perhaps it is timely to remind ourselves of what its Founder said: "I have come, not to call the just, but sinners to repentance." An exasperated colleague of mine once remarked that over the door of every Catholic Church should be blazoned: "Sinners only".

William MacCurtain, SJ

London W1

Christmas break

Sir: When decrying the tendency amongst workers to take longer holidays during the Christmas period (The Big Question, 2 January), employers conveniently forget about all the unclaimed overtime which is clocked up during the rest of the working year. How much extra income do employers make from this growing practice of working for free? More than 21bn no doubt.

Edward Bressan

Oxford

Reward for police

Sir: The letter from William Hayburn on police pay and industrial action (2 January), quoted Margaret Thatcher as the only PM to honour the "no-strike" agreement. She had no choice, as she had ruthlessly used the police, with some Army assistance, to break strikes. It is ironic that the police are used by the establishment to overcome strikes and any unions which succeed in getting a better deal by such action have those higher figures used by the police to assist their claims for above-inflation rises.

Robert G Beech

Stanford-le-hope, Essex

Rationing at the BBC

Sir: David Lister (15 December) wonders why the inability to pronounce the letter T appears to be a requisite for presenters on The Culture Show. I can enlighten him. The person at the BBC in charge of "letters allocation (consonants)" has reduced the ration of Ts to BBC4 in favour of an increased supply to Radio 3. This clever transfer of verbal assets allows some announcers of music programmes to indulge in their preferred pronunciation of "audientce" and "performantce".

A Speakman

Preston, Lancashire

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