Al-Ahram Weekly | Opinion | Letters to the Editor

		Al-Ahram Weekly Online 9 - 15 August 2001 Issue No.546
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue \| Previous issue \| Site map

Counterproductive
Sir- Thank you for your excellent recent editorial on disinformation and the very efficient US and Israeli propaganda machines. As I've paid attention to the coverage on BBC and other more trustworthy news sources with regards to the Intifada, it struck me how counterproductive some of the images coming out of Palestine are. They are readily used over and over by propaganda machines to portray the image of Palestinians as terrorists.
For example, during many of the ongoing protests, Palestinian youths often try to make themselves more war- like by putting on fatigues and carrying toy shoulder-mounted anti-tank rockets and other weapons. Since the Palestinians are completely powerless against Israeli tanks and helicopters (and have no access to such weapons) it really struck me how pathetic this display actually is. It serves no purpose but to feed the efficient US and Israeli propaganda machines.
The insight of your columnists is always appreciated.
Fred G Sanford, PhD
Los Angeles, California
USA

The wrong guy
Sir- With regard to the very nice reportage on the Ay Makan electronic map created by engineer Omar Nassef ("Getting there," Al-Ahram Weekly, 2-8 August), I'm sorry to point out that his name is misspelled in the article as Omar Nasser! Could you print a small correction in your next edition? As the mother of this inventor, I'm quite aggravated by this error!
M El-Ghaiaty
Cairo

Expiry date
Sir- I think it is about time your advertising department checked the adverts in Al- Ahram Weekly each week. I have been noticing for some time now that the advert for the Sheraton Miriamar El- Gouna is well out of date, the fact being that the package was valid until 31 October 2000, and we are now in the year 2001.
Please try and keep the adverts up-to-date. If one is thinking of booking a holiday, it would be very embarrassing to mention an offer, only to be told that it was a year out of date. After all, this feature is supposed to help tourists in deciding where to have their holidays.
Sarah El-Kady
Cairo

Great Gutenbergs
Sir- In "Nature's greatest show on earth" (Al-Ahram Weekly, 2-8 August) we read that "Richter and Gutenberg told us about how to measure them (earthquakes)."
OK for Richter, but Gutenberg told us only about how to print with movable type...
Best regards
Paolo Lombardini
Zamalek
Al-Ahram Weekly is always delighted to be told when it has made a mistake and welcomes the corrections of eagle-eyed readers. But in this instance, we plead "not guilty"... Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1397-1468) did indeed change the world when he invented the printing press in the 15th century, and was long gone by the time earthquake measurement became a science. But no doubt the printed word was of help to two great scientists, Charles Richter (1900-1985) and his colleague Beno Gutenberg (1889-1960), when they undertook their pioneering studies of earthquakes in the early 20th century!
The Editor

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