Readers' corner
They didn't take it
Sir-- Despite official confirmation that the English exam this year for the General Secondary Certificate would be related to the syllabuses that students have been studying throughout the year, the English exam is still beyond all expectations. Any exam whatsoever must test what students have learnt. But strangely enough, the English exam contained a considerable amount of vocabulary that students had never met before. To give only a few examples, the exam contained words like "worn out, gestures, nonverbal, illustrators, snapping, agitated, precise and poaching". This, needless to say, made it too difficult for students to understand the context in which such words were used. Furthermore, some grammatical items have not been dealt with in the prescribed textbooks. Consequently, students will lose confidence in their teachers who are unsure of just what they should be teaching. The problem is that we teach something, but the exam deals with something else. Gentlemen, let us teach the language the way we like instead of wasting our time teaching something worthless.
It is teachers alone, not anyone else, who know best their students' standard and ability, and therefore, they should have a say in everything, including the exam.
Those in charge of education in our country have got to know that reforming our deteriorating education system can by no means be implemented through difficult examinations. How long shall we remain oblivious to the lamentable status quo?
Essam Wahba
Assiut
Egypt
Secrets of war
Sir-- Since 2001, the Pentagon has sought to downplay overall US military losses by artfully redefining what is a combat-related "casualty". Officially, the Pentagon admits that approximately 5,500 troops have been killed and only 38,000 wounded, amounting to 43,500 total casualties. What is left out, according to such sources as the US Department of Veterans Affairs, the New England Journal of Medicine and the US Navy, are:
- 170,000+ cases of hearing damage;
- 130,000+ cases of mild traumatic brain injuries;
- 200,000+ cases of serious mental health problems.
If these data are included, the total well exceeds 500,000.
Casualty data should not be difficult to find for the US Congress and especially for the American public. There is unquestionably a serious transparency problem within the Pentagon on this issue which should not exist in a democracy.
If the Pentagon told the truth to the American people about military casualties, the public would learn that the Taliban and Al-Qaeda have been stunningly effective adversaries and that both wars seem more akin to defeats than victories. Such revelations might prompt a public discussion over the value of pre-emptive (and unnecessary wars) and even worse, raise the issue of the competence of Pentagon generals and admirals to wage such wars. To forestall such a public review, the Pentagon has opted to endorse the maxim that truth must remain the first casualty of war.
Matthew Nasuti
Massachusetts
USA
Face it!
Sir-- In 'Facebook and Muslims' (3-9 June, Al-Ahram Weekly ) the author offers an interesting interpretation. On several Facebook websites I do not see one death threat or calls of genocide against Muslims but I see an enormous number of death threats by Muslims and calls for genocide against Jews. How can anyone respect Muslims when your knee-jerk reaction to a slight is to call for murder or for a holocaust on Jews? I don't see Christians reacting to a slight on Jesus by ridiculing or encouraging slavery of Africans. Nor did Buddhists react to Muslims blowing up those ancient statues in Afghanistan by calling for genocide against Muslims.
Janet Donnet
Wyoming
USA
The longer the wait
Sir-- Re 'Cowards and thieves' (10-16 June, Al-Ahram Weekly ) the beauty of all this is that the longer the US stays in Afghanistan, the more resounding will be its defeat when it leaves. And the longer it strongarms "allies" into staying there, the more solid will be the resentment of humiliated political leaders forced to fly in the face of their own electorate's wishes, all the more so in the EU with Wall Street's attack on the euro. After Vietnam, the democracies feared the collapse of the US because of the continued existence of the communist dictatorships, and allowed it to regain its dominant position for that reason. Indeed, now, with the communists gone and since it refused to go gently into the good night at the end of the Cold War, the world actually wants the US to collapse.
Francis Medels
Washington
USA
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