Letters to the Editor
Megan Knight
Published Letters: 3
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The carpet guy
[Read the article: The carpet guy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Let me get this straight - you bought an offcut of carpet from a dodgy-looking dealership, you didn't examine it before paying for it, it turns out to be mouldy, and you had problems persuading the guy to refund your money, and you're all freaked out and so angry you're out of control? You're an adult (at least nominally), you live in the USA, in the 21st century, and you're all surprised? Where the hell have you been? And more importantly, what help are you getting for your obvious inability to cope with modern life? At the very least, stop buying things from people you don't know, you're obviously not equipped to cope with the consequences of doing business in contemporary society.
Oh, and being a Christian doesn't make you any more entitled to fair treatment than anyone else, in fact, your mentioning it just makes you sound whiny and pathetic, and even less of a grown up than you did before.
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Response to Accuracy Please
[Read the article: "The Last King of Scotland"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]While I am usually the first to leap to attack movies about Africa that seem unable to see the continent except through the eyes of white men (and very ocasionally women), I don't think this criticism of The Last King of Scotland is entirely fair.
Although McAvoy's character is fictional, he is a composite of a number of advisers to Amin, one of whom did have an affair with one of Amin's wives - those events are true. I do agree that the woman on the bus when Garrigan first arrives in Africa are a bit excessive, but as almost any white man who has been to Africa can attest, there is no shortage of women who see sleeping with a white man as an appealing business arrangement. It is an unfortunate side effect of colonialism and poverty that prostitution is rife, and that white men are usually more than willing to play along. Where the movie errs is in coyly avoiding the question of the nature of Garrigan's relationship with her.
To my mind as well, the relationship between Amin and Garrigan works as a parable of Amin's (and Uganda's) relationship with the British. Amin was obsessed with the English, he believed they were going to kill him, he was greatly offended that the Queen did not offer him a knighthood, he craved the approval of Europe while despising them, he was caught in a persistent love-hate relationship with the country, and in the movie, his relationship with Garrigan symbolises this. I don't think they could have made the movie any other way.
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Response to CherylF
[Read the article: At her majesty's pleasure]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It might be useful to point out to CherylF that the author was flying on an international flight, provided by a non-US air carrier, to a country other than the United States of America, and that therefore, her whine about the violation of the author's constitutional rights has as its centre a fatal flaw: US citizens have no constitutional rights outside of the United States of America.
Somewhat a parallel to how non-US citizens have no rights INSIDE the United States (or other countries which the US feels owe it some loyalty), don't you think?