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Read other letters about this article
and honestly written. Gary Kamiya describes a world I recognise. I know it's cliched, but in much of the wealthy West we've lost sight of the pleasures to be had in simple things in our relentless forward rush to... where?
I don't know what we can do about it, or even if we should do anything. But we should at least accept that other societies can make different, but just as valid, choices to our own. Good examples, France and Italy, are quoted by Kamiya. These are thoroughly modern and developed Western societies but with some different emphases, such as the importance of good food enjoyed at leisure.
So the least we should do is repudiate the scorn and contempt the Cheneys and Rumsfelds of this world express towards societies, such as the perfidious 'Old Europe', that like to do things a bit differently.
