Fidel's Country Is Open for Business

"Although the U.S. had cause for concern while Cuba harbored Soviet missiles, our current posture is that of an elephant that fears a mouse."

Joseph H. Cowan Sr. San Francisco

Congratulations on a fair and realistic portrait of Cuba and Cubans [Cover Stories, Feb. 20]. As one who has traveled there and listened to Cubans' concerns, I can vouch for your assertion that they feel very misunderstood by Americans. The fact that one virtually never hears regrets expressed there about the revolution reflects the depth of misery suffered during the pre-Castro regimes.

Allan H. Jackson Millgrove, Ontario

Opening Cuba to Castro's way of capitalism involves valuable dollars and hard currency that would most likely end up in private Swiss bank accounts. Few Cubans benefit. Whether the embargo is helping Castro or hurting, we can only guess. What is sure is that Cubans struggle each day to scrounge food for their families. The idea of starting a revolution is far from their minds.

Ana Manrique Bridgeport, West Virginia

We Americans cheered Fidel Castro for leading a successful revolution against dictator Fulgencio Batista. We saw Castro as a Hemingwayesque hero who was going to break the chains that kept most of the Cuban citizenry in poverty, but his true colors came to light very quickly. Until Castro returns Cuba to its people and lets them decide on a form of government, the U.S. cannot consider dropping its long-established trade embargo. It would be a hypocritical travesty for us to ``forgive and forget.'' Let's not crawl into bed with the world's oldest dictator. He is far from harmless.

Robert H. Stone Long Beach, California

I see Fidel Castro as an intelligent person who is willing to bend although he still holds to his ideals. There is nothing wrong with that.

Vivianne Moshonov San Leandro, California

It is outrageous that the only mention of human-rights violations in Cuba comes from Fidel Castro--and, worse, as the punch line of a joke--since all major human-rights organizations have repeatedly condemned his regime as one of the world's most repressive. As for the statement that there is ``no organized opposition'' to Castro inside the country, perhaps this is because dissidents are routinely harassed, beaten and jailed at his order. Having met many of the men and women who bravely jeopardize what little freedom they have to achieve a new Cuba, I am certain they would be eager to share their views with you. I hope that next time you will interview dissidents rather than sip martinis with a man who has jailed or executed thousands upon thousands of his countrymen.

Christopher Kean Special Projects Coordinator Freedom House New York City

Surely there are worthier men and women for your cover.

Ronnie Adamson Buenos Aires

Thumbs up for Castro. He has given American interference a thumbs-down.

Michael McCarthy Nagoya, Japan

Internal forces will finish what remains of the Cuban political and economic relic. The U.S. trade embargo merely punishes an innocent population that has suffered quite enough. This policy has outlived its usefulness, and in time the U.S. should normalize relations with Cuba. As shown by the newly established U.S. ties with Vietnam, policy will change as investors seek a piece of the pie. Foreign relations will ultimately be determined by influences outside the official government structure.

Tim Carson St. Louis, Missouri AOL: KitCousin

So a delegation from time had a five-course meal with Castro and found him witty. Well, isn't that special? When are you journalists going to stop treating this guy like a rock star? Cuba libre!

Marc Williams Wasilla, Alaska AOL: UNCLE VITO

How to Deal with China

It is fortunate that the U.S. and China were able to reach an agreement on the protection of intellectual property rights [China, Feb. 20]. A trade war would have got us nowhere. In the future, to resolve trade conflicts, U.S. policymakers must master subtlety and sophistication in dealing with the leadership in China. Offensive moves like trade sanctions could be highly counterproductive. The Chinese view direct confrontation as hostility, and as such it is always met with hostility, just for the sake of saving face. The U.S.'s tough position may have won some applause from the U.S. Congress, but the Chinese private sector, which is the driving force of China's economic reform, would have been hurt the most if U.S. sanctions had taken effect. The U.S. should make the Chinese central government its partner in protecting intellectual property rights. Do not make it look like part of the problem.

Sean Yin Cincinnati, Ohio

Online Fantasies

Cyberspace and computer networks like the Internet were once a safe haven for the free exchange of information. There was a sharing of ideas beneficial to those who embraced the open expression of opinions. The only error made by University of Michigan student Jake Baker [who wrote explicit, violent sexual fantasies using an actual classmate's name and posted them on the Internet] was to believe that cyberspace was still a place where he could safely express a view without persecution [Technology, Feb. 20]. People who rally against pornography and other ``obscene'' material cannot bear beliefs that contradict their own, and seek to suppress them. The very existence of the Internet and cyberspace is threatened by those who aggressively seek to dominate other people's views. It will become a murdered culture.

Aaron Crockett Leura, Australia

You incorrectly attribute to me the view ``that writing and reading pornography are, in themselves, acts of violence.'' Real acts must be performed, usually on women, to make visual pornography. Real acts are typically performed by men when they use it. Real acts are inflicted upon many women every day as a result of its consumption. Andrea Dworkin and I, with others, have exposed the active role of pornography in sex inequality. The acts are real, not a conceptual game. The empirical evidence, including testimony from experience, is clear. Not all consumers of pornography act out aggressively, but many do, and not only the predisposed. Not all come to believe that women are lesser forms of life and live to be raped, but many do, including so-called normal men. How many can we afford? No one learns respect for women from pornography.

Catharine A. MacKinnon Professor of Law University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan

When our forefathers gave us the right to free speech, it was a guarantee that we could speak out with confidence against political injustice--not a free ticket to advertise and promote sexual perversion. It saddens me to see a system so eager to defend the rights of a twisted deviate and ignore his threat to innocent women and children.

Spike Nard Chicago

Another Nominee Wrangle

In naming proabortion Dr. Henry W. Foster Jr. to be U.S. Surgeon General [Politics, Feb. 20], President Clinton has once again shown his insensitivity to life. Both men justify their stance by saying abortion is legal. They certainly know that not everything legal is right.

Gloria Lieu Livonia, Michigan

The Henry Foster debacle should not embarrass Clinton. The President nominated an honest and successful man who has fought to improve the lives of misdirected and unfortunate young people. We pro-choice Americans cannot allow a politically overrepresented minority of radical conservatives to reject a person simply because he has performed a legal medical procedure that they oppose. If the Republicans cared as much about the well-being of the country as they do about embarrassing the Clinton Administration, this country would be a better place to live.

Joseph B. Widman Binghamton, New York

Strike Out!

The baseball strike is not the business of the President or of the Congress [The Political Interest, Feb. 20]. Many more important issues deserve their attention. The minor leagues offer wonderful baseball. Move those teams into the big-time ball parks until the major league players and owners settle their fight of money and greed.

Betty Derr Orrtanna, Pennsylvania AOL: Derrmac

It's hard to imagine how striking baseball players could ever hope to survive on a paltry $1 million a year while we underworked, overpaid typical Americans splurge and squander our money on such superfluous things as rent, food and day care. How could we be so shallow and greedy?

Lisa Lonsway Burbank, California

CR's Brand of Consumerism

As president of the organization that publishes Consumer Reports magazine, I would like to respond to your story [Business, Feb. 20]. While nicely describing our meticulous product testing and state-of-the art laboratories, your article was well off the mark in several key respects. We've called for labeling of BST [bovine somatotropin] milk because consumers have a right to know, even though--as we said--the hormone is not an imminent health hazard. While government and industry were assuring consumers in 1989 that the chemical Alar had been used on only 5% of the previous year's crop, our lab tests of apples and apple juice found it in more than 50% of the samples. That was fine science. We also wrote that eating apples was safe for consumers. We believe the comments on our science are generated by companies that would prefer to do without a testing organization that researches and speaks out in the consumer interest. The essence of our science is our technical expertise, objectivity and independence. We buy all our test samples anonymously, at retail. We take no outside advertising and no business money. You suggest that the current political climate may promote ``thunderous criticisms'' of our work. Perhaps. But our subscriptions have increased to nearly 5 million in recent years. Some might call that thunderous applause.

Rhoda H. Karpatkin, President Consumers Union Yonkers, New York

Thank you for a much needed, more accurate perspective on Consumer Reports. Never have I seen such mass acceptance of a singular and often slanted viewpoint as in this publication. CR claims not to accept advertising, which supposedly puts it on a high ground, but it offers an obvious bias of its own. If it is a model of objectivity, why does it not offer a counterpoint in the same report? CR, while claiming impartiality, would never subject itself to such self-scrutiny. CR is not the sacred guardian of all opinion; it is quite the opposite. As always, it pays to shop around--even for viewpoints.

Gary Pepe San Antonio, Texas

Shame on you! Consumer Reports is an easy target. Your article and criticism of the magazine both under- and overestimate its value. I have subscribed to CR for more than 20 years. From time to time, I have perceived some subjectivity and a mildly politically charged perspective. But I and other CR subscribers are better informed and perhaps better educated than the average reader. That equips us to disregard an occasional lapse in CR, as we would in any other publication, including yours. Thanks to CR's testing and reliability information, I have saved thousands of dollars making more informed decisions when purchasing major appliances, audio and video equipment and automobiles.

Al Schaefer Jr. Oreland, Pennsylvania

Understanding Your Enemies

In his admiring piece about Graham Greene and his commitment to understand every position and even sympathize with an enemy [Essay, Feb. 20], Pico Iyer reveals both the implications and the presuppositions of the modern relativist view. It is no surprise that placing mercy over justice would lead a man to uphold someone like Soviet double agent Kim Philby, an operative of the bloodiest dictatorship in history, and receive no moral condemnation for it. What may not be obvious, though, is how the lack of moral integrity today stems from an intellectual failure, the epistemological humility that refuses to hold anything as certain. Greene's noted ambiguity and his writing of plays like Yes and No are just two examples. The thinker Ayn Rand held that philosophy is an integrated total. If one finds a person negating what is good in morality, one will always find him at a deeper level negating knowledge and reason. Greene makes this view concrete.

Warren S. Ross Houston AOL: WSRoss