“THE POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK”

Dear Sir, I HOPE you will allow me a final comment on Phil Green's last letter. I feel I have been misunderstood. To begin with, I only introduced my father's philosophy in a hope that President Bush's definition of democracy did not have monetary considerations. Secondly, my mention of poppy growing in Afghanistan was not to open any question about the essential use of morphine and apomorphine, etcetera in Medicine. And lastly, I am afraid I have been misunderstood about using the word Palestinian. When I queried the fact that Arabs, who have been living in what is now called Israel, for thousands of years, have no vote or apparent members of government .... of course I was not referring to Hamas, in what is now called Palestine. But I have not had my simple question answered, i.e. when Phil Green stated “Everyone knows the President's views on Democracy”; I for one had no clear idea. And I am no wiser since his last letter, I am sorry to say. Sir, It was interesting to read of Sr. Manchado's “disgust/shabby treatment of tourists (Daily Bulletin 13th July, Calvia website six months out of date). I should like to point out to him, that in April 2003 when Sra. Najera was Mayoress and his party were running the Town Hall, leaflets being given to tourists (my family included, I still have the leaflets) were not only in the majority of cases at least six years out of date (date printed on leaflet), but information being given was in regard to hotels/restaurants/bars, etcetera, which were not only no longer in existence or closed but in some cases, demolished! (All Calvia's tourist offices were issued with the said same leaflets). At least now tourist offices are open when the tourists need information, and as far as possible distributing up-to-date information. So I suggest Sr. Manchado (of the Socialist PSOE party), checks his own party's record re: the tourist industry before criticising others. At least now they are not a “necessary evil for financial gain.” Tourists are the municipality's lifeblood, without them we will cease to exist. Sir, When seeing the recent exchange of letters between Mr. Green and Dr. Giri on their views of democracy in the Middle East, it brought to mind something said in an interview by the present King of Jordan, (a well-balanced, educated type of person with common sense qualities notably missing in other parts of that region) which was that “Democracy means different things to different countries.” The sooner those powers that be in the Western world, and in particular in the U.S.A., realise this, the less mayhem and destruction will be left in the wake of “democracy” such as we see daily in Afghanistan and Iraq, not to forget sorting out the continuous strife that exists between Palestine and Israel. The most recent incursions by Israel into Gaza, airtsrikes, etcetera over one captive Israeli soldier, not commented upon even by the U.S.A. has not helped at all, and now we see the Israelis bombing the runways of the Lebanese airport. This is becoming an ever-increasingly dangerous circle of violence and requires, urgently, from the U.S.A. the only country to be able to influence Israel, some clever diplomacy to really start sorting out this issue. Unfortunately, the words “clever” and “diplomacy” are not attributable to the present President of the U.S.A. Oh well, only two years to go!