Letters: Children who have escaped wars

Children who have escaped wars learn a new language - of hope

Sir: I work in a west London school where the pupils speak 40 languages ("26 pupils. 26 languages. One lesson for Britain", 26 July).

These children and young people have survived traumas we can only associate with the horrific scenes we watch on television. They have to come to terms with multiple-loss experiences, country, family, language, a certain way of life and their childhood.

Because they have survived and reached a safe western country, they feel they have to succeed. They need to prove to their parents, to their families and to themselves that they can make it. They also face a challenge that hits us all: being a teenager.

I work with these youngsters to enable them to come to terms with the emotional pain they have had to experience, and I find myself viewing, at a distance, many war-torn countries. They either witnessed the painful change in their countries and ran, or were sent away, usually on their own, or arrived in England with a parent who carries the pain of loss.

These youngsters know about loss, trauma, being different and surviving against the odds. When they are given the right support, they can turn their diverse experiences into steps towards broad horizons and enriching ideas.

They have many qualities and skills at such a young age which could enable them to become ambassadors of tolerance, understanding and acceptance. Supporting the minds of such children could become a more efficient and long-lasting way of so-called "fighting terrorism".

YONCA JEWITT

GREAT CAMBOURNE, CAMBRIDGESHIRE

One-eyed view of Israel's history

Sir: Professor Oren Ben-Dor's one-eyed view of history ("Who are the real terrorists in the Middle East?" 26 July) is familiar enough: that it comes from a teacher of philosophy is more alarming.

He describes Israeli statehood as "primordially immoral", because, in his view, it was founded by means he labels "terrorist". The logical consequence of his position is a denial of Israel's right to exist, though he does not make this explicit.

Israel has no need to nourish what he calls a "victim mentality". The country is surrounded by hostile neighbours whose declared aim is to destroy the Jewish state and replace it with an Islamic republic, imposing sharia from the Jordan to the Mediterranean. In denying Israel's legitimacy, Professor Ben-Dor lends intellectual support to this view, but through rhetoric, rather than logic. The contrary position is clear. Israel exists, whatever injustices may or may not have been committed in establishing the state.

Israel has a right to continue to exist within agreed secure borders. Israel cannot reach agreement, or establish security, with opponents such as Hamas, Hizbollah or Iran, who deny the fundamental premise of a right to exist.

All she can do is oppose their violence, and threats of violence, with her own. And what we have then is not peace, nor "stability," but a stand-off, with the ever-present threat of sudden eruptions of slaughter such as that we are now witnessing.

DR S G POTTS

LAUDER, BERWICKSHIRE

Sir: I commend Oren Ben-Dor's courage in stating the reality of events through the smoke-screen of spin and doublespeak. In Professor Ben-Dor's case, as his hometown Nahariya has been directly affected, it is a special act of bravery to speak out with clarity and reason.

Israel repeatedly hides its actions behind the justification that it is waging war on terror and terrorists. Its government officials and military spokespersons continually use the word "terror". Everyone who stands against them, it seems, politically or militarily, is a terrorist.

If terrorism is the creation of terror and panic in civilian populations to achieve political ends, Israel fits the bill. Its actions in Gaza and Lebanon cannot be justified as a military response on a military adversary, but are clearly an act of collective punishment against entire populations. This can only breed more hatred and extremism and continue the cycle of violence. Is this really what Israel desires?

MARWAN TAHER

LONDON SW3

Sir: Dr Hofmann-Engl (Letters, 25 July) says there is no real difference between the death of a girl killed by an Israeli F-16 and a youth being stabbed to death outside his front door.

Oh yes there is. The United States and United Kingdom governments are supporting Israeli state terrorism that has been unleashed upon the Lebanese people. The US government provides weapons, "intelligence" and acts to delay any ceasefire. The UK government cravenly acquiesces. This is murder by proxy. Stabbing people to death outside front doors is against the law and does not receive the support of the US or UK governments.

Sir Geoffrey Chandler (Letters, 25 July) is much nearer the mark. There is no real difference between the death of a Greek civilian murdered by the Nazis and the death of a Lebanese civilian murdered by the Israelis.

MIKE POST

MARLOW, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE

Sir: There are many things I love dearly about this country. Many things in which I take pride. Yet over the past four years, feelings of guilt and shame have become dominant. Governed as we are by a mendacious government, slavishly following a US administration, both of them obsessed by an unwinnable "war on terror". Surely there must be enough MPs who can see the insanity of this ghastly slaughter and destruction for which Israel is responsible to force the Government to issue a forthright condemnation on behalf of our blighted country?

SIR SIMON GOURLAY

KNIGHTON, POWYS

Sir: Your illustration of the flags of nations for and against a ceasefire in Lebanon (21 July) reminds me that, for years, the then only nominally independent Ukraine and Belorussia had seats at the UN, thereby giving the Soviet Union three votes. Much like the present situation whereby the US has two votes, its own and ours.

GLANVILLE PRICE

ABERYSTWYTH

The best way to reduce migration

Sir: To really reduce the numbers of migrants ("EU plans elite border guards to stop migrants", 20 July) we need to address the problems initially forcing people to flee their homes. For that, we need to help them with sustainable development and investment in their countries of origin.

As part of a cross-party delegation from the European Parliament, I recently visited the cross-border points of Spain and Italy. Many young men being held there told us they were prepared to make the sacrifice of leaving their families and risking death on the journey because they saw no economic future in their homeland.

The real place to improve the situation is in sustainable development and investment, not guards. The main value of additional patrols is in saving lives that would otherwise be lost at sea.

These people need our help and support. Simply shutting the door to the EU will not make the problem disappear or reduce the number of people trying to reach a better future.

JEAN LAMBERT MEP

GREEN PARTY, LONDON SE1

A lesson from the aviation industry

Sir: Joan Bakewell asks us to imagine a nuclear industry run to the same standards as some of our water companies (Opinion, 14 July).

This is not too difficult given this country's industrial record, but acceptable standards and profitability need not be mutually exclusive qualities. Commercial aviation has hardly been immune from cost pressures, but in the "developed" world at least, cost-cutting has not usually been responsible for major aviation accidents.

Some credit for this must be attributable to competent and powerful inspectorates in the form of the Civil Aviation Authority in the UK and the equivalent authorities elsewhere. Competent and powerful, because inspectorates must have necessary and sufficient authority in addition to their technical capability.

All industries and organisations where the well-being of customers or passengers or patients could be put at risk by poor practice should be subject to regular oversight by competent professionals. A similar argument applies to post-event investigation, with the emphasis on prevention of repetition rather than allocation of blame.

Would all this be expensive? Of course it would, but there is one aviation aphorism which with appropriate modification should be displayed on every chief executive's office wall, "If you think safety is expensive, try counting the cost of a crash".

NORMAN FOSTER

DUXFORD, CAMBRIDGESHIRE

Good riddance to the CSA

Sir: The news that the CSA is to be scrapped must be music to many ears. While most people - me included - sympathise with mothers who are not being supported by former partners, little has been done to highlight the financial burden the agency imposes on those who do pay.

Our household has had only one income for 18 months due my partner's pregnancy and subsequent time off to look after our baby, yet the agency thinks it appropriate to take 22 per cent of my take-home pay.

Using the Government's own figures, our family (and hence our two children) are living in poverty while my former wife rakes in a plethora of benefits which takes her weekly disposable income close to the £400-a-week mark.

Men such as myself who have moved on and are trying to support a second family are under incredible financial pressure and the strain that puts on a relationship is almost unbearable. Like most decent men, I want to pay towards my children, but the amount demanded by the CSA is far in excess of what could be described as reasonable.

Many people may not be aware that the agency does not take into account that a household may have only one wage-earner, nor does it count housing costs, or even personal wealth. I pay the same as a man on a similar income but with no mortgage, a partner earning £50,000 a year and £500,000 in the bank.

How this can be described as fair is a mystery to all but the CSA. Good riddance to this wretched system.

ANDREW GRAINGER

RIPLEY, DERBYSHIRE

Lottery is not a tax but a real benefit

Sir: I was surprised to see Philip Hensher describe the National Lottery as a "tax on idiocy" (Comment, 26 July).

The lottery is not a tax - on idiocy or anything else - because there is no compulsion to play. More than 70 per cent of the adult population play regularly, but they choose to buy those lottery tickets; they do not have a choice in paying income tax or VAT.

Since 1994, the National Lottery has raised more than £18.6bn for good causes, funding more than 238,000 individual awards and the largest programme of civic regeneration seen in the UK since the 19th century.

Thanks to the National Lottery, ambitious projects have been made a reality: the Eden Project, Tate Modern, the Angel of the North, the National Space Centre in Leicester, and the refurbishment of thousands of village halls across the UK.That does not sound so idiotic to me.

DIANNE THOMPSON

CHIEF EXECUTIVE, CAMELOT GROUP, WATFORD, HERTFORDSHIRE

Give and take

Sir: After the Office of Fair Trading ruling on credit-card over-limit charges my bank reduced their charge to £11 from £25, and simultaneously increased their interest rate to 13.9 per cent from 10.9 per cent. I believe most credit-card customers never pay over-limit charges but do pay interest so just who exactly has the OFT helped here?

JOHN RUDD

LITTLEBOROUGH, LANCASHIRE

Play the game

Sir: I was honoured to be bracketed with Wisden editors Matthew Engel and "some guy called John Woodcock" in Mark Ramprakash's report on ignorant cricket reporting ("What I learned this week", 22 July). Perhaps Mr Ramprakash should examine the enormous respect and affection there is for Woodcook throughout the game. As a cricket writer for more than half a century, he is right up there.

DAVID TOWNSEND

LONDON NW1

First-aid kit is no aid

Sir: In the feature "The ten best travel first-aid kits" (24 July), all the "remedies" in the Helios Homeopathy Travellers' kit are in the 30C dilution. Therefore, they contain no trace of the substance on the label. You pay £38.95 for sugar pills. To get even one molecule, you would have to swallow a sphere with a diameter equal to the distance from the Earth to the sun. That is hard to swallow. Helios was one of the companies pilloried by the Newsnight programme when their representative recommended homeopathic prevention of malaria. That was condemned even by some homeopaths as dangerous and irresponsible. It is simple. This "medicine" contains no medicine.

DAVID COLQUHOUN

PROFESSOR OF PHARMACOLOGY, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON, LONDON WC1E

Hot off the press

Sir: When buying The Independent at Sainsbury's via the self-checkout, the system requires me to call an assistant to verify that I am over the age of 16 before it approves the purchase. I ask why, and am told that it is "because of some of the content". I have had this same phrase offered several time, but nobody can enlighten me about the nature of the content. News, perhaps?

BARRY WILLS

LONDON W8

What bird flu?

Sir: The Government has reassured me that they consider the threat of bird flu has receded. I rang Defra to ask if the pheasant that had died on my doorstep could have had bird flu. "Oh no," I was told. "We don't have bird flu here. It probably died of natural causes."

KENNETH WILSON

WOLVERHAMPTON

Sadly missed

Sir: After the World Cup, an e-mail was sent to me saying Saddam Hussein, having been found guilty, requested the firing squad rather than the rope (article, 27 July). The e-mail said he asked if he could pick the firing squad, to include Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher and Frank Lampard.

D MARTIN

PRESTBURY, GLOUCESTERSHIRE