Quotes of the Day

Australia's New Leader
Why was the Howard government tossed out so decisively? [Dec. 3] All right, the economy was strong, but many Australians were saying, If things are so great, why am I not doing well? Howard was governing for the big end of town, not for all Australians. His industrial-relations policies were foreign to Australians and unwelcome. The scale of his defeat says it all.
Neville Lines,
Redcliffe, Queensland

John Howard worked tirelessly as an M.P. for 33 years and our Prime Minister for almost 12. His list of achievements far outweighed his mistakes. While the far left will be celebtrating his defeat for months, the fact is that he lost because Australians wanted a change and Kevin Rudd campaigned brilliantly, offering a low-risk "me too" alternative but with sharp differences from unpopular Howard policies, particularly industrial relations, where his campaign was helped by a multimillion-dollar campaign by the trade union movement. Howard will be remembered as an outstanding PM who ultimately outstayed his welcome. Good luck, Mr. Howard, and thank you for your service.
Nick White,
Brisbane

Re your story on Kevin Rudd: he's a goose who lives in "Brissie," calls children kids and youngsters littlies. He eats his own ear wax, and now he is on your cover. Let's hope that as Australian Prime Minister he will not be the nerd he has proven to be so far, and that we won't cringe every time he appears in public the way we did with his Labor predecessor, Paul Keating.
Martin Bellm,
Rowville, Victoria

Your article on Australia's Kevin07 election was thought-provoking. Just one question remains: After Sir Robert Menzies' reign as the longest-serving Australian PM, the Liberal Party tried a series of leaders without electoral success. John Howard was the country's second-longest-serving PM. Now that his heir apparent Peter Costello has declined to stand as opposition leader, will we see history repeating itself?
Murray Hunter,
Waitakere city, new zealand

Mind Your Morals
The article's title, "What Makes Us Moral," contains the basic mistake we make in trying to understand ourselves and our fellow human beings [Dec. 3]. Nothing makes us anything. We make choices, which then affect our brain chemistry. In trying to be scientific, we often reverse the relationship. While Jeffrey Kluger may value the choices we make, he did not use the word choices in his examination of morality. The connection we have with our community is a powerful factor in how we choose to behave, of course, and we do place others outside our community. This can help us understand how a person we label a terrorist can be considered a hero within his community. We have much work to do yet.
Tom Edgar,
Boise, Idaho

I was amazed that your long article managed to avoid any mention of religion's role in support of morality. On that subject, a comment by former auxiliary Archbishop of Sydney Michael Sheehan is apt: "It may be objected that in many countries today large sections of the population either deny or ignore the existence of God and yet are well-behaved. We reply that these are people whose good habits have been derived from believing parents or from other Christian influences; that the momentum of Christianity by which they are now being carried along will inevitably spend itself in this or a future generation, and that their atheism, which removes the only effective check on sin, will inevitably lead to moral degradation and the destruction of human society. Atheism is mankind's greatest enemy."
Derek Blackburn,
Auckland

Morality is bunk. What separates man from the beasts is the capacity to reason. Yet we seldom do since we're too busy moralizing. Reason is the only frontier left.
Gary E. Nordell,
Belen, New Mexico

Morality, like religion, is inculcated by family and fostered by community. It is the glue that binds a family together. When morality is thrown to the winds, license takes over, and one can witness the slow but sure unraveling of every part of society, similar to what is currently happening in the West. As human beings, we have the capacity to think, reason, elevate our minds and arrive at a rational decision without laying blame at anyone else's door. Immorality is not endemic. We have the distinct choice of being upright or engaging in forbidden behavior.
Maria Jacob,
Mississauga, Canada

While the insights you reported are astounding, science is ultimately unable to address the nature of morality with any degree of certainty. For scientists to pin our hope on the possibility that "the struggles still to come are fewer than those left behind" is merely blowing in the wind. Better that scientists explore the vast realm of unanswered questions while staying within scientific parameters. Although they accurately describe the mysterious condition of the "planet's most noble creatures," they have not moved one iota beyond the ancient biblical description of beings made in the image of God.
Al Hoksbergen,
Spring Lake, Michigan

I wish that you would stop featuring cover stories claiming scientific discoveries of human nature.These questions should be equally explored from the perspective of the humanities. Reports like this subtly reinforce the idea that science is the best way of knowing. Even your cover picture implied that a question as mysterious as our capacity for good and evil could be answered with the reductionist idea that it's all in our brains.
Luke Tiagainesville,
Florida

Your four choices of people to represent goodness suggest that you have confused being good with being peaceful. Some of the world's heroes have had to resort to violence to solve their problems. Take, for instance, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson in the American Revolution. They not only gained America's independence but also set up a secular system of government that has since served as a model for the rest of the world.
Chan Jan Lin,
Singapore

The universe is amoral. It is an endless series of creative and destructive processes. As creatures of the universe, we are immutably subject to its ways and thus have the capacity to brutalize and destroy as well as create and protect.
James M. Ridgway Jr.,
Tucson, Arizona

Surely in trying to analyze the causes of human behavior we are unwise to ignore the spiritual? The Psalmist says to God, "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made," and the Apostle Paul recognizes that "when I want to do good, evil is right there with me." It seems clear to me that it is by God's design that we human beings are like this. It is not just a matter of our "gray cells."
David Caudery,
Blackburn, Victoria

Migration's Two-Way Streeet
Your map showing migration trends in Europe showed 33,500 Australians migrating to the U.K. each year [Dec. 3]. To paint a more realistic picture, you should also have included the numbers migrating from Britain to Australia (around 70,000 in 2006).
Evelyn Krull,
Adelaide, South Australia

Naps for Healthy Hearts
I was interested to see that a study found that people who take 30-minute naps three times a week are 37% less likely to die from heart disease [Dec. 3]. I would question whether it's solely because blood pressure drops just before you fall asleep. People who work at high-stress jobs are probably too wound up to take a half-hour nap, which says volumes about stress-related hormone levels. It's probably not worth forcing yourself to take a nap to ward off heart disease. A better solution might be to change jobs to reduce stress. Denis Alarie,
Timmins, Ontario

Where to Work?
Re "Getting to the Top," in your Best Countries for Business package [Nov. 26]: I'm fed up with some intellectuals and political élitists who preach that democracy is secondary to economic prosperity for the developing world. Humans have the same desires and feelings wherever they live, and democracy is God's gift to humanity, even though power mongers have always deprived people of democratic rights. Sustainable development that can benefit all citizens, however, can be achieved only through concerted and collective effort by the state and the private sector. Economic growth and democracy should go hand in hand; one should not precede the other. Abebe Areru,
Addis Ababa

Justin Fox wrote a very good article on Denmark. He noted that its per capita income trails that of the U.S., but salaries here tend to be higher than in Britain. And while it might be easier to fire a worker in Denmark than elsewhere in Europe, companies must follow strict rules that require advance notice of termination. I have been a resident of Denmark since 1989, and I have no desire to return to Britain. John Barton,
Vejle, Denmark

Despite creating ripples in the business world of late, India was nearly last in your competitiveness ranking. This is because India has not bridged the huge gap between the haves and the have-nots. Countries like India should emphasize economic equality so that they can climb the global business ladder. K. Chidanand Kumar,
Bangalore, India