Quotes of the Day

Haiti's Recovery
Natural disasters — earthquakes, storms and floods are not acts of God, they are natural disasters, period [Feb. 8]. What is an act of God is the generous help that is pouring into Haiti from all over the world. As your article clearly points out, "... Haiti's history of corruption and turmoil has helped keep the country poor ... unscrupulous contractors take kickbacks and building codes go unenforced." Let us just not put the blame on God for this tragedy, or it may very well happen again.
George A. de Beer
Randburg, South Africa

In none of your coverage of the disaster in Haiti has there been any mention of the 200-strong medical and rescue team from Israel. They worked around the clock pulling people from under the debris, performing operations and even delivering babies. They were the first to arrive and were surrounded by medical teams from Russia, Colombia and the U.K. It was the same in the recent Turkish earthquake, the same Israeli team was there, and I looked in vain, in various media, for a hint of it.
Yan Sever
Karmiel, Israel

Score This!
Does Klein recall the final exam of his high school senior English course [Feb. 8]? If he believes standardized testing is such an effective indicator of teaching success, did he succeed in his chosen profession because of that exam or despite it? Is that what he remembers most clearly about the greatest teachers he had? Or was it something else?
Mark Cebulski
Milwaukee

Counting Candles
Having recently celebrated the 7th anniversary of my 49th birthday (to count Gibbs' way), I can appreciate every single one of her comments about birthdays through the ages [Feb. 8]. Replace the 4 1/2 birthday party memory, however, with the one surprise party I ever had: twelve 12-year-olds hidden in our basement as I came home from the hairdresser, to celebrate my 12th. Gibbs paints so many perfect pictures, from the birth of a child with "no instruction manual, no warranty" to the middle-age years "when we are suspended between twin poles" of the needs of our parents and children. It's comforting to know I'm not going through this alone.
Kay Rolland
Boulogne Billancourt, France

Nice one, Nancy. So true! I wonder if you have any grandchildren yet — their birthdays are very special.
Gordon Munro
Randburg, South Africa

Peace Under Siege
Tim McGirk's article, "Digging Up Trouble" was interesting but inflammatory [Feb. 8]. Unless your readers lived under the stressful conditions of daily life in Israel, they cannot really gauge the situation. In spite of what is written in the media, there is much goodwill on both sides and they should be left alone to solve their problems. As McGirk says, the situation is very delicate. We should not pour fuel on the flames.
Hugh Talbot
Johannesburg, South Africa

What Israeli archaeologists and Elad are doing is outrageous. They give themselves the right to demolish Palestinian dwellers' houses and force them to move without authorization and respect for human rights. Acting like this will not bring peace. Why on earth do people do such things in the name of religion? The same blood flows in our veins.
Stephane Leap
Paris

Made with Love
I loved your article "A Handmade World" [Jan. 25]. People often ask me why I chose to do mechanical engineering and not computers or electronics. And I always have to find words to explain that I like to see things happening. I like to see the pistons being pushed by steam, or objects moving as a result of a force, instead of working with wires where you can't see the resistance or compilers and processors executing algorithms. This article has given a single word to my long explanation — I am a steampunk.
Manav Sachdeva
Johannesburg, South Africa