Hi Gilbert
The font you use is not Plain Text and consequently, my replies specifically
to your posts cannot be acessed in Plain Text and this may be the reason
they have not appeared on Goanet. I am also surprised that Goanet accepts
your font when it has repeatedly requested us to use Plain Text.
I hope somebody on Goanet notes what I have said and that you receive this
post. If this note does not appear, I will contact you re the above point
privately.
Regards
Cornel
----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <goanet@goanet.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2006 2:22 AM
Subject: [Goanet] Response to Danish editor's letter
Hi Carsten Juste,
(Editor of the newspaper that published the controversial cartoons.)
I read with interest your letter on your web page about the "No Holocaust
cartoons....." I saw the interview that your cultural editor, Rose
Flemming, gave to CNN where he offered to establish contact with the
Iranian paper and then publish defamatory cartoons about Jewish and
Christian faiths to balance the cartoons on Mohamed and Islam. I also saw
the interview of your Prime Minister on CNN.
Here are my thoughts.
My wife and I would love to write a story on this whole saga from a Danish
perspective, from a Muslim perspective and an American perspective. The
title of the book would be "OOPS".
I still cannot understand how a nice small peaceful Scandinavian country
like Denmark, which never had any third world colony, could be the center
of an international North-South controversy.
I cannot believe that you appointed Flemming Rose as a cultural editor of
your newspaper. What were you thinking? In hindsight, this was the first
OOPS of the whole saga.
Then you allowed your newspaper to publish your "tasteless media stunt",
which of course was repeated by a few other newspapers in a few other
countries. This shows that a few newspaper editors also love stunts, to
perhaps increase their circulation. Congratulation on your decisions not
to publish any more "tasteless media stunts" from your past published
library or from Iranian papers.
In pursuit of the whole story, I checked your web site (where I saw your
letter) hoping to see the cartoons; which are at the center of this
international controversy. Unfortunately I did not find any. Hmm, I wonder
why?
Mr. Rose during his current leave, should be made to read the book "How to
win friends and influence people". I cannot understand how a discussion
of sketches on Mohamed for a children's book becomes a caricature contest
for a newspaper. Then perhaps your lack of knowledge or plain
insensitivity (from past experiences) leads now to an international
controversy.
I think the Danish government as reflected by your Prime Minister's
actions and interviews, badly handled the subsequent fallout. President
Bush had some wise things to say about this controversy. Yet, our American
Secretary of State managed to make "Rice Pudding" of this whole episode.
I think the Muslims were "off the cliff" in their protests. To go to the
point of having loss of their OWN life and property in protesting what
someone 3000 miles away did or did not do is just insane.
This whole episode, on both sides, is NOT a "Clash of Civilizations" but
rather a "Clash of Chaos" which stems for ignorance and indifference,
which has led to enmity. A lot of good can come out of this unfortunate
episode. As a smart editor, I am sure you have noticed that many
international incidents including wars, specially the current Iraq war,
started off as a series of false beliefs or "OOPS" or as your web letter
put it "Error of Judgement(s)".
I wish you all the best. We would love to do the story on the story.
Regards, Gilbert A. Lawrence,