Frankel mea culpa

Okay, okay, even I can make mistakes. I was well aware that Abramic was likely a former Yugoslav or Czechoslovakian name [Letters, Jan. 22]. I did not mean to say that Edward Abramic was an Arab (although there's nothing wrong with that), but upon checking, I certainly did. Palestinian or Arab sympathizer would have been more appropriate. I guess I was tired.

Notwithstanding, I thought I had implied that, although approaching from different points of view, our opinions as to what is necessary for the future were not that far apart.

Neither of us seems to have much sympathy for zealots who claim God gave them the right to (in effect) do wrong. We both seem to favour a two-state solution. My issue is always how to best accomplish that.

Where we differ is that I believe the Palestinians are more the victims of fellow Arabs who have never yet taken an action that has helped them, than of Israelis. Yasser Arafat is the worst leader they could have from the point of view of helping his people, yet they will not dismiss him.

He is as good for Palestinians as Robert Mugabe is for Zimbabwe. While Israel has no doubt at times violated human rights and needs to answer for that, they are at war and that happens. Certainly they need get no human rights lessons from the PLO or other Arab governments nor any lessons in international law from the consistently anti-Israeli UN.

So let's work towards the only possible solution that would bring peace to the region. A state for each of the two groups, recognized by all and within reasonable (non-Bantustanlike) borders.

But to do that, both parties have to halt violence against the other and talk. They also have to abandon their two great modern myths, that the Israeli settlements can exist within Palestinian territory and that the Palestinian refugees can go back to Israel or have Israel pay for their misery.

Can you support this, Mr. Abramic, or is it just Israel's fault and they have to pay?

» Ken Frankel

Resto Bizarro bad

Whenever I get to your Resto column I first look to see who wrote it. If it's Alice and Yanka I go no further. Do you really call that a restaurant review? It's pathetic and an insult to those who are in that line of work (I'm not, though). It's not even good writing. Need I say more?

» Terry Pigeon

Whoever approved the restaurant review the week of Jan. 15 [Resto Bizarro] really ought to have their head examined. I could be wrong - you know what the demographics are and perhaps your reading audience likes a vulgar, adolescent writing style that is completely wrong.

When Alice and Yanka come out of their drug-induced stupor, let them know they cost me $20 on some of the most disgusting Indian food in Montreal.

There are heaps of good Indian restaurants on Jean-Talon (like Bombay Mahal) that make the Anarkali the joke that it is. The real joke is those two wacked-out wannabe journalists writing a review of any kind.

Shame on all the editors over there at the Mirror who let that one slip into your otherwise fine paper. That mistake cost the unfortunate people who read the review and went to the restaurant some hard-earned cash. That mistake also cost your paper its credibility in the restaurant review department.

Maybe it would be more fitting if Alice and Yanka reviewed a drug rehabilitation facility in the future. Stoned and stupid is no way to go through life.

» Chris Spillane

Strike science

I'm responding to a column written by Kristian Gravenor [The Kristian Perspective] that appeared on Nov. 20 and to a letter written by a Mr. Underwood that appeared in the Mirror on Dec. 4. My response time may seem slow but I think what I have to say is still pertinent - especially if the rumour that there may be another strike by maintenance workers at the STM is true.

Mr. Gravenor's views were typical of what my own might have been when I was a graduate student in biology. I was a good scientist because I had access to certain scientific information, but I did not have access to the proper information to come up with a good analysis of public-transport strikes - though I did have an inkling that nobody goes on strike for fun or simply out of malevolence.

Today I have more information and I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Underwood that the management, not the workers, were to blame. I was working in construction downtown and I was hit hard by the strike, but I don't blame the strikers; I blame those in management who did not keep their word, who reneged on an agreement and who forced the workers to strike.

» Isabelle Narayana

Correction:

In our visual arts winter preview [Icicles and icing," Jan. 15], Steve Topping should have been included as a collaborator with Ana Rewakowicz in Icicle Bubble, a performance in conjunction with the Liane and Danny Taran Gallery's exhibition, The Weather.

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