The Economist - USA (2020-09-05)

14 The EconomistSeptember 5th 2020

Lettersarewelcomeandshouldbe

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Letters

I want the world to know

Your interesting article on the

coming-out experiences of gay

people did not mention the

widespread institutionalised

discrimination they face in

eastern Europe (“Queer, there

and everywhere”, August 8th).

In Russia a recent referendum

contained a draft amendment

banning same-sex marriage. In

Poland Andrzej Duda, the

president, declared during his

re-election campaign in June

that gays “are not people” but

are worse than Bolshevism,

and that gay marriage is out of

the question for Poland.

Just days after his swear-

ing-in ceremony, the police

used heavy-handed tactics

against demonstrators who

were protesting against the

detention of a gay activist; 48

were arrested. The police

claimed the protesters were

being disruptive and denied

them access to lawyers.

You wrote about a generally

more tolerant world for gay

people, but there are still

places in Europe where dis-

crimination and bigotry are

entrenched and where equality

before the law does not exist.

piotr zientara

Associate professor of

economics

University of Gdansk

“Tolerance” of gay people is

progress, but it is not a Utopia

of respect, acceptance and

celebration of differences. Yes,

more of us are coming out, and

earlier, but it is still not easy. I

don’t want to settle for “gay

rights”. I want equal rights.

Pride events are visible be-

cause they are unusual. For the

rest of the year we check our

surroundings before holding

hands, even in San Francisco or

London. Most American states

still allow the panic defence,

which allows someone to

claim temporary insanity if

they attack a gay person. And

gay sex is still illegal in nearly

70 countries.

I have been out for decades

and have grown used to being

told that things are fine for us

now, and that I should be grate-

ful for other people’s tolerance.

I was delighted when you

calledforequalmarriage 24

yearsago(“Letthemwed”,

January6th1996).Butplease

considera placeforusgay

folksbeyondbeingtolerated.

jonhuggett

AllOut

SanFrancisco

Advertisingcosts

Youreconomicsbriefon

competitionarguedthatwere

“themarketlessconcentrated”

fordigitaladvertising,thecost

forfirmsmightfall(“From

hospitalitytohipsterism”,

August8th).Thisignoresone

oftheuniqueaspectsofthe

businessmodelofthedigital-

advertisingplatforms:

negativemarginalcosts.

Machinelearning,which

powerstheseadvertising

systems,isfamouslydata

hungry.Themodelsthatserve

adsgetbetterwithscale.

Thesenegativemarginal

costsarea bigreasonwhy

manybelievethatbreakingup

theplatformswillultimately

beineffective.Theother

dimensionofdigitaladvertis-

ingisthatadvertisersgetvalue

forshowingdigitaladsthatare

morerelevantintheselarge-

scalesystems.I, forone,enjoy

seeingadsrelatedtomy

interestinTheEconomiston

GoogleandFacebook.

mattstone

SanFrancisco

A lovely place to live

I enjoyed your special report

on the Midwest (July 25th),

though you were dismissive of

rural areas. My small home-

town in Minnesota is sur-

rounded by the hills and hard-

wood forests of the unglaciated

Driftless Area. A state-of-the-

art school opened in 2017. A

60-mile paved bike-trail winds

through the limestone bluffs of

the Root river valley. The pro-

fessional Commonweal The-

atre Company operates year-

round in a neighbouring town.

Within an hour’s drive are nine

colleges and universities, the

Mayo Clinic and Medical

School, the Minnesota Beetho-

ven Festival and the Minnesota

Marine Art Museum. In Fill-

more county, which is nearly

thesizeofLuxembourgbut

hasn’ta singlefour-laneroad,

noonecomplainsabouttraffic.

Ourruralareashavean

extraordinarilyproductive

agriculturalsector,vibrant

smallbusinesses,inexpensive

housing,lowcrime,anda

senseofcommunity.Nominal

incomeandgdpperperson

maylagbehindthatofour

cities,butourqualityoflifeis

secondtonone.

davidschober

Rushford,Minnesota

Whydidyourefertothosewho

liveincountryareasas“folk”

whiletheircitycounterparts

are“dwellers”?Canyounot

dwellinthecountryside,oris

sucha wordtoosophisticated

forsuchfolk?Whynotgo

furtherandcallthem

bumpkins?Alternatively,both

couldbereferredtoaspeople.

fintantuohy

Zurich

Confrontation at sea

Your piece on the eastern

Mediterranean was very

interesting (“Battling over

boundaries”, August 22nd). But

you didn’t mention Britain,

apart from the briefest refer-

ence to British support for

Kurdish fighters. Britain has

traditionally played a historic

role in eastern Mediterranean

affairs, and has strategically

important Sovereign Base

Areas in Cyprus. Could one

have a more eloquent com-

mentary on Britain’s decline in

international relevance, pre-

sumably fuelled by Brexit? We

don’t even rate a mention.

sir david madden

Oxford

Turkey’s situation is particu-

larly tragic, as it actually has a

good case for getting Greece’s

exclusive economic zones

(eez) reduced. If only it

pursued legal channels in good

faith. Virtually all island

disputes that have been

brought to international

arbitration, from St Pierre and

Miquelon by Newfoundland,

to the Kerkennah Islands by

Libya, have resulted in smaller

eezs for islands that are far

from a country’s mainland.

Kastellorizo in particular,

would seem to have little claim

to an eez. It is only a mile off

the coast of Turkey and nearly

100 miles east of Rhodes, with

only a few hundred residents,

and virtually no economy. The

tragedy though, is that no one

can take Turkey seriously

when it instead thunders about

its “blue homeland” and signs

agreements with Libya that

pretend Crete and Rhodes are

no different from Kastellorizo.

magnus westergren

New York

Raise a glass!

I was surprised that you did not

include the contribution of

John Snow in your perspective

on pandemics and economic

expansion (“Cleanliness is

next to growth”, August 1st).

Snow established that cholera

is a water-borne disease, laying

the groundwork for the science

of epidemiology. Like many

public-health professionals, I

made a pilgrimage to the site of

the Broad Street Pump in

London’s Soho, which Snow

identified as the source of a

cholera outbreak, and stopped

at the John Snow pub.

edward cosgrove

Needham Board of Health

Needham, Massachusetts

Yorkminster parliament

Andrew Adonis rightly

criticised you for mocking the

idea of Parliament relocating

to York (Letters, August 22nd).

In 1963 you argued that

“nobody really believes” in

Britain’s local democracy

(“Federal Britain’s new

frontiers”, May 18th 1963). That

is as true today as it was then.

At the time you called for the

creation of a federal Britain to

be organised by regions, with

its capital, Elizabetha, located

near that northern city.

chris keating

Liverpool