The Economist - USA (2021-02-20)

14 The Economist February 20th 2021
Letters

Disarming features

The dangers of nuclear prolif-

eration and confrontation

cannot be understated (“Who

will go nuclear next?”, January

30th). However, the Treaty on

the Prohibition of Nuclear

Weapons represents much

more than a means of chan-

nelling “the frustration among

nuclear have-nots.” It may not

magically eliminate the

world’s nuclear arsenal, but it

does set a moral and legal

starting point for long-term

efforts towards disarmament,

which nuclear powers have an

obligation and special respon-

sibility to take up.

The treaty outlaws the use,

development, production,

testing and stockpiling of

nuclear weapons, formalises a

strongly held taboo against

their use and fills a legal gap. It

provides a further disincentive

against proliferation.

Given that the ultimate goal

is to ensure that a nuclear

detonation never takes place

again, perhaps the treaty’s

most obvious effect is the

further stigmatisation of nu-

clear weapons. This makes it

less probable that one will be

detonated in the future.

robert mardini

Director-general

International Committee of

the Red Cross

Geneva

You noted that Japan’s devel-

opment of reprocessing will

bring it closer to a nuclear-

weapons capability. The

situation is significantly worse

than you describe. In fact,

France has reprocessed 47

tonnes of Japanese reactor

plutonium, separating out

weapons-usable plutonium

and returning 11 tonnes of it to

Japan. It now has enough

plutonium to produce well

above 1,000 nuclear weapons.

To say that Japan is a latent

nuclear power is perhaps an

understatement. It is months,

not years, from a weapon

should it choose to build one.

The stockpiling of commer-

cially produced plutonium is a

serious proliferation problem.

bruce goodwin

Pleasanton, California

Priestley’s prejudice

Bagehot presented an idyllic

view of J.B. Priestley’s “English

Journey” (January 23rd). A

closer reading proffers a darker

side to this “hero” of left-wing

politics, in his description of

the Irish in Liverpool:

A great many speeches have

been made and books written

on the subject of what England

has done to Ireland. I should be

interested to hear a speech and

read a book or two about what

Ireland has done to England. If

we do have an Irish Republic as

our neighbour, and it is found

possible to return her exiled

citizens, what a grand clear-

ance there will be in all the

western ports, from the Clyde

to Cardiff, what a fine exit of

ignorance and dirt and drunk-

enness and disease.

This message was not too

dissimilar to that spewed by

Enoch Powell some 30 years

later, and Donald Trump much

too recently.

a.d. pellegrini

Bloomington, Minnesota

Chinese friends

I enjoyed your special report

on Chinese youth (January

23rd). I lecture in English to

Chinese undergraduates at

Cambridge and across China.

Their desire to learn about our

culture is so impressive. It

stands in stark contrast to the

lack of interest in China by the

West’s young. In 2020 there

were very few undergraduates

studying Chinese at Cam-

bridge University; there were

more reading Anglo-Saxon.

Youngsters must be encour-

aged to learn about China.

Appreciation of its rich culture

and the formation of friend-

ships should not be inhibited

by our political differences

with its leadership.

nicholas chrimes

Guest professor

Guangzhou University

Covid comparisons

One thesis of your article

comparing California to Texas

in the pandemic is that there is

less difference than one might

expect, despite their divergent

strategies (“Life, liberty”, Feb-

ruary 6th). Texas had 127

deaths per 100,000 people

compared with 104 in Cali-

fornia. That is a difference of

one-fifth, quite significant

given that the economic

impacts of both strategies are

similar. If two firms achieved

that difference in profit in the

same market we’d laud one

over the other. If they swapped

death rates it would amount to

thousands of fewer deaths in

Texas and thousands more

deaths in California.

The pandemic perhaps

reaffirms Stalin’s maxim that

one death is a tragedy, a mil-

lion deaths a statistic.

aaron mckenna

Dublin

Intense minorities

“Into the lion's den” (January

23rd) mentioned that only 23%

of the Russian public think

political protests are possible,

making a revolution unlikely.

However, Erica Chenoweth, a

political scientist at Harvard,

has demonstrated that it takes

only 3.5% of a population to

protest to bring about change.

The possibility of a Navalnyan

revolution should not yet be

written off in Russia. Revolu-

tions are always impossible,

until they are inevitable.

viktor sundman

Stockholm

The extraordinary efforts of

despots to prevent their citi-

zens from voting “for the

wrong people” (“The meaning

of Myanmar’s coup”, February

6th), calls to mind a question

posed by Bertolt Brecht after

the East German uprising

against Soviet rule: “Would it

not in that case be simpler, for

the government to dissolve the

people and elect another?”

augustus haney

New York

Moore’s law for lasers

The Technology Quarterly on

understanding light was excel-

lent (January 9th). I agree with

your assertion that there “is no

grand sweep to laser devel-

opment akin to Moore’s law for

chips...different types of laser

improve according to different

measures and at different

rates.” However, the funda-

mental economics of semi-

conductor lasers have indeed

been improving at a rate simi-

lar to Moore’s law. Just as

integrated circuits empowered

a broad range of applications

that improved at different

rates, high-power semicon-

ductor lasers have been getting

better at an extraordinarily

rapid rate (similar to Moore’s

law) and are similarly enabling

other solid-state lasers in a

wide range of applications.

As Paul Romer argues, “We

consistently fail to grasp how

many ideas remain to be dis-

covered...possibilities do not

merely add up; they multiply.”

scott keeney

Vancouver, Washington

A knack for shacks

Regarding the “Spread of the

shed” (January 23rd) as more

people work from home, my

former hen house on our

property in rural Ontario has

been transformed into my Zen

house, with recycled windows

and scrap lumber. From its

picture window I can spy on an

immature bald eagle in a dis-

tant tree-top, I can read my

international weekly news

magazine and write in my

notebook, enjoy the peace and

luxury of device-free sur-

roundings in a bug-free space

and think non-covid thoughts.

jane de jong

Chatsworth, Canada

George Bernard Shaw’s garden

shed, shown in a photograph

in your article, was named

“London”. This meant that

when someone came to his

home, his housekeeper would

be able truthfully to say, “Sorry,

he’s not here; he’s in London,”

ensuring greater peace and

quiet for his writing.

william newsom

Weston Bampfylde, Somerset

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