The Economist (2022-02-26) Riva

18 The Economist February 26th 2022
Letters

Rightsandwrongsofprotests

Youwerewrongtocriticise

JustinTrudeau’shandlingof

theprotestsinCanada(“No,

Canada”,February19th).These

werenotprotesters.These

wereoccupierswhosaidthey

wouldnotleaveuntiltheir

demandsweremet.Yousaid

thepolicealreadyhadample

powerstoquellthedisorder,

andyetittooktwocourtin-

junctionstostoptheincessant

airhornsandhonking.The

policehadtodealwithacore

groupshowingutterdisregard

fortherightsofOttawa’sresi-

dentstoenjoytheirhomes.

InvokingtheEmergenciesAct

wasnecessarytoremovethem.

Thiswasmorethanaques-

tionoffreespeech.Wewere

dealingwithagroupofwell-

fundedbullies.Thiswasnota

regularprotest.Thiswas

somethingelse.

madeleinecôte

Gatineau,Canada

Processing language

Johnson’s column on losing

native languages was out-

standing (January 29th). It is

true that a multilingual

person’s “first language is the

one most imbued with emo-

tions.” Our “mother tongue”

seems to be stored in both the

procedural (more emotionally

based) and explicit (or verbal)

parts of our brains. Subsequent

languages have fewer connec-

tions to procedural memory,

where neurons are fully

myelinated at birth, in contrast

with those of explicit memory,

which are myelinated during

the first three years of life.

Ribot’s law refers to the

clinical finding that people

with brain dysfunction may

have their first language skills

preserved intact. In 1843,

Jacques Lordat described a

priest from Languedoc whose

brain damage created

profound language deficits,

but only in French, his second

language. His native Occitan

was unaffected.

Such clinical findings offer

a fascinating window into the

way our brains process

language. In his book on

aphasia, Sigmund Freud made

thecontroversialbutnow

generallyacceptedclaimthat

languageisprocessedin

multiplebrainregions.

richardwaugaman

Clinicalprofessorof

psychiatry

GeorgetownUniversity

Washington,dc

IfoundJohnson’sessayboth

insightfulandmoving.Itmade

mereflectonmypersonal

journey,growingupin

Americabutspeakingonly

Cantoneseuntiltheageofsix.

Sincemymotherneverspoke

English,Iwasabletokeepup

withmyCantonese.In1980,at

theageof31,IwenttoHong

Kongforthefirsttimetosetup

mycookeryclassestherefor

foreignerswhowantedtolearn

aboutChinesecuisine.Being

inHongKongwasadéjàvu

experience,asIrecognisedthe

streetsfromChinesemoviesI

hadwatchedasachild.Iwas

alsodelightedtofindeveryone

speakingCantoneseand

lookinglikeme.Myfirsttv

seriesforthebbcincluded

manyclipsfromHongKong.I

stilllovehearingCantonese,

whetheronfilmorinmusic.

Beingbilingualhasgreatly

enrichedmylifeandmadefor

asurprisingcareer.

kenhom

Chefandauthor

Bangkok

ARussian precedent

I read your article on the

situation in Narva, a town in

Estonia close to the border

with Russia (“Who’s next?”,

February 5th). Today’s 80%

ethnic Russian majority is not

the result of a “legacy” of Narva

belonging to the Russian

empire and then to the Soviet

Union. In fact, at the end of the

1930s the overwhelming

majority of Narva’s inhabitants

were ethnically Estonian. The

demographic change was

made first in 1944 by Soviet

carpet bombing that destroyed

95% of buildings and forced

survivors to flee. The Soviets

then did not allow Estonian

citizens to return to their

hometown, which had become

part of a new Soviet military

uranium mining complex.

NativeEstonianswerenot

consideredtrustworthytolive

inthatarea.Theywere

replacedbypeopleresettled

fromtheSovietUnion.Today’s

Russianmajoritywascreated

bylocalethniccleansing.

tunnekelam

Tallinn,Estonia

Spreadingacrossthecountry

IreadyourreportontheBrit-

ishgovernment’sfindingsinto

“levellingup”(“Spreadingthe

jam”,February5th).Inour

Londonhouseholdwehave

colleagueswhohaveleftthe

cityandarebasedinplacesas

diverseasDevon,Hampshire,

LincolnandNottingham,all

earningsalarieswhichwould

putthemamongthehighest

earnersinthoseplaces.

Unfortunatelythisgovern-

mentappearstoviewworking

fromhomemoreasanocca-

sionforslothandindolence

thanfordistributingopportu-

nityequitablyacrossthecoun-

try.Thedebateonlevelsof

regionalspendingmaybe

valid,butitisfareasierto

believethatlevellingupwillbe

advancedbyexpandingaccess

towell-paidjobstoanybody

withaninternetconnection.

jamesosborne

London

Uganda’s oil projects

With regard to the develop-

ment of oil projects in Uganda,

you state that “land acquisi-

tion is always messy, and

politics brutal” (“Pipe dreams”,

February 5th). The East African

Crude Oil Pipeline project

proves it doesn’t have to be.

Uganda’s stringent legal frame-

work around land acquisition

provides important protec-

tions for people affected by

such projects. New homes,

substantial allowances for

disturbance and programmes

to restore livelihoods are

among the compensation

packages offered that are above

market rates.

People receive an addition-

al annual payment for each

year of delay, along with the

right to live on and farm their

lands until total compensation

is paid in full. Indeed, under

Ugandan law it is impossible

for someone to be relocated or

development work commence

until they have received

compensation in full.

Such laws concerning land

acquisition have not merely

been created by government,

or investors, but have been

codified after full consultation

with parliamentarians of all

parties, local and international

ngos and the affected commu-

nities themselves. There are

some individuals and ngos

who are opposed to this oppor-

tunity for Uganda’s economic

advancement through fossil

fuels. But it is a mistake to

believe loud voices mean they

are numerous. The numbers

speak for themselves. The

acceptance rate for compensa-

tion packages is over 97%.

irene batabe

Permanent secretary

Ministry of Energy and Mineral

Development

Kampala, Uganda

Sexy Gordon Brown

Bagehot described Gordon

Brown, a former British prime

minister, as “dour” (January

29th). That was not always the

case. I remember him running

for Lord Rector of Edinburgh

University in 1972. He can-

vassed the student vote sur-

rounded by a group of charm-

ing young women who were

known as “Brown’s Sugars”.

james hunter

Toronto

Asupergroup

You coined an acronym for

Meta, Alphabet, Amazon,

Microsoft and Apple: maama

(“Supersized ambitions”,

January 22nd). It would be

more fitting if they were

known as the maamas and the

paapas: Profits, Assets, Ambi-

tion, Power and Arrogance.

jeffrey perkins

Lowell, Massachusetts

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