Bush's ideas

Does new U.S. President George W. Bush's first act in office come from the same area of lobotomized consciousness that once caused his father, in pre-presidential days, saying in a Senate debate on the proposed Alaska pipeline, "I really don't know what all the fuss is about. The caribou love it. They rub up against it and have babies"?

Are Bush Jr.'s ideas of conception of much the same order? The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch has issued a statement deploring the new incumbent's move on family planning in the following terms, "By issuing this executive order, President Bush undermines the principle of free expression that has been and should be a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy".

International advocates of women's health are being told to sacrifice the right to free expression in exchange for U.S. funding. It is difficult to disagree with Human Rights Watch.

Bush, whose experience of foreign travel is far less than the average backpacker or package tourist, would have no idea of what a Third World slum looks like. Probably, he does not have any idea what a U.S. slum looks like either. What would he know about the necessity of family planning advocacy among the world's poor?

I dread to think what he has in store for us on the environmental front, where his oil industry friends will most certainly have his ear.

DAVID JARDINE

Jakarta