'Der Spiegel' and windows

I don't understand the worries about the muckraking Der Spiegel. We have had our share of bad press. During the eighties, to shave a little face value off the debt papers -- or most of the time to hide creditors banks' blunders -- the best way was to run a couple of bad articles about Brazil.

The jokes there go like this: when Der Spiegel wants to hire a new journalist they give him a bee hive. If he starts throwing away the honey and eating the bees he gets the job: He shows good negative potential. When they send him out they give him a pair of dark glasses so he can paint the issue he is covering with darker colors. I would advise someone going to Germany to read Der Spiegel behind closed windows. Because if you read such gloomy articles in the gray December days (and take them seriously) you may have thoughts that life is not worth living and may jump out of the window.

OSVALDO COELHO

Bandung, West Java