Garbage

A "member of the human race" recently wrote a letter (The Jakarta Post, June 7,1995) complaining about some letters being nauseating, although I have never felt anything nauseating in letters written by A. Djuana. Some people, who do not like anything somewhat moralizing, may find they are not politically correct.

On the other hand, the exchange of letters about garbage was indeed nauseating. Other letters falling into this category are the recent exchange of letters between Mr Graeme St. John (June 14, 1995) and Mr Piero Ronci (June 17), who find nothing more exciting than exchanging garbage, truths and half-truths.

Those writers should be careful at what they hurl at each other: they use a double-edged sword for failing to be certain of what they say. If, according to Mr St. John, Latin is a form of colonialism, English follows its path and penetrates all other languages on earth. There may be fat singing ladies in Italy but no more than in other parts of the world.

Before writing, Mr Ronci should have read his history books before scornfully stating that 2000 years ago, "when Rome was an Empire, Britons were still playing with bludgeons in the caves."

First, Caesar himself wrote, "Of all the Britons, those that inhabit the Cantii (present day Kent) are the most civilized." He never said the least barbarous. In fact, they had a society with a very democratic structure. Some 300 years before Caesar, the Greek navigator Pytheas (the first Greek to explore Britain) mentioned an advanced civilization on the island.

Very sophisticated art works, dated 400 years BC, have been unearthed and when Caesar invaded Britain, the artistic standards were very high indeed. Ruins of stone fortresses dated the fourth century BC are still standing.

Celtic clothing was very sophisticated. As the Celts seem to have invented soap, they were probably cleaner than (or at least as clean as) the Romans.

The Celts knew medicine and surgery (skulls unearthed show signs of trephining operations). They had an ancestor of medicare, whereby those who needed treatment could get it. I do not remember learning that the Romans had such a system.

The facts show that Britons were very far indeed from being cavemen! Maybe Mr Ronci got his dates confused and was talking about 10,000 BC. But then, there were neither Romans nor Britons.

Now that we are in the field of history, The Jakarta Post, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II and the fall of the dictators, could have reminded the readers that Sunday, June 18, 1995 was the 180th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, which ended Napoleon's dictatorship.

ALEX WOLVESPERGES

Medan, North Sumatra