Learning from each other

We must give full marks to that great Italian crusader, Piero Ronci, for his dogged determination to, at every opportunity, expose his anti-British sentiment, whether it is denouncing all footballers who ever kicked a ball on UK turf, berating commentators who dare to use English when waxing poetically about the great game of soccer, conducting a single handed campaign to protect Indonesians from the "corrupting influence" of the English language. And now, the latest, highly predictable input from him in attempting to further demean anything remotely British is his gross oversimplification of the mad cow crisis.

Other worthier commentators have taken him to task about his arrant nonsense about football, and his ratings about the English language, and I have no doubt that at this moment someone is preparing to demolish his provocative comments about BSE (mad cow disease).

My point in writing is, at this moment, not to engage in an unseemly comparison of the merits of his home country versus my home country, as to do so would crassly insult the hundreds of Italian expatriates who live here, some of them friends of mine, and who somehow manage to live in harmony in this cosmopolitan community. No, my point, is to invite him to come clean over why he feels qualified to speak for the Indonesian people on such an astonishing range of topics. Tell us, Piero, who are you? What are you?

Let us know through the medium of these letters so that, who knows, we may learn to respect your opinions as someone who has special skills, knowledge and experience. It is indeed incredible that Italy, that country of infinite beauty, an earlier cradle of civilization, and birthplace of so many painters, musicians, architects and so on, bringing civilization to the world, can a generation or two later spew out such a contradiction as yourself.

BILL GUERIN

Jakarta