Narrow outlook

Narrow outlook

Reading the letter entitled Back to traditional food (The Jakarta Post, Nov. 16, 1995), I think that the writer (name withheld) is narrow-minded. The "back to basics" program in terms of food should be seen in a broader meaning, instead of only literally interpreted.

I think the program is mainly directed toward the younger generation, who live in larger cities. With various foreign food outlets mushrooming (with their prestigious attributes) many young people have little chance to know the rich variety of our traditional food.

I also like eating foreign food, but as I eat new varieties of food in Ujung Pandang (I moved to this town quite recently for my new assignment) I increasingly realized how rich the traditional food is. It is to be lamented if society does not realize this reality.

Your suggestion that we should stop using such things as the telephone, television, computer and so on, is the most nonsense I have ever heard in my life. To use your logic, you should stop reading newspapers, which were a foreign invention.

MUHAMMAD ARIEF

Ujung Pandang, South Sulawesi