The Prague Post Online: Opinion: Letters to the Editor

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Letters to the Editor

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April 4th, 2007 issue

Concert regrets

I read with interest your recent story (“Visa snafu strands musician,” News, March 28–April 3) and appreciate the opportunity to make a couple of points. First, I emphasize that the United States always seeks to deepen the cultural ties between the United States and the Czech Republic. In 2006, over 200 Czech entertainers, musicians and athletes — nearly all those applying — traveled to the United States on “P” visas. Additionally, we issued scores of tourist/business visas for people whose scheduled events met the qualifications to perform on that type of visa.

Second, all applicants whose cases are suspended, or “postponed,” as the article states, are given a letter stating that they may return to the embassy at a designated time to resolve their case. We sincerely regret that there was any confusion in Mr. Poslední’s case. We have spoken with him about the situation and hope that it has been resolved to his satisfaction. Customer service remains our top priority and we are always looking for ways to improve our services. We have initiated simplified application procedures for students and business people and hope to make the visa process as transparent and easy to navigate as possible.

Mario Mesquita
Acting Consul General
American Embassy, Prague

Climate fears

Thanks to President Václav Klaus for delivering the message to the U.S. Congress (“Be afraid,” Opinion, March 28–April 3). The U.S. government needs to hear the consequences of heeding to the demands of a few who would like to demolish free-market economies and replace them with a system that was failed from the start.

Leninism forced poverty upon the majority of people of a number of formerly prosperous countries in the name of sacrifice for the “state.”

Leninism was nothing more than a system of favoritism, and the same is true in the parallel case — only the consequences of demands made by “environmentalists” will be more severe for those least able to withstand the economic burdens.

I am an atmospheric physicist and state flatly: A perceived connection between carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel combustion and climate variation is nothing more than a belief based upon emotion alone because there is no mechanism by which such climate variation can occur, and, if you heard otherwise, you have heard it wrong.

Brian Valentine

Arlington, U.S.A.

Part of the problem is that Klaus is a politician and economist, a fully paid-up “dismal scientist.” The most serious problem — and one he shares with others — is that he is seriously in denial. His statement: “up to now this scientific debate has not been deep and serious enough and has not provided sufficient basis for the policymakers’ reaction” is now so wrong that the only interesting thing about it is why he asserts it. Also, the most important thing, because it is his egotism that will destroy my children’s lives. And that is beyond science.

Alan Cranston
London

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