• The people of Bhutan must be congratulated on beginning the transformation of their country to a democratic state. Democracy will hopefully make Bhutan more stable and powerful. The United States, which always loudly champions the cause of democracy in the Middle East, should learn something from Bhutan. It should note that the Bhutanese have been able to introduce democracy without shedding a drop of blood.

No innocent game

• The editorial ‘Game theory’ seems to belittle the influence of violent computer games on young minds. All media imagery — particularly repetitive audiovisual imagery — exerts enormous influence on both adult and young minds. After all, this is what makes sub-liminal advertising a trillion-dollar business; it also makes political and religious propaganda work. Even the simplistic cowboy and war comics one read in the ‘60s convinced one, at least for a while, that all heroes were white Americans or Englishmen, that all ‘redskins’ and Japs were cruel villains. We learned otherwise thanks to some counselling from parents and teachers, who read the same comics.

But unlike comics, today’s computer games are interactive and use incredibly realistic graphics to depict pain and death; they also allow the young gamer a choice of weaponry to massacre the ‘Other’. Significantly, in many of these games, the bad guys have darker skin and a certain ‘Middle Eastern’ look about them. But most dangerous is the fact that most adults have little or no idea about what kids are playing. Therefore, these children cannot even talk to adults about what they feel, and may grow up insensitive to another’s pain, and with deep preconceptions about ‘good’ and ‘bad’ people. Thus, we ignore the power of media imagery at our own peril.

— R.P. Subramanian

Delhi

Service democracy

• Shiv Visvanathan voices the anguish of an intellectual when he shows how over-bureaucratisation and bureaucratic elitism serve little or no purpose. The organisation of knowledge and resources cannot be restricted to a single cadre or service. Posting restrictions, based on the service one belongs to, is a fading idea — supported by the Sixth Pay Commission’s suggestions. Although expertise and areas of functioning can differ over services, there can be no presumption about their inherent capabilities. There is no justification for presuming that only a particular cadre or service can do a particular task.

— Aditya Gore

Mumbai

Olympian paranoia

• The paranoia of the Chinese was proved when they called Indian envoy Nirupama Rao to their foreign affairs ministry at 2 am to register their protest against the lax security at the Chinese embassy in New Delhi that resulted in Tibetan protesters forcing their way onto the premises. The Tibet issue is now threatening to disrupt the Beijing Olympics. The more the Chinese throw their tantrums, the more prone will they be to taunts from every quarter of the world.

— Bibhash Mohanty

New Delhi