I’ve always been led to believe meditation is the key word here but maybe New Labour has inveigled its way on to
Posted in General on 03. Sep, 2010
I’ve always been led to believe “meditation” is the key word here, but maybe New Labour has inveigled its way on to your subs’ desk?RICHARD TIPPETTHOOK, HAMPSHIRE The facts Sir: Will Self (“Access all areas”, 15 April) is mistaken The ephod is, according to my COD, solely a Jewish garment. This is an ideal way of sorting out problems between people, but I’ve never heard it recommended for enlightenment by Buddhist teachers And apparently “mediation .. is common to all customs in different parts of the world .. and is intended to promote wisdom and compassion”. In our school we try to encourage more mainstream Christian values; kindness, tolerance, concern for others, and the imaginative use of papier m??EV RICHARD COLESASSISTANT CURATE, THE PARISH OF BOSTON, LINCOLNSHIRE Think about it Sir: In the Buddhist section (“Faith: The facts”, 14 April) you state that “enlightenment is sought through mediation”. Like many Christians who view recent developments with dismay, I wish to reassure our parents that our school is not a place where the book of Genesis is mistaken for science, nor where suspicion of people of other faiths and other Christian traditions is fostered, nor where hostility towards gay people is actively encouraged. We were treated very well, as were the Americans in our party.
Iran is a beautiful country, with many ancient buildings.ANNE WHALLEYHUDDERSFIELD, WEST YORKSHIRE Healthy Christianity Sir: As a foundation governor of a Church of England primary school, and a fellow cleric, I would like to applaud Rev Chris Wilson for his speech supporting the ban on funding of more faith schools (Report, 12 April). I visited Iran in November 2004 and had a wonderful holiday, made all the more special by the friendliness of the Iranian people we met. We are concerned that there is so much coverage of treatment with helmets and no publicity of simple advice that would prevent most cases of plagiocephaly.MISS ANNE WHITINGMCSP, SENIOR PAEDIATRIC PHYSIOTHERAPIST DR ROBERT SCOTT-JUPPFRCPCH, CONSULTANT PAEDIATRICIAN, SALISBURY DISTRICT HOSPITAL Beautiful Iran Sir: I would like to concur with Ann and Leslie Watson (Letters, 15 April) about the Iranian people. Helmets restrict the visual field (and possibly development of vision), can cause difficulties with head control in younger babies, and could cause overheating or skin irritation.All parents want a beautiful baby and could be pressured into costly, unnecessary treatment. The effectiveness of helmets is not supported by independent clinical research.Although the “Back to Sleep” campaign advocates babies sleeping on their back to prevent cot death, it is important to place babies on their tummies and on either side during the day; this prevents skull moulding and will encourage normal development of movement.Reading about the use of helmets on the internet leads to parental anxiety These parents may then pay for unnecessary treatment. Paediatricians and paediatric physiotherapists throughout the NHS advise against helmets for clinical reasons but are unable to effectively publicise cases of children whose plagiocephaly has resolved as part of the normal growth of the skull. These companies are profiting from the popularity of helmets and have funds to advertise their product.
But it cannot be proved that the helmets alone are responsible for the improved skull shape, because the deformity may have corrected itself without intervention. Our local health visitors also give this advice.Manufacturers are able to demonstrate that their helmets have caused skull remoulding. Parents are advised to reposition their babies regularly, to lie them on their tummies for play from the age of six weeks and to put them in car seats for only limited times.These measures prevent plagiocephaly and will assist remoulding the skull if flattening has occurred. In most cases, children’s head shape improves by the age of two without the need for a helmet.Using a helmet to treat plagiocephaly is appropriate only in the treatment of severe cases Most children respond well to physiotherapy only. It is important to highlight a balanced approach to the treatment of positional skull deformity, especially in the light of recent interest in the media surrounding helmets.Plagiocephaly is a common condition, successfully treated with advice from paediatricians and paediatric physiotherapists. Learning the script takes up so many class hours, yet some universities now provide remedial courses because entrants do not have even 2,000 kanji, and with the growing dominance of typing, people find it harder to remember how to handwrite them.DR NICOLAS TRANTERSCHOOL OF EAST ASIAN STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD Surgical helmets seldom necessary Sir: The article “If the hat fits”, 4 April) presents a one-sided view of the treatment of plagiocephaly. You can write entirely in these (though only infants’ books are published in this fashion), but Japan copes with the problems of mastering the system by utilising a range of compromises, for example, writing alongside a kanji its pronunciation, if a writer thinks any of their readers may have trouble with it.Finally, to gently contradict Francis Roads (Letters, 27 March), literacy is certainly a problem in Japan.
A British Waterways official told me there is no insurmountable reason why Edinburgh could not have a waterways link to London.C N BURKETTHEREFORD 7,000 reasons to be thankful Sir: I assure Madeleine Harvey (Letters, 13 April) she doesn’t need to learn a further 9,000 kanji to be literate in Japanese. For general literacy, you need about 2,000 kanji; above 2,500, and it’s similar to the article on one million words in English: they sit in dictionaries, no longer used.It remains a very complex script, mixing kanji, kana (hiragana/katakana) and even roman letters, which means Japan is a country where even an educated 12-year-old cannot hope to read a newspaper.But kana are phonetic, and there are almost no “irregular” kana spellings. The Government has been irresponsible in failing to provide a national water grid for this essential supply. It would not be expensive and would not require a web of pipelines.Britain has a network of rivers and 2,000 miles of canals which could easily be used, with extensions by pipelines only where needed. The reservoir at Kielder in Northumberland is one example of a surplus which could be used to relieve shortages elsewhere. People may aspire to learn it because, through no one’s design, that is what it has become. But most of these want to learn American English anyway, so they will not be much affected by attempts to simplify spelling in the UK.ANNA OXBURYCHELTENHAM, GLOUCESTERSHIRE Solution flows in our rivers and canals Sir: Ratepayers are right to complain about water restrictions when our country has a surplus of water (Opinion, 6 April).