Letters

IN SEARCH OF MOSES

"Moses was hated in his day because he told the truth. If he lived in these dark times, he'd be twice as hated." MARGIE J. PHELPS Topeka, Kans.

It was amusing to see the scholars going to great lengths trying to analyze Moses' life and legacy in your article "Who Was Moses?" [COVER, Dec. 14]. I was hoping to find at least one of your experts calling Moses what he really was--a general at war with a powerful enemy. Moses was more like Alexander the Great than the key religious figure he is purported to be. Moses had no qualms about asking God to visit upon his enemies the worst of suffering and disease, even death. His God was ruthless and vengeful. Just because Moses invoked God going into battle doesn't make him a respectable religious figure. D. SREENIVASA RAO North Andover, Mass.

Practically, it makes no difference whether Moses existed or not. Most important is the symbolism of his leadership, enforcing the notion of a single God and fortifying faith among his people. Great leaders, like the one illustrated by the concept of Moses, effectively use spiritual assurance of a religious nature as a crucial weapon to restrain human aggressiveness and maintain unity. ALBERT C. CUETTER El Paso, Texas

The story of Moses is pure baloney, as are most of the stories in the Bible. It is incredible that in this day such stories are still being fed to innocent children. PAUL H. BARLOW Weddington, N.C.

Almost every time you do a profile on a biblical figure you go to great lengths to explain and quote the views of liberal scholars and archaeologists. You should give equal space to the opinions of conservative scholars and archaeologists. TIME seems to have a mission of discrediting beliefs, because you do so little to present the other side. ERNEST SCALABRIN Northvale, N.J.

How can we question Moses in an age of Monica Lewinsky, Linda Tripp and Bill Clinton? We need someone we can look up to for moral and spiritual support. Moses in 2000! TAE KIM New York City

I was glad to learn from your article on Moses that "movie directors have immortalized him." It is frightening to consider that were it not for Hollywood, Moses would be forgotten! JOSEPH MORE Cromwell, Conn.

ANIMATING THE BIBLE

Jeffrey Katzenberg's motives for creating the movie The Prince of Egypt must be judged over time [COVER, Dec. 14]. Was it Katzenberg or others at Disney who had the Midas touch for creating successful animated films? Assessing the box-office appeal of Prince of Egypt is a practical way of answering that question. Perhaps Katzenberg's contribution to improved understanding of the Pentateuch would be to allocate a portion of this film's profits to subsidizing independent scholarly research into the Old Testament characters. The Prince of Egypt's expected income would hardly be dented by funding a substantial annual Moses Prize. DAVID W. FAULKNER Bristol, England

In his review of the movie, Richard Corliss said it "sometimes looks starched, stodgy," and told readers that "any sort of irreverence would be out of place in this by-the-Book rendition" of the Old Testament. Maybe The Prince of Egypt does not fit the Disney mold. However, a story dealing with mass slavery, violence and pestilence does not lend itself to comedy. Films like this one give me hope. The time has come to honor children as an audience capable of understanding things beyond the comprehension of misguided reviewers. SARA A. SCOTT Laconia, N.H.

It's bad enough that The Prince of Egypt has Pharaoh's wife, rather than daughter, rescuing the infant Moses. But to depict the Israelites as having built the pyramids? Come on! Cheops erected his massive stone piles centuries before Joseph was sold into slavery! Holy Writ says the Hebrew slaves "built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses," not pyramids. ALFRED R. MATTHEWS Huntsville, Ala.

TAKING THE ECONOMIC INITIATIVE

I was so pleased to see the article on Madame C.J. Walker and her hair-care business in your report on the century's Builders and Titans [TIME 100, Dec. 7]. How much more difficult is it to succeed in business when you start out poor and uneducated? And how much more difficult when you're female and black? It is only after putting Madame Walker's accomplishments in the context of the harsh realities she endured and overcame that one can truly appreciate the magnitude of her success. VIVIAN RANDOLPH, PRESIDENT Madame C.J. Walker Enterprises Inc. Indianapolis, Ind.

I was pleased to see a mention of my former boss, Muriel ("Mickie") Siebert, in your Builders and Titans report. All professional women owe Siebert, the first woman to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, a debt of gratitude. Were it not for her tenacity, gumption and drive, we'd still be searching for the ladies' room at the exchange. AVA SLOANE Hoboken, N.J.

The 20th century is indeed the American century, but how could your list of movers and shakers have just one non-U.S. resident? The inclusion of Sony's Akio Morita almost seemed like tokenism--not that I would deny his place in history. But what about the industrialists who set about restoring the economy of Western Europe after the ravages of World War II? What about the founders of some of the conglomerates in the rest of the world? It was not only the U.S. that influenced the economy of the 20th century. PHILIP ANDREW QVIST Gauteng, South Africa

The story on monstrous houses that tycoons build, focusing on Bill Gates' "high-tech haven," smacked of sour grapes. If Gates has wealth that he earned by hard work, let him enjoy it and spend it how he chooses. Don't resent it when people have amassed a lot of money through their labors. They deserve to live any way they want. JAYANTHI DE ALWIS Colombo, Sri Lanka

INSIDE PRIVATE BANKING

In your report on Citibank's close relationship with Raul Salinas, brother of former Mexican President Carlos Salinas [BUSINESS, Dec. 14], there were a few points I did not understand. You said Raul Salinas' wife, using an alias, carried cashier's checks to Citibank Mexico City. Since these were for very large sums of money, I should think someone in Citibank's private-banking unit would have asked immediately about the origin of that money. Further, you noted that once Citibank had the funds, "no documents linked that money to Salinas." That shows an extraordinary amount of trust on Salinas' part. How could he ever prove the money was his? The bank could have cheated him out of his money, and he could hardly go to the police if he were robbed. JIM BUDD Colonia del Valle, Mexico

You stated that a strong reason for not prosecuting Citibank for money laundering is that "no one wants to see a major American institution lose its banking license." So now we have huge banks like Citibank that are not only too big to fail but also too big to prosecute. If the facts warrant it, a bank should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, and if the result is the loss of its license, so be it. Citibank should have considered the consequences from the beginning. CHAD JONES Studio City, Calif.

THE PINOCHET CONUNDRUM

Human-rights advocates around the world rightly rejoice at the idea that Chile's ex-President Augusto Pinochet Ugarte might be extradited to Spain [WORLD, Dec. 14]. If this occurs, Pinochet will be judged for past crimes. Heads of government should never get away with torture and murder. But unless an impartial international criminal tribunal is established with very clear rules and procedures, going after only certain dictators will be an arbitrary process. Also, if a nation approves a general amnesty for atrocities committed by one of its regimes, should a foreign judge be allowed to disrupt that nation's healing process? I don't think so. Otherwise, as Charles Krauthammer stated [VIEWPOINT, Dec. 14], a dictator's best protection will be never to give up power. EDUARDO ZAYAS-BAZAN Miami

Britain chose to ignore Chile's democratically elected President Eduardo Frei's demands that Pinochet be returned to Chile and his fate be decided by the Chileans. After all, the alleged crimes did not take place in England or Spain but in Chile. Thus British liberals are telling a presumably sovereign nation that territoriality doesn't count, that Chile cannot be trusted with its own political affairs. Colonialism is back. EDWARD KAUSEL Cambridge, Mass.

The defenders of General Pinochet show no scruples when making a case for this South American butcher. They tell us about taking into account "humanitarian reasons" for the immediate release of the dictator, as if humanitarian considerations played a role in the thousands of torture sessions that occurred in Chile during Pinochet's regime. The charges against Pinochet are most serious. If he is not brought to trial, humanity will lose the opportunity to resolve a great misunderstanding: the confusion between ideology and fascism. DANILO ZIMBRES Sao Paulo

Imagine a Chinese leader being arrested for past human-rights violations while shopping in London. Let's cut out meddling in another nation's sovereignty. Besides, I want peace at home--I am British and have a Chilean wife! DAVID ALCOCK Johannesburg