Mail Call.(Letter to the Editor)

A Rich Politician

Many Mexicans responded to our Jan. 24 story on Tijuana's mayor. One of the youngsters who praised our coverage wrote, "I'm worried about my country, where corruption and rich politicians are part of daily life." Others were defensive: "Our politicians are not a model for others, but who is?" said one.

A Tradition of Service

Gordon Bethune used his interview as outgoing CEO of Continental Airlines to highlight the obvious service differences between short-haul and long-haul flights (" 'Learn to Live With It or Die'," Jan. 24). To the extent that he highlights Singapore Airlines (SIA) as a service leader, we thank him. However, it is one thing to highlight service differences between airlines; it is quite another to make claims as fact that are untrue and reflect unfairly on the crew of SIA. For the record, we do not hire crew members before they turn 25 and fire them at 26. That is not fair to the many thousands of our crew whose contract terms specifically reward their positive contributions to customer service. We do not "pay them nothing," and any comparison of remuneration needs to include external factors such as cost of living and taxation. We are proud of, and unapologetic for, our commitment to customer service. It has been described before as "service even other airlines talk about"--albeit I hope not often in the same manner as Bethune. NEWSWEEK's publication of the comments does not become a serious magazine of news and analysis.

Stephen Forshaw

Senior Manager, Public Affairs

Singapore Airlines