Poor Dalai Lama coverage
Dear Editor,
If I recall correctly, your October 16-22 issue devoted fewer than 10 lines to the 14th Dalai Lama's visit. Certainly, it was barely enough for this expat reader to find his way to the venue. In that same edition though, you found room on the front page to recount some adolescent protestations about the change of ownership of some downtown pub.
Nothing in the extensive coverage you have given the Dalai Lama in the next edition ["Dalai Lama given cold shoulder", by Lucia Nicholsonová and Tom Nicholson, Vol. 6 No. 40, October 23-29] suggests that any Spectator staff themselves took the trouble to go and actually hear him. Had they gone to his talk last Sunday, they would surely have found something more positive to fill your pages with than some holier-than-thou Machiavellian snipings at our host nation's government. The event was memorable not so much for what the great man said, but rather for the fact that he attracted a capacity audience, mainly of young people, even with an entry fee of 120 Slovak crowns [$2.40].
Is it possible for the Spectator to conceive that so many people here have minds and souls above their beer-bellies?
Bratislava
