Parental advisory!!
In the September 16 issue of C-VILLE Weekly, located in the section titled GetOutNow was a picture of three nearly nude women posing for the camera wearing only underwear and a mask covering their faces. As C-VILLE is supposed to be a community newspaper for all ages, this is improper and you should not have published it.
Although the writer for this section covered for it by saying it was "art‚" specifically a piece of work by Picasso, it was still unacceptable. This picture is not the actual piece by Picasso, "Demoiselles [d’Avignon]," and is actually pornography readily displayed in your magazine for the most innocent reader to view. There was no warning or caution note put anywhere in your newspaper, and was assumed "okay" by its editor, as the publishing of it without a warning implies.
I understand that there is freedom of speech and the press in America, but perhaps you could be more considerate next time and instead use common, morally sound guidelines in the publishing of pictures, etc. in C-VILLE. I know that I am not the only one who has been deeply disturbed by this picture, and hope that you will consider my opinion in the future. I trust that this is a one-time mistake on your part, and wish to be able to continue reading C-VILLE without worrying about what is on the next page. If you feel that you cannot stop printing offensive material such as this, I hope that next time you will at least post a warning sign somewhere obvious (such as the "Parental Advisory" label on a CD jacket) so that young readers and those who simply do not wish to stumble upon these things may decide for themselves whether or not they want to view this type of material.
Rachel R. Albertson
Earlysville
The write-up for artist-musician Andy Friedman’s show referred to "his take on Picasso’s ‘Desmoiselles.’" Friedman’s photograph was never identified as an original Picasso.—ed.
Sweet and sour
Barry Gottleib’s stand-up monologue masquerading as a thought piece, "Chocolate, the new health food" [AfterThought, September 16], misses the boat. The real story on chocolate is not polyphenols or free radicals. It’s slavery.
USAID estimates that 300,000 children work in brutal conditions on cocoa farms in Ivory Coast, Africa. Bought and sold bonded labor, working 12-hour days, locked up overnight in windowless cells, whipped with cocoa-tree branches and chains. Slavery. You get the picture.
Actually, you’re part of the picture. Ivory Coast provides half of the world’s cocoa supply. And the United States is the world’s foremost consumer of cocoa. In 2000, the United States imported 627,000 tons of cocoa, one quarter of the world’s production. Americans spend $13 billion a year on chocolate.
Because cocoa is indiscriminately pooled by importers like Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland, virtually all of the Ivory Coast cocoa used by America’s major sweets manufacturers includes beans picked by enslaved 10-year-olds: M&M/Mars, Hershey, Nestlé, Russell Stover, Mrs. Fields Cookies, Fannie Farmer, Brachs and See’s chocolates, as well as products from cereal to pop-tarts by corporate giants like Kraft, General Mills and Kellogg’s. It’s in imports like Cadbury, Milka and Toblerone. Even high-end chocolates like Godiva, Lindt and Ghirardelli contain Ivory Coast cocoa.
Now, here’s the news you can use: Gearharts Fine Chocolates, that heavenly confectioner in the Main Street Market, uses only cocoa from Venezuela. So if Gottleib gave you a new excuse for chocolate indulgence, couple that urge with moral high-mindedness and buy a box of Gearharts hand-dipped delicacies. The kids in Cote d’ivoire will thank you.
Brian Wimer
Charlottesville
Crossing over
Thank you John Borgmeyer for your Fishbowl piece on the dangers and discomforts of crossing by foot from W. Main Street to Downtown ["Wheels keep on turning," Fishbowl, September 23]. I need only add, try it with your child in a baby carriage or stroller if you really want to know fear.
Mark Gruber
Charlottesville