Readers' letters: Elon Musk is no Jimmy Carter

A reader believes Elon Musk cannot hold a candle to former US president Jimmy Carter

How many times do we have to be told that Elon Musk is the richest man in the world? Sadly, with wealth doesn’t always come wisdom, far less happiness. With his financial support for, first of all, Donald Trump, and then, Nigel Farage, Musk has upped the ante with his ludicrous and dangerous suggestion that the far-right AfD party are the potential saviours of a beleaguered Germany (Scotsman, 30 December).

How refreshingly different was Jimmy Carter, who has died at the grand old age of 100. At this time of bitter death and destruction in Gaza and the Middle East, we remember Jimmy Carter’s groundbreaking initiative resulting in the Camp David Agreement between Israel and Egypt. An outspoken critic of apartheid in South Africa, Carter later criticised Israel for inflicting apartheid on the Palestinians. Above all, he was a man of peace and justice and indeed, faith.

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It’s highly unlikely that Elon Musk will ever be awarded the Nobel Peace prize, of which Jimmy Carter was the deserved recipient. There is no merit in itself in being the richest man in the world, only a massive responsibility and the possibility of a wealth of damage. Wasn’t it Jesus who famously suggested that it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven?

WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 13: Elon Musk listens as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump addresses a House Republicans Conference meeting at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill on November 13, 2024 in Washington, DC. As is tradition with incoming presidents, Trump is traveling to Washington, DC to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House as well as meet with Republican congressmen on Capitol Hill. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 13: Elon Musk listens as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump addresses a House Republicans Conference meeting at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill on November 13, 2024 in Washington, DC. As is tradition with incoming presidents, Trump is traveling to Washington, DC to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House as well as meet with Republican congressmen on Capitol Hill. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 13: Elon Musk listens as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump addresses a House Republicans Conference meeting at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill on November 13, 2024 in Washington, DC. As is tradition with incoming presidents, Trump is traveling to Washington, DC to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House as well as meet with Republican congressmen on Capitol Hill. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Ian Petrie, Edinburgh

Tributes deserved

Many tributes have been paid to Jimmy Carter, who has just passed away at the grand old age of 100, making him the longest-lived American president in history.

Having moved to Georgia with my family in the 1970s, I remember the then governor, “Peanuts Carter” (the family owned a large peanut farm up state). I attended the local high school in a small town of some 10,000 souls about 30 miles outside Atlanta (its only claim to fame being it was home to the original recipe for Coca-Cola).

Having completed Scottish O Levels, school administrators placed me in a class of seniors so I could complete one semester of US history before being allowed to graduate. I had just turned 16. Alvin Toffler’s Culture Shock was a New York Times bestseller: the title well captures all I was experiencing. My first day at high school was historic in the true sense. It being the very first day in the history of Georgian education when black and white pupils were integrated – something that had only been achieved more than 100 years after civil war had ended between the Southern and the Northern States of America.

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Jimmy Carter will be known as a humanitarian, strong advocate of peace, leading promoter of civil rights – and for his Christian faith. Unheralded in the current headlines, the first-time integration of Georgian education achieved under his governorship will surely stand as one of his most enduring legacies and rank highly among the fitting tributes to his memory.

Ewen Peters, Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire

It doesn’t add up

As an ex-headteacher from about 25 years ago, I was truly shocked by reading two very disappointing things in the newspapers about the state of education.

Firstly, the pass marks for secondary maths pupils have slumped apparently to a possible “all-time low”: only two-fifths of Scotland’s S4 pupils gained a pass! As maths is a part of life, whether we like it or not, how come this obvious lack of tuition and tuition time was not picked up earlier. It’s fine having a nice variety of games, gym, music and art but it is use of the English language and the ability to calculate successfully that counts in the end.

Any category of education is to be welcomed, surely. So, secondly, how come certain fee-paying schools are being taxed? Is the plan of the current government to raise the numbers of children entering the already over-crowded public system? If private schools are closed down, then the only place for those “displaced” children will be in already overcrowded state schools.

Archibald A Lawrie, Kingskettle, Fife

Greens are elected

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Not for the first time, Robert Scott’s letter in Monday’s paper (“No confidence”) contained factual inaccuracies which must be addressed. There was a long list to choose from, but given space considerations, I will focus on just two in this letter.

Firstly, Mr Scott’s description of the Green party as being “unelected” is just nonsensical. There has been elected Green representation in every Scottish parliament since it was reconvened in 1999.

Secondly, while the Scottish government is indeed a “minority SNP administration”, how careless of Mr Scott to omit the fact that our electoral system is designed to ensure, as far as is possible, that no one party can hold power. The Green party, far from being involved in “petty interference”, were working in coalition with the SNP. This kind of arrangement – usually called “grown-up politics” – is the norm in almost every advanced democracy in Europe, not the unholy aberration suggested by Mr Scott’s anti-nationalist rant.

With such basic factual errors as these, I trust that this paper’s readers – like me – are likely to have no confidence in the rest of Mr Scott’s vacuous polemic, which came across as cant, pure cant.

David Patrick, Edinburgh

Sinking feeling

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So we learn that the recently handed over, long awaited MV Glen Sannox (the supposedly “green” ship that Nicola Sturgeon famously launched back in 2017 with painted on windows) will be more environmentally damaging than its 31 year old diesel predecessor.

It us unbelievable. Another SNP triumph.

Martin Redfern, Melrose

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