Raimond Gaita's ferocious disdain for my book The Culture Cult could mislead your readers. (August 2007) In fact it is meant to rescue Aborigines from being trapped in the ruins of a culture that kills their hopes, blights their prospects, and offers them no place in the modern world. A clearer idea of the general argument can be obtained from an article of mine now in the "Essays and Opinion" column at Arts and Letters Daily. About something tastefully euphemised as "female circumcision", it gives a more reliable idea of my take on the proper balance of tradition, individual freedom, and human rights.