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Letters from the past

Gulf News looks back over the years at concerns and issues raised by readers in their letters to the newspaper. It's a retrospective that offers an insight into the community and the country. These letters are from 1985.

  • Gulf News Archives
  • Published: 23:35 September 25, 2008
  • Gulf News

Gulf News looks back over the years at concerns and issues raised by readers in their letters to the newspaper. It's a retrospective that offers an insight into the community and the country. These letters are from 1985.

Badly said
One evening, while having dinner with friends in Bahrain, to my surprise News at Ten was on Channel 33 on the television. A Western man was reading the news and the first story was about talks being held in Jebel Ali with Dr "Broonooz Krusky". "Who is that?" asked my friends. We then saw an interview in which it was clear the person in Jebel Ali turned out to be former Austrian chancellor Dr Bruno Kreisky. Next, the man reported something in "Coompatcheeya". The accompanying film showed it to be Kampuchea.

By the end of News At Ten my friends and I were laughing at mistakes and mispronunciations. We then watched what seemed to be a popular show in Bahrain, similar to Foul Ups or Bleeps and Blunders, except all the mistakes are taken from Channel 33 News. At the time it was very funny, but afterwards I thought how sad that Dubai television is becoming a laughing stock around the GCC.

I appeal to Channel 33 to hire people with experience. Obviously the key requirements are fluency in the English language and most importantly the ability to read. Please let us see some changes made quickly to improve the standard of the newsreaders.
From Mr Dilip F. Fernandes
Dubai

Inconvenient wait
I would like to draw the attention of the authorities toward the collection of health fees. People are facing much difficulty in depositing the money. I went to both Shaikh Rashid and Al Maktoum Hospitals and after standing for three hours in long queues, I returned disappointed. I think banks should also have the authorisation to collect the money, so that people are relieved of a great deal of anxiety and inconvenience.
From Mr A. W. Yousuf
Dubai

An enthralling performance
It was very heartening to read Gulf News's report on Malika Pukhraj and Tahira Syed, instead of a mere photograph to announce the arrival of the duo. Such rare artists deserve encouragement and not just introduction. I had the rare opportunity of attending the concert given by the mother-daughter pair. It was pure, undiluted classical form of singing.

In a time when the form of ghazal was commercialised beyond the point of recognition, it was, indeed, a unique experience to listen to the two. No unwanted "nazakat" spoiled the performance. "I have only two followers of my singing style - my daughter and my granddaughter," said the ageing singer. And what a follower Malika had given to her fans. Tahira Syed definitely proved a chip off the old block.

However, it is a great pity that the size of the audience present at the concert did no justice to the great singer and her daughter. The loss is not of the singers but of the listening public who failed to rise to the occasion and attend the delightful concert.
From Ms S. K. Gokhale
UAE

Where is the help?
One wonders what happened to the legendary, compassionate and sympathetic character of the Bangladeshis. We often take pride in letting people know that we have a big heart, especially for those who are in distress.

An unprecedented disaster had befallen the millions of people in the coastal areas and offshore islands of Bangladesh since the night of May 24 [1985]. Thousands of people died. A devastating tidal wave accompanied by a cyclone has battered a huge area.

Local newspapers, including Gulf News, had given enormous coverage to this story and also appealed for relief, and that relief has to primarily come from our well-to-do Bangladeshis staying in the UAE and other GCC countries. We are critical about the relief operation. We are angry about the delay in the warning system. But that is just one side of the story.

The other side, I think, is tarnished by what should rightly be called brutal apathy on the part of all Bangladeshis living abroad. Go to the Abu Dhabi market. Shops are bursting with Bangladeshi customers competing amongst themselves in their bid to prove who can pay more for commodities, mainly of a luxurious nature.

Eid is coming and the shopping spree of some customers in the posh city markets not only contradicts their concern about the recent catastrophe, but also makes clear that they are not concerned about whatever is happening to the millions of their countrymen in the devastated offshore islands and coastal belt of Bangladesh.
From Mr Mohammad Abdul Majid
Abu Dhabi

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