Awareness and politeness
The Saudi authorities have tried to take a good step, but something as harsh as this, I don’t really appreciate (‘Saudi Arabia to expel expats who ‘disrespect’ Ramadan’, Gulf News, June 27). What I mean is – rather than expelling and deporting people, they should stress the importance of Ramadan and create awareness by telling people why Muslims fast and what are the reasons we have certain practices in the holy month. Aspects related to the goodness of the religion should be encouraged. The best place to do this is in malls, where awareness can be created or Ramadan activities demonstrated to show why it is good for us to fast. Overall, it is important for one to obey the rules and regulations of a country that you live in. But politeness would not serve to damage anything. Ramadan Kareem!
From Ms Zarah Bint Rahman
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
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Iftar cuisine
In Ramadan, thousands of Muslims will gather in Shaikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi to break their fast, like they have done in previous years. The Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation organises these massive iftars every year. It is a great initiative. During Ramadan, many people from different nationalities come to the mosque to break their fast. Most of them are from the Subcontinent. However, I have noticed that the food that has been served in previous years comprises mostly Arabic dishes. So some people who are not used to the taste end up wasting the food for this reason. If half of the food prepared is catered to the taste of people from the Subcontinent, then the amount of food wastage would definitely be reduced. I hope the concerned authorities will look into this issue.
From Mr M.A. Mannan
Abu Dhabi
Laws for housemaids
I would like to talk about countries that create labour laws for housemaids working in other countries – why do they provide laws only for house help (‘Housemaid recruitment in UAE hit by conflicting laws’, Gulf News, June 26)? Are they their only citizens who work abroad? And why should only they create mandates, what about our own laws? I’ve noticed that many housemaids are getting very irresponsible, as they know that the law is going to protect them, even when they do something wrong. What about when they abscond? Is their home country’s government going to pay us all the money we spent to bring them here? It takes a lot of money to pay for their visas and they run away within two months or less. We, too, work hard to earn this money – it doesn’t grow on trees. So who will pay for that?
From Ms Umm Salim
Dubai
Unfair blame
I recently read a report in Gulf News about pets being abandoned. Before accusing pet lovers of abandoning their pets, do consider that the Emirates in general is not pet friendly, starting with developers enforcing the ‘No Pets’ rule, all the way to the paucity of pet-friendly public areas and the limited facilities to even walk a pet in public.
From Mr Raghunathan Krishnan
UAE
Nobody ever wins a war
The two disastrous World Wars have not taught us anything about the consequences of wars among human beings (‘Muddy and bloody war in the trenches’, Gulf News, June 27). They say experience is the greatest teacher but we have learnt nothing from history. The two wars have left the world with millions of orphaned children and human beings with physical challenges in the Hiroshima-Nagasaki areas of Japan. War is evil and nobody ever wins.
From Mr Thomas Matthew Parackel
Kerala, India
Not harsh enough
Italy has been at the receiving end of headbutts and bites at World Cup tournaments (‘Luis Suarez turns villain in the festival of verve’, Gulf News, June 26). The latest incident involving Uruguay’s ‘serial biter’ and Liverpool player Luis Suarez should have received the maximum punishment from the governing body in charge of the game. As if now retired French football player Zinedine Zidane’s attack on an Italian player two tournaments ago wasn’t bad enough, the Uruguay defender lunged at the hapless Italian - eliciting worldwide condemnation and viewers’ demanding a life-long ban. The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (Fifa) should send out stricter warnings to players who commit such foul acts.
From Mr A.R. Modak
Johannesburg, South Africa
Better planning needed
I’m writing about the internally displaced people in Waziristan. The military operation was due for a long time as there was no seriousness in the talks between the Pakistan government and the Taliban regarding the attack on the Karachi international airport. I am concerned about the difficult time people of North Waziristan are facing. There was no planning from the government on how to accommodate the big influx of people into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Hundreds of thousands of woman, children and elderly are without shelter and food. The federal government, military, and other authorities should have planned this operation in a better way to minimise civilian casualties and sufferings, otherwise the objectives of such operations will not be achieved.
From Mr Shad Mohammad Khan
UAE
Unity in diversity
India does not have a national language (‘The perils of promoting Hindi as India’s national language’, Gulf News, June 25). This is a common misconception. It has two official government languages – English and Hindi. Yes, the government is trying to promote Hindi, which is fine, however it should not be at the cost of other regional languages, as we know there are many regions and many languages. So it would not be wise to enforce a single language. After all, the nation is built on the principle – unity in diversity.
From Mr Tom Thounaojam
Papua New Guinea
Facebook comment
Common ground
Every country has a language, which runs commonly throughout the nation and in that context, to have Hindi as a shared language for everyone is a very sensible decision that has to be maintained. I don’t claim or take stands to defer to other languages we find in India, but Hindi should be given priority as it is renowned worldwide as well, unlike other Indian languages.
From Ms Dorothy Naveena
UAE
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Not advisable
Kerala, Chennai, Gujarat and many more states just know the word ‘Hindi’. They don’t know how to speak the language. I don’t think India should have it as a national language.
From Mr Abdur Rehman
Dubai
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No compulsion
No one is imposing anything on anyone – if you don’t like Hindi, don’t speak it. It’s as simple as that! Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has not mandated that everyone speak Hindi, he has only proposed a government circular wherein Hindi-speaking states of India are encouraged to speak Hindi. It does not apply to all regional states. I really wish people read government circulars carefully before jumping to anti-Modi conclusions.
From Ms Devleena Dey Chatterjee
UAE
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Why suffer?
I wonder why people bring children into this world when they can’t afford them (‘Odisha schoolgirl commits suicide over pencil, notebook’, Gulf News, June 27)?
From Ms Aisha Al Tamimi
Vancouver, Canada
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No access
Heartbreakingly sad report. Aisha, I expect like many poor illiterate people, they have neither the knowledge nor funds to access birth control. No doubt this poor mother will have a terrible struggle to care for her husband and remaining children. Our thoughts and prayers are with this poor family.
From Ms Faye Ratcliffe
UAE
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Fighting ignorance
Some among the poor are also very ignorant and don’t realise that having mouths you cannot feed would make life worse. But the system should ensure that all future generations get free education to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself.
From Ms Aziza Al Busaidy
Dubai
Facebook comment
Confusing
All this time, the Australians made us believe where the resting place of MH370 was (‘Highly likely’ MH370 on autopilot when it went down: Australia’, Gulf News, June 26). Now they say it is in the south of the Indian Ocean and they want us to believe that the plane was on autopilot. Next, they will say that the passengers had their dinner and were getting ready to rest for the night when it crashed!
From Mr Ilham Riluwan
Doha, Qatar
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