Nigeria’s oil-driven rift
Nigeria is a land blessed with oil resources. It has enough to be able to give its people a better life. Instead, it has turned into a curse that has splintered the nation along communal and ethnic lines. The Muslim North is unstable with militant bodies being used as a target point by the government for indiscriminate disciplining, which often leads to further crimes against humanity. In return you have Islamist groups such as Boko Haram slaughtering students in boarding schools because it is a Western form of education that fails to follow segregation. This has, in addition, given rise to militias that want to get rid of the extremist factions but do not have enough faith in the governance to do it for them. Northern Nigerians feel abandoned and compelled to look out for themselves. The oil-rich South continues to develop, while the Muslim North suffers. This is a recipe for further chaos and instability. The only way forward is for the federal government to make an effort to invest in the North, improve infrastructure, increase employment opportunities and work towards alleviating the grinding poverty. The irony is that the country has the resources to do so; it is just a case of whether there is a willingness to help better everybody.
From Ms Edna James
Dubai
Life and art
Once, I was walking down a street in the city of Ujjain, India and the neighbourhood was full of slums. I saw a young boy, around 10 years of age, trying to draw something with a pencil on a piece of rough paper. This caught my eye. I approached him out of curiosity and spoke to him. The boy was extremely motivated and passionate about art due to his mother, a woman who cleaned toilets to earn a living. She would tell him about the beautiful paintings she saw in the houses of rich people, which motivated the boy to create his own art. On another day, I was discussing a career path with a close friend. Suddenly, she said we should do a particular thing in a certain way because Steve Jobs did so and he went on to earn great name and fame in this field. These incidents got me thinking. When we get inspired by somebody and start following them, we lose the artistic creativity within ourselves. We often hear people saying, ‘I adore him or her. I want to be like him/her.’ Why do we forget that life, as everything else, is art? We can either be the artist who creates new masterpieces or the machines that copy those masterpieces.
From Mr Ishan Dafaria
Dubai
Crazed driving
I want to bring to the notice of the authorities that speeding motorists are not adhering to the traffic laws of at least stopping when they see a school bus with its ‘stop’ sign extended. The trained female conductors help the young children cross the road. The driver of the buses are always alert and watching the side view mirrors. They usually inform the conductors of oncoming traffic by sounding the horn. Several times my son has been saved because of the driver. I have to literally stand in the middle of road and watch my son cross along with the conductor and make sure no cars approach at that point. It is more difficult while the students are returning from school. Why can’t motorists be more careful?
From Ms Jabeen P.
Dubai.
Shut them down
It is irritating to have a shisha outlet in a residential area. There is one adjacent to our building in Ajman. The most irritating issue is that smokers are present there, watch football matches and cheer loudly, sometimes even till 3am. This action disturbs the residents of the neighbourhood who require a good night’s sleep after their hectic schedule of traffic and work. I request the local municipal authorities to shut down such coffee and shisha stores in residential areas as they are a nuisance and even unhealthy due to the smoke.
From Mr Abbas Sura
Ajman
Simple solutions
I have noticed two important matters while driving my car and if the authorities take strict action then maybe many positive things could happen. Motorbike riders frequently change lanes and swerve between traffic, which could cause accidents. If they were only allowed to drive in the right-most lane and not switch to the second or third track it could maybe reduce the percentage of accidents. They should only be allowed to change lanes when overtaking heavy vehicles. Another request I have is for the authorities to introduce timers on signals so that drivers can have an exact idea, even from a distance, of whether they will be able to cross a signal and they can accordingly control their speed. This way, many motorists could be saved from fines and accidents.
From Mr Javed Iqbal Mohammad Shafi
Dubai
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