High fever could be cancer
I am a father to an Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) patient, and what I have noticed while my son was undergoing treatment back in India was that the majority of the children came from the Middle East (‘Chronic diseases may increase cancer,’ Gulf News, September 20). I asked the doctor and according to her, the disease causing agents are not just fast foods or unhealthy food habits. Continuous fevers with high temperatures are normally one of the signs of ALL and majority of the hospitals doesn’t do a blood check, and they give medicine to suppress the fever, which can be very dangerous. I feel proper awareness needs to be there.
From Mr Vinod
Dubai
Website comment
Many factors for delinquency
I would like to share my views on the Gulf News online debate on juvenile delinquency because more people in my age group are affected by this (‘Speak your mind: Juvenile Delinquency,’ Gulf News, September 20). I am a grade eight student in Dubai, and I don’t think that this problem is caused by one thing alone. There are many factors and everything must be blamed to a certain degree.
Increasing social pressures, growing divorce rates, high intake of junk foods, which I believe can have the same effect on the brain as an addictive drug or alcohol, bullying, overexposure to violent video games and cartoons, all have a role in delinquency in schools. Nowadays, many children do not open up to their parents and share their problems.
We’ve been blaming each other after the violent stabbing of the student that occurred recently. Instead of blaming each other, I think that schools, parents, peers and society as a whole can join hands and fight this problem. As students, we can only pray that such an incident does not occur again in the future.
From Mr Lakshmi Raja Gopal
Dubai
Converting licenses
It is a good move by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) to make amendments, and I would appreciate it if the authorities made rules for converting licenses issued by other GCC countries to UAE licenses (‘Dubai road test: RTA to revamp procedures,’ Gulf News, September 20). At present expatriates from India holding a Qatari license and a Qatari residency permit can drive in the UAE when they come on a visit visa, but when the same person shifts to the UAE with a UAE residency, he has to go through the procedure of opening a file and road test.
Instead, the license should be converted directly after taking the necessary fees and verifying the documents. This will reduce the burden on examiners.
From Mr Kamal
Abu Dhabi
Website comment
New system welcomed
I’ve failed twice already. I am very happy to know that new technology is going to be implemented in favour of the drivers so that will help the passing percentage. After reading your article now I have decided that I will only apply once the new system is in place.
From Mr Bruno Daniel
Dubai
Onus on the school
There definitely should be improvement. In every test, if a student doesn’t pass during the additional eight classes, I think that the driving institute should somehow be responsible for that fail. What is the use of additional classes if the student will again fail? It adds suspicion to whether aspiring drivers are failed deliberately because of a certain percentage required by the school for passing.
From Mr Twone Fernandez
Dubai
Facebook comment
Driving exam
This is good news because I feel that a lot of a driver’s chances of passing rely on the examiner’s mood. Though we cannot eliminate the examiner, I think that there should be a secondary method of finding the results of a pass or fail examination so that it will not be solely decided by the examiner. I think that if after additional classes the student still fails under the current set up, the driving institute should look into it because it means that the student really didn’t learn anything after all.
From Mr Jhun Cruz
Dubai
Facebook comment
Fear of failing
The whole process should be revisited. The training, the instructors and the driving tracks. I think there needs to be more chance in case of an error and above all the cost of getting a driving license should be reduced. We see sometimes that the examiners are in a bad mood, and it immediately makes you fearful. The worry is that one mistake could result in all your efforts, time and money wasted.
From Mr Usman Khan
Dubai
Facebook comment
Be confident!
I would like to say to all new drivers to please be confident during your road test. According to the examiner, they expect you to show patience and observation of the road and its signs. Following these simple steps, you will definitely get your licence within the first test. I wish you all the best!
From Mr Mohammad Riffan
Abu Dhabi
Facebook comment
Courteous and patient
I wish the RTA could invent some gadget to adjust the attitude of the drivers on the road. We need to somehow instill some road courtesy and patience in drivers.
From Mr Salim Parker
UAE
Facebook comment
Potentially dangerous
The point of this story of the world’s population growing to 11 billion by the year 2100 is that the world’s resources will have to be able to withstand supporting this large number of people (‘World population may hit 11 billion by 2100: study,’ Gulf News, September 19). We have so many starving people worldwide, is it a good thing that the population will be this high? No. It means increase in meat trade, which is already way too high for its own good. It means the need for more jobs and more housing, which means destroying more animal habitats and probably the extinction of many more species. It also means more countries will go into debt because they will need to fund more people to care for because there probably will never be enough jobs for these many people. This could be terrible.
From Ms Chaz Tara
UAE
Facebook comment
How is this possible?
I think that it is ridiculous and biased to suggest that Africa will be the reason for the world’s overpopulation. With India and China being located in Asia, I expected these findings to be followed up by facts and tell it as it is, but it was reported the other way around.
Africa has 54 countries with a billion people, but India is just one country with a billion and a half people. So how can this be so?
From Mr Arsene Gargamel
Abu Dhabi
Facebook comment
Part of being human
I don’t think that this article faces a reality that we cannot avoid. There isn’t equality in world: I think there will always be people who are poor and there will always be people who are rich, who will become increasingly wealthier.
I don’t think that it’s not a matter of meat, jobs or housing. We just need to have faith in our Lord. Around 50 years ago, the world’s population was less than half that it is now, but humans were provided with what they needed. We just need to be human.
From Mr Zohaib Afridi
Dubai
Facebook comment
Contagious nationalism?
I learnt in history that the French revolution was the mother of all revolutions and that once Duke Klemens von Metternich, the Austrian Chancellor of those days commented: “If France sneezes, the rest of Europe catches a cold.”
When we look at today’s scenario, I think the same is applicable for Scotland. Scotland may not have got the independence that 45 per cent of its population wanted, but it did set an example for other regions of the world to follow and claim their independence and be autonomous.
From Catalonia to Kurdistan, nationalist and separatist movements in Europe and beyond were watching the Scottish referendum closely and I think that they draw inspiration from Scotland’s efforts. Scotland’s attempt might have been a failure, but it might have ignited the spirit of various regional separatist movements around the world to demand independence.
The world is watching and waiting to see whether the political maps on the atlas will undergo a drastic change.
From Ms Maria Vincent
Dubai
India-China relations improve
It seems that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on yet another magical journey to China, India’s ‘bete noir’ (‘Trust key to success of China-India ties,’ Gulf News, September 21). In the process, he has managed to sign a five-year trade agreement with the intention to improve the trade balance and obtain a 20 million dollar investment in India. It envisages development of economic and trade relations between China and India on the principle of equality and mutual benefit. Three cheers to Modi!
From Mr Thomas Matthew Parackel
Muvattupuzha, India
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