Letters: May 25, 2012

Positive influence
I believe that children torment others because that’s the way they’ve been treated (‘Schoolboy with kidney ailment beaten up by eight older pupils’, Gulf News, May 21). They may think their behaviour is normal because they come from families or other settings where everyone regularly gets angry, shouts, or calls names. At home you can lessen the impact of bullying.
Encourage your children to get together with friends that help build their confidence. Help them meet other children by joining clubs or sports programmes. Schools and parents need to start listening and reaching out to children. Are we waiting for something tragic to happen? I am actually terrified of sending my child to school. This is unacceptable.
From Ms Rebecca
Dubai
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Back in the day
I was born and brought up in Dubai. I went to a well-known school and back then I never heard of anything called bullying. Gone are those days.
From Ms Shazia
Dubai
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It’s all because of TV
Television and computer games are the main reasons for violence among children. It’s quite surprising to read about students who are only in primary school and behaving this way. Children are practising in their daily life what is shown in movies and cartoons. For children, Superman and Spiderman are heroes because they fight well. All those parents who want their children to be civilised, disciplined, well-mannered and well-educated shouldn’t keep a television in their home and shouldn’t allow their children to play violent computer games. I know that people will say that it is impossible to live without television, but believe me there are still homes today where parents do not own a television for the welfare of their children.
From Ms Zara
Dubai
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Pass on the blame
The school administration is responsible for these incidents. They should appoint a responsible instructor during break time to watch the behaviour of the children. They just can’t leave them alone playing or roaming unwatched. I remember in our schools in India there are teachers on the playgrounds and watching the students with a big cane in their hand. They were very busy guiding and warning students. Most of the schools here want to place the responsibility on others.
From Ms Shayesta Anjum
Abu Dhabi
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Better ways
This is a sad day for personal freedom in the UK (‘Police fail to see funny side of vessel called ‘Bin Laden 1’, Gulf News, May 20). Furthermore, there are a lot more polite and professional ways to request the name to be changed than screaming.
From Mr Omar Khan
Dubai
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Safety comes first
With all due respect Omar [reader above], it was not about personal freedom but about the safety of the public and the tourists for the Olympics 2012. Maybe you are right that the police should have asked the man to remove the name Bin Laden 1 from the boat in a more polite way but you have to understand that the killing of Osama Bin Laden is still fresh in everyone’s mind. Seeing his name could reignite anger from his sympathisers and fear from the public. The police might have been too paranoid, as was my first reaction to this report, but they have all the reasons in the world to be paranoid if their main concern is public safety. We have to be forgiving of that police officer, after all, terrorists are still out there. We don’t know where or when another bomb might explode. Freedom is not freedom if it will make someone afraid. And in that case, the police officer was not only thinking about his own life but about the rest of us, too — it was in London but the action was also done for you, Omar.
From Mr Carlos Ante
Dubai
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Just avoid it
I am strongly allergic to prawns and shrimps (‘Food allergies: Sick to your stomach’, Gulf News, May 21). Whenever I consume these, knowingly or even unknowingly, I vomit profusely, get severe headaches and nausea. I simply try to avoid it as I feel that it is the only solution.
From Ms Esther Shwetha
Ajman
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Just in case
My four-year-old son has a severe allergy to peanuts so we avoid letting him eat any nuts just as a safety precaution. Once he ate some nuts and in just a few minutes he had a reaction where there was swelling all over his body and he couldn’t breathe. So we are very careful about what food he eats and we read every label before giving it to him. As a precautionary step I put sticker warnings on his school belongings that he is allergic to nuts. I also found a bracelet for him saying he is allergic to nuts.
From Ms Ruby
Dubai
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