Stop wasting food and medicines!

We are in a world in which we see a lot of people helping a stranded whale, but not a dying person.

When I was young if a person died or was murdered, it would be the talk of the town but now mass murders are happening but no one is concerned about it. On a daily basis, the lifespan of human beings is decreasing.

Recently, a student aged 21 died of a heart attack in Sharjah. I believe that with a short life span, we have little time to give back to society. Living in this country for the past few years, I am thankful to the Rulers for providing us with a safe, clean and healthy environment to live in.

Although, the opportunities to help the community are less, a small thought can help someone here or elsewhere in the world. I see a lot of people wasting food at home and restaurants and it is our responsibility to control such wastage. Instead of wasting it, we can take the excess food home or give it to a person who would eat it. There are a lot of people in need of food and who might only eat one meal a day. Do not shy or make it a prestige issue to tell the waiter in the restaurant to pack the leftover food.

Another issue which is important to look into is also the issue of wasting medicines. With the rise of medical insurance, it has paved the way to waste medicines. I, myself, experienced it when I went to a clinic complaining of a cough and throat infection, in which I was prescribed a lot of medicines, in addition to two bottles of cough syrup. However, my condition got better within two days and I had only used a small amount of medicine that I was prescribed.

This is definitely a growing problem, and we must urgently put an end to such practices as a lot of people around the world have no access to food or medicine, while we are wasting both.

— The reader is a designer based in Dubai