Letters: June 18, 2013

Don’t waste food

As Ramadan is fast approaching I send out my wishes to everyone fasting during the holy month. Before we start celebrating the holy month, I am writing this letter to remind everyone about the Dubai Municipality’s plea to reduce wastage of food. While all people, charity organisations, hotels and restaurants are planning iftar buffets, I humbly request everyone to not waste food.

I feel sad that Ramadan nowadays has become a month for extravagance. I suggest that the iftar meals distributed outside mosques be delivered in packets so that people can use their leftovers at home. As there is hardly any time between iftar and the prayers, people cannot finish the food on their plates. Secondly, hotels hold a great responsibility and can help curb the wastage.

Just shrugging their shoulders and shifting the responsibility to the customers is not responsible. Lastly, families that invite guests for iftar must remember that an excess display of food is not an indication of a good host, only the kind and welcoming gestures are. So please limit the food and its quantity. I hope my letter puts a thought in the minds of those who read it. In the end I hope you all reap fortunes of goodness out of this holy month. Please remember Ramadan is a month in which everyone tries to be a good human being by restraining desires. Wasting food that could feed the hungry defeats the purpose of goodness.

From Ms Yousufa

Abu Dhabi

Blocked apps

Lose It! a streamlined weight loss application for the iPhone and web, is not available here. I recently read about the app in the Gulf News technology supplement and tried to download it. Unfortunately, it is not available in the iTunes UAE store. This is really sad. It would be nice to read about alternative apps that are available here and easy to download.

From Ms Aisha Kauser

UAE

Burdening student’s shoulders

Through the esteemed columns of your newspaper, I wish to share my concern about the heavy school bags problem most children are facing. Being a student, I know what it feels like to carry huge and heavy bags that make every child like me bend down.

Most of the time the weight of the bag is nearly a quarter of the student’s body weight. It is serious, yet an issue overlooked by the education and health authorities, heads of the school and teachers. Doctors are reporting serious spinal abnormalities in pupils, disfiguring postures and physical strain on students.

This also includes me as I feel terribly exhausted after school, and I have a lot of back pain after carrying such a huge load. Health experts say that children are at risk of long-term and ultimately permanent damage, if they carry a load of more than 15 per cent of their body weight on their shoulders.

I would be obliged if this letter spreads awareness of this serious topic in society as well as the school, health and education authorities.

I also hope that appropriate measures will be taken on this issue.

From Ms Raina Lalit Shah

UAE

Prejudice

I found this article biased (‘Egypt can still bank on a nationalist spirit,’ Gulf News, June 11). The writer completely forgets that Ethiopia needs the Nile as much as Egypt does. Ethiopia does have a bitter enemy as poverty and it wages war against that. I guess the worst enemy for our Egyptian brothers is also poverty.

If there is a need to fight, let them fight that. If they need to keep their house in order, Ethiopia should not be a scapegoat or a soft target as the writer has advised. Ethiopia clearly stated its national interest two decades ago. Its national policy revolves around a common goal that is eradicating poverty.

In doing so Ethiopia needs to use its national resources including the water from the Nile. Ethiopia has invited its strategic partners and countries such as Egypt to join in the fight against poverty. The country has embarked on such noble ideas and has finally begun to reap the fruits of its efforts. Ethiopia has a win-win principle and a mutual goal to develop the region and that is why it started exporting electricity to Sudan and Djibouti.

It will also do the same to Egypt after the construction of the Grand Renaissance Dam.

So while Ethiopia is working to that end and it has made clear time and again that the dam will not affect Egypt, why do people engage in warmongering? And if Egypt is in crisis it should deal with the issues at hand.

There is no need to look for a scapegoat. Long live the brotherly and historical relationship of Ethiopia and Egypt!

From Mr Moges Girma

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Biased coverage

I’m disappointed with your coverage of US whistleblower Edward Snowden, who risked his life to expose abuses of power in the US government (‘Snags seen in any US bid to extradite whistleblower Edward Snowden,’ Gulf News, June 11).

The US Constitution and US laws forbid the government from spying on its citizens by tapping their phones or reading their emails. The Bush Administration had set up an illegal surveillance apparatus to spy on the Americans, rewriting US laws to try to justify it and claiming it was the interests of security. Obama continued these illegal practices. You’d never know it from Gulf News. By parroting the official line, you did your readers a disservice. This is a huge story that won’t go away. Please look at all sides of the story and report it fairly. Edward Snowden is an American hero.

He exposed this illegal spying on a massive scale so that Americans could learn the truth about their government. Snowden knew he’ll be caught and jailed, but he followed his conscience.

As an American dismayed by my government’s Orwellian surveillance practices, I’m happy that such a brave man put his belief in democracy and the people’s right to hold their leaders to account over his own freedom and comfortable life.

From Ms Linda C. MacConnell

Abu Dhabi

Editor’s note: Gulf News’ reporting on the story of the whistleblower was aimed at balance. It did not take sides or label a person/government as a hero/villain. Expressing an opinion is different from looking at a story objectively, which Gulf News has done and will continue to do. We believe in fair journalism.

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