Reuse and recycle
Recently when I was visiting my aunt's home in Mumbai, India, I was surprised to see a very interesting system of garbage disposal in their building. My aunt had two waste bins in the house — one was for dry and the other for wet waste, she said. By that she meant all covers, papers or wrappers were to be disposed of in the dry bin and leftover food or vegetable peels went inside the wet bin. She stays in a very old building and there is no garbage chute. A man has been employed to collect garbage from all houses in two huge bins — dry and wet — and keep it ready for the municipal truck to collect. I was astounded by this simple system of recycling which would help save our environment. Also I observed that wastage is minimal there and the "reuse policy" is used abundantly — items like old books, newspapers, clothes and vessels are reused. Almost everything is recycled and all the people follow this irrespective of whether they are rich or poor. I just wish people all over the world would understand the importance of reusing and recycling. A small change in attitude could make a big difference.
From Ms Naina Nair
Sharjah

Efforts ignored
The idea that Afghans are no better off today than in the period 1996-2001 is wrong ("Afghans are no better off than they were", Gulf News, September 20). The continued proclamation of such assertions in the face of tangible economic, educational and health advances across Afghanistan is not objective journalism but subjective opinion. Of course, most Afghans remain very poor and many challenges still have to be addressed to build a viable Afghan state, but to dismiss the effect of the vast international and Afghan efforts that have been made to improve the lives of people since 2001 is bordering on scandalous oversight. To ignore the progress that has been made in Afghanistan at the cost of so much blood and treasure is to present a distorted picture of the situation that would be alien to millions of Afghans who can now get to a hospital or health clinic, have a job, own a mobile phone or receive an education.From Mr P Smyth
Norfolk, UK
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Match fixing
I agree that there are greedy people who look for shortcuts ("Why pick on Pakistan, Butt asks", Gulf News, September 20). Not only in cricket, but this is true in every field. My question is why is the International Cricket Council (ICC) beating about the bush? Instead of taking action against the bookies, it is amazing that the bookie has been bailed out and the players are banned. The bookie is free to create more mess with other players. By blaming only the players they might remove them from the team, but the issue will still remain. This is crazy and biased, too. Match fixing may be done in almost every match, by almost every team, then why pick on a certain nation or players every time? I totally agree with Mr Ijaz Butt [Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman].
From Mr Asghar Ali
Sharjah
 Website comment

Team work
I am not a very good advocate of our [Pakistan] cricket team in the circumstances. So many allegations, personal attacks, lack of team work — that always weighs much more compared to other teams. It seems the whole world got united to degrade our team. If we are strong and if we play for our country, no media or country can tarnish our image. But, it seems our players play for money, whatever the source is. Lack of interest in the game and disintegration within the team helps others to hit the area where it hurts most. It is time to get united and follow the path of other teams that are blamed less.
From Mr Ekram Al Deen Akbar 
Karachi, Pakistan

Long history
Pakistan does have a very long and infamous history, starting from ball tampering and chewing on a ball to reverse swing, dope and drug related incidents and a suspicious murder of its coach. The fact that Pakistani cricketers were filmed discussing and accepting bribes is just recent proof of match fixing. So to claim that media is against Pakistan is irresponsible and naive.
From Ms Kamal Mehta
India
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Innocent players
In response to Mr Kamal Mehta's comment, there is no film of Pakistan cricketers discussing or accepting bribes. The person in all the videos is an ‘agent', not a player. Players are innocent until proven guilty in the court of law. If there is evidence that they took money for spot-fixing then they should be punished. All your other allegations are just irrelevant. If there is any truth to them, then where's the proof? The police investigating the death of [Pakistan's former coach] Bob Woolmer said that he died of natural causes.
From Mr Amr
Dubai
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Reality check
A reality check for Mr Kamal Mehta — Indian cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid have also been involved in ball tampering. Kapil Dev and former Indian skipper Mohammad Azharuddin were said to be involved in match fixing. Recently, according to a British newspaper, 29 players in the IPL [Indian Premier League] have been involved in match fixing. I wonder why no action was taken by the ICC or even any statement published.
From Mr I.M.
Dubai
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