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Gulf News looks back over the years at concerns and issues raised by readers in their letters to the newspaper. It's a retrospective that offers an insight into the community, the development of the country and the people. This week's letters are from 1981.
Misleading information
In Gulf News on Friday, November 27 [1981], I was astonished to read a report on Page 1 about mercenaries with the headline "Gunmen lived it up". It gave the impression that they were heroes who had fought a battle that was forced upon them by an oppressor.
Those kinds of people are nothing but hired assassins, and it is obvious - not only to us of the so-called Third World - but to anyone who is sensible enough that our world would be far better off in terms of peace and security if there were no threats of war and certainly no "dogs of war".
You may say that you were reporting facts and that every newspaper has to inform its readers. But, then again, as an editor you know more than anyone else that no reporter can be wholly objective. Since it was clear that the reporter who had filed that report was consciously or unconsciously pro-mercenary, Gulf News should not have carried that report. You could have at least rewritten it to give us only the facts, if there were any in that report, which I doubt.
From a reader
Name withheld by request
UAE
Disrespectful drivers
Road users are regularly disobeying the traffic signals. Motorists approaching from the Sharjah-Dubai road towards the Flame Torch roundabout ignore the first set of traffic lights and move on directly to the second set, which is just 150 metres away.
As a result, drivers approaching from the Airport or Garhoud Bridge roads passing the "green signal" in their own lane, arrive opposite the Rifai showroom through a side lane while motorists from the main lane just move along showing total disrespect to other drivers.
As a daily commuter of the Airport to Deira route along the Rifai showroom, I request the traffic authorities to set a police check during the morning hours.
The smooth operation of traffic would be beneficial to the public.
From Ms Fatima Mohammad
Dubai
Don't self-medicate
This is regarding the practice of giving medical information through the media. In the past, when roads and communication was bad and hospitals were just being built, such information may have been useful. But, today, it is an insult to the already existing and excellent medical facilities available in Dubai and the Gulf.
The practice of buying drugs over the counter should be discouraged, for self-medication can do more harm than good.
From Mr Stanley D'Cunha
Dubai
Unjust ruler
Gulf News' caution regarding General Zia and the reaction which followed in the newspaper, along with the recent happenings in Pakistan, caused me to think deeply about this subject.
General Zia Ul Haq, since his coup d'etat in July 1979, consolidated his position by duping the people of Pakistan.
Can anyone challenge the fact that there is no room for a coup d'etat in Islam? If not, then Zia's actions were illegal.
Didn't he announce on Pakistani radio and on national television that there would be an election in 90 days? Now 900 days have passed and there are still no elections.
From Mr Sameer Khan
Dubai
Reject terrorism
Regarding Gulf News' editorial of May 6, 1981 on "Maze Prison Tragedy", I would like to make the following comments with reference to some of the remarks.
"The tragic end of a young Irish hunger striker." This man was a convicted terrorist, jailed for his acts under the UK criminal law.
"It is a tragedy that could have been avoided." It is no tragedy. Mr Sands could have avoided death by eating food. It was his decision to starve and not the British government's. The only reason Mr Sands was elected was because he was dying, and the IRA used it as a lever of propaganda and threatened people to vote as they have done in the past. It was rightly so that the British government did not give into anybody's demands.
From Mr W.Y. McBride
Dubai
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