Bollywood fans send early reviews to friends in India

A reader jokes that a French artist's evocative combination of Star Wars and Dubai could lead to a new brigade of traffic enforcers. Other letters deal with the midday break law, Rera and property developers, and the EU and credit-rating agencies

Images fom Cedric Delsaux up coming Star Wars book.

Courtesy of Cedric Delsaux *** Local Caption *** Dubai SkyLine invasion .tif
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Your story No such thing as too much for cinemas (July 7) prompts me to comment that the UAE is a dream for Bollywood buffs. All the major releases among Hindi films are in the UAE a day before they open in India.

People who attend the Thursday showing of new Bollywood movies are inundated with requests for reviews before the Friday releases in India.

I, for one, religiously watch the Thursday shows and give my reviews on Facebook and Twitter. I advise my friends when to save money.

Ravikiran, Abu Dhabi

Developers need Rera supervision

I refer to Developers gear up for legal battles (July 5).

Developers should thank the Real Estate Regulatory Agency (Rera) instead of challenging its decision to clean up the market.

For years, many developers acted as cowboys without delivering what investors had paid for.

Rera should support investors to start legal actions against these errant developers whose greed has killed our property market's reputation in the world.

These developers are acting as spoiled boys and deserve a lesson. Go for them Rera, you have backing from cheated investors.

Salvatore Primo, Dubai

Keep enforcing midday break law

It's very encouraging to see that the law on midday breaks for outdoor workers is being enforced (Firms fined for flouting break rule, July 7).

Despite your jocular editorial about outdoor exercise (Sweating summer, July 7) I can't imagine that many of your readers would enjoy a day's work on a construction site or doing other physical labour in this weather. I certainly couldn't do that myself.

The law is intended to give labourers at least minimum protection from heatstroke and worse, but it will only do so if it is enforced. I'm relieved to know that the authorities are doing so and hope they will remain vigilant.

HR Mehta, Abu Dhabi

Does Dubai need two big airports?

I'm having a little trouble understanding the airport plans (Big airport expansion for Dubai, July 7).

We're going to have further expansion of Dubai International, which sounds fine.

But just around the time that's done we're going to be building and expanding Dubai World Centre, this whole new airport and industrial complex, ultimately even bigger, at Jebel Ali.

How many mega-colossal hyper-airports does one emirate need?

Frank Hamilton, Dubai

Droids would be good traffic cops

I just loved the photo-artworks of Star Wars hardware and characters set against Dubai's scenery (The skyline's the limit, July 7).

Cédric Delsaux has a wonderful knack for mixing the real with the imaginary.

Not only are the images really evocative, but my husband says a few thousand droids used as police officers might be quite a lot of help in getting the traffic situation under control.

Karen Quinn, Dubai

Maintenance over at petrol stations

Remember that maintenance and upgrading work that Epco and Enoc were carrying out on all their petrol stations in the Northern Emirates?

I'm glad it's finished now.

But where are all the motorists filling up their tanks at the stations?

After this whole public relations fiasco for the companies, what are we to believe, finally?

Adil Ali, Abu Dhabi

EU officials 'shoot the messenger'

This week Moody's credit rating service slashed the rating of Portugal's debt down to "junk" status (Portugal's rating cut jolts euro zone, July 7).

European Union officials wasted no time complaining that this rating change would make the situation worse.

This is a classic case of "shooting the messenger" and the European leadership should know better. Portugal's mess is not the fault of Moody's.

It's ironic that in 2009, at least some of the ratings agencies came under a lot of criticism in the US for being too lackadaisical about the ratings of financial institutions. These institutions were hip-deep in questionable mortgage investments.

Now they're being criticised for being too strict.

Alexander Mackenzie, Abu Dhabi

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