I was late for work because I spent too much of my morning with your special magazine A Nation's Journey (November 30) about the history of the UAE. What fine work; I will be sure to keep it.
The 40th anniversary of the country's founding is being marked with many expressions of enthusiasm, and it was nice for a newcomer like myself to get an understanding of the history which is being celebrated.
Karen Quinn, Abu Dhabi
Thanks for the lively summary of the country's history. Congratulations to the team that produced it.
VJ Mehta, Dubai
Obama shouldn't lecture on debt
Am I the only one who finds it funny that Barack Obama is pestering European leaders about their financial crisis (EU pressed to find debt solution by US president, November 29)?
After all, the US government has a massive burden of debt and no political will to do anything about it at all. Mr Obama is in a poor position to lecture anyone.
GM Williams, Dubai
Ashamed? Then let him leave
I refer to the letter to the editor entitled Not all Americans are xenophobes (November 29) from the gentlemen who said something in the news had made him embarrassed to be an American.
Being American is not a genetic condition, so why doesn't he simply change his nationality, choosing a new one that would not embarrass him?
In fact, considering the millions of people in the world eager to acquire American citizenship, perhaps his departure could make a nice opening for one of them.
Steve Suttles, Abu Dhabi
Luxury house is more than a home
On the subject of your report Wealthy buyers to the manor drawn (November 22), I believe that while buying a luxury home doesn't enable you to live any longer, it is the physical manifestation of the level of success you have achieved.
This makes it worthwhile as a status symbol, not as a mere place to live.
Jamie Knuckles, US
Traditional healers knew something
The article about traditional healers (Hills are alive with sound of healing, November 30) was very good.
The person in the article really reminded me of my grandmother, who lived most of her life in the Northern Emirates, used old-fashioned remedies, wouldn't go near a doctor, had eight children and lived to be 83.
Alsha Rajab, Dubai
Exposed bombs a new-old menace
How eerie to read that Second World War munitions are still being found, and still dangerous, in Germany (Half of Koblenz evacuated after bomb find, November 30).
The low water levels in the Rhine this year, the story said, are bringing more old bombs to view.
Is this yet another danger to attribute to global warming?
Walt Weaver, Dubai
Why did the German authorities feel it necessary to evacuate an area with a 1.8km radius because of a newly-discovered bomb from the Second World War?
There were - until Hiroshima - no aerial weapons in that war that could do damage over an area even a fraction that big. This is an overreaction.
Bob Griem, Abu Dhabi
Don't follow Canada on fishery
Your editorial Keeping fish on the menu takes action (November 30) was quite right to point to Canada as a horrible example.
Abundant cod stocks off Newfoundland in Canada's north-east were utterly destroyed by foreign and domestic fishermen. And the Canadian government, paralysed by foreign relations concerns and domestic politics, just stood by and let it happen.
I hope that the UAE will have better luck, and it will if you take unpopular actions quickly, before your hammour stocks suffer the same fate as our cod.
Joseph Littlewood, Canada
Reality is not as tidy as fiction
Now the revisionists want us to believe that Dominique Strauss-Kahn was the innocent victim of a plot (Strauss-Kahn was 'victim of hotel plot', November 30).
It's possible. But a couple of stray facts should never distract us from the mass of the evidence.
Reality is not as neat as fiction, but not all doubts are reasonable.
Maryam Kaddoura, Dubai
