My congratulations and commendations to the Dubai police for the arrests they made after seizing 4.6 million amphetamine pills. (Dh115m Dubai amphetamine drugs bust 'one of world's biggest', December 22).
However, we as a community also need to help the authorities in ending this menace to our children and fellow human beings.
There must be zero tolerance towards this poison.
Siddharth Balachandran, Dubai
I am glad they caught these criminals who destroy children and adults alike.
Drug peddlers ruin entire families and they target children and teenagers to get them addicted.
Jen Bishop, Abu Dhabi
Life not easy for Dubai landlords
I wish these residents would stop going on about greedy landlords (Dubai rent increases to be triggered when tenants pay 11 per cent below market rate, December 21).
Many of them have faced enormous hardship over the last few years, sticking their life savings into buildings that never saw the light of day so if you actually got it built and are able to let it, they are very lucky.
There shouldn’t be any cap of any kind, like in Abu Dhabi. If you can’t afford it, then move out.
I would like to live in Chelsea Harbour or Downtown Manhattan, but I can’t afford it so I don’t.
Alan G, Dubai
I think it is very reasonable. Be thankful you don’t live in other parts of the world. In Hong Kong, for example, a landlord can increase the rent by whatever amount he likes at the end of the tenancy. In Sydney in Australia, the landlord can increase the rent by up to 20 per cent at the end of the tenancy.
The rental rules in Dubai actually do not favour the landlord and if tenants took the time to read the law and understand their rights, they would realise that they are very well protected here.
As for abusing the right to remove a tenant to occupy the property themselves, if landlords do this they do not have the right to lease out the property again for two years. If they do lease it out, the old tenant can claim compensation from RERA. The compensation amounts to a year’s rent (and this has been imposed on some landlords).
Nicole Burt, Dubai
In your article, you say that “landlords had been feeling frustrated since rents really dropped five years ago after the recession. There was a feeling they should be allowed to recoup what they bought as an investment”.
I thought the investment was the value of the property itself, which we all know is increasing as time passes. I’d much rather have a tenant who looks after the place and doesn’t cost me much in maintenance than have continuous lapses of an empty property whilst waiting for new tenants to move in.
Name withheld by request
Anti-corruption party’s Indian win
Your story, Indian anti-graft activist Kejriwal hints at forming Delhi government (December 23), was good to read.
As a former civil servant turned politician, Arvind Kejriwal’s stated aim to form a government with Congress party support is another dramatic development in Delhi politics.
The principal opposition party BJP is raising questions about anti-corruption AAP party chief’s stand not to join any party to form government. But because of the lack of a majority, he has changed his stance because of what is, in effect, the people’s referendum.
Apart from this, two or three of the promises he made through his election manifesto may not feasible for him to fulfil.
Because of the manifesto, he got 28 of the 70 seats, which is important.
How he will overcome these hurdles is something about which we will have to wait and see in the coming days.
K Ragavan, India
Dubai dreaming of a wet Christmas?
You ask whether we love or hate rain in Dubai (UAE weather: Rain heralds a wet Christmas and more driving difficulties, December 22).
Rain is a blessing and I am ready for a wet Christmas.
Bobz Qanyi, Dubai
After being stuck for two and a half hours in traffic, the rain is a pain.
Junaid Rasool Sayed, Dubai
Norway good, but I meant Finland
In my letter to The National (Norway's example useful in the UAE, December 19) I made a mistake.
While Norway’s example is also encouraging, I meant of course to refer to Finland and its 20-year plan of mainstreaming that led to their internationally-assessed success in secondary education, rising to overall excellence.
Steve Liddle, Sharjah
