SEC Should Look East

In my opinion as a businessman, the SEC should be optimistic on increasing profits by directly purchasing the materials from the Far East, in general, and from China, in particular. All major EU and US companies are outsourcing the materials and getting them produced from the Far East in their reputed names and offering them to the SEC.

It is unfortunate that the SEC has little knowledge about this phenomenon and is getting fooled. The prices EU and US companies quote are six times more than the original price at which they purchase from the Far East. Why does not the SEC encourage Far Eastern companies to make their products with better quality?

The fact that the Kingdom’s government has signed many agreements for major project like petrochemical plants with China should make such deals easier. General Motors and Volkswagen vehicles are manufactured in China and being exported all over the world.

SEC can visit major plants in the Far East and evaluate their capabilities instead of favoring the old suppliers. There have been cases where the best-quality products from the Far East were sidelined to protect the interests of some “vested interests”.

The Western operating area should be checked to stop such unhealthy activities that will cost SEC and its shareholders dearly.

I hope to see some good actions and equally good results that are expected to come out from the new chief manager of SEC.

Abdullah Al-Minhal, Jeddah, published 21 October 2005

Prizes Racket

The story “Ramadan Contests Net Big Prizes for Promoters” (Oct. 18) was quite revealing. It is surprising that intelligent people can be exploited and fooled so easily. However, the question is how the authorities allow these “promotions” to go on. It is hard to believe that they are not aware of this.

In Dubai, we always hear of ordinary people, including expatriates, winning big prizes. That happens because, there, they have put in place a foolproof system.

The municipality and the chamber of commerce have a special department to supervise this. Costly prizes like cars have to be handed over to the head of that department and he will decide how and when the draw should take place.

On the date of the draw, he himself will open the sealed box, with the public and all participants present, and will personally sign and stamp the winning coupon and return it to the winner. The winner contacts the department to collect the prize. Even the owner of the establishment has nothing to do with the selection of the winner.

Action needs to be taken here too to ensure that winners are chosen in a fair manner.

Mohammed Ali, Riyadh, published 21 October 2005

Breast Cancer

I was happy to read the news that responding to statistics showing that one woman in five may have breast cancer in the Kingdom, the Ministry of Health is launching a Kingdomwide awareness campaign. Well done.

However, the campaign must be an aggressive one. The push to get information out to the women folk of Saudi Arabia and to ensure that the doctors have the most recent updated medical information on breast cancer is exceptionally important.

As the worldwide research into cancer in general is continually changing, it is imperative that a National Cancer Institute that collects and reviews data and treatment modalities should be in place. In turn, an ongoing program to ensure that all physicians, radiologists and histopathologists are educated in the latest information and effective use of such tests and treatment is equally important.

It would be very beneficial and serve the population well if bookstores such as Jarir were allowed to carry books detailing women’s personal journeys with the disease. While an intensely personal journey, it is one wherein a woman and her family are better served if information can be readily accessed for their personal education in seeking treatment options.

One such book on the topic which provides an immense source of information is Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book. I highly recommend it as this physician ensures that a new edition of the book goes into print incorporating important new information as medicine advances further in this field.

Naturally, it would be great to see the writing of this type of book done in Arabic by a local breast surgeon.

Mary Poppins, Jeddah, published 21 October 2005

Inside Job?

I may be wrong, but after reading the report ‘Youthful “Theft Busters” Track Down Stolen Cars’ (Oct. 17), I can’t help thinking that someone has thought up a smart idea. It is a nice “cycle.” Stealing cars and then getting paid to find them smacks of a smooth inside job. The idea is simplicity itself.

The criminals who steal cars can start charging to return them or they can come to some arrangement via a friend who is posing as a “find a stolen car’ service. It would be a better system if the finder got paid by the police, not by the owner of the recovered car, after the thieves are apprehended.

Adrian Hooson, Dammam, published 21 October 2005

Interaction

Some two years ago, there was a heart-rending report of a British chopper firing into an Iraqi house, wounding a child named Ali Abbas and killing his mother. Neither of them was a terrorist. Ali Abbas will never forget the incident. He will grow up full of hatred for the British.

Then, as chance would have it, another Ali Abbas, again a child, came into contact with the British a few days ago. Caught under the rubbles of Margalla Towers in Islamabad that collapsed during the earthquake, he was crying for help.

He was also from Iraq and had his mother with him under the rubble. Taking the coincidence further, the men listening to their screams were British rescue workers. With very advanced voice-detecting instruments they had brought with them, they saved the child and the mother. And what will this Ali Abbas feel for the British when he grows up, now that British rescuers saved his and his mother’s life? His heart will be full of gratitude for the British.

Here are two real-life examples of interaction between two nations. The point is that all of us have the choice to make a decision about the nature of our interaction with other peoples. Do we want others to remember us for our good acts or bad ones?

We owe it ourselves to make all our actions for the good of humanity. Delusions about divine missions will get hundreds of thousands killed — just for the sin of one mad person.

Hundreds of thousands lives have been lost in Iraq. Who is responsible for them? Saddam, who is enjoying his life, though not with the same opulence? Tony Blair, who thinks that he has pleased Bush? Or Bush himself who “saved” his nation by destroying another nation.

The first Ali Abbas will remember Briton’s cruelty while the second Ali Abbas will never forget the kindness of the same nation. The same goes for all of us.

Afzaal Hussain Shah, Riyadh, published 21 October 2005

Iran’s Nuclear Rights

The report “US, Russia Disagree on Iran’s Nuclear Rights” (Oct. 16) shows once again the double standard when it comes to possessing nuclear power. It is disheartening to see the leaders of a few countries assuming for themselves the role of the “moral compass” of the world, totally disregarding bodies such as the United Nations which have the mandate of the world to speak and act on its behalf.

It is also disturbing to see some countries forcing their culture, language and political and economic systems on the world as if other countries did not have the brains to create and develop their own languages, cultures, economic and political systems. This is all the more ironic when the former’s history is barely two hundred years old while some of the latter have histories, cultures, languages and civilizations that go back thousands of years. A country possessing nuclear weapons does not have the moral right to condemn others for possessing or trying to possess them. What is right for America cannot be wrong for Iran.

The only just policy is that either all can have them or none should have them. Their possession by some or all, because of their destructive power, is of importance to every human being in this world.

Hence all people of the world should be given the opportunity to vote to decide whether we should have nuclear weapons or not. All these unfair policies that judge nations and peoples by different standards have much to do with the inequality institutionalized at the United Nations.

If just decisions are to come from that body, all nations of the world should have equal voting rights at its sessions and in its subsidiary organizations. We should get rid of the idea that only China, Russia, United States, England and France can decide the fate of the whole world through their veto power. We all know from experience that the countries with veto power cannot accept the idea that other countries can think and create their own economic and political ideologies.

Umbisa, Columbus, Ohio, published 21 October 2005

Iraqi Constitution

The message we got from the editorial “Seeds of Democracy” (Oct. 17) is that you also have been taken in by catch phrases. A “democratically agreed on” constitution is nothing but a slogan. Half of Iraq can’t read and no one knows how many people have actually read the constitution, especially under the chaos, daily bombings, terrorism and destruction. I also object to the “seed of democracy” label. The way this process is carried out gives a bad name to democracy.

This is yet another unnecessary issue. Did Iraq really need a new constitution? Did it even need one? Israel and the UK operate without one. The constitution, in its present form, will create new tensions among Iraqis.

Sunni Arabs will look at the referendum results as a defeat. That will lead to more instability.

Karim Zam, Jeddah, published 21 October 2005