Letters to the editor

Dear Stan,
I am working at the Children and Youth Centre (CYC) to provide emergency relief to newly-displaced refugees from the Nahr el Bared refugee camp in the North of Lebanon.

So far, among the various NGOs (non-governmental organisations) operating in the camp we have registered 230 refugee families (with an average family size of six) who have escaped the bombardment of the Lebanese army and the fire-fight between militants and the army.
The number of displaced families has continued to increase during my two weeks in Lebanon, and could well continue to do so.
These families are currently living with other families in the already overcrowded, poor and slum-like conditions of the Shatila refugee camp, or in some form of temporary accommodation in the surrounding area.
Many of them left their homes with nothing more than the clothes on their back.
NGOs have been working to provide the displaced families with food, clothes and shoes, water, medicines, hygiene kits, baby milk and nappies, mattresses, blankets and other basic amenities. To help their children cope with their traumatic situation we have begun work at the CYC to integrate their children with the children of the Shatila camp through activities at the centre.
Unfortunately, unlike the response to the displacement of Lebanese families during Israel’s war on Lebanon last summer this pending humanitarian disaster has failed to draw the support it needs.
I am appealing to individuals, organisations, charities and societies and companies in Bahrain to revive the inspiring humanitarian response to Israel’s war on Lebanon last summer and donate money towards
providing relief to the Nahr El Bared displaced refugees.
Please contact me directly for information on how to help – I can be reached at kanwal.t@gmail.com, +973 39439990 till next Tuesday, or on + 961 3960367.
Alternatively, direct donations can be made to the CYC:
FIRST NATIONAL BANK-SAL
SWIFT: FINK LBBE
A/C NO.: 0007-138922-103
BENEFICIARY: MAHMOUD ABBAS/ ABIR KASSEM
BRANCH: JNAH BRANCH – BEIRUT, LEBANON
I really hope we can regenerate a similar response to support these beleaguered people.
Thanks,
Kanwal Tariq Hameed.

Dear Stan,
I have just been reading Asma Salman’s report on the Disney film Hamad and the Pirates and am very keen to show it at a private reception I am hosting for the Bahrain Ambassador to the UK in November.
I wondered if you could help me to get hold of a copy as I seem to be having no luck when talking to Disney direct.
Best wishes and kind regards,
Marcia Warren
The Policy Partnership,
London.

Editor’s note: We will try our best to send you one. The picture above features Khalifa Shaheen who beat Omar Sharif and Charles Bronson for the role of the pirate captain.

Dear Stan,
I enjoyed reading film director Alex Cox’s piece on why actors make lousy directors. I enjoyed it purely because I thought it was well-written.
The premise of the article, however, and his statement that Clint Eastwood is the worst movie-star director of all-time is ill-informed at best. Now I do admit that Mr Cox is a decent director in his own right, but he certainly hasn’t directed anything even remotely approaching Eastwood’s classic Mystic River, Letters From Iwo Jima and the cult Western, The Unforgiven.
I know this is purely his opinion, and one to which he has every right.
But he has failed to mention actors that have successfully made the transition to able directors.
Just take Mel Gibson (Man Without a Face), Robert De Niro (The Good Shepherd), Danny DeVito (Hoffa) and George Clooney (Good Night, And Good Luck) as examples.
And then of course there are actors who have always directed, like Woody Allen … only a half-wit wouldn’t be beguiled by Annie Hall, Bananas and Broadway Danny Rose.
I must say, however, that he was spot-on with his comments regarding Brando’s One-Eyed Jacks, though I think Brown Bunny is a misunderstood masterpiece (tongue-firmly-in-cheek).
Dean Williams,
Features Editor,
Gulf Daily News

Dear Stan,
I read Shilpa Chandran’s article on Page 10 of last week’s GulfWeekly and was amazed at the project’s title – the Pearl Necklace. The sexual connotation of that name should cause the developers some embarrassment. They should perhaps find a more appropriate name.
Rob Lane,
Bahrain.