Letters to the editor

Dear Stan,After our experiences in the Middle East countries such as Jeddah(1989), Doha(2003),Yemen(2004) and Lebanon(2004), The Indonesian Singing and Dancing Troupe would like to have the opportunity to perform in Bahrain.

I have been in Bahrain before on a soccer invitation in 1994 and I have seen that your country is so beautiful.

I am willing to bring the troupe to perform in Bahrain. Nowadays, Bahrain has also a lot of Indonesian workers.

Would you please let our dreams come true?

Best regards

Anton Geronimo

[anton_geronimo@yahoo.com]

Dear Stan,

I have recently arrived in Bahrain with my family and generally speaking I have found it to be a welcoming place. In the week in which the UN published their Geo-4 report on the state of the planet I am increasingly disheartened with the environmental policy in Bahrain.

Over the Eid holiday I took my children to the water garden in Manama. A pleasant enough open space except for the litter.

I could not find a space to put my one-year-old son down for fear of him picking up something unspeakable. After considerable searching I found one spot without any litter, unfortunately it was in the bin.

A few days later I took my young family to the Al Jazair Beach and I was confronted with the same problem.

I could have found more clean space at a landfill site. After this experience I was truly saddened.

I have never before been someone who notices litter everywhere but this was unavoidable, I am really depressed by the environmental impact the population of Bahrain is having.

Lastly, I have heard that although there is some recycling done in Bahrain it is all sent to India to be processed which must result in a huge carbon footprint.

The decision-makers in Bahrain are keen to promote the island as a tourist destination which is understandable; as the environment moves more and more into the public eye it seems unlikely that tourists will want to travel to a destination which has such a poor environmental record.

Mr Dan Vickery, by email

Dear Stan,

Would it be possible to get hold of copies of Shilpa's Shopping List from when you first started doing it? It is for research purposes and would be much appreciated.

Best regards

Margaret Purcell

Senior Economist,

arabbanking.com

Editor's note: The GulfWeekly is always delighted to assist leading economists and researchers.