Write to the editor

The Rotary Club of Manama welcomed its new board of directors recently and heard about the plans for the club for the coming year at a luncheon held at The Gulf Hotel.

High on the club’s list of priorities is continuing to fund help for children with diabetes, installing more smoke alarms in the homes of poor families and providing 1,000 ‘Ramadan Food Boxes’ for the underprivileged. Also on the list of the club’s charitable activities for the coming year is a scheme to reward and honour outstanding members of the vocational services, such as nurses, firemen, the police, teachers and young scientists. It was also announced that the club would set up scholarships for needy students.

The board members are: Hussain Tadayon-president, Robert Ainey, Fareed Bader, Christophe Balet, Raj Damani, Bijan Majidi, Betsy Mathieson, Joseph Moussa, Bob Thaker and Abdullah Wallace.

The Rotary Club of Manama, with a current membership of 60 men and women from all segments of Bahrain society, was founded in 1965 with the primary purpose of raising funds for and giving support to community projects in the kingdom and abroad. With the motto ‘Service above Self’, the club is a part of a worldwide organisation with over 1.2 million members.

Hussain Tadayon,
President,
Rotary Club of Manama.

last week’s edition of GulfWeekly carried the funniest article (‘Don’t make bounced cheques a crime’) I have read since I retired after 27 years running my own business, which was based solely on commission.

As a criminal offence, those that issue dud cheques know full-well they have to actually appear in court and, if found guilty, pay the penalty for fraud.

The author proposes the banks should give all failing entrepreneurs an open-ended banking facility until he/she becomes successful. Who does the author suggest pay for the bank’s loss of money, the shareholders of the bank or the general public?

There have always been great opportunities here in Bahrain to become an entrepreneur, as demonstrated back in 2007 with only BD100,000 cash an entrepreneur with no previous experience was allowed to start a multi-million dinar private real estate project.

This local entrepreneur had a business plan, but no means of raising extra capital, ignored the shortfall in construction cash flow charts; just sat back and waited for the initial money from the buyers of his off-plan apartments.

No need to finish building this project, just took all the fees and profit up front because that was the entrepreneur’s original business plan; it had previously been successful elsewhere!

Opportunity, recognition and exploitation are said to be the key to becoming an entrepreneur; seems to be quite a lot of them around these days, all doing extremely well without the author’s mitigation plea on a bounced cheque.

Alan Pitt
By email.

I LOVE driving during Ramadan, it’s so pleasant having significantly fewer vehicles on the road during the ‘usual’ rush hour.

Usually when 6pm rolls around there’s traditionally a mad dash to make it to the car and speed along the highway before hitting bumper-to-bumper traffic.

However, during Ramadan, there is an eerily serine sense of calm on the kingdom’s roads and highways at traditionally peak times.

I’ve noticed substantially less speeding, erratic lane changing, more people using their indicators and an overall level of courtesy when it comes to allowing other drivers to complete a manoeuvre without honking incessantly.

Although the holy month can be tough for expats such as myself when it comes to refraining from eating and drinking in public (not to mention the devastating toll taken on my social life), I think it’s a fair trade for the wonderful effect it has on driving on this beautiful island.

Dr Jeremy Fisher,
By email.

I REALLY enjoyed last week’s article ‘unique art show in aid of charity’. I went to the event at the Al Haddad Motors showroom and was stunned by the collection of work donated for the cause.

There was a great ambience as well as an eclectic mix of people from all nationalities eager to show their support and come together as a community. In my opinion, Bahrain could benefit from more events like this one.

After the civil unrest, the island’s reputation took a bashing at the hands of the international media. If only people could pay more attention to events like this art show, maybe then they’d realise the compassion of the people who live here and all the other good things Bahrain has to offer.

Congratulations to Noora and Mohammed Al Haddad for all their hard work for two very deserving charities, namely the Bahrain Deaf Society and the Bahrain Dreams Society.

Gerard Bomhoff,
By email.