Letters

I Wanted to thank you so much for an amazing article and all your support from the beginning of the season! We are very grateful to have you guys supporting not only us but our Think Pink cause as well.

Have a great summer and I sincerely hope to see you at the track next season!

Martyna Al-Qassab, 2000cc Championship driver.

Thank you for the excellent write-up about our recent annual Birdman event in GulfWeekly, it was much appreciated.

We are pleased to confirm that the sum of BD2,829 was raised on the day, this was generously rounded up to BD3,000 by the British Club of Bahrain.

The Bahrain Llongsteppers would like to thank the British Club, the members who supported the event, our sponsors African and Eastern, Hertel Scaffolding and the Domain Hotel, all of whom helped to make the day a success, and of course, the participants who ascended the scaffold tower, without them there would be no Birdman.

Here is the presentation of the cheque to the Mission for Seafarers by Simon Cox to the Rev Stevens, with The Very Reverend Christopher Butt, Dean of St Christopher’s Cathedral and myself in the photograph.

Andrew Savage,

Bahrain Llongsteppers.

I would like to use the Letters page to thank everyone at St Christopher’s Cathedral for creating this year’s delightful concert season at the cathedral in Manama and to The Manama Singers for bringing it to such a glorious close.

We were treated to nine hymns of praise and spirituals that sent us all out into the evening’s heat with our souls gladdened and our heart-strings strumming.

It was a bittersweet ending, as it was the last concert for conductor Leah Churchill, accompanist Gavin Stewart and singer Elizabeth George. They will all be very much missed.

I have been an attendee at Manama Singers events for more than 35 years now and the singers have never been anything less than very professional and wonderful fun.

Their numbers may have risen and become depleted again, but they continue to produce some of the best musical entertainment to be had in Bahrain.

Christine Hasan,

Amwaj Islands.

The withdrawal of the US from the Paris climate agreement sheds light on a number of issues which are related to shifts in world views with respect to the role of science in policy and the boundaries between science and non-science, and the gap between ideology and rationality.

The risks and threats of climate change require a macro-shift in economy and society to make a transition to a sustainable human civilization.

In the climate change science, the challenge exists when one is confronted with skepticism of science and lack of trust in scientists. The state of US environmental policy discourse is characterised as follows; scientific facts are contested and The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) consensus is challenged.

This is a clear assault on reason and a serious decline of US global leadership in technological innovation.

In sum, it is insightful to see inspiration from the Islamic value system that allocates more value and priority to protect life over economy. This is a simple answer to overcome the ecological amnesia and the blind spots in US environmental policy.

The good news is that there are voices of US businesses, local governments and the emergence of a Chinese and EU alliance to support the climate deal through investment in green technology and innovation.

Professor Odeh Al-Jayyousi, head of innovation and technology management, Arabian Gulf University.