Fair play for musicians

A reader objects to an article denouncing the critical attention to Jack Black and Rufus Wainwright. Other letter topics: seatbelts, bachelors, online shopping, visit visas and blood money.

A reader says an article about Jack White and another musician was too critical. Jim Dyson / Redferns - Getty Images

What an interesting photo article in the Weekend section, The World Takes A Back Seat, on various passengers in a taxi (May 4).

What a huge shame however, that not one of the featured passengers was wearing a seat belt.

At an impact speed of 50 kph, an unrestrained person would in a crash not only seriously injure or kill him- or herself, but could also injure or kill everyone else in that car - including the taxi driver who works so hard to send money home to his family.

Seat belts save lives - buckle up in the back to protect yourself and others.

Lesley Cully, Dubai

I enjoyed the photos and summaries about all the people in the taxi.

That was a good real-life illustration of the cultural diversity everybody talks about.

Mohammed Jalluli, Abu Dhabi

Bachelors are humans, too

It is becoming fashionable to bash bachelors (Pushing 'bachelors' out of cities is a singularly bad idea, April 22).

Single men are often treated as the bottom rung of society. Why are they being irrationally ostracised? Don't they have a place in society or national economy, or for that matter, humanity?

Reuben Smile, Dubai

Region lags in online shopping

I don't understand how some shopping websites can get advertisements in newspapers.

More baffling still is that they are getting investors. Many of the products on their websites are fake, or fail to be delivered.

Shopping websites in the Middle East are lagging. There is room for a company that does this right. But for now, I am sticking to Amazon.

Name withheld by request

Stopping to pray is the lesser risk

The article Dangers in stopping for prayer (April 21) may have been well-intended, but any true Muslim certainly realises that there is greater danger in not stopping for prayer.

My thanks and respect go to the Abu Dhabi police who have demonstrated respect for worshippers in realising that stopping to pray is not the same as unexcused stops that disrupt traffic. An officer stated the police have no problem with people who stop to pray but advised people to stop their vehicles well off the motorway and to use hazard lights while stopped.

Salee Amina Mohammed, US

Reveal the details on visa service

Major airlines based in the UAE offer to handle the visit-visa application process if you have a relative coming here.

But to my fury I learnt when I tried to use this service that there is a catch: I am now scrambling to get a visa for the planned visit of our 24-year-old daughter because it turns out that the minimum age for this service is 25.

A clerk at the airline's office actually told me that this requirement "used to be on the website, but we took it off". She also said I could go ahead and apply, maybe Immigration would accept it. "It's just luck", she said, but the Dh400 fee would not be refunded if the papers were refused. This is, to say the least, not customer-friendly service. In any case, what's the point of such an arbitrary age limit for this service?

Ronald Holmes, Abu Dhabi

Don't be negative about musicians

I did not see the point of We don't understand the acclaim heaped on Jack White and Rufus Wainwright (April 23).

Why dedicate an entire piece to complaining about a couple of artists who happen to be popular with the critics?

I like Jack White's music, but I've never even heard of Rufus Wainwright. I am disappointed in the article.

Lorelei Fetch, Australia

There's some logic in blood money

Thank you for the report Blood money keeps 23 stuck in prison (May 4).

I agree that there are some injustices associated with the blood money system.

But a friend who is from this region explained to me that this policy is not as self-defeating as it may seem: the real idea, I was told, is to get the convicted person's relatives to pay up. That's not unreasonable when the criminal himself cannot pay.

In a lot of western countries now, prisoners are pampered in prisons and then released after short sentences, while permanently injured victims, or the families of those killed, get at most a small payment from the government - at taxpayers' expense.

JP Gunning, Abu Dhabi