Let’s remember the sacrifice of heroes

Readers offer condolences to the fallen Emirati pilots. Other topics: security, oil price, EU, abaya

Readers offer condolences to the families of Zayed Al Kaabi, left, and Mohammed Al Hmoudi, the pilots who were killed in a plane crash in Yemen on Monday. Courtesy the Al Kaabi and Al Hamoudi familiesShow more

When anyone dies protecting other people's lives and rights to freedom and safety, my heart breaks (Families pay tribute to 'brave' Emirati pilots killed in Yemen, March 15). What an amazing sacrifice Zayed Al Kaabi and Mohammed Al Hmoudi have made. I hope one day we will have peace. I truly hope these people are at peace. My condolences to their families.

Ela Jayne, Australia

I offer my sincere condolences to the families and friends of these heroes. May God bless them.

Tracy Wilson, Abu Dhabi

Online recipes for disaster

In reference to the news report Husband of Reem Island killer learnt how to build bombs online, court told (March 15), any bomb-making recipe should be taken down from the internet.

If it’s possible to ban or block chosen contents, why aren’t bomb-making recipes and instructions taken down?

Jean Francoise Ng Lewis, Dubai

The fact that these people were caught before being able to hurt anyone is proof that the Government has a tight grip on crime.

People like to make it sound dangerous to live here, but this country is incredibly safe.

Name withheld by request

What’s the ideal price for oil?

It's funny that every article on oil prices talks about the volatility and that someday the market will rebalance (How countries can cope with oil's second great upheaval, March 10). I've yet to see what producers and consumers believe a fair price should be.

We’ve seen oil prices above $100 and we’ve seen prices fall to $30. The question is what is a fair price to allow producers to keep investing and making profit and what’s fair for consumers? Is it $40, $50 or $80 a barrel?

Randall Mohammed, Dubai

EU’s merits taken at face value

Sholto Byrnes's opinion article When did Europe's moral compass go so wrong? (February 3) was interesting. The question may highlight a curious phenomenon I have noticed for some time, endemic in both the UAE and US, where the EU seems uncritically accepted at face value as "a force for good/modern", and critiques of the EU as "backward/ bigoted".

In fact the word “federation” might well be the only attribute that the EU, US and UAE intrinsically have in common.

Unlike the UAE and US, which are clear and open in their aims, the EU has been a covert patronising construct from the start.

An early succinctly paraphrased characterisation of EU founder Jean Monnet’s intentions by British Conservative Adrian Hilton reads: “Europe’s nations should be guided towards a super state without their people understanding what is happening. This can be accomplished by successive steps each disguised as having an economic purpose, but which will eventually and irreversibly lead to federation.”

The subtext of the EU is smug sub-Marxist/ corporatist, with control vested in an unelected, unaccountable “elite”, who covertly regard traditions and religion as “backward/ superstitious”, in favour of their own “religion” of political correctness with which they seek to culturally colonise others.

Name withheld by request

Abaya is not about fashion

Regarding your editorial A global abaya (March 14), I appreciate the effort of international fashion houses to create the classic Islamic garment, but in doing so the essence of abaya – modesty – is compromised upon and it has become more of a fashion statement than anything else.

Fatima Suhail, Sharjah