Many ways to cut food waste

Readers call for reducing food wastage. Other topics: plane crash, data protection, film censoring, smartphone

Readers call for distribution of surplus food to reduce wastage. Pawan Singh / The National

It's so sad that food goes to waste for nothing (Food for thought, March 20). There are even wildlife centres that can benefit from free fruit and vegetables. Feed the needy, free.

Leigh Christie Oosthuizen, Abu Dhabi

How about creating a space outside hotels to store all unused food? Those who need it can collect from there. Even a centre can be created for distributing such food.

Christina Daher, Dubai

Unused vegetables can be collected before they go bad, which can then be turned into nice meals by volunteer chefs and distributed among the poor.

Nassr Al Kharusi, Dubai

Condolences for relatives of crash victims

The crash of the FlyDubai plane is tragic. May the victims rest in eternal peace. May their loved ones be strong enough to endure this catastrophe. I am sending them my prayers for comfort and strength.

Diana Camayo Esca, Abu Dhabi

I am curious to know why the pilot kept the holding pattern for almost two hours but didn’t divert to another airport as two other aircraft did.

I just listened to the conversation with the air traffic control, where the captain kept inquiring about the weather.

Name withheld by request

Reports say the plane could have crashed because of bad weather. I wish there were stricter rules against flying in bad weather.

Tricia Sutherland, Dubai

We need data protection law

We really need a data protection law in this country (Hot under the collar with UAE banks and cold calls, March 19). Information is shared way too freely. I have got so many blocked numbers in my phone from cold callers. It's probably more than legitimate contacts now.

Lisa Justice, Dubai

Why watch a censored film?

I enjoyed reading the opinion piece Is there compromise to be had over film censorship? (March 19). I gave up watching regular television here after nostalgia led me to watch a childhood favourite, My Girl. A scene that was vital to understand the film was cut.

A few days later I was stupid enough to watch Dirty Dancing on the same channel. I gave up within the first 10 minutes, as the dancing was ridiculously jarred – like watching a cheap stop-motion animation, and subsequently the music annoyingly jumped where seconds of dancing were cut in between.

Sue-Ellen Hilgemann, Abu Dhabi

I know this mainly relates to television and not cinema, but maybe they need an expatriate-only classification here, where locals are only admitted after scanning their identity card, acknowledging that they may be offended by what they are about to watch.

I’m sick of being ripped off. They cut 45 minutes out of The Wolf of Wall Street. It’s ridiculous.

Anthony Edwards, Abu Dhabi

It’s time to accept reality and real life. Censor a movie and people will go the extra mile to get the original version. Just remember that violence is unnatural. Love is natural. It’s time to start thinking about what to allow.

Carla Botha, US

Do we want to become robots?

This refers to your article What will the next smartphone breakthrough be? (March 17). I think tomorrow we will just think of a person to call and a chip in our brain will dial the number. Is this what people want? We are already living in a digital world. Slowly we are becoming robots. Personally I don't like it.

Kristina Margit, Abu Dhabi

We just need better batteries, nothing else.

Rashid Hz, Dubai