Stigma affects HIV prevention

Readers call for more education on HIV and Aids. Other topics: traffic violations, insurance, online cleaning service

Readers call more education to remove the stigma from HIV and Aids. Mona Al Mazrooqi / The National

With reference to the story Help me find a wife (March 4), HIV and Aids education for young people can play a vital role in efforts to remove stigma. It is this stigma that causes many individuals to avoid HIV testing to learn their status and, if infected, to seek care for their disease.

This situation will not help us to fight this problem.

Neville Thomas, Abu Dhabi

I feel so sorry for this poor man and others like him. There needs to be more education and awareness to remove the stigma and for people to realise that having HIV no longer means the death sentence.

Let him live a normal life.

Emma Schlegel, Dubai

Unfortunately, the preconceptions of HIV are still prevalent. Ignorance, lack of information and shame are still foremost in the minds of people.

The Government, I’m sure, could assist this person with his own place and arrange palliative care in his own home to at least give him some independence.

Sam Clarke, Abu Dhabi

No alternative to enforcing law on window tinting

If the legal tint limit is 30 per cent, why then are companies allowed to offer any level above that percentage (Dark window tints are a clear danger, March 4)? It seems very strange to me.

I am surprised that shops offer 70 per cent tint, knowing that it’s illegal. A shop owner at Mussaffah said: “We know it’s dangerous when driving at night, but what can we do if [customers] want 70 per cent?” The answer is simple: do not give it to them. They could very easily refer to the law when refusing to give their customers what they want.

Name withheld by request

The motor licensing department should refuse to renew the registration of any vehicles with windows tinted over the approved limits. You can’t have one agency making rules and another ignoring them, and giving passes to those who wish to bypass the law.

Cora Yanacek, Qatar

Tinting is not as dangerous as using a mobile phone behind the wheel, tailgating and driving with children in the front seats with no seat belt on. The other day I saw a man driving with a newborn in his lap. We must implement the law to make some of the changes that are important.

Rejane Serao, Dubai

I’ve lived in Al Ain and Abu Dhabi for some time and have seen little evidence of traffic police monitoring offences, except on a few occasions when they put up a mobile speed camera to quickly collect fines.

Last year I saw a few cars with dark-tinted windows being pulled over, so there must have been a crackdown of some sort. But many continue to drive their SUVs with very dark tints.

The problem is that, if one pulls alongside you on your left at a roundabout, you cannot see through their glass. You have to wait until they pass.

Neil Phillipson, Abu Dhabi

Insurance clause seems absurd

I refer to Zaki Anderson's letter Why we don't buy insurance (February 26). Insurance is a joke if they only pay up upon proof of receipts for belongings lost in a fire. If a house is gutted, then the receipts will have been burnt as well.

Robin Shake, Dubai

Popularising new idea not so easy

The concept of booking a cleaner online is new to this region, so it will take time for people to get used to this kind of service (Hoping for a clean sweep, March 2). Currently such formalities are done in physical space or over the telephone, and people are quite comfortable with that.

Fatima Suhail, Sharjah