The past and the present

A reader expresses sympathy for Indians evicted from their homes in a World Heritage Site. Other letter topics: Air India, teenage volunteers, Ray Bradbury, European tourism and honest people.

A reader argues that evictions near the ruins of Vijayanagara run contrary to preservation goals. Gethin Chamberlain

It's very difficult for teenagers to volunteer in the UAE.

We always hear about the importance of doing community service, but unfortunately this does not translate to the real world.

By volunteering in the community, teenagers get an opportunity to use our skills to help others and to gain some vital qualifications for our future careers.

Our country has taken some considerable steps towards encouraging volunteering, by fostering organisations such as Takatof, the Zayed Giving Initiative and the Red Crescent Authority.

But we could enhance what they already do by creating teenage volunteer offices in different places in the UAE.

Also, each organisation should have a teenage section.

Jawaher Al Blooshi, Al Mawaheb Model School, Abu Dhabi

Whose heritage is it, anyway?

The past catches up (June 9) was very striking.

Vijayanagara is remarkable and famous because countless thousands of ordinary people, in long-ago centuries, worked to build the monuments and other buildings that now make up the area and make it a world heritage site. There is bitter irony, not to mention injustice, in displacing today's working people in the area - are some of them the descendants of the builders? - to glorify the place.

The resettlement given to these people is laughable; surely not one of those being displaced would make this move voluntarily.

"Let the past serve the present," said Mao Zedong, but Indian authorities seem determined to make the present serve the past - and as usual, the poor pay the price.

VJ Mehta, Dubai

Bradbury wrote of human nature

Your editorial Feeling the heat (June 8), about the recent death of Ray Bradbury, sent me to my computer to buy some new copies of books I loved decades ago. Bradbury's short stories were not all dystopian, far from it.

A lot of science fiction is just good-guys-versus-bad-guys with "bug-eyed monsters" for the villains, but Bradbury's wry gentle stories were about human nature, really, and that makes them timeless.

Kay Kennedy, Abu Dhabi

European travel is a bargain now

Your June 8 story Euro woes aid European expats got just half the story of the effect of the low euro.

So I was pleased to see that you covered the tourism aspect of this economic story as well (Weak euro draws holidaymakers, June 10) because for a lot of your readers that's the good news in all this economic gloom.

You don't have to be a European being paid in the UAE to love the low euro - for tourists who want to visit France, Italy, or any other euro country, there are bargains galore this year.

David Windyard, Dubai

Indians need better air service

People from Kerala have long been treated like stepchildren by Air India. But when prominent expatriate businessman MA Yusuffali joined the board of directors, Keralites in the UAE expected some improvements in service and more stable prices. But nothing has changed.

And the introduction of the budget Air India Express to provide cheaper connections to the Arabian Gulf states has turned into a farce. No one is taking the initiative to solve this serious issue for Indians.

Indian ministers and politicians all have kept mum about this injustice, and yet our families queue up to vote for the politicians again and again.

KP Muhammad, Abu Dhabi

Students lose out in local schools

I refer to 117 Dubai schools apply for fee hikes (June 8).

The cost of one month's education in a school in the UAE is the cost of one year's education in India, where teaching and the social atmosphere are both better.

Too often education here is purely commercial.

Education does not mean things such as air-conditioned class rooms, huge fees and three attendants per bus. The major factor is really the quality of teaching, and pay rates here are too low to attract the best.

Dr KB Vijayakumar, Dubai

Ethical standards seem high here

I was greatly impressed with the story of the man who left money on the train - and got it back (You left Dh40,000 on a train? Thanks to staff, all is not lost, June 9).

I have had two similar experiences, on a much smaller scale. That, and anecdotes provided by my friends, make me suspect that the general ethical standard in this country is higher than elsewhere.

Margie Gregory, Abu Dhabi