A more efficient visa system for the UAE

A reader argues that a one-year visa system would put employees on more equal footing and encourage more productivity from job satisfaction to solve the problem of small companies preferring to hire workers abroad.

I refer to the business article Red tape means small companies prefer to recruit staff from abroad (October 8). I believe that UAE Government should follow only a one-year visa system that would give the employer and employee the same power and freedom to switch jobs or employees.

This would have a lot of advantages. The system would be efficient with highly improved performance because of job satisfaction, higher salaries and freedom. It would also create more competition in the market to retain good talent by the companies while they would be forced to maintain good salaries as per market requirements.

The new system would also produce revenues instead of following and implementing an identity card sort of system. The same security and monitoring requirements can be applied to the person as soon as he or she lands in the UAE. Otherwise, the UAE Government could adopt systems followed by other Gulf nations like Bahrain or Kuwait where they have abolished the sponsorship system altogether.

Kunal Panchigar, Abu Dhabi

A loyalty oath that does not belong 

In reference to the article Netanyahu's approvement of forced allegiance (October 8), how insecure is the Israeli government that now they have to introduce a forced loyalty law?  How many years has this country been in existence and now they come up with this? And how foolish is the Israeli government to think that Arabs who are continuously abused in Palestine will accept this loyalty law with wholeheartedness?

The Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not wake up thinking that the Palestinians or Arabs living in Israel were going to accept this.  Or did he think he could force them to accept it in a democratic and free country?   Some people are equating this to loyalty declarations in other countries such as the US. But the US or other free and democratic countries that have loyalty declarations do not support a particular ethnicity.  Jews are not just followers of Judaism but also a people who guard their lineage.

This law is another one of Israel's problematic perspectives. It does not belong in the Middle East.

Irfan Syed, Abu Dhabi

Doubts about religious tourism 

In reference to the article Catering for religious tourists (September 13), maybe I come from a different school of thought. I understand that commerce is built into a human system and one cannot do without it. But what I am trying to understand is to what extent should trade entities do business in religious tourism. Should their activities include serving luxurious facilities and amenities to those who can afford more than the average person can?

I thought there is more meaning in exerting one's self and toiling hard to go and visit the places of God. I was taught so. That way one really feels that he has done his bit in life. I mean no offence to those who can afford it, though.

Amit Bhattacharjie, Dubai

Blow for general practitioners 

The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) has made some surprising rules for general practitioners (GPs), wherein a GP can only work in a polyclinic which has three specialities or in hospitals or in industrial areas. There is no logic behind the decision. Everywhere in the world GPs are the first line of contact with patients and if required, they are referred to specialists, but what the DHA wants to achieve is surprising.

Do they think that a GP can't handle patients with simple medical problems and do they mean that labourers and other poor people deserve a small GP and not big specialist, and that only the rich and influential deserve specialists?

Dr Mohammad Ahmed, Dubai

Examples of simple solutions 

In response to Peter Hellyer's opinion article Grand schemes are not needed to solve great traffic woes (September 21), I agree with his simple but sound solutions to some of our most basic traffic problems. At the traffic light at City Terminal and Salam Street, only three to four cars make it across before the light starts blinking. There is so much stress because the line backs up during rush hours that people run the red light routinely.

Isn't there a department that surveys the traffic to see if the light sequencing is allowing ample numbers of cars through? Apparently not - or not frequently enough to know where there are trouble spots that could be easily corrected. The other solution has to do with left turns. The police have turned a blind eye to motorists turning left from the second lane for so long now that people are turning from the third and even fourth lanes at some intersections, endangering the lives of others for their own convenience.

Simple solutions with continued enforcement will solve not all, but some of our traffic woes.

Cora Yanacek, Abu Dhabi