It's getting rather crowded

The world's seven billion people are filling the world too full, a reader says. Other letters touch on Unesco, the wrong name for the Netherlands, and us vs. them.

Seven billion people now call the planet home, among them newborn babies, above, in a Chinese hospital last week. But as the world celebrates, letter writers warn that with population growth comes many challenges . ReutersShow less

In her article A particular idea of Islam has come to dominate

society (November 1), Hissa Hilal has insightfully exposed an

unfortunate characteristic of human beings - the perennial willingness to view the world as "us" versus "them".

Whether the basis of discrimination be black versus white, Christian versus Muslim, rich versus poor, pious versus non-pious, there appears to be no limit to the means by which we seek to differentiate ourselves from others, and of course thereafter claim superiority.

Such inclinations, whether born from nature or nurture, are ready fodder for those who, often for self-serving reasons of wealth or power, seek to capitalise on the resulting bigotry. Of course those writers who seek to expose such perniciousness make themselves obvious targets, as Ms Hilal explained.

When will individuals realise that there is no "us" and "them", only the "us" of humans all trying to get on with life as best we can? The rest is not reality, just perception.

Richard McLauchlan, Dubai

Birth of 7 billionth baby is worrying

We have got ourselves into a dire situation where the poor will get more miserable than before (7,000,000,000, October 31).

No serious effort is being made to limit the population growth. Governments and religious authorities, the two most influential entities, do not do enough to encourage family planning.

Asia, where population growth is considerably higher than the rest of the world, will surely crumble. Asia also has the greatest poverty. We are digging our own graves and soon there will be no place for graves either.

I urge the world to make a joint strategy. Those who need more people, like in Europe, should adopt. I admire the UK, which has altered its adoption policy to encourage families to do so.

Name withheld by request

I wanted to express my admiration for the piece of writing by Ali Khaled (On a crowded rock we call home, can chocolate survive?, November 2).

You pinpointed a lot of things that are going on today in our lives in an interesting way. I like the sarcasm as well as the seriousness of the portrayal of the issue. Great job, and it indeed directly spoke to me.

On what basis did the UN choose Danica to be the 7 billionth baby? How many babies where born on October 31, not just around the world, but in Manila itself? They chose an average baby and turned her life upside down to create a hook for the campaign?

I think the human race is much smarter than believing that we are just 7 billion. We could tackle the issue in many different ways with regard to media or awareness.

We should have family planning in order to have healthy societies. For instance there are far more men than women in China.

Therefore, there should be effective planning rather than wasting campaigns on numbers that aren't accurate.

Farah El Sadat, Abu Dhabi

Paying price of joining Unesco

Benjamin Netanyahu's government is now determined to punish five million Palestinians for daring to join the cultural department of the United Nations (Palestinians will use Unesco victory to target other bodies, November 2).

Bolstered by trade with the EU, nuclear-armed submarines from Germany and $3 billion in arms from America, Prime Minister Netanyahu feels powerful enough to push an entire nation of Palestinians into economic ruin and starvation while extending illegal settlements in the West Bank in violation of UN directives. Meanwhile illegal evictions of Arab families in East Jerusalem continue unabated.

How much longer will the international community watch as Netanyahu's government becomes ever more contemptuous towards the UN, international law, the IAEA and the world?

John Kidd, UK

Netherlands and Holland not same

I enjoyed reading your article about Robin van Persie (Robin van Persie is coming of age at Arsenal, November 1).

But the article needs some editing when it refers to the country as "Holland". I noticed in earlier articles that The National frequently refers to Holland where you mean to write the Netherlands. For a correct understanding: the Netherlands comprises 12 provinces and out of the 12 there are two that relate to Holland: South Holland and North Holland provinces. It is like saying to a Scotsman that he is from England. Or I guess, saying to somebody from Ajman that he is from Abu Dhabi or Dubai.

And yes, clearly I am not from one of the Holland provinces but from another one. So, if you can refrain next time from writing Holland and instead write the Netherlands, I am sure you'll make a lot of Dutch readers happy.

Hindri Kuipers, Abu Dhabi