Call to ban criminals is justified

Readers support the call to ban people with criminal records. Other topics: sports, doctor abuse, humanities

Readers support the call to ban people with criminal records. Randi Sokoloff / The National

I applaud the UAE's initiative to ban people with criminal records (UAE judges call for ban on residency for criminals, August 22). It's known as extreme vetting. The question is this: should this be done by employers who are seeking to recruit people from abroad?

In my previous job, I used the services of a private investigator to conduct background checks on each employee. In one case, a potential employee was found to have been involved in an illegal activity and was not hired.

Randall Mohammed, Dubai

It’s a great move, but what about tourists? Unfortunately, some people enter the country to commit some sort of crime, financial or worse, or hide from the authorities in their home country.

Nikki Caz, Dubai

Road to sporting excellence

As a long-term strategy for sports, this country needs to introduce more sports in schools, not just football (A long road to more medals, August 21). They all will not bend it like Beckham. Most schools are new and have facilities, equipment and, in most cases, athletic certification. However, students, especially the females, are discouraged or prevented from engaging in any physical exercise or playing sports that would promote a healthy society. Attitudes need to change first.

Rhona Cunningham, Dubai

The key to getting a lot of medals is choosing events where one or two good athletes can win multiple medals. Match this with climate and you have track cycling, swimming and gymnastics. Team sports are a waste of time and money, which is why Great Britain does not bother. Play several matches for two weeks and it’s still only one medal.

Lee Sutton, Abu Dhabi

Sports teach self-discipline, motivation, teamwork, organisation plus other actual sporting skills and should be encouraged at all levels. Sporting activities enhance arts, maths and language skills. It is not a standalone skill. If you then have Olympic champions who can encourage these skills, then that is a great way forward.

Carol Goodey, Abu Dhabi

A witness to doctor abuse

In reference to the letter Abuse of ER staff must stop (August 23), I recently went to a neurologist. While I was waiting there, a lady came in with her husband saying she had an appointment at 4pm. She claimed to have booked it two months ago.

This doctor’s clinic emails patients, sends two text messages, as well as calls them to confirm their slot a day in advance.

She started screaming and yelling at the reception people and the office manager, saying how she lived on Palm Jumeriah and she had to cancel work and planned meetings due to the appointment.

Eventually the office manager got the doctor she was supposed to be seeing to come in at 7pm.

Then they asked her if she got an email, text message or a call. She didn’t recall. Then she had the nerve to demand the office pay for her parking, get food and drink for them while they waited and offer a big discount on the bill. All the while muttering in German with her husband very bad things.

Diana Phelps, Dubai

Lack of stress on humanities

The feature Sultan Al Hajji's lifelong passion for learning languages and books (August 21) brought to mind one aspect of education that is conspicuously absent in this country: language courses. I have come across only one university in the UAE that runs a degree course in foreign languages.

Moreover, there is a disproportionate emphasis on science and business studies, with humanities getting increasingly less attention. This is a great disadvantage for those who want to pursue their studies in humanities. I would like to request the education authorities pay attention to this particular area of education.

Petrina Peyang, Abu Dhabi