Readers call for removal of car businesses from Sharjah’s residential areas. Jeffrey Biteng / The National
Readers call for removal of car businesses from Sharjah’s residential areas. Jeffrey Biteng / The National

Car-rental companies add to people’s woes



In reference to the news article Car-rental clog proves an issue (August 18), the Abu Shagara area is particularly affected by car-rental businesses. Sharjah residents already face an acute shortage of parking spaces. Car rental companies have added to their woes. Sometimes people have to drive around for two hours in search of parking spaces.

Arif Khan, Sharjah

If the municipality starts getting strict on car-rental companies and fines them frequently, then these people will have to wind up their business. This is not a solution.

Sufi Muhammad, Sharjah

These businesses, as well as those dealing in used cars, should be immediately banned from operating from residential areas.

Zawar Hakeem, Ajman

Sharjah is overcrowded. Two years ago the authorities promised to remove these businesses out of the city to a purpose-built facility near the airport. It would be great if they set a deadline for this move. These businesses are making life miserable for residents.

Omer Alsan, Sharjah

Modi can learn from the UAE

I refer to your editorial Modi should learn from Indian expats (August 16). It is indeed true that many Indians have established their businesses in the UAE and achieved enormous success.

The reason for their success is that this country is corruption free and very business friendly.

Many of the Indian businessmen here made modest beginnings, but by dint of sheer tenacity and hard work they have grown in scale. The government played a major role in their success stories.

Narendra Modi should take lessons from here and improve the investment and operating climate in India.

Rajendra Aneja, Dubai

Why nickname buildings?

Regarding the article Name game for new London buildings is not always a sign of towering wit (August 18), I personally find the nicknames quite embarrassing. Architecture is a matter of personal taste for sure, but giving things silly names is just that – silly. That said, if the buildings were given more distinctive names to begin with, perhaps people wouldn't use the nicknames so much. "20 Fenchurch Street" (aka the walkie talkie) is basically just an address. Why not have some more aspirational and/ or memorable names?

Ben Adamson, UK

Brangelina family not a ‘circus’

It's not good to refer to the Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie family as a circus (Hollywood royalty, August 17). Surely their arrival in Abu Dhabi and the fact that Brad is making a movie here is a real win for the UAE in terms of being a globally recognised place to attract such talent.

Zak Khan, Abu Dhabi

They are world-famous movie stars and they deserve to be treated with respect, although I am not their fan. The word “circus” is inappropriate.

Nicola Siotto, Dubai

Bio fuel needs to be promoted

The bio fuel initiative is excellent (Dubai plant takes used cooking oil and turns it into fuel, August 12). Given rising petrol prices, bio fuels should represent a more cost-effective alternative and the subsidy should instead be used to fund research and upgrade bio fuel refineries to improve quality, production efficiency and capacity.

Also, the UAE has the highest carbon footprint per capita and use of clean burning fuels will reduce this. Lastly, the reduction in diesel prices should stimulate more demand for the product.

Randall Mohammed, Dubai

Honeymoonish

Director: Elie El Samaan

Starring: Nour Al Ghandour, Mahmoud Boushahri

Rating: 3/5

Match info

Liverpool 3
Hoedt (10' og), Matip (21'), Salah (45+3')

Southampton 0

if you go

The flights

Emirates fly direct from Dubai to Houston, Texas, where United have direct flights to Managua. Alternatively, from October, Iberia will offer connections from Madrid, which can be reached by both Etihad from Abu Dhabi and Emirates from Dubai.

The trip

Geodyssey’s (Geodyssey.co.uk) 15-night Nicaragua Odyssey visits the colonial cities of Leon and Granada, lively country villages, the lake island of Ometepe and a stunning array of landscapes, with wildlife, history, creative crafts and more. From Dh18,500 per person, based on two sharing, including transfers and tours but excluding international flights. For more information, visit visitnicaragua.us.

Company Profile

Company name: Hoopla
Date started: March 2023
Founder: Jacqueline Perrottet
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Investment required: $500,000

COMPANY PROFILE

Name: SmartCrowd
Started: 2018
Founder: Siddiq Farid and Musfique Ahmed
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech / PropTech
Initial investment: $650,000
Current number of staff: 35
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Various institutional investors and notable angel investors (500 MENA, Shurooq, Mada, Seedstar, Tricap)

COMPANY PROFILE

Company name: Almouneer
Started: 2017
Founders: Dr Noha Khater and Rania Kadry
Based: Egypt
Number of staff: 120
Investment: Bootstrapped, with support from Insead and Egyptian government, seed round of
$3.6 million led by Global Ventures

COMPANY PROFILE

Company: Eco Way
Started: December 2023
Founder: Ivan Kroshnyi
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Electric vehicles
Investors: Bootstrapped with undisclosed funding. Looking to raise funds from outside

JOKE'S ON YOU

Google wasn't new to busting out April Fool's jokes: before the Gmail "prank", it tricked users with mind-reading MentalPlex responses and said well-fed pigeons were running its search engine operations .

In subsequent years, they announced home internet services through your toilet with its "patented GFlush system", made us believe the Moon's surface was made of cheese and unveiled a dating service in which they called founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page "Stanford PhD wannabes ".

But Gmail was all too real, purportedly inspired by one – a single – Google user complaining about the "poor quality of existing email services" and born "millions of M&Ms later".