Why blame bank for your debt?

Readers call for more financial literacy campaigns. Other topics: Obama's Cuba move, The National's birthday, terminology

Readers call for a sustained financial literacy campaign to help people avoid debt traps. Mona Al Marzooqi / The National

With reference to the article Emirati couple believes bank tricked them into unbearable debt (April 12), how about taking responsibility for your bad financial decisions instead of pushing the blame? I agree that banks put pressure on clients and manipulate them, but they are adults and must take responsibility. The first mistake many of us make though is sign a document in a language we are not familiar with.

Hibba S El-atar, Dubai

There is a huge need for financial education worldwide. So many people don’t even know about compound interest, let alone the ins and outs of credit. Credit can be beneficial, but only if one knows how to work with it. Back in the day, consumer economics was a required class. I wouldn’t be surprised if the banks were behind the trend to completely eradicate this class from most, if not all, schools around the globe.

Shondale Jackson Pagano

An important resource for fresh news

I am pleased to congratulate The National on its seventh anniversary. The National is an important English-language resource for breaking news, events and commentary for its readers in the UAE and beyond. It’s one of my “must read” morning newspapers. The US Embassy looks forward to many more years of working with The National to help get out our message that deepening and expanding US-UAE partnerships in security, business, culture and education are vital to this region.

Barbara A Leaf, US Ambassador to the UAE

Obama’s Cuba move laudable

After more than half a century of diplomatic freeze, the meeting between Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro, certainly marks a diplomatic turning point (Obama says Cuba policy shift marks a turning point, April 12).

Mr Obama should get the credit where he deserves. The US president has brought the two countries together with an intention to strengthen stability in the region. His move is admirable.

Ramachandran Nair, Oman

Galindo, Dubai

A clarification on terminology

Having read with regret your editorial, The century of genocide (April 15) and James Zogby's column, Armenians' pain should have the right name (April 12), I would like to make the following clarifications vis-à-vis the events of 1915 and the Turkish-Armenian disagreement over history.

No one disputes the suffering of Armenians during the First World War. In this tragic episode of history, Turks, Armenians and many others experienced immense grief and hardship. The statements by Pope Francis, referenced in your editorial, contradict historical as well as legal facts. The distorted Armenian narrative was fully assumed, and the tragedies that befell the 4.5 million Turkish and Muslim people who perished in the war were selectively dismissed.

Genocide is a legal concept, defined under the 1948 Convention, which also requires a competent international tribunal to determine whether or not a case qualifies as genocide. Neither a legal determination nor a scholarly consensus exists to describe the Armenian claims as genocide.

Turkey recognised the independence of Armenia in 1991 and on many occasions since it has exerted tremendous effort to normalise bilateral relations. The Protocols of 2009 were a significant achievement towards this. On April 23, 2014, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then prime minister, sent a message of condolence, expressing respect and compassion for those who lost their lives in 1915 and called for “respecting history with a perspective of just memory” and “building our past and future together”. In January this year, prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu called on all Armenians to assist in building a common future between two peoples.

Turkey’s resolve for reconciliation is unquestionable. Time and again, it has adopted a constructive approach to shift the discourse from prejudice and enmity to empathy, trust and cooperation for the benefit of upcoming generations.

M Levent Bilgen, Ambassador of Turkey to the UAE