The risks of fast food

Letters also comment on telecoms ruling in India, China's economy, US political model and other topics.

Fast food tastes good, but a reader says downsides - like calorie counts and fat contents - are too often hidden from consumers. Gabriela Maj / Bloomberg
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Everyone is fed up with the corruption of the ruling Congress party, whose practices are dragging the Indian economy down (India court withdraws telecoms licences, February 3).

Subramaniam Swamy is the petitioner who first exposed the mobile phone licences scam. He is joined by a generation of Indian intellectuals who are no longer staying quiet on corruption.

Kudos to Dr Swamy to make sure that 2G licences are no longer valid. But one should not think this is the end of India's anti-corruption struggles.

Intellectuals are lining up against a government that is increasingly falling back on sectarian politics (both majority and minority appeasement) to survive.

Unless it reforms itself, the days of the current government are limited.

Shiva Doshi, US

It is encouraging to see that the Supreme Court of India has scrapped each of the 122 telecoms licences that were sold below market prices in 2008 by the current government, when the former minister Andimuthu Raja managed the ministry.

The mandate of the people had been abused and the spirited citizens who took this matter to court should be complimented for highlighting such a gross case of graft, where transparency and fairness were ignored.

Hopefully the decisions of the Supreme Court will serve as a wake-up call to the government and politicians to clean public life of malfeasance.

Rajendra K Aneja, Dubai

China can learn from India's rise

The Business article No need to be fearful for India and China (January 26) was interesting, but I beg to differ on the conclusion that a hard landing for China is an overblown worry.

I can recall a CNN documentary which compared the two Asian giants to the fable of the tortoise and the hare, to India and China respectively. We all know what happened at the end of that story don't we?

The Chinese model, which is public sector or government driven development, is unsustainable in my view. Indeed, when the real economic engines in the private sector start to rev, and especially with fuel from the larger society, that bottle would rather shatter than let the genie back in.

Wake up China - the tortoise is inching ever closer.

Nnamdi Madichie, Sharjah

'Funny' video on sexuality childish

How humiliating for UAE to be associated with this crass and juvenile video (Video 'paints wrong picture' of UAE, February 3). It is such a shame, as the UAE has made some great efforts to increase tolerance in the region.

Videos like this only undermine the amazing work that thousands of people have put in to celebrate diversity.

Peter Jenkins, Dubai

Don't emulate US political model

Your news story The 'other guy' vows to stay in the race (February 2) about the Republican presidential contest got me thinking.

Watching from the US from the region of the so-called "Arab Spring", I do continue to wonder why the form of US democracy - where there are only two parties to choose from, and the winner is the one who has the most obscene amount of money to spend on negative campaign ads, and is then beholden to those interest groups who provided the funds - is a form of democracy to be wished upon the rest of the "unenlightened" world.

Steve Peacock, Dubai

Assailants are the exception to rule

What happened to the Canadian couple in IKEA is really horrifying ('I didn't know if my baby was alive or dead', February 2).

My family lived in the UAE for eight years; we had wonderful experiences with the Emirati people.

It's a shame that this happened, and I'm sure that all Emiratis will be happy to see justice being served.

Name withheld be request

Display truth the about fast food fat

This is an outrage (Count calories if you can find them, February 4). Fast-food outlets believe that if their food tastes good, it is good for their customers.

You know what makes their food taste good? It's trans-fat, which contributes to obesity and heart disease. As your article points out, the local fast-food industry is hiding trans-fats from us. It's the secret to their success and eventual failure.

Maybe the UAE should start catching up with other countries when it comes to providing nutritional info and banning trans-fats.

Michel Sabbagh, Dubai