A colleague who had recently returned from an air show held in a neighboring country remarked about his disillusionment. Aside from the exorbitantly high prices of hotel rooms and traffic congestion inducing road rage, he was disappointed in the show itself. While he is a budding flight enthusiast, most of the displays focused on military hardware, leaving him with little option but to pack his bag and return home earlier than expected.

Now I ask myself. In a region that has been witnessing violence for so many years, and more so in recent times, what are these merchants of destruction doing here in the first place? Obviously to try to peddle newer and more sophisticated arms and weaponry that will lead to quicker death and superior demolition.

Why indeed should any country in this region welcome such purveyors of doom whose intent is not to provide us with a real sense of security, but to line their coffers with dollars that will grant them incredible profit margins. Coupled with middlemen with a voracious appetite for instant wealth on both sides, such high profile demonstrations do little to promote peace in the region.

There are more immediate and essential uses for the capital that countries in the region squander on these merchants of death. We can ill-afford the marketing manipulation of these commercial con men.

• With shopping malls and commercial centers being set up at an unprecedented pace all over the country, shoppers are spread thinly across some of them. Some of these newer malls have a semi-deserted look, as they compete with each other to attract shoppers. And female shoppers who frequent such centers notice a disturbing trend among some of the shop clerks.

It seems that clerks with very little store traffic have taken it upon themselves to hang outside their shops and stare down every female who passes by. With a cigarette dangling down their lips, this fraternity of men with nothing better to do pass the time of their otherwise idle day standing outside the doors to their shops and are often heard cracking up school boy jokes within earshot of female shoppers.

This deviant behavior is nothing short of subtle harassment, and shopowners must put an immediate end to this practice. If the store salesman has no business activity, that should not provide him the excuse to step outside his doors and check out the female traffic. Many of the female shoppers I have talked to state that they feel very uncomfortable being stared down as they pass by these establishments. Salesmen should be firmly instructed to stay within their workplace except during their breaks, regardless of business activity within.

Unless shop owners take action, they will have little chance of luring prospective shoppers. And as more and more women begin manning shops, this deviant phenomenon will eventually come to a stop.

• A report in yesterday’s papers dealt with yet another company which had taken on investors with money up front to the cleaners. Now how many times have we in recent times witnessed such an aberrant business practice? Holding on to investors’ money for almost two years, the company then declares the project null and void, and promises to return them their money within a flexible and unpublished timetable set by the company. The project suddenly fizzles out, yet their rightful owners rarely reclaim the money within an acceptable time. “Soon” is the common word, and from personal experience we know “soon” could be anywhere from a year to “never”!

In this particular case, the company general manager admits that they made a 30 percent profit from the deal, and yet they appear to have problems handing back the original sum they took in from the investors. If this doesn’t smack of straightforward deception, then I don’t know what does.

The relevant ministries and law agencies must vigorously investigate such investment announcements, and our courts should be more forceful in meting out swift punishment to fraudulent individuals and companies found guilty of deceptive practices.

It should not be simply left in the hands of the individual victims to pursue justice.