It was very sad to learn about the wedding tragedy at Hijrah Jadeedah near Abqaiq that left 24 people dead and many others injured. My heart goes out for the families who have lost their near and dear ones. It was touching to see Prince Mohammed bin Fahd personally visiting the grieving families and ordering an investigation.
Unfortunately, accidents do happen everywhere. However, they provide an insight as how to avoid recurrence of such tragic incidents. I was just wondering if there could be a mechanism or system that automatically and instantly disconnects the power when a cable carrying high voltage electricity is snapped or it catches fire due to short circuit. This will certainly reduce and even eliminate the risks associated with power cables falling for a variety of reasons (hurricanes, earthquakes, heavy rains, accidental breakage, etc).
Needless to say, there is a greater need for Civil Defense to inspect all of the places that are used for holding public events in order to ensure that they are not located near or beneath the power transmission lines and have firefighting equipment besides having proper exits to escape in case of fire.
Safi H. Jannaty
Dammam
Vendetta politics in Bangladesh
This is in reference to the story, “International community urged to stop ‘summary executions’ in Bangladesh.” I would like to commend Arab News for taking up the issue while the mainstream media across the world have ignored it. I would also thank Barrister Toby Cadman who rightly pointed out that how the government of Prime Minister Hasina Wajid is bypassing international judiciary standards done. What is going on in Bangladesh is a grave miscarriage of justice. For her own political gains, she has even forgotten the statement made by her father that “Bangladeshis are a forgiving nation and that Bangladesh should look to the future not the past in the interest of peace and reconciliation.” This is the time for the government to think about the development of the nation rather than arresting innocent Jamaat leaders.
N. Basheer Ahamed
Jubail
Road deaths
This is in reference to your article, “4,800 dead, 32,000 injured on Kingdom’s roads.” Having lived in this country for eight years and having lived in Canada for most of my life, I am in a better position to understand that why there is such a high death rate in road accidents in the Kingdom. You can install all the surveillance cameras you want but they cannot be a substitute for an alert police force. There are very few police personnel on roads here and I never ever see any of them stopping a car of a reckless driver. In Ontario, Canada, if you exceed the speed limit of 140 km your license is suspended for one year, your car is impounded on the spot, and you are slapped with an automatic $ 15,000 fine. There are signs posted on the highways displaying the fines. Saudi Arabia should have the lowest death rates in the world since it has near-perfect driving conditions. There are no snow blizzards here, ice on the roads, fog, and rarely any rain in most parts of the country. Sky is clear almost all year round.
Joe Macnab
Riyadh
American elections
Even though American voter turnout is among the lowest in mature democracies and more than a quarter of people who do not vote claim they are too busy to bother about voting, efforts to move elections to weekends have miserably failed. The Tuesday after the first Monday in November was set as presidential election- day in 1845, which is being followed since then – like the Epsom Derby day in Britain, the first Wednesday of June! Four times in American history, the candidate with fewer votes has wound up with the presidency. That is because the winner of the presidential election needs to capture a majority of electoral votes, which are apportioned to the states by population and for the most part awarded in winner-takes-all state controls. In year 2000, George Bush won half a million votes less than Al Gore but took 271 electoral votes for the victory. In some quarters a similar situation is predicted this time too — the man with fewer popular votes to be the president. On Nov. 6, the election will effectively be decided by less than a third of the US population. While the American voters look forward for a president who will take good care of their country and the citizens, the world community too eagerly awaits a sensible outcome on Nov. 6. In the meantime, some believe Sandy would have tipped the scale toward the incumbent president. I too would go with the old saying: “A known devil is better than an unknown angel”!
S.H.Moulana
Riyadh
Letters — Wedding blaze in Eastern Province
