The column A trip down the crazy town by Sabria Jawhar (Aug. 29) made a very distasteful reading. While I could understand the agony and frustration of the writer, yet, it was a bit unfair on her part to shower a volley of accusations on all of the drivers in a collective manner. In every community or society, there are good and bad people. It is not right to paint all of them with one brush. I am not sure from where Jawhar has gathered the information or data which suggest that drivers go to jail a lot and it is a serious accusation.

As the writer has studied and lived in the West, she must be fully aware of the free market dynamics and the demand/supply paradigm. There is no escape from it anywhere and there is no reason to fret on it. Besides inflation over the years, which has substantially increased the prices of all commodities and services, the salaries of the employees in the public and private sector have jumped drastically and that is also to be accepted by one and all. For instance, the cost of the very car on which the writer has mocked upon has increased at least by 25-30 percent easily in these 10 years. All of these changes will certainly reflect at the rates which drivers would charge or the salary they would demand.

As a human, it is common for a person to share feelings and even grudges about his situation and one has to be sympathetic with the woes of others. I wish the writer knew that there are hundreds and thousands of expatriate drivers who toil here from dawn till midnight satisfying a variety of needs of their large families. Leave alone the luxury of supper, many of them do not get enough time to take three square of meals every day at regular times. What is wrong if a few of them try to scout for a job for their relatives and friends and request their employers to help them? — Safi H. Jannaty, Dammam