Remembering the brave
According to new reports, authorities in Jeddah have decided to name one of Jeddah’s districts after Farman Ali, a young Pakistani, who during the Jeddah floods two years ago, rescued 14 people in Gowizah district before sacrificing his own life. Only months ago, the Saudi government posthumously honored him with the highest Saudi civil award.
Ali belonged to Swat, a poor area in Pakistan. Father of three small daughters and a martial art champion himself, he was running a small shop in Jeddah to earn livelihood for his family. His rescue efforts during the floods received wide print and electronic media coverage in the Kingdom. On the directions of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, his family was invited to Jeddah and is receiving financial support from the Saudi government.
Farman Ali sets a remarkable example for others. Due to his brave efforts, he is still alive in the hearts of thousands of people.
Khawaja Umer Farooq
Jeddah
New planet
This refers to the report “Unseen planet spotted” (May 12). The article coincides with the findings of a team of international scientists at the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology led by Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe. Writing in the online journal ‘Astrophysics and space science’, Prof. Wickramasinghe and his team have postulated that there are thousands of billions of earth-sized planets free-floating in interstellar space. Many of these ‘interstellar planets’ are reckoned to be earth-sized objects, which may carry life-bearing spores.
The team calculated that every 25 million years or so one of these planets enters a solar system, both bringing and carrying away biotic material, thus spreading life around the universe. It has also been calculated that these bodies formed when the universe was a mere few millions of years old. Prof. Wickramasinghe and his team aver that these free-floating planetary bodies may well constitute the dark matter of which most of the universe is composed and yet which has eluded astrophysicists for decades.
Francis A. Andrew &. Gihan Weerasekara
By e-mail
Haj subsidy
India's suspension of the Haj subsidy may have been prompted by irregularities in the system, a possible diversion of such funds for subversive purposes, or opposition parties seemingly unhappy over this concession. But, by and large, a majority of pilgrims are ordinary Muslims who only want to perform one of the obligatory pillars of Islam.
Now to be suspended for a ten-year period, it will surely be challenged by Muslims as this privilege has been enjoyed for many decades — their defense being that it will hit the poor, and also punishes them for the nefarious activities of other Muslims.
The state's argument is that according to the Muslim Law, pilgrims can only perform Haj if they are financially capable and that subsidising Haj goes counter to that dictate. This is a clear case of the Indian Constitution versus its interpretation.
A.R. Modak
Johannesburg
Why Mother’s Day?
This is in reference to the letter ‘Mother’s Day’ (May 12) by Ramesh G. Jethwani. The writer is correct when he says: “Mother's are God's gift to mankind and without them there will be a great vacuum in our life.” However, if we were to follow the West’s culture of celebrating the Mother’s Day, will our responsibility toward our mothers end there? What about the other 364 days?
Note that it is mostly in the West that old parents are put in old age homes. So what is the meaning of this celebration?
Mohammed Ziauddin
By e-mail
Letters to the Editor: Remembering the brave
