Letters to the Editor [Archives:1999/46/Letters to the Editor]

Dear Editor,
Let me first, express my admiration of our best magazine. Every week, this newspaper shows us happy surprises. It is obvious that this newspaper confirms the truth that Yemen has many creative personalities. There are many innate talents all over Yemen whatever the positions they are holding.
I’m so happy at the new corner “IMPROVE OUR ENGLISH” as it is very important for all of us to learn English. This page is a window through which we can know more about this language. We, as students of English at university, hope that there will be more development in this section with higher and stronger elements.
Another thing we hope that we are allowed to contribute to this page under the title of our readers our writing and our attempts at poems, process and commentaries on various topics.
At last I focus on this hope to let us express our talents.
Saaha’a Abdullah Haza Al-Kobati
Taiz

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“Why Smoking?”
There is a very good and useful saying, that “Protection is better than medicine.” Allah bestowed we human beings with minds to recognize what is good and what is bad for us. By which, differentiates us from animals and makes all our behavior acceptable of all and correct. But sometimes, we misuse it by doing bad things or habits.
Any way, I will come straight to the point, smoking is a bad habit and harmful upon our health. Up till now, so many scientists, experts and specialists in this regard, after so many studies and experiments have confirmed that the evil of health is smoking. Why our scientists do you say so? We are addicted to smoking. Are you deride and scorn us because we are smokers? On behalf of those scientists and wise men, I say to you smokers NO, they are neither kidding nor scorning you, but for your health, property and time!
In other words, smoking destroys health. It causes many diseases such as cancer, stiffness in veins, heart and lung illness, etc. Not only that, but there are also sub-diseases and side effects upon the smoker and we can not ignore them. It daily makes you spend huge sums of money for it. It means that, you deprive your family of the essential requirements and necessary needs. What a catastrophe!
Be with me, I would like to remind you that, smoking is the brother of chewing Qat. Add to these, it even causes social damage. How? I think you have heard, many explosions were caused by cigarette. Once, there was a small store, several bags of inflammable material were inside that small store, namely (Barud). A negligent passerby threw the butt of his cigarette near. A second later, a big explosion was heard. Similarly, many clothing stores and gas stations have been destroyed.
Furthermore, it bothers the non-smoker beside you, whether he was Yemeni or a foreigner. Particularly, if you were on a bus or at any public place. What a harried view!
For these reasons, international and local organizations were established. They do their best to educate smokers, to make them aware of the effects of smoking. They also try to encourage smokers to give up by any means.
At last, believe me, I was a smoker as you are now, but when I noticed that, there were many things starting to happen to me, I decided with hard will to give it up. Hence I did. Indeed, it was a triumph for me.
So, if you want good health, to save money and to serve your country usefully, you must give up smoking. I hope you do. Certainly, it was a nice step of the President stopping qat chewing and I hope to hear of him stopping smoking, at least at the public places like, airports, tourist hotels, etc. By doing so, our country and we can get benefits directly and indirectly.
The summery of what I want to say is, this saying of one of the famous local philosophers who liked his country and his people: “this would be a welcome decision at many levels. The individual will enjoy better health, more available income, more time…etc. The family will be spared the hazards of the smoke and the chew, and will have more money to spend on other needs. Society will also benefit directly and indirectly.”
Quoted of the late intellectual Prof. Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf’s saying, may Allah mercy him with the title ‘Words of Wisdom” iss. No. 43, page 2 YT.
By: Fadl Ahmed Abas Ghazi
Arhab Education College
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We must fight it!
We are not in a war. What I mean by it is qat. We are in an important symbolical war. We are fighting a destructive plant that seems as a huge army destroying everything in our life. It destroys our health, families, finances and other many things. But as I think, if the Yemeni people can free themselves from this curse, our country will turn into a better and a prosperous one.
It is difficult to remove this plant at once. It need long-distance strategies since this habit of chewing began 200 years ago and most Yemeni people, men or women, are chewers of qat. But with strong determination we can do it.
Now and after two months we will begin a new century, our government finds it important to remove that plant. It begins to make some plans which may help in getting rid of qat. One plan is to make the time of working from 8 am to 3pm. There is also the appearance of some new associations in some governorates, such as (the Association of Friends Free from Qat – Ibb). We hope such things to be useful.
Some may say that the government is fighting the people themselves. They say that many people depend on planting and selling qat to earn money. But the movement makes a plan to give those people composition so that they will remove qat and instead they will plant vegetables and fruits that will benefit the country.
Finally, and again, it is not easy to do that without strong determination. We must begin with ourselves, (God doesn’t change what in men until they change what in themselves).
By: A Regular Yemen Times Reader
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Dear Editor,
I don’t know what can I write for you, but I know only one thing that I want to write now about what I am feeling. I am very happy. One day my father gave me the Yemen Times because he knows how I love the English language. I was very happy when I read it. When I read it I went to another world. I wanted to write to you in that moment, but I don’t know about Letters to Editor. It wasn’t there. But now when I saw it I decided to write to YT. It is my only friend. I love the most of the articles and especially the Editorial.
Now your English lessons section is very helpful for me and many readers. It is like a language teacher for us as well as giving us information of what is going on in the country. Continue with it.
Monia Mohammed
Secondary School – Aden

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