Gulf Daily News Thursday, 22nd January 2015 By the way... REEM ANTOON Terror is terror! W n Policemen and forensic police work in a marked up perimetre in Colline street in Verviers, Belgium, after two men were reportedly killed during an anti-terrorist operation enough, the government girls’ schools are not having the same problem and girls are out performing the boys on every level because in those schools, most of the teachers are Bahrainis. Salary-wise I guess it’s not attractive enough for Bahraini male teachers. Despite long holidays, as it is the case worldwide, teachers take care and spend seven hours a day with our children and are instrumental in Safety priority... T is good news that Iflight's the AirAsia 8501 two flight E live in an increasingly troubled world where violence and terror are widespread across all borders. Perpetrators of violence deem it justified in order to serve their own agendas, irrespective of whichever faith they (supposedly) adhere to. Yet, the media’s use of language like “Islamist terrorist cell”, “suspected Islamists” or “Islamist attacks” (‘Belgium deploys troops’, GDN, January18) is at best blatantly biased and grossly prejudiced and orientalist. It could certainly have Edward Said turning in his grave! These terrorists are no more ‘Islamist’ than the Ukrainian fighters are Christian, yet we – the readers – are constantly subjected to biased language which is grossly misrepresentative of the Islamic faith. The religion of ALL terrorists is ‘terrorism’, irrespective of whichever religion they claim to follow. As a linguist, I feel compelled to highlight this issue of lexical selection. Mobeena Inam forming our future generations. We should be grateful and supportive to them, and a better salary will encourage more qualified Bahrainis to choose this career. Jameela Mohanna n Indonesian soldiers carry a coffin recovered by divers from the crash site of AirAsia flight in Java sea, on arrival at Surabaya airport recorders and a tail section have been found and brought to shore. Hopefully, the cause of the crash will be ascertained expeditiously. With increasing low-price flights operating across the world to cater to the growing market of travellers, it is important to ensure that safety training and pilot competences are maintained at the highest levels. Rajendra K Aneja 2003 - The French and 1998 – American solGerman governments diers arrest their first issue a joint statement war-crimes suspect in Bosnia, grabbing forPRAISE undeserved is satire in dis- expressing their opmer detention camp guise – Henry Broadhurst, English pol- position to immediate military action against commander Goran itician (1840-1911). Iraq. Jelisic off a street in Bi2004 – Ranchers jeljina. blocked a main road 1999 – The Romanian in Western Brazil to protest what they said were thougovernment makes a deal with striking coal miners sands of squatters on their land. Some 3,000 Guarani who had injured hundreds of riot police during days and Kaiowa Indians have been defying a judge’s order of street battles, averting a threatened march on the to abandon 14 ranches they had occupied in recent capital. weeks to press their claims for ancestral lands. 2000 – An International Atomic Energy Agency team 2005 - Iran’s hard-line leadership rules out allowing begins searching Iraqi nuclear sites in the first inspecwomen to run for president in June elections, denying tion by a world body in more than a year. Their job is to reports in the state-run media that it had decided to almake sure Iraq’s nuclear stocks are not used for military low female candidates for the first time. purposes. 2006 - Pakistan’s prime minister condemns an Ameri2001 – Former US football player Rae Carruth is sencan airstrike on a remote Pakistani village, saying such tenced to at least 18 years and 11 months in prison attacks should be cleared with Islamabad first. for his role in the 1999 shooting death of his pregnant 2007 - A suicide bomber crashes his car into a central girlfriend. Baghdad market crowded with Shi’ites just seconds 2002 - China moves 17,000 mostly Chinese and Muslim after another car bomb tears through the stalls where settlers to a traditionally Tibetan region in its remote vendors were hawking DVDs and used clothing, leaving west, reviving a plan abandoned after protests by crit88 dead in one of the bloodiest attacks of the Iraq war. ics of China’s Tibetan policies. 2008 - Iraq’s parliament passes a law to change the Saddam Hussein-era flag. 2009 - A Chinese court sentences two men to death and a dairy boss to life in prison for their roles in producing and selling infant formula tainted with melamine. 2010 - Britain raises its terror threat alert to the second-highest level, one of several recent moves the country has made to increase vigilance against international terrorists after a Christmas Day bombing attempt on a Europe-US flight. 2011 - The collapse of another attempt at international outreach to Iran leaves world powers with few options except to wait – and hope that the bite of sanctions will persuade Tehran to reconsider its refusal to stop activities that could be harnessed to make nuclear weapons. 2012 - Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh leaves his battered nation on his way to the US for medical treatment after passing power to his deputy and asking for forgiveness for any “shortcomings” during his 33-year reign. 2013 - Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party emerges as the largest faction in a hotly contested parliamentary election, positioning the hard-liner to serve a new term as prime minister. 2014 - Syrian peace talks begin in Switzerland with a bitter clash over President Bashar Al Assad’s future. An emotional meeting... P ope Francis’s last full day in the Philippines earlier this week, began with an emotional youth gathering at a Catholic university in Manila, where he was moved by a question posed by a 12-year-old girl who had been abandoned. “Many children are abandoned by their parents. Many of them became victims and bad things have happened to them, like drug addiction and prostitution. Why does God allow this to happen, even if the children are not at fault? Why is it that only a few people help us?” Glyzelle Iris Palomar asked. The girl, who herself was rescued and found shelter in a church-run community, broke down in tears and could not finish her prepared welcome. The pope hugged her and later put aside most of his own prepared speech to respond. I myself had often asked that question in my younger years and I haven't really stopped asking it in my adulthood either. And I am still waiting for a viable answer. It is, to be fair, one of the most difficult questions for anyone to answer. And I am sure it is asked by almost every believer once or twice in their lifetime. How, we ask ourselves, can a God of love permit such things in the world? Things like war, sickness, pain and death, especially when their effects often are felt most keenly by those who are apparently innocent? Of all human suffering, none, I believe, can equal the pain of a mother (and father) who must put their young child into a grave. In answer to the youngster’s question the Pope replied: “Why do children suffer? I invite each one of you to ask yourselves, ‘Have I learned how to weep ... when I see a hungry child, a child on the street who uses drugs, a homeless child, an abandoned child, an abused child, a child that society uses as a slave’'?” Tragedies involving little children, such as the plight of starving Ethiopian and other African children, their little bodies emaciated, diseased and dying, their bellies bloated are never easy to take in. But I think before we blame God for the multitude of terrible, heartrending tragedies afflicting little children and people worldwide, we need to stop and take a look at ourselves. Is God totally to blame? Shall we humans assume no responsibilities? Does he have a part to play in these tragedies? Philosophers, psychologists, theologians, scientists and agnostics, have all puzzled over these questions. There is a human responsibility involved even before a baby is born. After birth, parents have an even greater duty to teach, protect and watch over their children. The more we open our minds and the deeper we search for understanding about why little children suffer, disappear or die, and why people have suffered terrible evils throughout history, the more we must acknowledge the human responsibility involved. And as Albert Einstein once said, “the world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” 7