Petrol station employees need shaded areas – The National Dt. 20 August 2014
Petrol station employees need shaded areas
Driving between Abu Dhabi and Dubai regularly, I have noticed that many petrol stations lack shade in the areas where diesel and special fuels are served. This is a cause for concern as the staff have to work all day under the open sky. I am sure their problems do not end at night, or even during the winter.
I request the fuel company to consider installing shades over all serving points at every fuel station.
Ramesh Menon, Abu Dhabi
The National, Dt. 20 August 2014
Pledge: Make UAE Roads Safer
Are you a resident of UAE and holds a driving license? Then, it is time for you to visit:
Drivers and Passengers taking the pledge will commit themselves to the following 4 points;
√ YES – Seat belts – by EVERYBODY in your car!
√ YES – Indicators – every time you change lanes!
ø NO – Speeding!
ø NO – Mobile Phone: not without proper hands-free equipment!
The UAE has one of the highest per-capita road fatalities globally and we experience shortcomings of Road Safety on a daily basis. ‘Road injury’ is the number 1 cause of premature death in the UAE (according to a Global Burden of Disease study), and accidents are the number 2 killer in the UAE with traffic related accidents representing about 2/3 of all accidents. Clearly, this is avoidable!
RoadSafetyUAE.com want to ‘make a difference’ and this needs a strong voice. This is the reason, why we team up with media partners, corporate supporters, and governmental entities like RTA, to help us ‘spread the word’.
We need YOUR VOICE, and the voices of all road traffic participants of the UAE! We need your voice to clearly state: ‘I commit myself to MAKE UAE’s ROADS SAFER!’ – and to sign our pledge!
…and please: forward the pledge to your family, friends, colleagues – whoever you care about!
For 2014, we are aiming for 100,000 pledges by year end. Maybe we achieve even more! Together, we’ll celebrate and decide our game plan for the future. With 100,000 of us standing strong for the cause, we will for sure improve the safety on our roads.
There are definitely additional important points of road safety, but for our initial pledge we want motorists to commit to those 4. In future pledges, additional points of road safety will be included.
Will your pledge make a difference and what is the purpose of the pledge? Possessing a driving license proves, that we know the road rules and the proper road behavior. Taking the pledge is a concrete action of rationalizing and reminding ourselves of how to do it right. Reading and discussing is one thing, but actively taking the pledge is a much more a testimony of our commitment to increase road safety. Please also refer to our ‘Topics & Tips section’!
Certainly, in the initial phases of the pledge, traffic participants, who already have a high conduct of road safety will make the pledge. However, they are encouraged to forward to pledge to other traffic participants with improvement potentials, or with a low conduct of road safety! It is in the interest of those they forward the pledge to! The more traffic participants will go through this process of rationalization by signing the pledge, the more the level of road safety will improve.
By forming a group, we can accomplish difficult goals that we might have trouble achieving alone. Like-minded people can help support the cause of improved road safety and the group momentum can positively influence positive behavioral change and ensure that we follow through on our good intentions. We need to ensure a culture of looking after each other on the road – and taking the pledge is a good start!
Inviting all companies, educational institutions and organizations sign the pledge, and also to encourage their employees, customers, students and other stakeholders to sign, too. It will help organizations develop a systematic approach to managing the key risks arising from road transport, thereby contributing to successful road safety outcomes.
Appending below is the support and call by the Ambassador of India, H.E. T.P. Seetharam in support of this initiative.
Please share the link, spread the word around and let there be less accidents as possible.
Thank you and best wishes in advance,
Ramesh Menon, Abu Dhabi
Beautiful Mosques in Abu Dhabi
Starting today, I am trying to bring to you one by one the beautiful mosques in Abu Dhabi and then other cities in the United Arab Emirates.
In this photo you will find this extremely beautiful mosque situated at Madina Zayed (behind NMC hospital). The architectural beauty of it is to be praised. This is just one of the angle, I captured at random.
Windows in high-rise buildings need to be properly secured – Gulf News Dt. 14 August 2014
When parking my car at a multi-level car park in Abu Dhabi, I heard the sound of two sets of children playing nearby. One was from the ground level where a group of children were playing football. Searching for the other set, my eyes reached the top floor of a highrise building. I was shocked to see that two windows of an apartment were left open and a set of children were stretching themselves out and trying some tricks.
It was indeed shocking for me! They had clearly seen me standing below and observing them for a long time. As if one group of children seemed to have gotten the message, suddenly one of the windows shut and my focus was now on the other one, where the remaining children continued their activities.
I didn’t wait any longer and went ahead and alerted the watchman of the building. He told me that he was helpless, as the children never listened to him.
I was fearing three different types of dangers. First, the window panels of such buildings are mostly easily accessible. What happens, if the children or even if it is adults, slip and fall?
Second was the danger of the items kept on the window slab. What happens, if one of the item falls down through the open window and someone happens to be passing by or standing below at that crucial moment?
Third and not of least importance is the mischievous act that many residents have had to experience. Some children throw water bottles or cans or even plastic bags filled with water at pedestrians who are passing by the building. A few days ago, my wife and I escaped such an act by a whisker!
It doesn’t end there, these windows are used many a times by residents to dry their laundry. The windows are left partially open and the clothes act as an eyesore to a beautiful city image.
Authorities in the capital have asked for a mandatory lock for windows on highrise buildings. I request authorities and building owners to make a quick check and make sure that it is installed wherever it is not.
In addition, reputed organisations should cross check that the apartments where the employees are living have all the required safety equipment installed.
Let us all work together to put an effort to make safety a core value that can never be ignored even for a moment. Let no accidents, or even death, occur due to ignorance or carelessness.
The reader is a technical officer based in Abu Dhabi.
Be a community reporter. Tell us what is happening in your community. Send us your videos and pictures at readers@gulfnews.com
Tragedy of life – Gulf Today – Short Take – Dt. 09 August 2014
Tragedy of life
Life passes by very quickly. At times many of us undergo a series of unexpected tragedies all at the same time. For a favourite colleague of mine Paulita and her husband Adrian, it was one such time during last year.
A cancer fighter, her condition aggravated and she had to undergo a series of major treatment.
She was recovering and it was at that time the natural tragedy happened and her entire village was destoyed. Along with it 18 of their immediate relatives!
Massive efforts were coordinated by her forgetting her own health condition to rehabilitate those who survived.
Time passed by quickly and it is time for her to go back on leave.
It is at this time she is feeling the magnitude of what happened. With houses yet to complete and essential facilities still not reconstructed, life is not going to be easy for some time.
In a way when we look at things happening in our life, it is true that all good things can be destroyed in a flash but to reconstruct the goodwill it is never easy and requires lot of hard work, determination, dedication and sustained effort.
I take this opportunity to salute all good human beings like Paulita who do selfless efforts forgetting their own personal hardship.
Ramesh Menon
Short Take, Gulf Today 9 August 2014
To read it in original, please visit Gulf Today online.
Don’t get killed while driving – Gulf News – 3 August 2014
Don’t get killed while driving
Authorities need to step up to educate drivers on road safety and the importance of patience on the road.
• By Ramesh Menon
• Gulf News Published: 13:23 August 2, 2014
The other day, as I was dropping my son to the airport amidst the afternoon traffic, we witnessed a young man riding a sports bike at a furious pace, cutting across traffic lanes. Suddenly, the car ahead of him stopped, and the young man was left with no option than to hit the car. We watched as he toppled at least three times above and on top of the car ahead and fell down. There he lay motionless and we were speechless.
Turns out, there was an accident that happened further down the road and that was the reason for the traffic and a police patrol was already on their way to assist.
The accident that we witnessed will remain in my memory for a very long time, as it felt so unreal, like it was a movie.
Furthermore, for me as a person, bikes on UAE roads are always scary as they are not meant to be safe while driven on these roads.
Memories of two incidents that happened a few years ago keep on coming to my mind and is the reason for my aggressive campaigning for road safety.
First is the death of my brother-in-law in a bike accident in 2001 by a tractor driver in Bengaluru, India.
Second is more serious as it involved a whole family, including my mathematics teacher from school. They died as their car was hit by a speeding car and causing the entire family to burn to death as they travelled from Abu Dhabi to Dubai.
While the fate of the young man involved in the accident that happened the other day is not known to me, I definitely know that it was an incident that could easily have been avoided.
There is a strong need for patience and this needs to be educated to our young drivers by the authorities. Especially bike riders and those who have just got their driving license.
You don’t put a full stop to your life in thsi manner. Safety is of utmost importance, therefore we should be alert and cautious at all times.
To read it in original, please visit Gulf News online.
Listen to ideas – Short Take – Gulf Today – 2 August 2014
Listen to ideas
On a short visit to India, I am touring around various cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Coimbatore and my home town, Irinjalakuda.
While I travel by air and road, I also drive at most places as it gives me an opportunity to cover life in the villages through my lenses.
The situation changes when I am in my hometown and under the umbrella of my aged parents. They do not allow me to drive and the onus is on our family driver Jose to take me around the city.
He is a man of wisdom. Driving around, he has clear ideas on what needs to be done and what went wrong on highway development activities.
The one-way system in Trichur and Ernakulam, the highway medians that occupy a lot of space and reduce traffic flow are some points that require immediate corrective action.
Having worked in Iraq and Saudi for a long time, he is thorough with modernisation. I wish there was a better mechanism where the authorities listened to the voice of common people in India. Just like the “Have Your Say” programmes in many government departments in the United Arab Emirates.
The UAE authorities have been highly progressive and receptive to the voice of its residents. This has encouraged people like me to contribute regularly with ideas and suggestions.
Ramesh Menon
To read it in original, please visit Gulf Today online.
Natural hurry
Natural hurry
There is a saying in Hindi which translates into, “Whatever happens, happens for the good.”
Nature has proved this once again.
For some years, I have been keenly following the flowering process of date palm trees and the period after it, till it is harvested. Normally, this process happens during July to October.
However, last year, due to the change in weather pattern or due to the unnoticed climate differentiation, it didn’t happen during that period.
This year, the process started in March and by now, the dates in the palm trees are ready to harvest. It is as if the nature has hurried itself to be part of the festivities associated with the Holy Month of Ramadan.
It is an amazing feeling to watch the date palm trees full of ripened dates wherever one gets to go around in the UAE. Indeed, the nation is blessed with this hidden wealth, which silently forms a major export item of the country.
If you have missed following the process, keep an eye from now on. You will have many stories to tell based on it.
Ramesh Menon
Short Take – Gulf Today 26 July 2014
Strict rules and training needed – Letters to the editor – The National
Strict rules and training needed
It is very sad to read that an accident of the kind described in your article (38 workers injured in Sharjah bus crash, July 22) has happened on our roads once again.
Looking at the efforts by the authorities to prevent such accidents and the results achieved thus far, it is promising to note that they have become less frequent.
However, in order to get even better results, there is one option that ought to be implemented. The law should be amended to give no leeway above the stated speed limit for drivers of commercial or public transport vehicles. This would include 15-seater vans and minibuses, as well as full-size buses and trucks.
If enforced correctly and with strict punishment for drivers who breach it, this law ought to result in fewer accidents due to speeding and negligence.
In conjunction with this, all transport companies should be required to give their drivers training and to update their road-safety awareness skills.
Ramesh Menon, Abu Dhabi
To read it in original please visit The National online
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