READER COMMENTS

Human rights organizations need to work on promoting a culture of human rights within the minds of Bahraini citizens and work on their application. They must not only be listed as rights, but most importantly, the ones who need to know and be aware of these rights are the members of the Bahraini government, who recently had harsh differences prevail and spread between them and the Bahraini people of different classes. They must be as fast as possible to resolve these differences between the Bahraini government and among all classes of people in Bahrain in various peaceful means. This has a role and an effective influence; they are not just mere words waiting for applause and a verbal welcome from listeners, before these differences turn into civil war, which it is now possible to resolve. It will adopt bloodshed as the way of expression, and that is what has happened in many countries, including Arab and foreign ones. Every problem is much easier to resolve at the beginning, instead of trying to resolve it after its breakdown.

The role of the brotherhood in Arabism imposes on us to open our countries for them and that we work on providing all the necessary assistance that they need. The Arabic countries must coordinate with each other to provide suitable places for housing so that they get one of their rights from us. Our homes are theirs and this is what they will do to us if one is expelled from his country. The Yemeni citizen has a duty towards us, first as an Arab citizen and second as a brother of Islam. Their situation is very difficult. They still need psychological and appropriate moral care. Their increasing numbers compel the Arab Governments to work on dividing them in more than one Arab country in order to not increase the burden on a particular country. We must all participate in assisting our Yemeni fellow and every Arabic country should work on the settlement of those Yemenis as well as providing them the opportunity for employment, education for their children and houses to live in.

The Gulf countries are suffering from a shortage in housing due to the high prices of the construction materials. Other countries are exploiting the fact that all of the Gulf countries are rich, so they have raised the price of materials used in construction. The per capita income in the Gulf States is very high and, therefore, the Gulf States are raising the housing prices especially since all are furnished houses. This is the system used in most of the Gulf States and, therefore, we find that the prices are very high.

The population and housing crisis is straining the whole world and also strains the scientists trying to eliminate the problems of housing, population and the sustained growth, which affects a lot of Arab countries. The Gulf states are affected by this crisis as are Egypt, Sudan and Libya, and they may be affected even more than those African countries. If we take the UAE as an example, they are suffering from a housing crisis so they have been bridging the sea to create new lands to build on and to provide accommodation for people. Due to the oil production and huge business activity which obviously require a very large employment rate and a high percentage of foreigners, there are not enough lands to build residential buildings to accommodate this huge population. Even the rents are very expensive so the foreigners reside with each other in one flat to share the rent of even a small flat. The solution lies in the vertical urban sprawl that is raising the buildings and construction of towers and skyscrapers in another world by providing a large number of apartments in less space and also by reclaiming the sea and constructing apartment buildings instead of expensive villas.

Among the means used to facilitate the process of owning a private accommodation for all young people is the policy of giving loans to those young people who want to have a special accommodation, and for them repay the loan over a period of time appropriate to the circumstances of each young man. Indeed, the bankers hold conferences to discuss such proposals and develop plans on how to implement these suggestions. As an appropriate solution for facilitating, it will help many young people who are unable to own housing, but as the beautiful is surrounded by thorns, these loans demand high interest rates. The proportion or installment of these benefits increases if the repayment is on a long term and certainly such conditions are considered to be restrictions that a man must think about before taking out such loans because the financial conditions do not allow paying such a huge amount of interest. Such conditions must be modified and the interest rates must be reduced so that all young people can take advantage of such facilities.

The whole world wonders at seeing such crises of housing and population in countries as the oil Gulf countries. But what makes such oil countries, where thousands of people migrate to every year in order to start a new decent life, suffer from such crises and population problems? Actually, there are significant unemployment numbers in these Gulf countries despite their financial resources. They could not implement such resources for the benefit of their youth by creating enough job opportunities for the recent Arab generations in these countries. This is only the gross negligence of officials of the Ministry of Manpower and positive conferencing must be held among officials of the Ministry to develop real plans for their valid applications in actual life, accompanied by a rapid start to implement these plans. Even those young people who were found in accordance with luck, who found jobs, cannot afford a house with their monthly salaries without the aid of others because of the high cost of the available residential homes, and this is the responsibility of the Ministry of Construction and Housing. It is obvious that any successful country makes residential houses that fit with all of the categories, not with specific groups to get a larger profit. It is possible to compensate for large profit, which the sellers of those homes get with the high cost of buildings and homes because of selling houses at a lower cost, but in large numbers and certainly will find their buyers. The eyes will be surprised to find the presence of a large number of young people waiting for such facilities.