A hope for Iraq

Tragedy in Nepal

With reference to Taniya Dutta's report Why does Nepal have so many plane crashes and what may have caused the Yeti disaster? (January 17): the elaborate coverage of this most recent air disaster was informative and at the same time painful to read. The tragic part was the co-pilot ‘s husband also died in 2006 air-crash. The aviation authorities should be diligent in monitoring periodically the state of aircraft to prevent disasters. I pray for the families of the departed passengers.

K Ragavan, Bengaluru, India

A hope for Iraq

With reference to Sinan Mahmoud's piece Iraqis hope hosting Gulf Cup will help kick off national recovery (January 3): This was a nice piece. I hope Iraq steadily progress towards peace, prosperity, political stability, social and political justice and sustainability.

It will be fantastic if Iraq and all its citizens aim to build an Iraq that will replicate its glory days when it was the centre of Muslim civilisation. The times of greats such as Khalifa Haroon Al Rashid. A lesson can be learnt from Iraq's past that petroleum and petro-dollars are not always needed to build a civilisation and a prosperous country. It was done in the past and it can be done again.

I would love to visit Iraq someday as my relatives used to work there as highway engineers for many years before and during the Iran-Iraq war (in Mosul, Al Amarah, Dohuk, Sulaimania) and I have heard so much about Iraq from them, also from friends and acquaintances who were in the military and were deployed for the Gulf Wars. The biggest shock I felt after the invasion was seeing footage of run-down status in Iraqi cities, and I wondered, what happened to all the oil money... where did that go? Iraq used to be the second largest exporter of oil, only behind Saudi Arabia.

I hope Iraqis are able to build a better, far more prosperous stable and fair society, a just and healthy political system, and a future that is environmentally sustainable, and become a role model and inspiration for others.

I want to hear people talk about Iraq in the same positive note nowadays as they talk about the amazing progress from poverty of Bangladesh. On a side note, I would love to see the famous dates of Iraq also in stores here in the US. I see dates from next door Saudi Arabia but nothing from Iraq.

Wasim Islam, Washington, US