With reference to Simon Rushton's report Atlanta: police killing of Rayshard Brooks threatens to be next racism flashpoint (June 14): the world is abuzz with the slogan 'Black Lives Matter' and it has been effective and resulted in a wide-spread movement borne out of the unjust and cruel death of George Floyd.
But in my opinion, this slogan is not wholly correct as in the long run it may prove divisive. In its present form it is a reactive slogan. Instead, it should be reformative like ‘All Lives Matter’, which does not leave any chance for violence against any community, black or non-black, white or coloured; neither now nor in the future. ‘All Lives Matter’ also has an inclusive geography and is not limited to countries or regions that are home to the Black community.
So while the slogan succeeded in bringing out the desired result as all four police officers related to the murder of George Floyd have been charged, steps are being taken to reform the police, etc. But any reactive movement has risk of losing its reformative character.
K M Furqan, Abu Dhabi
Vaccine makers should not compete but focus on a timeline
In reference to Andre Loesekrug-Pietri's article Coronavirus: how a vaccine is developed needs to be rethought fast and made available to the world (June 11): till a vaccine is found and distributed across the world, the Covid-19 trauma will continue. Lockdowns are a provisional measure, to prevent the spread of the disease and provide the time for governments to augment and revamp their medical facilities, beds, etc.
The corporations and institutes engaged in the research should co-operate among themselves and not compete to be first to develop the drug. This is not a contest between companies or countries. The goal is to save lives.
Second, they should not try to make profits; the vaccine should be patent free. Third, after discovery the vaccine should be distributed to the most vulnerable sections like frontline medical workers, slum dwellers, hotspots, etc.
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, we were inundated with news about advances in technologies like digitisation, blockchain theories, artificial intelligence, etc. What is the use of these technologies if they cannot be used to accelerate the developing of a cure? We must reduce the time for developing a vaccine from 18 months to six months. These institutes should not let us down. All of mankind will be grateful to them.
Rajendra Aneja, Dubai