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How mangroves can stop land erosion(Gulf Daily News (Bahrain) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) I REFER to 'Let's work to clean the environment' (GDN, October 10). I totally agree with you. Definitely, Bahrain needs more clean beaches but we also need permanent natural barriers which will not only contribute to a greener Bahrain but also stop land erosion which a naked eye cannot see. We need trees and lots of them; but there is a problem and ie, the non-availability of sweet water for the trees. Bahrain has a few sweet water wells but the daily demands are met from the supply of desalinated water. Thus we have to look for an alternative and there is one - mangroves; there must be a species that can grow in the saline water of Bahrain and should be planted on sea shores or in swamps. We have no time to wait for someone to come and do it for us. A mangrove protects coastal areas from land erosion and storm surge especially during hurricanes, tidal waves and tsunamis. The mangrove's massive root system is efficient at dissipating wave energy. Likewise, they slow down tidal water so that its sediment is deposited as the tide comes in, leaving all but fine particles when the tide ebbs. In this way, mangroves build their own environment. Because of the uniqueness of mangrove ecosystems and the protection against erosion that they provide, they are to be the part of the national conservation plan. It also limits water losses because of the limited freshwater availability in salty intertidal soils. Mangroves limit the amount of water that they lose through their leaves. They can restrict the opening of their stomata (pores on the leaf surfaces, which exchange carbon dioxide gas and water vapour during photosynthesis). They also vary the orientation of their leaves to avoid the harsh midday sun and so reduce evaporation from the leaves. There are more than 140 mangrove families available worldwide and one of them is available in Oman called QURM in Arabic. If Oman can have them, then Bahrain should try its best to save land and help reduce the carbon dioxide released from millions of air-conditioners and carbon monoxide from vehicles and industries. We need to stop it or else the survival or existence of this beautiful island would be in question. Kazi Tazim How about a rebate? Batelco seems to be refusing to accept Hotmail, Gmail, AOL and Verizon, which constitute about 30 per cent of my computer usage. Is Batelco considering giving a 30 per cent rebate on this downturn to their privileged customers? Seymore Gates A BATELCO spokesman said: "As many customers may be aware, email spam is a growing threat which all users are experiencing. To alleviate the inconvenience caused to our customers and to ensure an excellent email service, Batelco has a security solution for virus and spam filtering. This solution helps to reduce significantly the number of spam mails delivered to Batelco email users. Identification of spam emails is done automatically by the solution based on certain criteria, one of which is the reputation of the sender's IP address. "If the IP address of the originating email is found to have a 'bad' reputation and is therefore blacklisted, Batelco's email server anti-spam solution will block any incoming email message from that source. Such a reputation can be caused if the IP itself is determined as a source of spam messages or indirectly whereby an ISP's entire IP range has a bad rating. "This is a normal practice globally which service providers apply to protect their email customers from spam messages. Providers such as America Online LLC (AOL), Hotmail and other email providers have implemented similar policies to control the mail flow to their servers." Not so sporting IWISH to add my bit to the debate over illegal viewing. Apart from the ridiculous cost aspect, probably the most important issue overlooked by these monopolistic broadcasters is that they do not provide viewers the choice of selecting the channels they want. In fact, much before the Dreamboxes came into debate, another illegal network was very popular among viewers hailing from the Indian subcontinent that offered channels of their choice. This is the bottom line for people to move away from these so-called legal providers. Also, as already highlighted the region-wise granting of "rights" to channels is an outcome of greed of organisers of various sporting events (in particular) - earn more with more restrictions. I too have had a very distasteful experience with the provider of an Indian bouquet of channels wherein one of my favourite channels was off air for more than six months but the provider in Dubai merely excused themselves saying it was a problem at the source. However, they would not even compensate me in any way and merely mentioned that their bouquet is not "a-la-carte" offering which meant "take it or leave it"! I decided on the latter option, as they did not seem to care (also reflected in the 15-20 complaint emails that I had to send them in just over a year). I had even urged them during this subscription period to include a few more free-to-air Indian channels which would have given me more viewing choice, but they refused to do so (probably because they wanted to have a "kill" on each channel they provided). For instance, the sub-continent viewers are known to be cricket-crazy. However, the provider ensured that sports channels were not included in their basic package, you had to opt for a package double the cost (even if you merely want to watch cricket and nothing else!). Hence, I would say it's unfair to blame those who shell out the money as they are not offered what they want (you can judge this by seeing the competition currently popular in India where people are offered several package options wherein one can add channels at a marginal cost and this system is quite popular - even cheap for the customer). In view of the above, I feel the illegal circuit will continue to thrive (and should) unless the legal providers wake up to the stark reality and provide viewers with channels of their choice. A win-win situation is absolutely necessary for legal viewing. Harihar K Internet costs scary We all know that the Middle East suffers from poor Internet services. I came across a blog which presented global statistics about the Internet speed versus prices around the world (http://gizmodo.com/5390014/internet-speeds-and-costs-around-the-world-shown-visually). These results are scary, as you can see from the link, Japan gets the fastest Internet service - 61mbps and the cost of 1mbps per month is $0.27 = 100 fils which is the price of a soft drink can in Bahrain. All Internet Service Providers in Bahrain, however, offer connections up to 1mbps (which are not stable) and for the price of approximately BD19 a month = $50. The questions that can be asked here are: why are we paying 185 times more than what other countries are paying? Why is it that other countries have reliable Internet services when Bahrain doesn't? Wasn't this the main reason why the TRA (Telecommunication Regularity Authority) was established? Shouldn't their duties be to improve the price, service and boost the competition between the various ISPs in Bahrain? Or are they simply concentrating on blocking Internet sites and restricting Internet access? Technology is evolving rapidly and the Internet is its backbone. I believe that we deserve faster connections, cheaper and more competitive prices and better services from all the Internet Service Providers in Bahrain. The service we are getting here is probably one of the worst and most expensive. Maybe TRA, Batelco, Zain, Mena Telecom or any other Internet Service Provider based in Bahrain can answer these questions or may be promise better services in the near future, it would be good for everyone to know. A A TRA spokesman said: "It is the belief of TRA that types of dialogues provide a meaningful contribution to the ongoing improvement of knowledge and understanding of the services offered and the role of the TRA. "Since its establishment in late 2002, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority has been working with government, operators and consumers to develop a communications environment that enriches the social and commercial fabric of the Kingdom of Bahrain and facilitates the growth of the market. "TRA's policies are designed to encourage competition, the consequence of which is that retail charges will be brought closer to cost. In June 2008, TRA issued a price benchmarking study which indicated that Bahrain needed to improve its performance with respect to broadband access prices. The study clearly identified that retail prices were high and access speeds were low when compared to European averages with access services offering between 1mbps and 4mbps up to four times those available in Europe. "Affordable high-speed broadband solutions have been identified as a critical success factor for the Economic Vision 2030 and TRA is working on a number of initiatives to achieve this through the competitive supply of services. Whilst it is accepted that there is still considerable room for improvement when compared to some other countries, some early achievements must not be overlooked. Consumers today can choose from many technologies to get connected to the Internet: fixed line, WiMax and 3G networks with approximately 50 per cent of households having a broadband Internet connection. Despite this the prices remain relatively high, especially for the high-speed packages and residential download limits are still applied. To some extent this is partially due to the cost of international connectivity and the limited diversity currently available within Bahrain. "Over the past 12 months, the prices of Residential Broadband packages reduced up to 50pc and the prices of Business Broadband packages reduced up to 40pc. New broadband speeds have been introduced in 2009 (eg 4Mbits/s, 6Mbits/s, 8Mbits/s, 10Mbits/s). "Both TRA and the government of Bahrain are working towards alleviating this problem. Recently, the government announced a contract with TATA worth BD14 million to land a new international sub-sea cable system in Bahrain. Discussions are also continuing to bring other independent sub-sea cable systems to the kingdom and also provide licensed operators with direct access to the international facilities located within Batelco's premises. Access to international capacity at more reasonable prices than today will help to reduce prices and alleviate download thresholds. "TRA is also currently working with the industry to implement local loop unbundling. This will allow other licensed operators access at fair and reasonable prices to the copper access network of Batelco that connects to all of our houses. This initiative will allow other licensed operators direct access and control over the copper connections to end-users and therefore allow such operators to fully control the services and quality of their retail offerings. "TRA is also working in co-ordination with the minster responsible for the telecommunications sector on a National Broadband Policy for Bahrain to ensure appropriate actions are taken to achieve universal competitive broadband communications services at internationally competitive prices, to support economic and social goals as outlined in the Economic Vision 2030 of Bahrain. "TRA will continue to work with consumers and operators to ensure that competitive and high quality telecommunications services are available to all consumers and businesses." (c) 2009 Gulf Daily News Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |