Articles and letters may be edited for the purposes of clarity and space. They are published in good faith with a view to enlightening all the stakeholders. However, the contents of these writings may not necessarily match the views of the newspaper.
Am I fair enough for you?
WHAT thoughts enter your mind when you think of the word ‘fair’? Many would likely say something along the lines of ‘Beautiful’ ‘Successful’ ‘Desirable’, all of which may be true, but why are these positive attributes only associated with fair skin and not darker skin tones.
Allah Almighty created us all unique and beautiful, in different shades and shapes.The Holy Quran, Surah Ar-Rum (The Romans) 30 Verse 22, ‘And among His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the difference of your languages and colours.
Verily, in that are indeed signs for men of sound knowledge’. All around the world there seems to be a hierarchy of people with fair skin. If you have fair skin you’re instantly welcomed and celebrated, compliments are showered upon you.
This is not one country’s problem, unfortunately, it’s a global issue. Even more so worrying, is that in many places, viewing lighter skinned individuals as more elite than their darker counterpart, is not seen as a problem.
That’s why, even in today’s so-called progressive society, we see advertisements for whitening creams/skincare, still extremely prevalent. The amount of whitening cream adverts that appear everywhere in Pakistan is unacceptable.
Most of the whitening creams and vitamin injections people use to try and lighten their skin colour, contain illegal and extremely harmful ingredients, which, when used for longer time, can cause serious problems and even death.
We need to accept the skin that Allah Almighty has blessed us with.. Allah Almighty is Perfect and He designed us the way He wanted. The Holy Quran Surah At-Tin (The Fig) 95, Verse 4 ‘Indeed, We created humans in the best form.’
Your skin colour does not define your self worth. $8.6 billion dollars is the amount of money spent worldwide on whitening skincare in 2020, alone.
Just think for a moment, imagine if all that money was spent helping those in need, those who are struggling to survive. There are many problems in this world, but your skin colour isn’t one of them.
Noor Butt
Via email
Nature versus technology
Although we have been talking about dealing with the climate change crisis, still, countries have a long way ahead to go in the matter of analysing and understanding the beauty of Mother Nature.
Here the main point of view is that technology is man-made but all the natural occurrences around the world have been related to Mother Nature.
Humans cannot create and control the natural world as opposed to dealing with technology. This means that countries and people should be wary of the natural world. Each day across the world has a bundle of lessons to all about the changing weather patterns.
Sometime ago, Texas and most Texans had just gone through the difficult and heavy winter storms in the form of freezing rain and ice storms. In fact, the US areas like Texas have come across such heavy winter storms so far.
In all those circumstances, the entire life patterns get snapped abruptly by reason of power outage caused by storms, water pipeline bursts and above all freezing temperatures out there. These storms bring out many serious lessons about our preparedness to handle Nature’s fury.
For instance, hurricanes, rough weather conditions and heavy rainfall have taught many lessons to the people in my native areas like Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, all having been home to big trees, seas, rivers and heavy greenery/agricultural activities.
Now, it is very clear that the current American system has not been up to “diligently dealing with such weather patterns as in Texas.”
And all those CNN news items have been pointing out many hard revelations on the winter storms and the aftermath.
Therefore, the US should learn a lesson or so and improve the infrastructure in those weather-affected areas to deal with future weather challenges, thereby saving a great deal in terms of plants-cum-agriculture and the lifeline of the industrial activities.
P SENTHIL S DURAI
Maharashtra, India
International Men’s Day
We all know that International Women’s Day is observed on March 8 globally. In the same way, there is a day for men which is also observed worldwide.
International Men’s Day is celebrated on November 19 every year. The celebrations highlights the contribution of men towards the family and the society.
The objectives of Men’s Day focuses on men health, gender relations, gender equality and discrimination.
The day also highlights the positive difference that men bring to the world, communities and to their families. It also raises awareness about men’s well-being and issues that men face on a global scale.
JUBEL D’CRUZ
Mumbai, India
