The UAE is undergoing many of the social and cultural changes associated with other parts of the developed world. Attitudes towards marriage, education and employment, for example, are shifting: people are waiting longer to get married, more women are working outside the home and couples are having fewer children.
As The National reported yesterday, the recently released Abu Dhabi Statistical Yearbook found that the average age of marriage among female Emiratis has risen from 23.7 years of age in 1995 to 25.9 in 2012. A similar but slower pattern is evident among men.
Neither statistic is surprising. Education has changed people’s priorities and perspectives. Young men and women are now more focused on completing their undergraduate and postgraduate studies and establishing their careers before getting married. Many women are no longer dependent on men for their financial destiny. Conversely, the rising cost of weddings and dowries could equally explain this trend.
The government's statistics also reveal a startling and sudden decline in life expectancy among men in the emirate, falling from 77.1 years of age in 2011 to 75.2 in 2012. The assumption here is that a statistical anomaly is at work, one that will most likely correct itself when the next data points are released. However, it could be associated with the high number of car accidents involving young men.
The total number of car accidents has declined since spiking in 2009 when it reached 5,240 casualties. In 2011, that number had fallen to 3,873 injuries and deaths, suggesting there has been some accommodation of safety messages by road users.
Other statistics tumble from this mine of data, recording ordinary and extraordinary snapshots of our lives: the quality and quantity of date production has markedly improved since 2009; the number of camels in the emirate has also increased by around a fifth.
Such surveys give an unvarnished insight into the world we live in and chart how our lives have changed and will continue to do so. They provide a data-driven account of the state of the nation. The Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi should be commended for this thorough survey, which will no doubt inform policymaking and strategy in years to come.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
ODI FIXTURE SCHEDULE
First ODI, October 22
Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
Second ODI, October 25
Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune
Third ODI, October 29
Venue TBC
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
Day 4, Abu Dhabi Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Not much was expected – on Sunday or ever – of Hasan Ali as a batsman. And yet he lit up the late overs of the Pakistan innings with a happy cameo of 29 from 25 balls. The highlight was when he launched a six right on top of the netting above the Pakistan players’ viewing area. He was out next ball.
Stat of the day – 1,358 There were 1,358 days between Haris Sohail’s previous first-class match and his Test debut for Pakistan. The lack of practice in the multi-day format did not show, though, as the left-hander made an assured half-century to guide his side through a potentially damaging collapse.
The verdict As is the fashion of Test matches in this country, the draw feels like a dead-cert, before a clatter of wickets on the fourth afternoon puts either side on red alert. With Yasir Shah finding prodigious turn now, Pakistan will be confident of bowling Sri Lanka out. Whether they have enough time to do so and chase the runs required remains to be seen.
