A new series of cultural conversations begins later this week with a discussion of “culture and diversity” in Abu Dhabi.
The event is a co-production between Thinkers and Doers, a think-and-do tank, and the French Institute in the UAE, the French embassy’s cultural department. It will be held at Warehouse 421 from 9am on February 21.
The organisers say the session will discuss how culture has defined the history and future of cities. It will also seek to answer whether culture can become the cornerstone of identity development and if it can be used to foster social diversity.
The discussion will be between Sheikha Hala bint Mohammed Al Khalifa, director general of the Culture and Arts Directorate in Bahrain, Vilma Jurkute, director of Alserkal Avenue in Dubai, and Professor Khaled Alawadi, who is assistant professor of sustainable urbanism at Khalifa University’s Masdar campus in Abu Dhabi. Sofiane Si Merabet, who has been described as a cultural cartographer and is the founder of the Confused Arab digital platform, will moderate the session.
Eudeline de Tinguy, co-founder of Thinkers and Doers, said that the series was about bringing innovators together. "We act as an accelerator for change, strengthening economic, cultural and societal synergies. This event will bring to light many amazing initiatives, which are close to our heart."
Later this year, the discussion series will take on two further topics: artificial intelligence and tolerance, in April and October respectively.
Ludovic Pouille, French ambassador to the UAE, said this week’s event and the broader programme “echoes the ambitions of the Emirati-French cultural dialogue as well as its key themes: arts and innovation.”
For more information go to www.thinkers-doers.com
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1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
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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.
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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.
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