The Ali Column: UAE environment is everyone's concern

Our environment, or bee'ah, takes comittment, vision and cooperation.

Bee'ah is an Arabic word that means environment. One of my Arab friends keeps on repeating this word over and over every time we meet and discuss various subjects. He would talk about family issues, then moves on to work issues education issues and of course football issues. No matter what the topic, he will suddenly just sig then he say the magic word: "Bee'ah"!!

In the beginning I was like, "What does the bee'ah have to do with any of these issues?". Why you keep saying it?"

But my friend would simply look at me and say: "Come on, Ali, you should know! You know its all about the environment you live in, the way you are raised at home, the way our society is. Everyone is behaving and reacting to everything surrounding them - you, me and everyone. Everything depends on the type of environment we live in, my friend,

When I finally started to understand what he was talking about, I began to reflect on the origin of the word bee'ah

I related this to how our government have always done its best to create the healthiest environment for us - both Emiratis and the expat communities - in areas such as work, education, social activities and opportunity. The emphasis on new laws and intiatives introduced by the government is to create a sense of stability in the community and sustainable solutions that will benefit the next generation of our country.

This social, work and living bee'ah is an essential factor in making the UAE a healthy place for people from all over the world to live and work in it.

With our country's success comes a responsibility towards making this bee'ah better and make it an essential part of the next generation's mind set.

Unfotunately, some in our community don't want to embrace this type of healthy bee'ah - they want to stick to the old bee'ah, the old ways, which may have been a good environment for a previous time, though not any more.

The key factor for any country, organization or company's vision is to embrace change - to be constantly thinking how to improve and evolve and continue to have a healthy bee'ah..

This bee'ah starts within your home, school, your social life and your work. So are you living in the best bee'ah or do you need to change it?