When King Artaxerxes I of Persia issued the first known passport in the fifth century BC – in the form of a letter requesting safe passage – to one of his officials travelling to what is now Palestine, he did so to assure the rulers of the lands in between that his man posed no threat to them or their nations. The world was a suspicious place and borders were a natural way to ensure that foreign dangers were kept out.
International travel has become a much less fraught affair over the last 2,500 years. But the coronavirus pandemic has reminded us what borders have always been: both an expression of countries' fears and a tool to allay them. The virus, as many public figures have taken to pointing out, knows no borders. But in the past 10 months, with nations either shuttering or significantly tightening their borders, people have got to know them very well.
The fortunes of the international travel and aviation sectors are inextricable from the permeability of borders, and so in the current climate the consequences for them have been dire. That has rippled into other corners of the global economy, too, from tourism to manufacturing.
It has been clear since the early days of the pandemic that diagnosing those who were infected quickly and efficiently, through mass testing, is critical. The development and distribution of vaccines would come next.
All of these steps have materialised in some form, albeit imperfectly and unevenly, across much of the world. Most countries have some form of testing, though the technologies deployed vary widely. And most have formulated some kind of vaccination plan, though the ability to realise them varies, too.
So long as the success of all of these efforts remains a work in progress, however, any return to “normality” remains frozen by the necessity of intermittent lockdowns and quarantines for travellers. So when can we get the world moving again?
The simple answer is, when every country's path – or at least a plurality of them – out of the pandemic begins to converge through a concerted, global effort. The variations in progress must minimise in favour of a unified approach trusted by everyone.
In a bid to save its sector, the International Air Transport Association, a global aviation trade body, is rolling out a "travel pass". Iata envisions it as a "digital passport" – a mobile phone app linking the information from a traveller's physical passport with records of their coronavirus tests and vaccinations.
Crucially, the app will cross-reference the records with the testing and vaccination requirements of departure and destination countries, reassuring border officials that the person is safe to travel. Iata will also work with the World Health Organisation and other international bodies to ascertain what testing and vaccine regimes will form the basis for a comprehensible global standard.
Iata has already announced plans to trial the travel pass with Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways and Dubai's Emirates, two airlines that, thanks to the UAE's ability to roll out testing and vaccinations quickly, have been spared the worst of the pandemic's havoc on the sector.
The digital passport, Iata hopes, will eventually "re-open borders without quarantine" so that governments can be "confident that they are effectively mitigating the risk of importing Covid-19". For most of the world, that confidence is probably still a long way off. But global standards for dealing with the pandemic are the right goal for which countries should aim. They will be integral in restoring trust. And trust, as travellers since the time of Artaxerxes have known, is the only way to ensure safe passage.
Learn more about Qasr Al Hosn
In 2013, The National's History Project went beyond the walls to see what life was like living in Abu Dhabi's fabled fort:
US tops drug cost charts
The study of 13 essential drugs showed costs in the United States were about 300 per cent higher than the global average, followed by Germany at 126 per cent and 122 per cent in the UAE.
Thailand, Kenya and Malaysia were rated as nations with the lowest costs, about 90 per cent cheaper.
In the case of insulin, diabetic patients in the US paid five and a half times the global average, while in the UAE the costs are about 50 per cent higher than the median price of branded and generic drugs.
Some of the costliest drugs worldwide include Lipitor for high cholesterol.
The study’s price index placed the US at an exorbitant 2,170 per cent higher for Lipitor than the average global price and the UAE at the eighth spot globally with costs 252 per cent higher.
High blood pressure medication Zestril was also more than 2,680 per cent higher in the US and the UAE price was 187 per cent higher than the global price.
Profile of MoneyFellows
Founder: Ahmed Wadi
Launched: 2016
Employees: 76
Financing stage: Series A ($4 million)
Investors: Partech, Sawari Ventures, 500 Startups, Dubai Angel Investors, Phoenician Fund
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
The End of Loneliness
Benedict Wells
Translated from the German by Charlotte Collins
Sceptre
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The specs: 2019 Audi A8
Price From Dh390,000
Engine 3.0L V6 turbo
Gearbox Eight-speed automatic
Power 345hp @ 5,000rpm
Torque 500Nm @ 1,370rpm
Fuel economy, combined 7.5L / 100km
Unresolved crisis
Russia and Ukraine have been locked in a bitter conflict since 2014, when Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly president was ousted, Moscow annexed Crimea and then backed a separatist insurgency in the east.
Fighting between the Russia-backed rebels and Ukrainian forces has killed more than 14,000 people. In 2015, France and Germany helped broker a peace deal, known as the Minsk agreements, that ended large-scale hostilities but failed to bring a political settlement of the conflict.
The Kremlin has repeatedly accused Kiev of sabotaging the deal, and Ukrainian officials in recent weeks said that implementing it in full would hurt Ukraine.