Egyptian surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub is among the winners of the Zayed Award for Human Fraternity.
The founder of the Magdi Yacoub Heart Foundation in Egypt and the Chain of Hope charitable organisation in the UK, he is well known for his pioneering surgical techniques that have helped save thousands of lives, including those of children.
Sir Magdi, 88, a retired professor of cardiothoracic surgery, has opened cardiac centres in Ethiopia and Mozambique, with a centre in Rwanda's capital Kigali under construction.
He has also received numerous honours including a British knighthood and the Order of Merit from Queen Elizabeth II, as well as the Grand Order of the Nile from Egypt.
I am humbled to be receiving this award because it will help us continue to offer the best treatments to patients
Sir Magdi Yacoub
The Zayed Award for Human Fraternity allocates $1 million to a person, group or organisation from any walk of life working to further peaceful coexistence.
Three winners were announced at a media briefing held in Abu Dhabi and will share the $1 million prize.
The award ceremony, held on Monday evening at the Founder's Memorial under the theme 'Tales of Light', was attended by Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Minister of Foreign Affairs.
“I am humbled to be receiving this award for many reasons but most importantly because it will help us continue to offer the best treatments to patients who do not have access to medical care and need to be looked after,” Sir Magdi said on Friday.
“We are active both in developed and developing countries in Africa and Central Africa to try to alleviate suffering and offer the very best free of charge, while respecting their dignity and looking after them at the highest level.”
Sir Magdi said that there were many talents in the region and around the world who need to be nurtured and utilised to make these services more sustainable and ensure its continuity.
The others honoured include Indonesian organisations Nahdaltul Ulama and Muhammadiya and Chilean grassroots leader Nelly Leon Correa.
Mother Nelly, as she is widely known, is the president and co-founder of the Woman Standing Up Foundation in Chile.
Her organisation focuses on supporting incarcerated women and aiding their reintegration into society.
“We want to be a beacon of hope for women and want them to be seen,” she said.
Having supported about 700 women in Chile's largest prison, she told The National that her hope was to extend her programme to other detention centres in Latin America.
“A woman means family and even though she is incarcerated and doesn't have her freedom, it doesn't mean she stops being a mother.
“My dream is to bring hope to humanity and when my time comes, I would like to die in prison among these women.
“The award and the fact that I am here today in the UAE means that we are finally being seen,” she added.
The Zayed Award for Human Fraternity prize is the first monetary award that the foundation has received.
Nearly 94 per cent of the two-year programme's participants remain conviction-free within two years of release.
Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's largest Islamic organisations with more than 190 million members, have also been recognised for their humanitarian and peace-building efforts.
Through the establishment of educational institutions, hospitals and anti-poverty projects, the organisations have improved the lives of countless Indonesians and vulnerable populations around the world.
“This award is very important for us because we consider it as recognition of our humanitarian work in Indonesia,” Ulil Abshar Abdalla told The National.
“Muslims in Indonesia are the largest [part of the Islamic world] but the knowledge of Islam and Muslims in Indonesia is very minimal and we hope that with this award, our work in humanitarian issues will be known by the outside world.
“We believe this is the beginning of a better understanding of Islam and what we are doing in Indonesia.”
The prize was first established on February 4, 2019, to mark the meeting between Pope Francis and Grand Imam of Al Azhar Ahmed Al Tayeb in Abu Dhabi.
Previous winners include UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Moroccan-French activist Latifa Ibn Ziaten.
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
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