Jessica Hill
On National Flag Day, people all over the UAE will be celebrating the achievements of this country by waving the UAE flag. But for these three Emiratis, the national flag holds particular significance, not just as a symbol of their country but as a symbol of their own – or their family’s – achievements. Here, they explain why they will be flying the flag proudly today and what it represents for them.
Noora Al Mulla, 27, is the marketing projects manager for Etihad Airways. In March, she took her flag when she walked 140 kilometres across the sand dunes from Al Ain to Abu Dhabi, as part of the annual Women’s Heritage Walk.
“I chose to bring my flag with me on the walk because we were a lot of different nationalities together doing the trek, and it was a nice chance for all of us to showcase our countries.
“The walk definitely connected me to more to my ancestral heritage. I was really surprised to hear that my own family had done this journey not that long ago. My aunt called me during the walk, just after we’d run into one of the biggest storms in 30 years, and said: ‘What are you doing? Are you crazy? You know that we had camels with us – you’re not supposed to walk the entire distance!’
“The picture of me with the flag shows me feeling elated because we’d just done the final stretch. The last distance is always the hardest when you’re hiking, mentally you know that you’re just five minutes away but those five minutes feel like an hour. I was really exhausted. Having the UAE flag with me meant a lot to me. It gave me a sense of joy, pride, identity and strength.
“For me the flag means unity. The more united we are, the better outcomes we have. In this picture, the flag also represents the unity I felt with the expats I was with on our walk through the desert.”
Saeed Al Memari, a 39-year-old mountaineer from Fujairah, has raised the UAE flag at the top of 52 of the world’s highest peaks – including Mount Everest (twice), the seven summits, and the North and South poles.
“When I first reached the summit of Everest in 2011, I remember feeling very proud to get this chance to raise the flag as the first UAE national on the top of the world’s highest mountain. I was crying and at the same time laughing with happiness.
“My next plan is to climb the highest peak in every country – 246 countries around the world. I will take my flag with me, this is the most important thing, along with my picture of Sheikh Khalifa, which I always carry with me when I’m climbing.
“When I scaled the seven summits, I took a picture of each of the Rulers of the seven Emirates with me up each peak.
“I also always put my gutra on my head when I’m climbing, so everyone knows me as a UAE national.”
Hamdan Al Maainah, 27, is the son of Abdullah Mohammad Al Maainah, the man who designed the UAE flag in 1971. His father is now Ambassador of the UAE in Santiago, Chile, in South America, and Al Maainah is a manager at Etihad Airways.
“In 1971, my father was a 19-year-old student who saw a newspaper ad to try out designing a flag for the new country of the UAE, which had just formed. More than 1,000 people who submitted their designs, and my father was one of them.
“The colours he chose symbolised things he felt were important for the country – red is for sacrifice, green for prosperity and goodness, white meaning peace and black meaning abundance and a strong land.
“They chose six designs and those six went to the assembly of the union. My dad didn’t even know his design had been chosen until the official day the flag was raised, on December 2, 1971. When Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan raised the flag for the first time in Dubai – my father was there to see it.
“The flag means a lot to me. Our culture is very rich and our population very small, so we try to hang on to different aspects of our culture – the flag is a great part of that.”
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
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Ticket prices
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The specs: 2018 Renault Koleos
Price, base: From Dh77,900
Engine: 2.5L, in-line four-cylinder
Transmission: Continuously variable transmission
Power: 170hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque: 233Nm @ 4,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 8.3L / 100km
Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha
Starring: Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Shantanu Maheshwari, Jimmy Shergill, Saiee Manjrekar
Director: Neeraj Pandey
Rating: 2.5/5
U19 WORLD CUP, WEST INDIES
UAE group fixtures (all in St Kitts)
Saturday 15 January: v Canada
Thursday 20 January: v England
Saturday 22 January: v Bangladesh
UAE squad
Alishan Sharafu (captain), Shival Bawa, Jash Giyanani, Sailles Jaishankar, Nilansh Keswani, Aayan Khan, Punya Mehra, Ali Naseer, Ronak Panoly, Dhruv Parashar, Vinayak Raghavan, Soorya Sathish, Aryansh Sharma, Adithya Shetty, Kai Smith
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The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now
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UAE squad v Australia
Rohan Mustafa (C), Ashfaq Ahmed, Chirag Suri, Rameez Shahzad, Fahad Nawaz, Amjed Gul, Shaiman Anwar, Ahmed Raza, Imran Haider, Muhammad Naveed, Amir Hayat, Ghulam Shabir (WK), Qadeer Ahmed, Tahir Latif, Zahoor Khan
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Results
Women finals: 48kg - Urantsetseg Munkhbat (MGL) bt Distria Krasniqi (KOS); 52kg - Odette Guiffrida (ITA) bt Majlinda Kelmendi (KOS); 57kg - Nora Gjakova (KOS) bt Anastasiia Konkina (Rus)
Men’s finals: 60kg - Amiran Papinashvili (GEO) bt Francisco Garrigos (ESP); 66kg - Vazha Margvelashvili (Geo) bt Yerlan Serikzhanov (KAZ)
Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5