A Meet the Locals event, which see Emiratis, expats and tourists meet
A Meet the Locals event, which see Emiratis, expats and tourists meet
A Meet the Locals event, which see Emiratis, expats and tourists meet
A Meet the Locals event, which see Emiratis, expats and tourists meet

Bursting the expat bubble: how an Emirati business is making everyone feel at home in the UAE


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  • Arabic

When she worked in higher education in the UAE, Khadija Behzad was alarmed to be repeatedly told by colleagues that she was the only Emirati they knew.

It is a common enough phenomenon in the UAE. A poll carried out in 2015 revealed that while an overwhelming majority of residents found Emiratis to be friendly and welcoming, fewer than four in ten - 38 per cent - said they it was easy to make friends with locals.

Ms Behzad and her business partner, Abdullah Al Matar, have made it their mission to break down the cultural barriers, promoting interaction between Emiratis and others. Their business, Meet the Locals, aims to expose expats and tourists to authentic Emirati culture, through dining experiences, cultural tours and corporate inductions run exclusively by UAE nationals.

It was one of four businesses recently named a winner of the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development and startAD’s Ibtikari program, designed to cultivate entrepreneurship among Emiratis by offering mentorship schemes and financial backing to homegrown businesses.

“I’m a person who loves travelling, my passion is travel and meeting people from different nationalities,” Ms Behzad, who co-founded the business in July 2017, said. “But for people coming to the UAE, it can be difficult to meet the locals.

“We want people to feel that this is their second home. We don’t want them feel isolated from the country or culture they are working in.”

The unique demographics of the UAE – with foreign nationals outnumbering Emiratis by almost ten to one – is one factor behind a lack of integration, she said. Meanwhile, a high number of immigrants also means residents from overseas are often drawn into silos, living with and socialising among those with similar cultural backgrounds.

“There are a a lot of people  who have lived here for several years, and when we interact with them at work they would say ‘you are the only local I know and we don’t know much about your culture’,” the 33-year-old, from Dubai, said.

“There are not many interaction opportunities outside the workplace and that made me feel sad. We also identified that tourists are coming to our country and are leaving without getting the chance to meet local people or be exposed to authentic cultural Emirati experiences. We wanted them to get them to know us and our culture.”

The group started by putting on breakfast events at local Emirati restaurants, where guests could sample traditional Emirati cuisine with a local host explaining the dishes, as well as telling them about history and culture of the UAE. Special lunch and dinner events, and sessions dealing with customs around Arabic coffee, have also proven successful.

Meet the Locals then began running tours, first in Dubai and now in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, with trained Emirati tour guides. It is now branching out into the corporate sector, with businesses asking Meet the Locals to give new employees a crash course in the UAE, which includes lessons on how to behave towards women and what to do if invited to an Emirati’s home.

And at all of the events, participants are told nothing is off limits when it comes to asking questions.

“A lot of the time we can feel that they are hesitating to ask questions,” Ms Behzad said. “So we make them feel comfortable and tell them they can ask any questions they have.

“Even if they have questions about sensitive issues, we prefer to answer them ourselves, rather than them get information from a non-local or from Google, because not everything they search on the internet will be true.”

Meet the Locals is now searching for more Emiratis to join their team of around 20, with many working on a freelance basis alongside their day jobs. Another strand of the business – offering bespoke packages to foreign delegations visiting for conferences - is also proving developing. The business is hoping to expand soon into all seven Emirates.

“We have Emirati tour guides who can speak different languages, for example once we had a delegation from Korea and we have a lady in our team who can speak Korean,” she said. “It was interesting to see an Emirati talking in Korean to the delegates.

“We are open to all Emiratis to join our team, they just have to have passion.

“I believe in order to understand each other we have to interact. I believe that without interaction, we cannot break stereotypes.”

MATCH INFO

Barcelona 4 (Messi 23' pen, 45 1', 48', Busquets 85')

Celta Vigo 1 (Olaza 42')

Labour dispute

The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.


- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law 

Results

6.30pm: Maiden Dh165,000 (Dirt) 1,600m

Winner: Celtic Prince, David Liska (jockey), Rashed Bouresly (trainer).

7.05pm: Conditions Dh240,000 (D) 1,600m

Winner: Commanding, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.

7.40pm: Handicap Dh190,000 (D) 2,000m

Winner: Grand Argentier, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson.

8.15pm: Handicap Dh170,000 (D) 2,200m

Winner: Arch Gold, Sam Hitchcott, Doug Watson.

8.50pm: The Entisar Listed Dh265,000 (D) 2,000m

Winner: Military Law, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi.

9.25pm: The Garhoud Sprint Listed Dh265,000 (D) 1,200m

Winner: Ibn Malik, Dane O’Neill, Musabah Al Muhairi.

10pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (D) 1,400m

Winner: Midnight Sands, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson.

What is graphene?

Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.

It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.

Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.

By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.

At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.

It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.

But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.

In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties. 

 

Analysis

Members of Syria's Alawite minority community face threat in their heartland after one of the deadliest days in country’s recent history. Read more

Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Winners

Best Men's Player of the Year: Kylian Mbappe (PSG)

Maradona Award for Best Goal Scorer of the Year: Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)

TikTok Fans’ Player of the Year: Robert Lewandowski

Top Goal Scorer of All Time: Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)

Best Women's Player of the Year: Alexia Putellas (Barcelona)

Best Men's Club of the Year: Chelsea

Best Women's Club of the Year: Barcelona

Best Defender of the Year: Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus/Italy)

Best Goalkeeper of the Year: Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG/Italy)

Best Coach of the Year: Roberto Mancini (Italy)

Best National Team of the Year: Italy 

Best Agent of the Year: Federico Pastorello

Best Sporting Director of the Year: Txiki Begiristain (Manchester City)

Player Career Award: Ronaldinho

ELIO

Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett

Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina

Rating: 4/5

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs

Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol

Power: 154bhp

Torque: 250Nm

Transmission: 7-speed automatic with 8-speed sports option 

Price: From Dh79,600

On sale: Now

Jetour T1 specs

Engine: 2-litre turbocharged

Power: 254hp

Torque: 390Nm

Price: From Dh126,000

Available: Now

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Brief scores:

Toss: Northern Warriors, elected to field first

Bengal Tigers 130-1 (10 ov)

Roy 60 not out, Rutherford 47 not out

Northern Warriors 94-7 (10 ov)

Simmons 44; Yamin 4-4

The Programme

Saturday, October 26: ‘The Time That Remains’ (2009) by Elia Suleiman
Saturday, November 2: ‘Beginners’ (2010) by Mike Mills
Saturday, November 16: ‘Finding Vivian Maier’ (2013) by John Maloof and Charlie Siskel
Tuesday, November 26: ‘All the President’s Men’ (1976) by Alan J Pakula
Saturday, December 7: ‘Timbuktu’ (2014) by Abderrahmane Sissako
Saturday, December 21: ‘Rams’ (2015) by Grimur Hakonarson

ESSENTIALS

The flights

Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.

The hotels

Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.

The tours

A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages. 

The specs

Engine: 5.2-litre V10

Power: 640hp at 8,000rpm

Torque: 565Nm at 6,500rpm

Transmission: 7-speed dual-clutch auto

Price: From Dh1 million

On sale: Q3 or Q4 2022 

Scoreline:

Manchester City 1

Jesus 4'

Brighton 0

'How To Build A Boat'
Jonathan Gornall, Simon & Schuster

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Most sought after workplace benefits in the UAE
  • Flexible work arrangements
  • Pension support
  • Mental well-being assistance
  • Insurance coverage for optical, dental, alternative medicine, cancer screening
  • Financial well-being incentives 
if you go

The flights
Emirates flies to Delhi with fares starting from around Dh760 return, while Etihad fares cost about Dh783 return. From Delhi, there are connecting flights to Lucknow. 
Where to stay
It is advisable to stay in Lucknow and make a day trip to Kannauj. A stay at the Lebua Lucknow hotel, a traditional Lucknowi mansion, is recommended. Prices start from Dh300 per night (excluding taxes). 

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
THE%20STRANGERS'%20CASE
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Game Changer

Director: Shankar 

Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram

Rating: 2/5

Our House, Louise Candlish,
Simon & Schuster