From collecting plastic bags to fund schooling to experimenting with kites to harness energy, Expo 2020 is taking its message of recycling and reuse overseas.
As part of Sustainability Week this week it was announced that 13 projects with a sustainability theme have received a $100,000 (Dh367,300) Expo Live grant for programmes designed to create widespread social change. The money will be used to develop concepts that include reusing waste, creating alternatives to plastic bags and bringing electricity to remote areas.
“We want to push Expo Live as an incentive for youth and entrepreneurs who are spending time thinking of how to solve problems in waste, water and energy,” said Yousuf Caires, vice president of Expo Live, Expo 2020 Dubai.
The first programme of its kind undertaken at a world fair, Expo Live aims to show how grassroots enterprise adds social value and can create change making the world a more inclusive place. With funds of US$100 million, it is an innovation and partnership programme launched by Expo 2020 Dubai to fund, accelerate, and promote creative solutions that improve lives while improving the environment.
“We want people to know there are programmes like ours interested in funding their ideas. We want them to pursue their ideas and not be discouraged by a lack of funding, interest or support,” said Mr Caires.
A grant of a $100,000 (Dh367,300) is available to winners of Expo Live with the assurance that the expo will fund further innovations. The programme opens for applications every six months in the run up to the event and the third round ended last December, with results likely in April.
In Haiti, as part of the Plastic Bank scheme, people collect plastic waste and hand it into stores. It is then recycled and sold to companies for use in manufacturing and the money pays for the school fees of the children of those who collect the plastic.
“A group of entrepreneurs are helping connect people who collect plastic with companies. With the Plastic Bank, those collecting the plastic make a commitment. That’s why it’s called a bank, because through its resources it supports families to keep kids in school,” Mr Caires said.
Finnish company Paptic has developed a wood-based alternative to plastic packaging and bags to cut waste. They aim to develop new applications for use beyond shopping bags.
“This project of scientific research requires rigorous experimentation and we can have real impact on the ground. This renewable source of fibre can be as strong as plastic and as malleable as paper,” he said.
Due to patenting reasons, Paptic declined to talk about the details of their new material.
Kitenergy is an Italian firm using kites to capture high-altitude wind, aiming to provide power to remote areas with little or no access to electricity. The Expo grant will allow Kitenergy to conduct field tests on a remote island in Cape Verde off the north west coast of Africa. It could give 200 residents there access to electricity and power a desalination plant.
“The grant will help us run tests in real life in marginalised islands in west Africa that may not have many options. It requires more experimentation, but it can be an alternative for those with no access to the grid to help them generate their own source of energy,” he said.
Among projects funded in the UAE is the Smart Labour mobile phone app, which helps blue-collar workers speak in English and learn safety information in their own language via video tutorials they can access on their mobile phones at any time.
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Read more:
Two schools could win Dh1m of solar panels in Sustainability Champions competition
Dubai Expo 2020: All you need to know
Expo 2020 marks three years to go as it champions life-changing innovation
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A separate university innovation programme is open specifically to UAE students for a prototype they want to improve.
Funds of up to Dh25,000 were awarded last year by Expo 2020 to 19 groups of university students in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah. More than 1,000 students in 280 teams from public and private colleges participated in 2017. The programme will continue this year.
“More than half the applications were around sustainability so water, energy, waste and recycling was on top of their minds,” Mr Caires said.
“It’s an opportunity for UAE students to tell us what they are working on and for them to showcase their best,” he said.
Conservation fits in with the UAE’s efforts as a country, said Najeeb Mohammed Al-Ali, executive director of the Expo 2020 Bureau.
“Sustainability is the cornerstone of the Expo and also fits in with the UAE theme this year in the Year of Zayed,” he said.
“One of the four pillars of the Year of Zayed is sustainability. If we think of this country’s history and our early years, there was always an emphasis on this. The Expo programmes are a chance for us to take it to the next level.”
Panipat
Director Ashutosh Gowariker
Produced Ashutosh Gowariker, Rohit Shelatkar, Reliance Entertainment
Cast Arjun Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Kriti Sanon, Mohnish Behl, Padmini Kolhapure, Zeenat Aman
Rating 3 /5 stars
Huroob Ezterari
Director: Ahmed Moussa
Starring: Ahmed El Sakka, Amir Karara, Ghada Adel and Moustafa Mohammed
Three stars
Where to buy art books in the UAE
There are a number of speciality art bookshops in the UAE.
In Dubai, The Lighthouse at Dubai Design District has a wonderfully curated selection of art and design books. Alserkal Avenue runs a pop-up shop at their A4 space, and host the art-book fair Fully Booked during Art Week in March. The Third Line, also in Alserkal Avenue, has a strong book-publishing arm and sells copies at its gallery. Kinokuniya, at Dubai Mall, has some good offerings within its broad selection, and you never know what you will find at the House of Prose in Jumeirah. Finally, all of Gulf Photo Plus’s photo books are available for sale at their show.
In Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi has a beautiful selection of catalogues and art books, and Magrudy’s – across the Emirates, but particularly at their NYU Abu Dhabi site – has a great selection in art, fiction and cultural theory.
In Sharjah, the Sharjah Art Museum sells catalogues and art books at its museum shop, and the Sharjah Art Foundation has a bookshop that offers reads on art, theory and cultural history.
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
AndhaDhun
Director: Sriram Raghavan
Producer: Matchbox Pictures, Viacom18
Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Tabu, Radhika Apte, Anil Dhawan
Rating: 3.5/5
UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
How to help
Call the hotline on 0502955999 or send "thenational" to the following numbers:
2289 - Dh10
2252 - Dh50
6025 - Dh20
6027 - Dh100
6026 - Dh200
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
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Plan to boost public schools
A major shake-up of government-run schools was rolled out across the country in 2017. Known as the Emirati School Model, it placed more emphasis on maths and science while also adding practical skills to the curriculum.
It was accompanied by the promise of a Dh5 billion investment, over six years, to pay for state-of-the-art infrastructure improvements.
Aspects of the school model will be extended to international private schools, the education minister has previously suggested.
Recent developments have also included the introduction of moral education - which public and private schools both must teach - along with reform of the exams system and tougher teacher licensing requirements.
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The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
- In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
