DUBAI // Car parades, one of the most popular ways in which Emiratis enjoy celebrating the National Day, have been banned by Dubai police.
Any driver taking part in a parade will have their vehicle confiscated on the spot.
The ban has been imposed in an attempt to prevent what police have described as an annual frenzy of reckless driving and dangerous, illegal stunts.
"These parades have become an excuse to carry out unacceptable behaviour and create chaos on the roads," said Maj Gen Mohammed Saif Al Zaffin, the head of Dubai Police traffic department.
Last year, Dubai Police fined 1,245 drivers and confiscated about 1,000 vehicles for creating chaos during the two-day holiday. There were 24 accidents during that time, and one death.
"The ban will be applied on everyone - individuals, companies and government entities.
"Authorities will not license any car parade to celebrate National Day," said Maj Gen Al Zaffin. "We invite people to celebrate in other ways. They can have marching parades - but driving cars is completely banned."
Anyone caught taking part in a car parade will have their vehicle confiscated for about eight hours.
Those caught driving recklessly will have their vehicles impounded for up to six months.
wissa@thenational.ae
'Young girls thinking of big ideas'
Words come easy for aspiring writer Afra Al Muhairb. The business side of books, on the other hand, is entirely foreign to the 16-year-old Emirati. So, she followed her father’s advice and enroled in the Abu Dhabi Education Council’s summer entrepreneurship course at Abu Dhabi University hoping to pick up a few new skills.
“Most of us have this dream of opening a business,” said Afra, referring to her peers are “young girls thinking of big ideas.”
In the three-week class, pupils are challenged to come up with a business and develop an operational and marketing plan to support their idea. But, the learning goes far beyond sales and branding, said teacher Sonia Elhaj.
“It’s not only about starting up a business, it’s all the meta skills that goes with it -- building self confidence, communication,” said Ms Elhaj. “It’s a way to coach them and to harness ideas and to allow them to be creative. They are really hungry to do this and be heard. They are so happy to be actually doing something, to be engaged in creating something new, not only sitting and listening and getting new information and new knowledge. Now they are applying that knowledge.”
Afra’s team decided to focus their business idea on a restaurant modelled after the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Each level would have a different international cuisine and all the meat would be halal. The pupils thought of this after discussing a common problem they face when travelling abroad.
“Sometimes we find the struggle of finding halal food, so we just eat fish and cheese, so it’s hard for us to spend 20 days with fish and cheese,” said Afra. “So we made this tower so every person who comes – from Africa, from America – they will find the right food to eat.”
rpennington@thenational.ae
Vaccine Progress in the Middle East
