Two of the greatest legacies of Sheikh Zayed, the UAE's Founding Father, are the Emirates’ embrace of tolerance and culture.
That was the message from a session at Expo 2020 Dubai with Noura Al Kaabi, UAE Minister of Culture and Youth, and Zaki Nusseibeh, cultural adviser to the President of the UAE and chancellor of UAE University.
At the UAE National Pavilion on Saturday, Al Kaabi and Nusseibeh explored ways in which these intertwining principles have contributed towards the country’s rapid evolution in the past 50 years.
Follow the latest updates on Expo 2020 Dubai here
It was a path first charted by Sheikh Zayed and passed down to the UAE’s present leadership, Nusseibeh says.
He recalls attending a majlis in 2008 at which Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, underlined that nuanced view of tolerance.
“He told the open majlis that he didn’t like word ‘tolerance’ because it meant accepting somebody who is perhaps inferior to you or something that is not good. Unfortunately, this is the same definition in most languages today,” Nusseibeh said.
“Except, in the Arab language we have a difference in how we express it. One word that is closer to my understanding of tolerance is ‘samaha,’ which is the ability to empathise with others. It’s this meaning of tolerance that was practised by our Founding Father and UAE society at large.”
He told the open majlis that he didn’t like word ‘tolerance’ because it meant accepting somebody who is perhaps inferior to you or something that is not good
Zaki Nusseibeh,
Cultural Adviser to the President and Chancellor of UAE University
Nusseibeh said Sheikh Zayed had displayed that quality before the country’s formation, citing tolerance as central to its future development.
“In one of the first interviews I had with him in 1968, Sheikh Zayed basically said ‘we need to open our country to the world and bring in modernisation’,” he said.
“But, at the same time, he also said we need to keep an equilibrium between that rate of modernisation and development, opening ourselves to other cultures while retaining our heritage and national identity.”
For Al Kaabi, maintaining that balance is a pillar of the UAE’s cultural policies.
She points to the success of both the multicultural nature of Expo 2020 Dubai, with 192 countries represented, and the UAE’s National Pavilion, which celebrates the heritage and achievements of the country’s citizens and residents.
Abrahamic Family House, the interfaith complex to be built on Saadiyat Island in the capital next year, also stems from Sheikh Zayed's initial vision, Al Kaabi says.
“Why are we celebrating the 50th anniversary of the UAE? Because of a man of the desert who, in his twenties, opened his arms to a British explorer in 1948. In the 1950s he went to the Vatican and in the 1960s he opened the first church in Abu Dhabi. And in the future, we will have the Abrahamic Family House.
“So what is happening here? This is not a coincidence. We are following a timeline.”
Nusseibeh attributes the Founding Father’s enduring appeal to that sense of continuity.
“When we talk about Sheikh Zayed, we are talking about a school of government and a culture,” he said. “This is what the present leadership was brought up on, and therefore we are still living his legend.”
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Across most of Asia, people pay for taxi rides, restaurant meals and merchandise with smartphone-readable barcodes — except in Japan, where cash still rules. Now, as the country’s biggest web companies race to dominate the payments market, one Tokyo-based startup says it has a fighting chance to win with its QR app.
Origami had a head start when it introduced a QR-code payment service in late 2015 and has since signed up fast-food chain KFC, Tokyo’s largest cab company Nihon Kotsu and convenience store operator Lawson. The company raised $66 million in September to expand nationwide and plans to more than double its staff of about 100 employees, says founder Yoshiki Yasui.
Origami is betting that stores, which until now relied on direct mail and email newsletters, will pay for the ability to reach customers on their smartphones. For example, a hair salon using Origami’s payment app would be able to send a message to past customers with a coupon for their next haircut.
Quick Response codes, the dotted squares that can be read by smartphone cameras, were invented in the 1990s by a unit of Toyota Motor to track automotive parts. But when the Japanese pioneered digital payments almost two decades ago with contactless cards for train fares, they chose the so-called near-field communications technology. The high cost of rolling out NFC payments, convenient ATMs and a culture where lost wallets are often returned have all been cited as reasons why cash remains king in the archipelago. In China, however, QR codes dominate.
Cashless payments, which includes credit cards, accounted for just 20 per cent of total consumer spending in Japan during 2016, compared with 60 per cent in China and 89 per cent in South Korea, according to a report by the Bank of Japan.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
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Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
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Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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South Korea
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Monster Hunter: World
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PlayStation 4, Xbox One
