I noted with interest over the weekend a news story reporting that, of the first 1,000 people who applied for nursing jobs as part of a two-day hiring campaign, none were Emirati.
Dr Aysha Al Mahri, the allied health group director for Seha, was quoted as saying that "We have a lack of Emiratis enrolling in nursing programmes and it is a challenge." The key issue, she suggested, was the perception of the nursing profession held by Emiratis.
Coincidentally, I had the opportunity last week to talk to, and to interact professionally with, an Emirati nurse, the only one of her kind in one of Abu Dhabi’s leading healthcare institutions, although there are plenty of UAE citizens there fulfilling other roles. I was, I confess, somewhat surprised to discover her nationality. On previous visits to the same institution, I have encountered nurses from at least seven countries, both Arabs and non-Arabs, but I hadn’t really expected to run across an Emirati nurse.
She enjoys her work and recognises that she’s very much a trail-blazer, although I gather that a new batch of fully-trained Emirati nurses are due to join her soon. They’ll be taking up a career which can be stimulating, fascinating and rewarding and which makes a real contribution to society at large. How many of us are able to say that of the work that we do, I wonder?
It's a fair point that there are problems with perceptions of the profession. There are, of course, potential conflicts with local customs, especially in healthcare facilities with both male and female patients. More generally, however, I suspect that there's a view that nursing is somehow not as "worthy" a profession as some others, not just inside medicine (such as doctors) but outside. Regardless of salary levels – and I gather there's considerable scope for improvement there – it's not considered to be of high social status.
Nursing is not alone in that, of course. Similar attitudes were once prevalent about teaching, although that’s changed to some extent over the years. Dentists? Farmers? Probably. Yet both, along with nurses and teachers and other careers I could mention, like firemen, make a real contribution to society.
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Perhaps I am a bit cynical, but I find it difficult to put the beneficial contributions to society of, for example, accountants or bankers, hotel managers or jockeys, fashion models or airline pilots on quite the same level. They may contribute in a significant way in their private lives, but their jobs can’t really be said to add very much to the sum total of human well-being.
Perceptions of the worth – and the social status – of a particular profession do, of course, change over time, as a result of education, development and a variety of other factors. Some will decline in significance and fade away as others rise in importance. Few young Emirati men today, I suspect, harbour the ambition to become a successful dhow captain. Many more are likely to dream of voyaging into space.
Recognition of those changes is an important part of any preparation for the future on the way towards the UAE Centennial and beyond. So too is the need to take action to ensure that those professions of real, long-lasting value, like nursing, are accorded the status that they deserve.
One component in the determining of attitudes to certain professions and where they stand in terms of social status is, for many people, the financial reward. Parents who urge their children to study medicine or the law or engineering will often have this in mind. There’s nothing wrong with that.
At the same time, however, there is, or should be, scope in any society for acceptance that there are other aspects worthy of respect besides the mere possession of material wealth. Perhaps that’s a topic suitable for inclusion in the new moral education curriculum now being planned for our schools.
More coverage from the Future Forum
The 12
England
Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur
Italy
AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus
Spain
Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Real Madrid
Mountain%20Boy
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UAE central contracts
Full time contracts
Rohan Mustafa, Ahmed Raza, Mohammed Usman, Chirag Suri, Mohammed Boota, Sultan Ahmed, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Waheed Ahmed, Zawar Farid
Part time contracts
Aryan Lakra, Ansh Tandon, Karthik Meiyappan, Rahul Bhatia, Alishan Sharafu, CP Rizwaan, Basil Hameed, Matiullah, Fahad Nawaz, Sanchit Sharma
If you go
The flights
Etihad flies direct from Abu Dhabi to San Francisco from Dh5,760 return including taxes.
The car
Etihad Guest members get a 10 per cent worldwide discount when booking with Hertz, as well as earning miles on their rentals. A week's car hire costs from Dh1,500 including taxes.
The hotels
Along the route, Motel 6 (www.motel6.com) offers good value and comfort, with rooms from $55 (Dh202) per night including taxes. In Portland, the Jupiter Hotel (https://jupiterhotel.com/) has rooms from $165 (Dh606) per night including taxes. The Society Hotel https://thesocietyhotel.com/ has rooms from $130 (Dh478) per night including taxes.
More info
To keep up with constant developments in Portland, visit www.travelportland.com. Good guidebooks include the Lonely Planet guides to Northern California and Washington, Oregon & the Pacific Northwest.
McLaren GT specs
Engine: 4-litre twin-turbo V8
Transmission: seven-speed
Power: 620bhp
Torque: 630Nm
Price: Dh875,000
On sale: now
Stree
Producer: Maddock Films, Jio Movies
Director: Amar Kaushik
Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurana, Abhishek Banerjee
Rating: 3.5
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
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Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Company profile
Name: Oulo.com
Founder: Kamal Nazha
Based: Dubai
Founded: 2020
Number of employees: 5
Sector: Technology
Funding: $450,000
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
