If you were not using Twitter in the past week, you might have missed out on some interesting conversations. Some of the major developments that took place in the UAE and neighbouring countries kept the twitteratti busy.
The most prominent among them was the visit by the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, to Abu Dhabi and Dubai. This was followed by the announcement of Martyrs’ Day.
The spread of the Mers Coronavirus in Saudi Arabia also sparked some interesting conversations on various social networks.
Modi’s visit
Mr Modi’s visit was a momentous occasion for the Indian diaspora here, especially because this was the first such visit by an Indian premier in more than three decades.
The euphoria of the Indian community was a measure of Mr Modi’s popularity.
In fact, as @RajanKumarSing6 said, “such a humongous enthusiasm for a political leader” is extremely rare.
People like @MissSonalChadha were surprised to see the sheer number of Indians cheering for the prime minister at the Dubai cricket stadium. The last time a stadium heard a cheer this loud was when Sachin Tendulkar came to play, she wrote.
@Sanjay_Vis tweeted: “Wherever this man goes, he makes us feel proud.”
@MahaveerM_ expressed his disappointment that the Times of India did not cover this historic event in the same way as Emirati newspapers did.
Others followed Mr Modi in lauding the decision by the UAE to allocate land for the building of the first Hindu temple in Abu Dhabi.
@madhukishwar called it a “historic achievement”.
It was heartening to see tweets from Indian Muslims such as @shahid_siddiqui, who thanked the UAE government for this gift to the Hindus.
Hareb(@DAlmansoori1) applauded the UAE’s tolerance towards every religion.
Martyrs’ Day
Twitter users thanked the President, Sheikh Khalifa, for declaring that, from this year, November 30 would be marked as a national holiday in honour of Emirati soldiers who laid down their lives in the line of duty.
“There will be a ceremony and public activities where different organisations will take part to mark occasion,” reported Faris @farisf9.
Others such as @mmalshamsi were patriotic, saying that the “least we can do is honour the souls of these men who fought to help save the safety of Yemen”.
@TheUAETRA said the soldiers’ sacrifice would never be forgotten.
Mers in Saudi
The declaration that the Saudi health ministry had registered 21 new cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) Coronavirus angered many people on social media.
Some of them took to Twitter to question the government why this outbreak could not be contained.
“It’s been five years and the virus is not cleared,” pointed out @abuogian502. “Korea took just two months to tackle this problem.”
He wondered whether hospital employees were taking enough safety precautions.
@999Mf123 had a suggestion: “Bring the Korean health minister to help solve this issue.” Perhaps, he added sarcastically, the ministry of health needed treatment before anyone else.
@SAForSale1 said that the World Health Organisation had criticised Saudi Arabia for being negligent over this matter.
salalawi@thenational.ae
On Twitter: @SarahKhamisUAE
