WASHINGTON, DC // Hundreds of schoolchildren are to benefit from a UAE-funded football pitch and training academy inaugurated yesterday.
The US$1.5 million (Dh5.5m) all-weather astroturf ground and renovated amphitheatre was unveiled at a ceremony attended by the UAE Ambassador to the United States, Yousef Al Otaiba, and the mayor of Washington, Vincent Grey.
City Soccer in the Community, an initiative of Manchester City Football Club, will offer pupils three years of coaching at the pitch, at Marie Reed School, in Washington’s Adams Morgan suburb. The surrounding community will also be able to use the facilities.
“The impact on the community is immediate,” said Eugene Pinkard, principal of Marie Reed. “The investment that Man City and the UAE made motivated the city to renovate areas around the field and got the community to advocate for new safety measures.
“Now we’ve got a better quality facility, learning opportunities for our kids, a safer environment for the whole community.”
The pitch is one of several donated by the UAE and Man City, which is owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs. Similar fields were created in inner-city areas of Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.
The pitch in DC was paid for by the UAE and this made up part of the $1.5m total renovation cost, with the rest of the funding coming from the city’s purse.
The pitches are a small part of the UAE’s charitable programme across the US, which is aimed at aiding the poor and improving knowledge about the emirates.
“We don’t often discuss human relations between countries and, with a field like this, not only do we reach out and engage a vibrant part of the DC community, but we reach people who ordinarily don’t know who the UAE is,” Mr Al Otaiba said.
“This is a very big part of our public diplomacy campaign and showing people who we are and what we do.”
Seven months ago the Marie Reed pitch was an uneven, mostly dirt expanse ringed on one side by crumbling wooden amphitheatre seating.
“It used to look terrible,” said Marquis, 10, a grade 5 pupil. “It had lumps in the ground, everybody used to get injured, people’s ankles used to get hurt all the time.”
When the UAE Embassy and City Soccer began looking for a pitch to renovate in Washington, “this was the best location”, said Mr Al Otaiba, who played football while studying at nearby Georgetown University.
“It was a great school and a hugely popular space used by the entire community and was in need of repair.”
City mayor Mr Grey said: “The District of Columbia is honoured to have worked with the embassy of the United Arab Emirates to build this wonderful field.”
About 200 youngsters wearing blue Man City T-shirts attended the dedication ceremony and tried out the new pitch, with help from players from Major League Soccer’s DC United.
“I like to think that our field was like this all the time, to forget about the old one,” said Kastenny Contreras, a grade 5 pupil who plays for the school football team. “We’re lucky to have this field.”
Marie Reed, a public school, mostly serves African-American and immigrant communities, and like all of the city’s schools, is facing increasingly slim budgets. One in six of Washington’s public schools are slated to be closed because of a lack of funds.
As Marie Reed’s pupils looked on over a period of months as the pitch was levelled and turf put down, excitement and intrigue grew, with teachers having to pull out maps to show their classes where the UAE was located.
“Interesting things happen every day in my district but never did I think that the United Arab Emirates would be providing us a playing field,” said a city councilman, Jim Graham. “We’re deeply grateful for that.”
tkhan@thenational.ae
The most expensive investment mistake you will ever make
When is the best time to start saving in a pension? The answer is simple – at the earliest possible moment. The first pound, euro, dollar or dirham you invest is the most valuable, as it has so much longer to grow in value. If you start in your twenties, it could be invested for 40 years or more, which means you have decades for compound interest to work its magic.
“You get growth upon growth upon growth, followed by more growth. The earlier you start the process, the more it will all roll up,” says Chris Davies, chartered financial planner at The Fry Group in Dubai.
This table shows how much you would have in your pension at age 65, depending on when you start and how much you pay in (it assumes your investments grow 7 per cent a year after charges and you have no other savings).
|
Age
|
$250 a month
|
$500 a month
|
$1,000 a month
|
|
25
|
$640,829
|
$1,281,657
|
$2,563,315
|
|
35
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$303,219
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$606,439
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$1,212,877
|
|
45
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$131,596
|
$263,191
|
$526,382
|
|
55
|
$44,351
|
$88,702
|
$177,403
|
More from Aya Iskandarani
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Who are the Soroptimists?
The first Soroptimists club was founded in Oakland, California in 1921. The name comes from the Latin word soror which means sister, combined with optima, meaning the best.
The organisation said its name is best interpreted as ‘the best for women’.
Since then the group has grown exponentially around the world and is officially affiliated with the United Nations. The organisation also counts Queen Mathilde of Belgium among its ranks.
GOLF’S RAHMBO
- 5 wins in 22 months as pro
- Three wins in past 10 starts
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Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week
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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The Sand Castle
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Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
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Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
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Company%20profile
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Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
if you go
The flights
Emirates have direct flights from Dubai to Glasgow from Dh3,115. Alternatively, if you want to see a bit of Edinburgh first, then you can fly there direct with Etihad from Abu Dhabi.
The hotel
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Located in the heart of Mackintosh's Glasgow, the Dakota Deluxe is perhaps the most refined hotel anywhere in the city. Doubles from Dh850
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Events and tours
There are various Mackintosh specific events throughout 2018 – for more details and to see a map of his surviving designs see glasgowmackintosh.com
For walking tours focussing on the Glasgow Style, see the website of the Glasgow School of Art.
More information
For ideas on planning a trip to Scotland, visit www.visitscotland.com
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
The specs
Engine: 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6
Power: 540hp at 6,500rpm
Torque: 600Nm at 2,500rpm
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Price: From Dh750k
On sale: via special order
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Squads
India (for first three ODIs) Kohli (capt), Rohit, Rahul, Pandey, Jadhav, Rahane, Dhoni, Pandya, Axar, Kuldeep, Chahal, Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar, Umesh, Shami.
Australia Smith (capt), Warner, Agar, Cartwright, Coulter-Nile, Cummins, Faulkner, Finch, Head, Maxwell, Richardson, Stoinis, Wade, Zampa.
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Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
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Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
