Devotees visit the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in the Indian state of Kerala. A letter-writer comments on the vast and ancient treasure found in the temple's vaults. Aijaz Rahi / AP
Devotees visit the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in the Indian state of Kerala. A letter-writer comments on the vast and ancient treasure found in the temple's vaults. Aijaz Rahi / AP

The glamour of lost treasure



The news that teacher turnover is up to 30 per cent (Why do teachers not stay?, July 6) is no surprise.This problem is a reality for even the best and most effective private and international schools.

Teachers take up an overseas assignment because of three linked factors: location, benefits package and most significantly, the quality of the professional experience they receive.

I would urge Dr Al Karam and the Knowledge and Human Development Authority to challenge all private and international schools to establish outstanding opportunities for teacher professional growth. On this basis the teachers will come, and the best will stay.

Christopher Edmunds, Abu Dhabi

Stubbornness will prompt new crisis

Your business section article on the US government's debt crisis

(14,000,000,000,000, July 6) made me very angry.

Will the whole world  really be plunged into another financial crisis because one party in the US Congress is resisting modest tax increases for the wealthiest Americans? This is a high-stakes game of ego-driven Russian roulette where what's needed is compromise.

What's wrong with American voters? Don't they understand that the rich  are getting richer at a frightening rate? Really, the quality of decision making in US politics should scare the entire world.

Mark MacGuigan, Abu Dhabi

Story comes before graphics

I refer to the letter to the editor 3D no substitute for story, acting (July 5).

I find it sad that the "uninterested" average viewer enjoys the movies' gimmicky graphics but totally misses the story or the message behind the story.

The Avatar storyline, for example, has a message that touches one of the biggest issues in our lives: the relationship between the strong and the weak, between the military powers and the helpless people of some nations, or those who had a country but are consistently driven out of it. Ring any bells?  Many, I hope!

Ahmed Elnaggar, Dubai

Rising food prices must be avoided

I have a comment on the story UAE price freeze unsustainable says Unilever boss (July 5).

Mr Sanjiv Mehta, do not make us do what is being done in India, where the poor and the middle class are shrieking over rising prices they have to pay for vegetables, fish and milk.

The hoarders and the so-called big dealers are minting money while the poorest struggle. Please let the middle class and the poor have some good news.

Irfan Ahmed Iftekhar, Dubai

India's history full of glamour

I found the story about the Indian treasure (Temple's treasure trove captures the imagination,but who owns it?, July 6) to be wonderfully evocative.

It really is, as you said in your editorial (Kerala's treasured past, July 3) like something out of a Kipling story.

To a westerner like myself, this story really makes me want to learn more about India's princely states.

I'm sure the people are better off since those states were absorbed into India, but there's mystery and glamour in that history.

Harry Ryder, Dubai

No justification for Hari's defence

Like a Greek tragedy, Tim Footman's wretched apologia for Johann Hari in his plagiarism scandal (The Hari scandal tests the limits of what we know, July 5) comes in two parts.

In the first Footman vainly and absurdly strives to destroy the possibility of a meaningful interview between journalist and subject, and - given the organ by which he is published, without apparent shame or irony - even the idea that as readers of a national newspaper, one could even want or expect such a thing or dare know what one wants by expecting it.

In the second he concocts an arbitrary definition of plagiarism for the sole purpose of excusing Hari from the true meaning of the word by which Hari should be judged.

In both cases Footman attempts to demean the journalistic enterprise, and fails abjectly. By quoting one of Truman Capote's hackneyed aphorisms capriciously and out of context, Footman shows himself unduly forgiving of journalistic malfeasance elsewhere.

Hari has been shown to have consistently used, without attribution, quotes from not only the subjects of his interviews, but from other journalists and third parties.

To be a plagiarist in Footman's world, one must transgress his arbitrary, imaginary, unique, insulting and absurd claim of prior ownership: a journalist "to be seen as victims of plagiarism" must first "make clear what their creative input was".

Patrick Osgood, Dubai

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The Bio

Hometown: Bogota, Colombia
Favourite place to relax in UAE: the desert around Al Mleiha in Sharjah or the eastern mangroves in Abu Dhabi
The one book everyone should read: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It will make your mind fly
Favourite documentary: Chasing Coral by Jeff Orlowski. It's a good reality check about one of the most valued ecosystems for humanity

Election pledges on migration

CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections" 

SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom" 

A MINECRAFT MOVIE

Director: Jared Hess

Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa

Rating: 3/5

The rules on fostering in the UAE

A foster couple or family must:

  • be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
  • not be younger than 25 years old
  • not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
  • be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
  • have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
  • undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
  • A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
The lowdown

Badla

Rating: 2.5/5

Produced by: Red Chillies, Azure Entertainment 

Director: Sujoy Ghosh

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Amrita Singh, Tony Luke

The winners

Fiction

  • ‘Amreekiya’  by Lena Mahmoud
  •  ‘As Good As True’ by Cheryl Reid

The Evelyn Shakir Non-Fiction Award

  • ‘Syrian and Lebanese Patricios in Sao Paulo’ by Oswaldo Truzzi;  translated by Ramon J Stern
  • ‘The Sound of Listening’ by Philip Metres

The George Ellenbogen Poetry Award

  • ‘Footnotes in the Order  of Disappearance’ by Fady Joudah

Children/Young Adult

  •  ‘I’ve Loved You Since Forever’ by Hoda Kotb 
Dunki
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
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
NO OTHER LAND

Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal

Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham

Rating: 3.5/5

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RESULTS

5pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (Dirt) 1,400m

Winner AF Nashrah, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer)

5.30pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,400m

Winner Mutaqadim, Riccardo Iacopini, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami.

6pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,600m

Winner Hameem, Jose Santiago, Abdallah Al Hammadi.

6.30pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,600m

Winner AF Almomayaz, Sandro Paiva, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.

7pm Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,800m

Winner Dalil Al Carrere, Fernando Jara, Mohamed Daggash.

7.30pm Handicap (TB) Dh70,000 (D) 1,000m

Winner Lahmoom, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer.

8pm Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,000m

Winner Jayide Al Boraq, Bernardo Pinheiro, Khalifa Al Neyadi.

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Our family matters legal consultant

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

if you go

The flights Fly Dubai, Air Arabia, Emirates, Etihad, and Royal Jordanian all offer direct, three-and-a-half-hour flights from the UAE to the Jordanian capital Amman. Alternatively, from June Fly Dubai will offer a new direct service from Dubai to Aqaba in the south of the country. See the airlines’ respective sites for varying prices or search on reliable price-comparison site Skyscanner.

The trip 

Jamie Lafferty was a guest of the Jordan Tourist Board. For more information on adventure tourism in Jordan see Visit Jordan. A number of new and established tour companies offer the chance to go caving, rock-climbing, canyoning, and mountaineering in Jordan. Prices vary depending on how many activities you want to do and how many days you plan to stay in the country. Among the leaders are Terhaal, who offer a two-day canyoning trip from Dh845 per person. If you really want to push your limits, contact the Stronger Team. For a more trek-focused trip, KE Adventure offers an eight-day trip from Dh5,300 per person.

Brief scores:

Day 1

Toss: India, chose to bat

India (1st innings): 215-2 (89 ov)

Agarwal 76, Pujara 68 not out; Cummins 2-40

If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.

When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.

How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE

When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.

THE BIO

Family: I have three siblings, one older brother (age 25) and two younger sisters, 20 and 13 

Favourite book: Asking for my favourite book has to be one of the hardest questions. However a current favourite would be Sidewalk by Mitchell Duneier

Favourite place to travel to: Any walkable city. I also love nature and wildlife 

What do you love eating or cooking: I’m constantly in the kitchen. Ever since I changed the way I eat I enjoy choosing and creating what goes into my body. However, nothing can top home cooked food from my parents. 

Favorite place to go in the UAE: A quiet beach.

The Bio

Name: Lynn Davison

Profession: History teacher at Al Yasmina Academy, Abu Dhabi

Children: She has one son, Casey, 28

Hometown: Pontefract, West Yorkshire in the UK

Favourite book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Favourite Author: CJ Sansom

Favourite holiday destination: Bali

Favourite food: A Sunday roast

In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe

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 

England squads for Test and T20 series against New Zealand

Test squad: Joe Root (capt), Jofra Archer, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Sam Curran, Joe Denly, Jack Leach, Saqib Mahmood, Matthew Parkinson, Ollie Pope, Dominic Sibley, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes

T20 squad: Eoin Morgan (capt), Jonny Bairstow, Tom Banton, Sam Billings, Pat Brown, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Joe Denly, Lewis Gregory, Chris Jordan, Saqib Mahmood, Dawid Malan, Matt Parkinson, Adil Rashid, James Vince

Dubai Bling season three

Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed 

Rating: 1/5

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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.

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