Winners of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Award, honoured on Tuesday, work in varied fields but share the same goal - building the future.
The award recognises contributions to the production and promotion of knowledge around the world.
Saudi Arabia's MiSK Foundation, which was among the winners, specialises in developing educational institutions and supporting scientific research.
"Knowledge is vital in this world," said Ohoud Alarfaj, project manager at the foundation. "We've done a lot of initiatives towards encouraging the youth in Saudi and globally in education, media, culture and technology. We have scholarships for Saudi and international youth with Cisco, Bloomberg and many high-level companies and educational institutes to provide scholarships and high quality education for the new generation."
Youth constitute more than 50 per cent of the Saudi population. "We know the future is the youth as they will be the leaders," she said. "So we have to focus on how to empower them and (help) them gain the knowledge and skills they will need in the future to lead to more sustainable development."
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Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum award launched
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Another winner was Wendy Kopp, chief executive and co-founder of Teach For All, who works to address educational inequality and groom future leaders.
“It’s a very deep rooted challenge and we believe the only way to address it is cultivating collective leadership for change at every level,” she said. “Teach For All is a network of independent organisations in 46 countries... brought together by a shared commitment to ... ensure all children fulfill their potential. Each of these organisations are galvanising the rising generation of promising future leaders in their countries, whether in Lebanon, India or Peru, to channel their energy into the arena of working with their countries’ most marginalised kids.”
Participants in the Teach For All programme are asked to commit two years to teaching children. Kopp said the aim was to "cultivate a generation of leaders who have the foundational experience of teaching and will go on and exert real leadership for change.”
Three ways to limit your social media use
Clinical psychologist, Dr Saliha Afridi at The Lighthouse Arabia suggests three easy things you can do every day to cut back on the time you spend online.
1. Put the social media app in a folder on the second or third screen of your phone so it has to remain a conscious decision to open, rather than something your fingers gravitate towards without consideration.
2. Schedule a time to use social media instead of consistently throughout the day. I recommend setting aside certain times of the day or week when you upload pictures or share information.
3. Take a mental snapshot rather than a photo on your phone. Instead of sharing it with your social world, try to absorb the moment, connect with your feeling, experience the moment with all five of your senses. You will have a memory of that moment more vividly and for far longer than if you take a picture of it.
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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
