Behind the colourful gates of a villa in the back streets of Jumeirah, a Korean brain healer, a Syrian hypnotherapist and host of guests meet. They each have their own challenges and goals - quitting smoking or getting fit - but most are trying to find calm in a hectic world.
Welcome to the Taijitu House of Om, a multi-faith spiritual centre that seems miles away from Dubai's noisy traffic and packed malls.
Here, city residents, tourists and travellers of every background meet to meditate and promote tolerance, in an atmosphere more akin to a commune than the pricey therapy centres dotted around the city.
In fact, founder Wissam Barakeh, has more or less phased out cash - and urges those attending his classes to tip low paid workers, give to labourers or exchange services.
"It's a home with a big heart that aims to reach out to people and spread happiness, positivity and well-being," said Mr Barakeh.
“By exchanging energy, we are reducing the use of money, back to pure energy exchange,” he said, adding: "I fix my car for free, I can do acupuncture for free and I go to the dentist for free. These yoga pants I’m wearing are a gift."
Mr Barakeh, 42, from Syria, was a regional finance manager for a pharmaceutical company before he decided to escape the rat race of the corporate world and found the House of Om last year.
> Take a look inside: Behind the coloured gates of Dubai's Taijitu House of Om - in pictures
"I grew up in a culture of Arabic hospitality and I strongly believe our personal happiness comes from spreading happiness around us.
“I am asking people to balance their energy, by doing something good elsewhere and spread the positive experience to others; you receive and you need to give."
He is now a certified hypnotherapist and reiki practitioner.
Despite the unassuming surroundings, he said 13,000 people have come through its doors since last June. There have been 350 events since then, from meditation and fitness classes to spirituality and sessions to help smokers quit.
Mr Barakeh asks visitors to "pay forward" the Dh20 to Dh30 to less fortunate people.
“This is the unity of all religions, the tolerance I am promoting,” he said.
Some visitors come to the house to see its surroundings, which includes a boat in the leafy garden, while others come to experience the sense of calm.
“Here you see Surat Al Fatiha (from the Quran) next to Virgin Mary; there is the astrology sign of the universe, the energy crystal for people who believe in energy and healing with crystals," he said during a tour this week.
A normal day at the House of Om begins with sunrise meditation at the pool or beach - which is a four-minute walk from the house. Most people there visit for the day, while others are travellers on layovers that stay overnight.
“We do our own spirituality, our own thing, we have events, we prepare for it, some people come to the altar just to pray. Some guy came the other day with his family to pray at the altar, I didn’t ask what religion," he said.
“Sometimes people just come to play music and paint.” So popular has the centre become that people arrived an hour early for a workshop on brain sensitising by the Korean brain trainer Daae Kim.
“We focus on operating the brain power, we already have a brain power, but people don’t know how to use it, when you know how to use u control emotion and thought and try to make your life better and become master of your life,” Kim told a group of 20.
At a time when the government created positions for happiness and tolerance ministers and has pursued a national drive based around 'happiness', Mr Barakeh appears to have tapped into something.
"I invite everyone to come in and discover it with their own eyes," he beams.
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
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Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
How much sugar is in chocolate Easter eggs?
- The 169g Crunchie egg has 15.9g of sugar per 25g serving, working out at around 107g of sugar per egg
- The 190g Maltesers Teasers egg contains 58g of sugar per 100g for the egg and 19.6g of sugar in each of the two Teasers bars that come with it
- The 188g Smarties egg has 113g of sugar per egg and 22.8g in the tube of Smarties it contains
- The Milky Bar white chocolate Egg Hunt Pack contains eight eggs at 7.7g of sugar per egg
- The Cadbury Creme Egg contains 26g of sugar per 40g egg
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Company%20profile
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At a glance
- 20,000 new jobs for Emiratis over three years
- Dh300 million set aside to train 18,000 jobseekers in new skills
- Managerial jobs in government restricted to Emiratis
- Emiratis to get priority for 160 types of job in private sector
- Portion of VAT revenues will fund more graduate programmes
- 8,000 Emirati graduates to do 6-12 month replacements in public or private sector on a Dh10,000 monthly wage - 40 per cent of which will be paid by government
$1,000 award for 1,000 days on madrasa portal
Daily cash awards of $1,000 dollars will sweeten the Madrasa e-learning project by tempting more pupils to an education portal to deepen their understanding of math and sciences.
School children are required to watch an educational video each day and answer a question related to it. They then enter into a raffle draw for the $1,000 prize.
“We are targeting everyone who wants to learn. This will be $1,000 for 1,000 days so there will be a winner every day for 1,000 days,” said Sara Al Nuaimi, project manager of the Madrasa e-learning platform that was launched on Tuesday by the Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, to reach Arab pupils from kindergarten to grade 12 with educational videos.
“The objective of the Madrasa is to become the number one reference for all Arab students in the world. The 5,000 videos we have online is just the beginning, we have big ambitions. Today in the Arab world there are 50 million students. We want to reach everyone who is willing to learn.”
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.
MO
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Getting there
Flydubai flies direct from Dubai to Tbilisi from Dh1,025 return including taxes
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Adele: The Stories Behind The Songs
Caroline Sullivan
Carlton Books
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.
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Ronaldo's record at Man Utd
Seasons 2003/04 - 2008/09
Appearances 230
Goals 115
