ABU DHABI // Footballers from the UAE national team took time off from training on Monday to strike at another important goal - cleaning up the Corniche.
A group of them, including the Al Wahda striker Ismail Matar, runner-up in last year's Asian Footballer of the Year award, cleared plastic bottles, aluminium cans and cigarette butts from a 1km-long stretch of the public beach.
In two hours, 185kg of rubbish were collected and separated for recycling in the first clean-up of its kind on the public beach, which was opened in July last year.
Saleh Obaid, Matar's national teammate and captain of Al Jazeera club, said it was important for people to look after the country. "It is nothing for us to come and clean the beach. We should be more active with things like this because it is very important to look after the beach not only for ourselves but for the image of the country. If visitors come and see our new beach dirty then they will think we don't care about it. It should be clean and shiny."
The clean-up was part of a project called One Abu Dhabi ... Let's Keep It Clean launched by Zayed University students and sponsored by the Abu Dhabi Sports Council to raise awareness about littering.
Aref al Awani, the director of sport care programmes at the council, said the footballers were fulfilling their responsibility to the community. "People look up to these players as role models," he said. "So when they come to the beach and clean we hope it will have an effect on kids and stop them dropping litter in the future."
The idea from the project came after three students walked along the Corniche and were shocked by the amount of rubbish on the beach.
The girls - Fakhra al Mansoori, Noora al Amimi and Hind Khouri - who are in their final year of their public relations course, decided to focus their last assignment, a community project, on the problem of litter.
"We picked the beach as a symbol to represent the wider problem. Whether it is the beach, the park or the university campus we want people to be aware that they have to pick up after themselves," said Ms al Mansoori.
"We are lucky to have grown up here after the country was formed and many of us are used to having maids and nannies but they can't do everything. We need to look after ourselves."
Ms al Amimi said they wanted to get their message across particularly to Emirati women. "There are some women who depend on cleaners for everything so they don't mind dropping rubbish, because they know someone will come and pick it up after them. But what if we didn't have those people to help us? We want them to learn that it is important to clean their own mess and to pass that habit on to their children."
After the rubbish was collected, Mr al Awani unveiled a small statue in the family section of the beach which will remind to visitors not to litter. The triangular glass statue is filled with empty plastic bottles, cans and polystyrene cups to represent the litter that the collectors picked up.
aseaman@thenational.ae
The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn
Rating: 3.5/5
MATCH INFO
Southampton 0
Manchester City 1 (Sterling 16')
Man of the match: Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City)
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
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
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.
Super Saturday race card
4pm: Mahab Al Shimaal Group 3 | US$350,000 | (Dirt) | 1,200m
4.35pm: Al Bastakiya Listed | $300,000 | (D) | 1,900m
5.10pm: Nad Al Sheba Turf Group 3 | $350,000 | (Turf) | 1,200m
5.45pm: Burj Nahaar Group 3 | $350,000 | (D) | 1,600m
6.20pm: Dubai City of Gold Group 2 | $300,000 | (T) | 2,410m
6.55pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3 Group 1 | $600,000 | (D) | 2,000m
7.30pm: Jebel Hatta Group 1 | $400,000 | (T) | 1,800m
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Kibsons%20Cares
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Company%20Profile
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The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
One in nine do not have enough to eat
Created in 1961, the World Food Programme is pledged to fight hunger worldwide as well as providing emergency food assistance in a crisis.
One of the organisation’s goals is the Zero Hunger Pledge, adopted by the international community in 2015 as one of the 17 Sustainable Goals for Sustainable Development, to end world hunger by 2030.
The WFP, a branch of the United Nations, is funded by voluntary donations from governments, businesses and private donations.
Almost two thirds of its operations currently take place in conflict zones, where it is calculated that people are more than three times likely to suffer from malnutrition than in peaceful countries.
It is currently estimated that one in nine people globally do not have enough to eat.
On any one day, the WFP estimates that it has 5,000 lorries, 20 ships and 70 aircraft on the move.
Outside emergencies, the WFP provides school meals to up to 25 million children in 63 countries, while working with communities to improve nutrition. Where possible, it buys supplies from developing countries to cut down transport cost and boost local economies.
The specs: 2018 Chevrolet Trailblazer
Price, base / as tested Dh99,000 / Dh132,000
Engine 3.6L V6
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Power 275hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque 350Nm @ 3,700rpm
Fuel economy combined 12.2L / 100km
Farasan Boat: 128km Away from Anchorage
Director: Mowaffaq Alobaid
Stars: Abdulaziz Almadhi, Mohammed Al Akkasi, Ali Al Suhaibani
Rating: 4/5
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
A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
The%20specs
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Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
