ABU DHABI // Volunteer "ambassadors" will staff the national pavilion at the Venice Biennale contemporary art exhibition, which runs from June 7 to Nov 22.
Takatof, a 2007 community service initiative by the Emirates Foundation, will send about eight groups of young volunteers to Italy over six months to run the UAE stand in Venice. Each group will spend three weeks there.
The volunteers will not only oversee the day-to-day activities at the pavilion but will also "represent the UAE". According to Takatof, they will be trained to answer detailed questions and give information about the nation to "curious visitors".
The commissioner for the UAE pavilion in Venice, Dr Lamees Hamdan, said the aim was to ensure that visitors to the pavilion were greeted by people who know the Emirates inside-out.
"The volunteers are our ambassadors and will therefore play an important role," she said, adding that they already had useful experience at cultural events such as the Emirati Expressions exhibition at the Emirates Palace earlier this year.
Maytha al Habsi, director of Takatof ("shoulder-to-shoulder" in Arabic), said the organisation aimed to embed volunteering into UAE culture.
"The prestigious international art event will offer these carefully selected volunteers a unique opportunity to experience many aspects of world culture as well as to represent the nation in a new artistic environment," she said.
The UAE pavilion, sponsored by the Emirates Foundation on behalf of the Government, will house work by the nation's most prominent contemporary artists and designers.
Next door in the Arsenale Novissimo, the converted dockyard that has become one of the two main venues for the Biennale, will be a separate pavilion run by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage.
This is the first time a GCC country has been represented at the Biennale.
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Biography
Her family: She has four sons, aged 29, 27, 25 and 24 and is a grandmother-of-nine
Favourite book: Flashes of Thought by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid
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Her hobbies: Reading and volunteer work
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Her motto: I don't wait, I initiate
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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1. Featherweight 66kg
Ben Lucas (AUS) v Ibrahim Kendil (EGY)
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Mohammed Kareem Aljnan (SYR) v Alphonse Besala (CMR)
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Ahmed Al Darmaki (UAE) v Kagimu Kigga (UGA)
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Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
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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
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
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Company: Instabug
Founded: 2013
Based: Egypt, Cairo
Sector: IT
Employees: 100
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One in nine do not have enough to eat
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U19 WORLD CUP, WEST INDIES
UAE group fixtures (all in St Kitts)
- Saturday 15 January: UAE beat Canada by 49 runs
- Thursday 20 January: v England
- Saturday 22 January: v Bangladesh
UAE squad:
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