"United we stand for UAE"

I’ve been living here for the last 8 years now, and I can say that Public holidays here are primarily “Emirati affairs” - with the expatriates rarely participating in it like the way they do in developed countries. Instead, their celebrations are restricted to enjoying it just as a holiday.

Recently however, I saw some interesting developments that could change this attitude, and could perhaps also bridge the Local-Expatriate culture gap. The Al Mutahida campaign from Watani (the National Identity program) perhaps for the first time respects and highlights upon the shared destiny of all the UAE residents as a whole!

The purpose of Al Mutahida – which in Arabic means “United” – is simply, to bring all the people of UAE together, irrespective of cast color or creed. The campaign features a number of activities in form of Post Cards, Art competition, Exhibitions and Roadshows. See Al Watani on Facebook.

Any resident can collect a Post Card from Emirates Post Office, to greet UAE’s leaders and express solidarity with their vision of turning UAE into a contributor to world Peace and Prosperity. The free post card has spaces to fill resident’s name / contact details, along with a space for thumb impression. Residents have until now have known Post cards only as a way to win millions (thanks to a successful promotion). Thanks to al Muthaida, they would now have the chance to come closer to the illustrious leaders of this country.

The Art competition intended for all residents, aims to collect their personal / artistic interpretation of the word Al Mutahida. Selected entries will be displayed at the Dubai mall from 26 Nov- 5 Dec, along with the works of renowned artists of the country. I feel it’s an excellent chance for all the residents to display their hidden skills to established artists and representatives from the Art community. (The deadline, it seems, is 17^th Nov.)

Long ago, in this column, I had commented on Dubai being more of a Fusion spot, and that progressing towards being a melting pot of cultures will take a long time. I feel one of the many reasons is the general lack of interest within the guest worker communities, for the nation’s heritage. To some extent, this attitude has grown over the years perhaps due to an Emirati’s latent “fear that an expatriate is going to impose his culture” on locals.

Well, perhaps this campaign might well be the first foot forward in allaying this fear. One small observation however... expatriates need an English website also, incidentally which, I could not locate.

(Click here for some comments posted in UAE Community Blog.)