Page 9 - Peter Hellyer News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Gone are the days when the country only purchased goods and knowledge. Now, it sells them as well

In the UAE, we are fairly good at preserving cultural heritage, at least our buildings. There is room for improvement, but the concept of protecting it is well-established. There is, however, more to cultural heritage than buildings. Unesco has a category for "Intangible Cultural Heritage", which it defines as "the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognise as part of their cultural heritage". Several elements of the...

While following the progress of the pandemic here, I have also kept an eye on the situation in the UK, my country of origin, and in the British Channel Island of Jersey, my other home. The three countries are very different in terms of size. The UK population is around 68 million and the UAE is somewhere around 9.8 million, while Jersey has a mere 105,000 inhabitants. Government systems differ, too. In the UK, the administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have major roles to play in terms of introducing Covid-related restrictions, with the government in London being in full cont...