Tag Archives: lifestyle
Dubai Summer Surprises come to town
Dubai Summer Surprises come to town Staff Reporter / 7 June 2013 Starting today, the Dubai Summer Surprises (DSS) and Modhesh are back, giving shoppers an opportunity to win Dh250,000 weekly, and up to Dh1 million in prizes. Along with the Dh1 million in cash and shopping vouchers, eight BMW cars will be given away to 17 winners for DSS. As part of the campaign, shoppers are invited to three Dubai malls — Deira City Centre, Mall of the Emirates and Mirdif City Centre. The festival that will run until July 7, will feature non-stop programmes for family entertainment at the malls that will remain open from 10am upto midnight on weekdays and 10am – 1am on weekends. At the Mall of the Emirates, children can watch the popular ‘Bananas in Pyjamas’ pair perform live, inaugurating the first five days of Dubai Summer Surprises. The characters will sing, dance and interact in a show for the entire family. Adding to the excitement, the Xtreme Festival is coming to town complete with trampolines, stilt walkers, jugglers and acrobats, all of whom will be performing for visitors. Starting June 7, every Sunday to Tuesday, the circus will show off their tricks in three unique 20 minute shows, Xtreme Festival, Bed Time Stories, and Treasure Box. Performances will be held at 4.30pm, 6pm and 8.30pm Thursday, Friday and Saturday; and 4:30pm and 7pm Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday — promising a chance for everyone to witness some world-class stunts. Deira City Centre and Mirdif City Centre will bring one of the more-loved cartoon characters, Garfield to the malls. Performing his Happy Birthday to Me stage show, the audience will be invited to participate in a musical celebration. Garfield will start off at Mirdif City Centre from June 7 to 13, before heading to Deira City Centre from June 18 to 24. Shoppers will be transported into a jungle at Mirdif City Centre during the Jungle Circus, that will feature 40 African acrobats, aerial artists, contortionists, musicians and more performing acts of energy, flexibility and strength. From June 14 to 19, the Jungle Circus will have three 30 to 45 minute shows daily. As a special weekend treat, the Smurfs are coming to indoor family entertainment centre, Playnation, for an exclusive show and meet-and-greet with young fans. Starting June 22, the Smurf family will greet children Thursday through Saturday, until July 7. Another character known as ‘the sweetest girl around’, Strawberry Shortcake, will make a special appearance at Deira City Centre from July 1 to 7. Miss Shortcake will perform an interactive show for families to enjoy. Additional roaming entertainment will also take place throughout the DSS to keep families entertained all month long. Dh5m for three seasons Dubai Shopping Malls Group (DSMG), the umbrella organisation of shopping malls in Dubai, unveiled its promotion for Summer is Dubai 2013. This is the sixteenth year that the group has partnered with Dubai Festival and Retail Establishment (DFRE) as a key sponsor to roll out blockbuster shopping fiesta among its participating malls offering winners a chance to win Dh5 million. Majid Al Ghurair, Chairman of DSMG, commented: “We are proud to continue our association with DFRE through a spectacular promotion that complements the three seasons of summer is Dubai 2013. Raffle promotions have always attracted customers and our commitment to offer exciting promotions and winning opportunities is in keeping with the mandate to re-energise the mall industry and trade. As an umbrella organisation of shopping malls we aim at offering shoppers innovative ways to win exciting prizes while enjoying their shopping experience and we are confident that the unique promotion this year will give additional opportunities for shoppers to win.” Positioned across three seasons, the raffle promotion is phased across DSS (from June 7 to July 7), Eid (August 1-14) and End of Season (August 15 – September 7). All shoppers are entitled to one raffle coupon for every Dh200 spent at the participating malls. On the last day of DSMG’s mainstream DSS promotion, one mega winner will also receive Dh100,000 in cash plus Dh100,000 in shopping vouchers. The raffle draws are scheduled to be held on June 13, 20, 27 and July 10. The Eid promotion will offer shoppers an opportunity to win a total of Dh1 million worth of gold and Dh1 million worth of scratch and win gift vouchers. The raffle draws for winning gold are scheduled for August 12, 13 and 14. The ‘End of Season’ promotion will offer a mega winning of Dh1 million and the millionaire raffle draw is scheduled for September 7. The mall fraternity participating in the campaign include Al Bustan Centre, Al Ghurair Centre, Almulla Plaza, Arabian Centre, Al Barsha Mall, Bin Sougat Centre, Burjuman, Century Mall, Dubai Marina Mall, Dubai Outlet Mall, Etihad Mall, Ibn Battuta Mall, Lamcy Plaza, Mazaya Shopping Centre, Oasis Centre, Reef Mall and Time Square Centre. news@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
Up the oven they go, to sleep in a deck
Up the oven they go, to sleep in a deck Staff Reporter / 6 June 2013 Some bakery workers in the Capital have to climb through an oven to get into a cramped, dusty and smelly ‘deck’ where they live, a recent inspection of their accommodation has revealed. The Municipality of Abu Dhabi City launched an intensified inspection of workers’ accommodation units provided by their employers, during which it was discovered that many live in cramped and unhygienic conditions, which often double up as storerooms. In one of the cases, inspectors found a smelly, dusty overhead deck in one of the bakeries, which was used as lodging and sleeping place for the bakery workers with very poor living conditions. “Workers gain access to the upper deck of the bakery by climbing up the oven of the bakery in order to conceal the place from inspectors. It also contains casual extensions of electricity and sewage, and lacks health factors such as sunlight and air-circulation,” said Municipality public health director, Khalifa Mohammed Al Rumaithi. These places, he added, “lack the least principles of public health” and were mostly over-crowded with workers living next to gas cylinders or in rooms that doubled as storerooms. “The Municipality acts with these contraventions according to the provisions of the law. Offenders are offered one week’s time to redress their conditions and remove additions and causes of offences in order to avoid legal questioning, and issuing of offence tickets to them, but judicial transgressions will be enforced against repeaters,” Al Rumaithi said. He called upon business owners to use suitable premises for accommodation and refrain from using work facilities for accommodation and stressed the importance of removing them. The official advised these establishments to ensure the provision of a healthy accommodation for workers and compliance with the occupational health and safety stipulations in order to maintain the health of workers, avoid subjecting them to accidents and injuries, provide suitable health and living conditions, and address the public health requirements at those facilities. He reiterated the commitment of the Municipality of Abu Dhabi City to continuously ensure the compliance of business and occupational outlets and warehouses to provide suitable accommodation to workers and avoid using overhead deck for accommodation and storage purposes. Al Rumaithi added the Municipality would continue its inspection campaigns to combat all sorts of unlawful additions and structures made in installations at villas, flats, buildings and residential and commercial outlets in order to ensure the highest standards of living and sustainable environment for the residents of Abu Dhabi city. He called for strict compliance with the standards of public health, and the applicable laws in order to ensure a decent living for all community members. Workers were a key community segment that had made a considerable contribution to the comprehensive development in Abu Dhabi, he said. news@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
Call for balance between growth and environment
Call for balance between growth and environment Silvia Radan / 6 June 2013 The UAE is a land of rich beauty, but its environmental challenges, linked to those in the rest of the world, severely threaten nature in all forms. To mark World Environment Day, the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research invited Dr. Terrence Pierson to talk about the UAE’s environmental successes and challenges. Pollution is a big worry when it comes to environmental challenges. Waste left by tourists at Wadi Wurayah. — KT file photo Dr. Pierson is the vice-president of Global Climate Change and Environmental Sciences at the USA’s RTI International, an independent, non-profit institute that provides research, development, and technical services to government and commercial clients worldwide. “What a beautiful country you have,” he said. Exceptional habitats in mountainous areas; shifting sand dune formations in Liwa; wildlife rich swamps such as Al Wathba where a record 39 flamingo chicks were born this spring; protected islands where endangered species such as the osprey and the dugong are thriving; and hardy coral reefs are all environmental treasures that need to be preserved, he said. The reefs were adapted to extreme sea water temperatures, which would become increasingly important as elsewhere coral reefs died out due to increased sea temperatures caused by climate change. However, there were quite a few environmental challenges standing in the way, Dr Pierson said. One of them was the increase of life-threatening carbon dioxide pollution, waste production, and water and energy consumption, all caused by the increase in living standards. “The number of urban developments between 2007 and 2012 increased by 300 per cent,” Dr Pierson said. In 2012, Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) alone had 383 infrastructure projects on its table, awaiting approval. Economic growth was important, but Dr Pierson warned the country needed a balance between growth and environmental protection if it was to have a future. In the past decades worldwide natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, tornados, floods and extreme weather patterns that affected the UAE as well, have indicated signs of climate change. Pollution is one of the big worries when it comes to environmental challenges, and health, and Abu Dhabi has plenty of it. “Measurements done by EAD showed the PM10 (pollution) in Abu Dhabi between 129 ppm and 203 ppm annually, while the World Health Organisation standard is only 20 micrograms per cubic meter,” revealed Dr. Pierson. PM stands for particular matter, meaning the amount of solid and liquid particles found in the air, and PM10, measured in parts per million or ppm, refers to the big particles that are between 2.5 and 10 micrometers. They are caused by natural elements such as dust, but also by all kinds of man-made pollution such as fumes from petrol or waste burning. “High levels of PM10 can cause diseases such as lung cancer,” warned Dr Pierson. “In the UAE, the high level PM10 comes mostly from dust, and most international studies for PM10 are based on carbon levels, not dust,” he added. Greenhouse Gases (GHG), which include water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and ozone, greatly affect the temperature. Without them, the planet’s average temperature would be about 33 degrees colder. But since the 1900s, when industries took over the developed world, one particular GHG, carbon dioxide, has increased to 400 ppm due to fossil fuels burning. “In the UAE, carbon dioxide accounts for 79 per cent of all GHG emissions,” said Dr. Pierson. “GHG increased emissions will lead to many environmental challenges. One of them is the sea level rising, which is a big concern here in UAE, because of coastal developments,” he added. In fact, the energy sector is responsible for 72.6 per cent of direct GHG emissions, followed by waste at 6.9 per cent, agriculture at 4 per cent and industrial processes at 1 per cent. Saving energy has become almost synonymous with more efficient air conditioning, since over 60 per cent of total electricity used in Abu Dhabi emirate is from air conditioning. Water quality — and consumption — as well as waste management are also major environmental challenges that are also affected by the UAE’s growing population and higher living standards. silvia@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
