The Abu Dhabi RTA has intensified patrols to catch drivers using mobile phones. (WAM)
The Abu Dhabi RTA has intensified patrols to catch drivers using mobile phones. (WAM)

Don’t text and drive, it could take your life



There are many factors that make driving one of the more dangerous everyday human activities. While some hazards are beyond our control as drivers, too many accidents are caused, or contributed to, by our own negligence. We speed, tailgate, fail to indicate that we are turning and leave safety belts unbuckled. In recent years, technology has brought one more fatal factor into the mix – the mobile phone.

Sending text messages or operating other apps while behind the wheel has become a major cause of road deaths worldwide and a leading cause of accidents. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that text-driving is six times more dangerous than driving while drunk. Texting is now the main cause of death for teenage drivers in America, where it accounts for more than 3,000 fatalities and 330,000 injuries each year.

While there is no similar breakdown of accident causes in the UAE, texting has been linked to several well-documented road deaths, including that of Emirati international footballer Theyab Awana who drove into the back of a lorry while using his BlackBerry three years ago. The fact that more than 30,000 tickets were issued in Abu Dhabi last year to drivers who were using a mobile phone illustrates the magnitude of the problem. With one of the world’s highest per capita road tolls – according to the World Health Organisation, UAE drivers are seven time more likely to die in a crash than motorists in the UK – we cannot afford to be complacent.

As Thomas Edelmann, the founder of Road Safety UAE, told The National, the country must develop a safe-driving culture that includes public awareness of the dangers of texting. Perhaps local filmmakers could take inspiration from US-based German director Werner Herzog, whose documentary One Second to the Next tells the heartbreaking stories of victims and perpetrators of accidents involving text-driving. The film was sponsored by telecoms company AT& T, with the support of all the US mobile phone service providers. Etisalat and du could consider joining forces for a similar campaign here, to find and tell the stories of local victims of that heedless offence – texting while driving. The solution is simple: just don't do it. If the temptation is too great, use one of several available compartments to store your phone and make it impossible to use while driving. What message could be so important that it's worth dying for?

'Saand Ki Aankh'

Produced by: Reliance Entertainment with Chalk and Cheese Films
Director: Tushar Hiranandani
Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Bhumi Pednekar, Prakash Jha, Vineet Singh
Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Profile

Name: Carzaty

Founders: Marwan Chaar and Hassan Jaffar

Launched: 2017

Employees: 22

Based: Dubai and Muscat

Sector: Automobile retail

Funding to date: $5.5 million

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Thank You for Banking with Us

Director: Laila Abbas

Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum

Rating: 4/5

Jigra
Director: Vasan Bala
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
Rated: 3.5/5
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

Developer: Treyarch, Raven Software
Publisher:  Activision
Console: PlayStation 4 & 5, Windows, Xbox One & Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5

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The more serious side of specialty coffee

While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.

The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.

Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”

One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.

Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms. 

Did you know?

Brunch has been around, is some form or another, for more than a century. The word was first mentioned in print in an 1895 edition of Hunter’s Weekly, after making the rounds among university students in Britain. The article, entitled Brunch: A Plea, argued the case for a later, more sociable weekend meal. “By eliminating the need to get up early on Sunday, brunch would make life brighter for Saturday night carousers. It would promote human happiness in other ways as well,” the piece read. “It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week.” More than 100 years later, author Guy Beringer’s words still ring true, especially in the UAE, where brunches are often used to mark special, sociable occasions.

AUSTRALIA SQUAD

Aaron Finch (captain), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Billy Stanlake, Mitchell Starc, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, David Warner, Adam Zampa

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TRAP

Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue

Director: M Night Shyamalan

Rating: 3/5

Fire and Fury
By Michael Wolff,
Henry Holt

Moon Music

Artist: Coldplay

Label: Parlophone/Atlantic

Number of tracks: 10

Rating: 3/5

Panipat

Director Ashutosh Gowariker

Produced Ashutosh Gowariker, Rohit Shelatkar, Reliance Entertainment

Cast Arjun Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Kriti Sanon, Mohnish Behl, Padmini Kolhapure, Zeenat Aman

Rating 3 /stars

Sugary teas and iced coffees

The tax authority is yet to release a list of the taxed products, but it appears likely that sugary iced teas and cold coffees will be hit.

For instance, the non-fizzy drink AriZona Iced Tea contains 65 grams of sugar – about 16 teaspoons – per 680ml can. The average can costs about Dh6, which would rise to Dh9.

Cold coffee brands are likely to be hit too. Drinks such as Starbucks Bottled Mocha Frappuccino contain 31g of sugar in 270ml, while Nescafe Mocha in a can contains 15.6g of sugar in a 240ml can.

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