We're nearly there, the day many children dread and perhaps just as many parents look forward to: the first day of the new school year. Supplies have been bought and name-tagged, healthy meals planned and sleep routines are being reinforced. It is also a time to plan drop-offs and pick-ups and decide whether or not to opt for school transportation. This, of course, brings up the question of school-bus safety in particular and road safety in general.
Opting for the school bus has its plusses. Besides teaching children self-reliance and giving them an invaluable childhood experience, buses allow for a reduction in traffic congestion on the roads and around schools. And let us also not forget the kinder environmental impact that fewer road trips make in reducing our carbon footprint.
That said, buses have not been as popular as you might expect. According to the Roads and Transport Authority in Dubai, nearly 90 per cent of pupils are ferried to school in private vehicles. Two reasons for this cited by parents were the length of bus journeys and the on-board safety of their children. The tragic death of a three-year-old girl locked in a school bus in 2014 and the collision of two school buses in 2016 in Abu Dhabi, as well as the fall of six-year-old girl from a Sharjah school bus in 2016, still cause parents to worry.
But of course there have been new measures in aid of safety. On-board cameras, advanced alert systems, child seat-belts, swipe-card access, as well as attendant and driver education, are but a few of the measures rolled out over the past three years throughout the UAE to improve safety. The new federal traffic law that entered into effect on July 1 also enjoins motorists to be on better behaviour, in order to curb accidents.
Still, safety is an on-going process. There will always be more to do. Next up, perhaps, might be to consider building an integrated school bus system, with a greater number of vehicles, to ensure that pupils spend the least possible amount of time on the road.
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Sinopharm vaccine explained
The Sinopharm vaccine was created using techniques that have been around for decades.
“This is an inactivated vaccine. Simply what it means is that the virus is taken, cultured and inactivated," said Dr Nawal Al Kaabi, chair of the UAE's National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee.
"What is left is a skeleton of the virus so it looks like a virus, but it is not live."
This is then injected into the body.
"The body will recognise it and form antibodies but because it is inactive, we will need more than one dose. The body will not develop immunity with one dose," she said.
"You have to be exposed more than one time to what we call the antigen."
The vaccine should offer protection for at least months, but no one knows how long beyond that.
Dr Al Kaabi said early vaccine volunteers in China were given shots last spring and still have antibodies today.
“Since it is inactivated, it will not last forever," she said.
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Angela Bassett, Tina Fey
Directed by: Pete Doctor
Rating: 4 stars
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HOW DO SIM CARD SCAMS WORK?
Sim swap frauds are a form of identity theft.
They involve criminals conning mobile phone operators into issuing them with replacement Sim cards, often by claiming their phone has been lost or stolen
They use the victim's personal details - obtained through criminal methods - to convince such companies of their identity.
The criminal can then access any online service that requires security codes to be sent to a user's mobile phone, such as banking services.
A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
Padmaavat
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Starring: Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor, Jim Sarbh
3.5/5
Game Changer
Director: Shankar
Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram
Rating: 2/5
Analysis
Members of Syria's Alawite minority community face threat in their heartland after one of the deadliest days in country’s recent history. Read more
The Bio
Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”
Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”
Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”
Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”
Europe’s rearming plan
- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
- Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
