Maytha Al Habsi, Deputy CEO of Emirates Foundation in an interview in Abu Dhabi. Ravindranath K / The National
Maytha Al Habsi, Deputy CEO of Emirates Foundation in an interview in Abu Dhabi. Ravindranath K / The National

Preserving identity



Emiratis living overseas have to not just cope with new environments, new languages, and new ways of thinking and living but also doing so while retaining their connection to their homeland. Maytha Al Habsi, deputy chief executive of Emirates Foundation and the daughter of a diplomat, said maintaining her Emirati identity required stressing the importance of holding on to one’s roots while simultaneously being open to other cultures.

But Emiratis don’t have to travel abroad to face this challenge. With the country’s multicultural environment and expatriate majority, Emirati youth find themselves facing the same struggle. The dominance of English is just one example of this.

Parents have a key role to play in this. Ms Al Habsi said her parents went to great lengths to ensure that she absorbed Emirati culture, making sure she took after-school Arabic and Islamic lessons, wore traditional dress and ate traditional food. Her family’s example is a good one for all parents in the UAE to follow.

Difference between fractional ownership and timeshare

Although similar in its appearance, the concept of a fractional title deed is unlike that of a timeshare, which usually involves multiple investors buying “time” in a property whereby the owner has the right to occupation for a specified period of time in any year, as opposed to the actual real estate, said John Peacock, Head of Indirect Tax and Conveyancing, BSA Ahmad Bin Hezeem & Associates, a law firm.

U19 WORLD CUP, WEST INDIES

UAE group fixtures (all in St Kitts)
Saturday 15 January: v Canada
Thursday 20 January: v England
Saturday 22 January: v Bangladesh

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Alishan Sharafu (captain), Shival Bawa, Jash Giyanani, Sailles Jaishankar, Nilansh Keswani, Aayan Khan, Punya Mehra, Ali Naseer, Ronak Panoly, Dhruv Parashar, Vinayak Raghavan, Soorya Sathish, Aryansh Sharma, Adithya Shetty, Kai Smith

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Director: Venkat Prabhu
Rating: 2/5
If you go

The flights

Emirates flies from Dubai to Seattle from Dh5,555 return, including taxes. Portland is a 260 km drive from Seattle and Emirates offers codeshare flights to Portland with its partner Alaska Airlines.

The car

Hertz (www.hertz.ae) offers compact car rental from about $300 per week, including taxes. Emirates Skywards members can earn points on their car hire through Hertz.

Parks and accommodation

For information on Crater Lake National Park, visit www.nps.gov/crla/index.htm . Because of the altitude, large parts of the park are closed in winter due to snow. While the park’s summer season is May 22-October 31, typically, the full loop of the Rim Drive is only possible from late July until the end of October. Entry costs $25 per car for a day. For accommodation, see www.travelcraterlake.com. For information on Umpqua Hot Springs, see www.fs.usda.gov and https://soakoregon.com/umpqua-hot-springs/. For Bend, see https://www.visitbend.com/.

Our family matters legal consultant

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

The advice provided in our columns does not constitute legal advice and is provided for information only. Readers are encouraged to seek independent legal advice.