DUBAI // A police chief is urging parents to stop buying their sons powerful sport cars and paying their traffic fines after concluding that these have become major factors in the recklessness responsible for much of the carnage on the roads.
Col Saif Muhair al Mazrouei, the acting director of Dubai Police's Traffic Department, said the indulgence of better-off parents - buying ever more expensive cars and picking up the bills - encouraged "nonchalant and dangerous" driving attitudes among young men.
During the first half of this year, 433 road accidents in the emirate, resulting in 65 deaths, were blamed on drivers aged from 18 to 28. This compares with 380 accidents, involving 47 deaths, in which the drivers accused of fault were aged 30 to 40.
In the same period, 40 people aged between nine and 26 were killed on the roads in the emirate while 541 were injured, 34 of them seriously.
Most crashes involving young people are said to occur as a result of speeding or recklessness on the part of drivers aged between 20 and 25, almost always male and often at the wheel of a vehicle costing hundreds of thousands of dirhams.
Col Mazrouei said a lack of personal responsibility was leading too many young drivers to act with little or no respect for other drivers.
"When young people see that their parents are prepared to buy them an expensive, fast car, pay for their unlimited fines and supply them with a generous allowance, then children fail to learn how to respect road laws," he said.
It was time for parents to start taking responsibility for their children to help tackle a growing problem "which sometimes has devastating consequences".
"Most of those affected are young, Emirati youth," he said.
"This is really unfortunate, especially since the local population doesn't even make up one million people."
Young drivers who have to meet the cost of motoring out of their own pockets show greater restraint, he said. "Anyone who works to pay for their bills including their traffic fines can never be that careless."
Col Mazrouei appealed to parents to show more firmness. "The biggest group of traffic violators is between 20 and 25 years of age," he said. "They are usually high school and college students. Their reckless driving also puts other people's lives at risk."
As a mark of the authorities' determination to apprehend more drivers violating traffic laws, 500 radars are to be installed on the main roads of Dubai in the coming months.
"They will be installed in Dubai's most dangerous roads like Al Khail, Emirates, Sheikh Zayed," he said. All will be operational - and regularly checked for evidence of infringements - by the end of the year. Speed limits have already been reduced, for example to 100kph for 140kph on Sheikh Zayed Road, in an attempt to deter lawbreakers.
"Most violations occur by young people," Col Mazrouei said. "This is a problem we are suffering from because of parents who are not doing enough to discourage this behaviour. The real problem is with the parents of the young people who drive the cars.
"Some people buy their kids a new car every year. Not just a new one, but a faster, more expensive one.
"Adding to that, a generous allowance and paying for their fines, kids do not learn how to be responsible and adapt a careless and unchallenged attitude. We [the traffic department] regularly have parents who come in to pay their kids' fine. It runs into thousands in some cases, but they pay it."
"Parents should be more stern and teach their children responsibility. They should take a tough stance and if children [continue to break the law] they should cut their allowance and take the car away. This will force young people to respect the law because they will realise that the support is no longer there."
Of a total of 147 road deaths in the Dubai emirate from January to June this year, the victims included 50 Pakistanis, 37 Indians and 22 Emiratis.
Last March a car crash in Al Ain claimed the lives of 12 people, several of them in their 20s.
Col Khalifa Mohammad al Khaili, head of Al Ain Police's Traffic Department, blamed the horrific crash on reckless driving.
@Email:rabubaker@thenational.ae
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How will Gen Alpha invest?
Mark Chahwan, co-founder and chief executive of robo-advisory firm Sarwa, forecasts that Generation Alpha (born between 2010 and 2024) will start investing in their teenage years and therefore benefit from compound interest.
“Technology and education should be the main drivers to make this happen, whether it’s investing in a few clicks or their schools/parents stepping up their personal finance education skills,” he adds.
Mr Chahwan says younger generations have a higher capacity to take on risk, but for some their appetite can be more cautious because they are investing for the first time. “Schools still do not teach personal finance and stock market investing, so a lot of the learning journey can feel daunting and intimidating,” he says.
He advises millennials to not always start with an aggressive portfolio even if they can afford to take risks. “We always advise to work your way up to your risk capacity, that way you experience volatility and get used to it. Given the higher risk capacity for the younger generations, stocks are a favourite,” says Mr Chahwan.
Highlighting the role technology has played in encouraging millennials and Gen Z to invest, he says: “They were often excluded, but with lower account minimums ... a customer with $1,000 [Dh3,672] in their account has their money working for them just as hard as the portfolio of a high get-worth individual.”
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5
Know before you go
- Jebel Akhdar is a two-hour drive from Muscat airport or a six-hour drive from Dubai. It’s impossible to visit by car unless you have a 4x4. Phone ahead to the hotel to arrange a transfer.
- If you’re driving, make sure your insurance covers Oman.
- By air: Budget airlines Air Arabia, Flydubai and SalamAir offer direct routes to Muscat from the UAE.
- Tourists from the Emirates (UAE nationals not included) must apply for an Omani visa online before arrival at evisa.rop.gov.om. The process typically takes several days.
- Flash floods are probable due to the terrain and a lack of drainage. Always check the weather before venturing into any canyons or other remote areas and identify a plan of escape that includes high ground, shelter and parking where your car won’t be overtaken by sudden downpours.
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
Dubai Rugby Sevens, December 5 -7
World Sevens Series Pools
A – Fiji, France, Argentina, Japan
B – United States, Australia, Scotland, Ireland
C – New Zealand, Samoa, Canada, Wales
D – South Africa, England, Spain, Kenya
BORDERLANDS
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis
Director: Eli Roth
Rating: 0/5
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Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
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How to improve Arabic reading in early years
One 45-minute class per week in Standard Arabic is not sufficient
The goal should be for grade 1 and 2 students to become fluent readers
Subjects like technology, social studies, science can be taught in later grades
Grade 1 curricula should include oral instruction in Standard Arabic
First graders must regularly practice individual letters and combinations
Time should be slotted in class to read longer passages in early grades
Improve the appearance of textbooks
Revision of curriculum should be undertaken as per research findings
Conjugations of most common verb forms should be taught
Systematic learning of Standard Arabic grammar
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