As The National marks its seventh anniversay on Friday, reporter Nadeem Hanif looks at seven stories, one from each emirate, which reflect the history and capture the future of the rapidly developing nation.
ABU DHABI // The striking form of the Louvre Abu Dhabi continues to take shape as construction work on the art gallery gathers pace.
Weighing as much as the Eiffel Tower and resembling a giant, oversized wok, the building got its domed roof in December last year.
It was a unique feat and nothing had been attempted on this scale before.
For almost a year, the Louvre Abu Dhabi has gradually emerged on the skyline of Saadiyat Island.
Deceptively fragile, the museum’s roof — more properly a space frame, since the structure is composed of interlocking segments — has grown since December 2013 from a single piece to a vast dome the height of an 11-storey building, with a circumference of 565 metres.
Since then the roof has rested on 120 temporary towers that have taken its weight, which currently stands at about 7,000 tonnes.
To complete the process, the entire canopy was lifted nearly 40 centimetres and then lowered on to four permanent concrete towers that will be its only support.
To do so required 32 hydraulic jacks with a lifting capacity of 310 tonnes each, lifting the canopy onto its supports over a period of 10 days.
“Rather than lowering the temporary supports, we jacked up the dome at the final location to free up the dome,” said Johann Sischka, chairman of Waagner-Biro Stahlbau AG, an Austrian-based steel and mechanical engineering company responsible for building the canopy.
“That’s the first time that I’m aware of that this has been done on any project.”
DUBAI // The Burj Khalifa provided the stunning setting for the filming of a death-defying stunt by Hollywood star Tom Cruise.
In November 2010 hundreds of people looked on in awe as the star of the Mission: Impossible franchise leapt, swung and jumped across the glass facade near the peak of the world's tallest building.
The spectacular set-piece took place during the second week of the filming of spy thriller Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol.
The star was seen dangling from the side of the building as a helicopter circled the tower filming the scene.
In the run-up to the stunt, Cruise even dropped down to the observation deck on the 124th floor, surprising visiting tourists.
On the morning of the shoot, near the top of the 828 metre-high skyscraper, he swung back and forth and ran horizontally across the windows.
The helicopter hovered near the building for several minutes.
On the ground below, in a private outdoor area, ambulances and film equipment vans stood by.
On a public street on the other side of the tower, security guards shooed passersby away and warned them against taking photos.
Filming in Dubai continued until the end of November.
It was the fourth instalment of the blockbuster Mission Impossible series, in which Cruise plays American agent Ethan Hunt.
SHARJAH // A 59-day-old Palestinian baby boy became the youngest in the world to have brain aneurysm surgery in the emirate.
Little Suleiman Nil Suleiman had the operation in March last year at Al Qassimi Hospital in Sharjah.
He was initially taken to a hospital in Dubai, where he was given a CT scan after he became sickly shortly after his birth.
“Doctors here found two tissues that looked like tumours in the brain and there was also bleeding inside the brain and on the surface,” said Dr Satish Krishnan, a neurosurgeon at Al Qassimi Hospital.
“We did more tests and also established that his haemoglobin was low, about four grams instead of the 15g of a normal baby.”
Suleiman was put on a ventilator in an incubator the night he arrived and given a blood transfusion the following morning but to no avail and then doctors decided to perform emergency surgery.
“In the surgery it was like a big discovery — two aneurysms in the head of a 59 days old baby,” he said.
An aneurysm is a blood-filled bulge in an artery or vein. It is mostly found in adults and can develop in other body parts, such as the abdomen, heart or kidney.
Dr Krishnan said their patient was the youngest in the world to have gone through a brain aneurysm operation.
He said he had handled 60 aneurysm cases in the past four years, with the youngest 25 and the oldest 78. Most people he had helped were older than 40.
The doctor urged residents to always report to the hospital when faced with neurophysical symptoms such as neck pains and double vision.
He said that without expert help, it was impossible to know if the symptoms were caused by life-threatening conditions such as aneurysms.
Doctors suspected his condition to be congenital.
FUJAIRAH // A professional footballer was among hundreds of people keeping the tradition of “bull-butting” alive in the emirate.
In June 2010 The National reported how Ali Rabei, who at the time was the goalkeeper for Al Wahda FC, was part of a growing number of young professionals buying into the tradition.
Mr Rabei along with many others meet beside the Fujairah Corniche every Friday at sunset to watch humpbacked Brahman bulls lock horns at bloodless bull-butting competitions.
He spent Dh45,000 to buy four bulls and was acutely aware of the traditions associated with the competition.
“It starts from when I was young until now. I’m working in Abu Dhabi but in my spare time I’m here,” he said.
Mr Rabei was part of a growing group that was investing in the sport for different reasons, from starting a new hobby to becoming more involved in the local culture.
The Brahmans, which have characteristically floppy ears, snort, lock horns and kick dirt inside the arena.
If one bull is too strong and risks hurting his rival, men rush into the arena to pull the beasts apart.
The bull that pushes his opponent the furthest is the winner.
While a fence and metal barrier surround the arena to stop rogue bulls from running down the street, most spectators still prefer to watch the excitement inside the ring.
Among them was Fujairah’s youngest bull owner, Saif Rashid, a 12-year-old who is considered an up-and-coming bull tycoon.
He was at an age where he was shy about talking to girls but unafraid of headbutting his bull in training. “Every day he will go to school, once back to his house to eat and after he will see his bull,” said his brother, Mohammad Al Suwaidi, 26.
Saif’s bull was one of 120 competing in a sport increasingly dominated by the young, said Abdulla Ali Kindi, a founding member of the bullfighting committee.
The tradition dates back to the 1980s with 25 to 30 owners but has grown to more than 60.
AJMAN // It is vital for fishermen to be aware of the dangers of being out at sea and to remain safe.
That was the message given by authorities and experienced fishermen alike after an Emirati fishing boat captain was lost at sea and six Indian sailors injured in a collision with a larger boat off the UAE coast on January 31 this year.
Mohammed Saif Al Suwaidi, 32, fell into the sea and his body was never found following the incident, which resulted in his fishing boat breaking in half.
In February captains of fishing boats in Ajman said their crew members must know how to stay safe on board and how to react should they fall into the sea.
They must also be able to swim and ensure that their vessels have the necessary safety equipment, such as life jackets.
The skippers warned that people who had mostly worked on land and were unaccustomed to working on boats should not go to sea.
Rasheed Al Muhairi, an Emirati fisherman of 35 years, said it was rare to find fishermen who could not swim.
He said that before the coastguard issued boat licences, they check that the vessels carry safety equipment such as fire extinguishers, life jackets, lights and first-aid kits.
“We also teach our Asian sailors to use them,” he said, adding that he usually checked weather conditions before heading out to sea.
New technologies such as weather forecast apps for smartphones have helped to make fishermen’s work safer, according to Emirati Humaid Al Shamsi, 60, who started working on fishing boats when he was 10 years old.
Even so, fierce storms at sea could easily result in a crew member being washed overboard, said Ali Majid Al Suwaidi, 63.
The ability to swim and familiarity with safety equipment are essential to fishermen in the event of an emergency at sea, according to Maj Ali Al Naqbi, director of maritime rescue at Dubai Police.
RAS AL KHAIMAH // A team of archaeologists working with a renewed sense of urgency helped to uncover the once-hidden history of the emirate in 2010
On April 11 of that year a 20-strong team of scientists had less than a month to go before one of the richest archaeological sites in the country was to make way for a desalination plant.
Researchers had been sifting through the 13th century ruins of the once-bustling port city of Julfar, in Ras Al Khaimah.
Much of the old city had been designated a protected historical site, with a 5km stretch of coastline shielded from redevelopment.
But a small area, measuring about 150 metres by 250 metres, had not been set aside, and it was going to be lost to history when construction work began on the desalination project.
As a result, a frantic excavation was under way to salvage as many artefacts as possible before the bulldozers moved in.
Sources said the government had spent about Dh1.84 million to fund the three-month project, which began in January 2010.
Julfar was first inhabited more than 1,000 years ago and rose to prominence in the 13th century as a sea-trading hub linking Arabia to South East Asia.
At its height, it was home to at least 20,000 people living on both sides of a creek that divided the city into a northern district, known as Al Mattaf, and a southern district, Al Nudud.
Julfar became a rich and powerful pearling and fishing region and was the largest trade centre on the Arabian side of the Gulf.
Much of the trade was centred in the northern district, where a fort and defensive battlements have been unearthed by previous archaeological teams.
The project focused on the southern shore and uncovered a parade of shops, dwellings and 560 bags of pottery and other artefacts, such as coins and pearl knives.
UMM AL QUWAIN // A Dh75 million research centre has opened in the emirate as part of an initiative to protect fisheries and keep the marine environment free from pollution.
Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Presidential Affairs, toured the Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Centre for Marine Research in February this year.
The centre is being built in five phases as part of President Sheikh Khalifa’s desire to protect the environment. It is being built with a grant from the President.
The first phase of the development sees a hatchery, which will be followed by a research centre, laboratories, the expansion of a hatchery for endangered species and an education centre.
Sheikh Mansour said the establishment of the centre reflected the President’s attention to “our national resources as a strategic reserve for future generations”, reported Wam, the state news agency.
“This project has a lot of benefits for the country; it is an environmental project, and it is also a project that is directed to protect our marine and environment and to help our fish stock,” said Dr Rashid bin Fahd, Minister of Environment and Water.
Dr bin Fahad said the government has adopted a long-term strategy to guarantee food and environmental security and to develop and sustain national resources for future generations.
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, aquaculture will supply more than 50 per cent of the world’s fish consumption in the years ahead.
The minister said that exploitation of marine resources and deterioration of some ecosystems were among the challenges facing the UAE.
nhanif@thenational.ae