UMM AL QUWAIN // A student-run museum of items made from palm leaves is helping to preserve a part of the UAE’s heritage.
Forty students at Emirates Canadian University College in the emirate were involved in setting up the museum, which has more than 50 products, such as baskets and beds.
Saeed Al Mansoori, a student of mass communications, came up with the idea three years ago as a way of showing the world that Emiratis are innovative people.
“This is an academic place, and it should have something from the past of the UAE,” he said.
The museum sources items from traditional shops in Sharjah and Fujairah, according to Mr Al Mansoori. “This is the first museum in the UAE that specialises in presenting all kinds of palm-leaf products, such as baskets, mats, tents, fishing boats, children’s toys, baby beds and other everyday tools,” he said.
In the past week, the students worked on updating the museum by adding more items and changing the decoration and palm leaves.
Dr Hassan Mustafa, head of mass communications, said the college had supported the museum financially and wholeheartedly.
“Saeed is an outstanding student and he is interested in the UAE’s heritage and always participates in traditional events in the country,” he said.
“The museum has become a destination for schools in the emirate where lectures about heritage are presented by the professors of the college or traditional experts.”
Mahdi Mansor, a Jordanian student, helped to organise the museum. “Working on the organisation of the museum and the visits of the schools has added a lot to my knowledge of UAE heritage,” the 21-year-old said.
Marwa Mazen, 19, a fellow Jordanian student, said she participated in the museum’s recent upgrading exercise because of her appreciation of the museum. “I started asking the students about each item and I wanted to know more about the traditions of the UAE and its Emirati ancestors, who were using simple tools. It has given me information that I did not know before,” she said.
The museum, on the college’s campus, is open to the public from 8am to 5pm daily.
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Favourite book: Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. It’s an amazing story about barefoot running.
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Xpanceo
Started: 2018
Founders: Roman Axelrod, Valentyn Volkov
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Smart contact lenses, augmented/virtual reality
Funding: $40 million
Investor: Opportunity Venture (Asia)
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OPENING FIXTURES
Saturday September 12
Crystal Palace v Southampton
Fulham v Arsenal
Liverpool v Leeds United
Tottenham v Everton
West Brom v Leicester
West Ham v Newcastle
Monday September 14
Brighton v Chelsea
Sheffield United v Wolves
To be rescheduled
Burnley v Manchester United
Manchester City v Aston Villa
How green is the expo nursery?
Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery
An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo
Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery
Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape
The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides
All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality
Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country
Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow
Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site
Green waste is recycled as compost
Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs
Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers
About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer
Main themes of expo is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.
Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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T20 WORLD CUP
2024: US and West Indies; 2026: India and Sri Lanka; 2028: Australia and New Zealand; 2030: England, Ireland and Scotland
ODI WORLD CUP
2027: South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia; 2031: India and
Bangladesh
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2025: Pakistan; 2029: India
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In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
