Dubai: What happened on February 18, 1968 that contributed to the union of the UAE?
If you have the answer to this question, you could compete with ease in a three-year mass competition for residents and nationals of the UAE as part of the “1971 initiative” launched on Tuesday, and take home Dh50,000.
The idea of “1971 Initiative, Our history, our identity”, was formed and launched by Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, in light of the Flag Day.
The initiative aims to educate the community about the history of the country by encouraging them to search for information. It also aims to contribute to the cultural documentation of the UAE, through relying on accurate and reliable sources.
As part of the initiative, the “1971 competition” will be launched each year from 2014-2016 for a period of three months starting March and ending May.
During the three-month competition, contesters who must be above 16 years of age will be tested with 657 multiple choice questions on www.mubadara1971.ae about the country’s history. The first 71 winners who get all the answers correct will receive Dh50,000 each. So, per year, the prize in total will be Dh3.5 million.
At the end of the three years, 1971 questions would have been answered and the prize would have totalled to Dh10.5 million. The questions will be in Arabic, so Arabic-speaking residents and nationals can take part.
Dr Abdullah Mohammad Al Rais, president of the board of directors of the initiative formed under Shaikh Hamdan’s directives, said the initiative aims to familiarise the younger generation with the UAE’s history.
“We are living in a changing world with many new ways of communication that offer many sources of information, so getting the correct information across to the new generation can be difficult. Through this initiative, we hope to spread accurate information [about the UAE].
In order to make sure that the information distributed by the initiative is correct, the board of directors signed an MoU with the National Council for Documentation and Resources.
Compiling all the information about the UAE’s past, which goes back thousands of years, can be difficult to compress in school curriculum, said Al Rais. As of now, only the last 500 years’ worth of information has been collected. “Therefore, another medium, the ‘1971 competition’, was created.”
Majid Abdul Rahman Al Bastaki, a member of the board of directors, said the first year of the “1971 initiative” will act as an experimental period.
“For now, everything will be in Arabic. And based on how the first year goes, we will see how we can include all residents — Arabic and non-Arabic speakers — in the initiative.”
Other members of the board include Dr Hamad Ali Al Hamadi, Ali Saif Al Sha’ali and Hassan Abdullah Al Mazroui.
Incidentally, if you were wondering what the answer to the question was, February 18, 1968 (the same day the ‘1971 initiative’ was launched) is the day when Dubai and Abu Dhabi united.
