From the Editors: One year’s leave for working Emiratis to start their businesses a great idea

One year’s leave for working Emiratis to start their businesses a great idea: Emiratis working in the public sector can now avail up to one year’s leave in order to start their own businesses. The announcement was made by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, as he chaired a Cabinet meeting on Thursday. This comes as a massive boost for all those enterprising Emiratis who for so long might have been keen on starting their own entrepreneurial ventures, but were held back because they had jobs to do to keep their households running. Now, with this decision, Emiratis who are interested in starting their own businesses will be able to devote their time and energy to their new ventures for one year, secure with this belief that they will still continue to receive half of their monthly salaries and will also get to retain their jobs. This scheme is yet another instance of the pragmatism of the visionary leadership of the UAE that always accords highest priority to the welfare of the country and the wellbeing of its people. [COMMENT BY: Sanjib Kumar Das, Assistant Editor]

Shootings do not solve problems: The shooting of Japan's former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been condemned around the world as an 'unforgivable attack'. The shooting comes despite Japan's strict gun laws and throws the spotlight again on gun violence. The incident follows mass shootings in the US that have led to an introspection about the ease of buying and carrying guns. Shooting people does not solve problems, they make them worse. Discussing issues and finding ways to tackle them must be given priority. [COMMENT BY: Alex Abraham, Senior Associate Editor]

Dubai property’s end-user buyers can do with some developer help: For two successive quarters, there’s been some decline in the number of mortgage-based transactions in Dubai, even as the wider property sector continues to pull in some sizeable investments. What this suggests is a slower progression in the number of end-user property buyers making an entry. These are the ones who need the support of bank finance to close out the deals on their chosen homes – and while lending is there, it comes attached with a caveat of higher cost of servicing that loan. Can developers in Dubai and UAE help out end-users address these concerns? More so as property values too are rising… [COMMENT BY: Manoj Nair, Business Editor]

Nadal’s decision to pull out sad, but a wise one: Rafael Nadal’s decision to withdraw from Wimbledon on Thursday evening after failing to recover from the abdominal injury – ahead of his semi-final against Nick Kyrgios – is most unfortunate, but a prudent one. If there is one tennis champion whom you would bet playing for your life, it’s got to be the Spaniard and hence, it’s the gravity of the muscle tear (seven mm, to be precise) which must have forced the owner of 22 slams and his medical team to arrive at the decision. There have been several times when he has put his body on the line, be it a knee injury or a painful foot, but he had to give in this time. Will he back at the Wimbledon next year, when he will be 36? We will wait and watch. [COMMENT BY: Gautam Bhattacharyya, Senior Associate Editor]

It’s raining films this Eid-Al-Adha 2022: Say it with me: “There are 18 films releasing this Eid Al Adha in the UAE cinemas and I just can’t complain that it’s slim pickings out there”. And why does this whopping number fill me with such joy? In the last two years, owing largely to the COVID-19, the cinemas worldwide were rattled when its shutters came down. But it’s all in the past now. This year, we have big-ticket films such as fantasy superhero flick ‘Thor: Love And Thunder’, Malayalam superstar Prithvriaj’s testosterone-charged ‘Kaduva’, and Mahira Khan’s entertainer ‘Quaid-E-Azam Zindabad’ from Pakistan to choose from. And if that doesn’t rock your boat, there’s always action hero Vidyut Jammwal from Bollywood obliterating the bad guys in ‘Khuda Haafiz: Chapter 2 Agni Pariksha’. And that’s the beauty of the UAE movie-goers scene. There’s something in it for everybody and it’s a creative carnival this year. [COMMENT BY: Manjusha Radhakrishnan, Assistant Editor Features]