Youths in normal families commit 65% of juvenile crimes in region

Abu Dhabi: Some 65 per cent of juvenile crimes in the Arab world are committed by youths in normal, balanced families, where parents are not divorced, participants at the Family Role in Modern Society conference heard on Wednesday.

Dr Ahmad Al Amoush, Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Sharjah University, said this indicated that even balanced households needed attention.

The two-day conference aims to shed light on the challenges Emirati families are currently facing. The main contributing factors were attributed to globalisation and the opening up of households to numerous imported cultures from across the globe.

Dr Ahmad Wahdan, head of the Assisting Sciences Department and member of the Scientific Council of Policing Sciences at the Sharjah Academy, said the family offered "the first communication experience" a person has in life. He added that this experience would definitely affect a person's entire life.

"Communication between parents and children in Emirati families is cumulatively less than an hour per day," he added.

Leading causes

In a study on the leading causes behind juvenile crime in the Arab word, Al Amoush listed the absence of a father and the absence parental supervision and leadership.

"Divorce in the Arab world has reached 60-65 per cent. Peer pressure, [the] lack of positive role models, children copying their friends, a multitude of TV series that portray values which do not match those of Arab societies and [an] opening [up] to new technologies are all contributing factors to the problem," he explained.

According to Al Amoush, 85 per cent of young people in Arab societies prefer to communicate through chat rooms and social networks rather than face to face.

Dr Jasem Al Marzouqi, director of the Research and Studies Department at the Family Development Foundation, attributed the imbalance of values in the UAE society to the sudden opening up to the outside world, the significant decline in the Emirati population and an increasing expatriate workforce.

"Forty-five per cent of the UAE population is [made up of] youngsters, who will be the future generation. Therefore it is important to instil in them good behaviour and positive values to avoid future problems and divorce, which, according to a study by the Family Development Foundation in 2009, cost the UAE Dh800 million," Al Marzouqi said.

Al Marzouqi pointed to an alarming problem where parents are passing over the responsibility of raising their children to their housemaids.

He added that a drastic increase in the numbers of housemaids, who are reported to number 5 per cent of the UAE's population, reflected an ever-increasing dependence by most families on maids and neglect for their children.

According to a 2007 study conducted by the Ministry of Interior and involving 3,000 families in Abu Dhabi, 19 per cent had four housemaids, 14 per cent had three, 15 per cent had two and 35 per cent had one. In Al Ain alone, 25 per cent of the families had four housemaids.

Al Marzouqi stressed on the importance of fostering awareness among families, instilling positive values, monitoring programmes that address youth and nurturing good behaviour amongst them.

The following emerged from another study led by Dr Ahmad Al Amoush, from Sharjah University, involving 190 children in the UAE:

73.8 per cent said they don't see their father except during meals.70.8 per cent said they see their father for very limited periods of time.63.1 per cent said their fathers help them in their studies (homework).51.2 per cent are terrified of their fathers.36.3 per cent don't share their private lives with their fathers.14.3 per cent said their mothers care to know about their private lives.60.1 per cent said their mothers do not ask them about their private lives.69.6 per cent said their parents are constantly fighting.30.6 per cent of the children constantly feel embarrassed for frequently being put down by their parents.20.7 per cent feel angry when put down.42 per cent feel neglected by their parents.

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Region progressing in workforce gender equality: forum

Vivian Nereim

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ABU DHABI // When Reem Amer began working in the oil industry, she thought her biggest challenges would come from the desert: the sun, the heat, the insects in her lunch.

Instead, she found being the only woman in an all-male environment was tougher than the elements.

People stared. Older technicians found it awkward to follow her instructions. Men did not take her seriously.

"I don't think I have a problem showing we are up to it," Ms Amer said of women in male-dominated industries. "It's more them accepting it."

That Ms Amer, 23, a field engineer, even held such a job is a sign of enormous progress in workforce gender equality in the UAE and Middle East, said people participating in the Women in Leadership Forum yesterday.

"All these sisters who would like to step in and run to the front, the door is open," said Nasif Kayed, the male general manager of the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding, in Dubai.

But working women in the region continue to face hurdles; some subtle, others serious.

Ms Amer, an Egyptian born in the UAE, said she left fieldwork soon after starting. She is still an engineer.

The oilfield services company for which she works, Baker Hughes, supported her and has a special initiative to recruit, retain and develop female engineers. But there was little anyone could do to force the men in the field to accept her.

"It's just the limitations of the region that go beyond programmes," Ms Amer said.

During the two-day forum at the Emirates Palace hotel, participants described the difficulties Middle East women tackle as they advance in their careers.

Sometimes it was the classic dilemma of balancing work and family, they said.

"The traditional picture of women is being at home," said Manal Al Nasser, a Saudi Arabian mother of five who has worked in health care for years. "Acceptance is really taking time."

Societal pressure to marry can lead women to give work lower priority, panellists said.

"I am so disappointed when I go to a high school and I say, 'What are you looking for?' and they say, 'I am looking to get married'," Mr Kayed said. "Why do you have to have a male in your life to become somebody?"

Women who do enter the workforce find a shortage of networking opportunities, several people said.

One audience member asked the panellists for advice about a bonding activity her male colleagues had planned: an overnight boat trip. She cannot go because it would be improper but worries she will miss making connections.

"I am with you on that," said Ghaniyah Al Yafei, a strategic adviser at the Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations. "There is an overnight trip coming next week and I can't go, it's that simple. It is because our culture does not allow it."

Confronted with a similar situation, Aida Al Busaidy asked her brother and her husband if one of them could come along, she said.

"Yes, there are cultural limitations, but 60 per cent of my job is how do you get creative," said Ms Al Busaidy, the manager of planning, internal and online communications for Masdar.

Finally, many women said they faced scepticism from male colleagues.

"They'll look at you and they think, 'Aw, she's so pretty and she's so young', and that's all they think," Ms Al Busaidy said.

Ms Amer described a drill in the field that required her to put on heavy equipment.

"I could tell that everyone was waiting for me to be a huge mess and not be able to put it on," she said. So she did it faster than everyone else.

To be taken seriously as a working woman, Ms Al Busaidy said, you must beat men at their own game.

"I've never regretted being born female," she said. "I have always felt more superior because I am a woman."

vnereim@thenational.ae

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Sharjah To Host The Second International Forum On Technology Transfer In The Arab Region

Dr. Abdalla Alnajjar, President of the Arab Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF) said that under the auspices of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member of the UAE and Ruler of Sharjah, and the Honorary President of the Arab Science and Technology Foundation, ASTF is organizing in cooperation with the Licensing Executives Society -Arab Countries (LES-AC), the second international annual Forum on patents licensing and technology transfer in the Arab region on November 28-29, 2011, in Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates.

The theme for this year’s Forum will be the "Opportunities for Protecting and Marketing Inventions 2011". Among the main participants in the Forum are: the Federation of GCC Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization, and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).

Dr. Abdalla Alnajjar added that the Forum, at its second session this year, will seek through a group of experts, jurists, economists, industrialists, businessmen, academics, and representatives of venture capital and risk funds and companies, to link inventions to the needs for them in the Arab societies, particularly to the economic needs, and mainly in the area of industry and investment.

Dr. Abdalla Alnajjar, President of the Arab Science and Technology Foundation, stressed that the creative Arab minds are able to contribute to the production of knowledge and economic development, and are not limited to importing technology entirely from the West. He praised the role played by the LES-AC in partnership with the Foundation in this area. He stressed that the best way to invest and make use of the invention, is not to protect it through obtaining the patent only; yet the real success for any invention lies in its investment at the industrial level, Stating that the existing inventions should come out of the "Valley of Death"- from the drawers, laboratories and offices- to be invested in the "Valley of Technology," for they are now dead treasures that are not yet invested to serve Arab economies and societies.

Dr. Abdalla Alnajjar added that the invention is a commercial and investment opportunity, and very often its owner does not appreciate its value, and therefore the need emerges for specialists. He underlined the leading role of the Forum that aims to provide the right climate for marketing inventions, through an Arab observatory for their marketing, to be administered by the Foundation in cooperation with LES-AC, to evaluate the viable investment value of inventions’ patents, and to present them to bold venture capital funds and companies, while preserving the property rights to their holders.

On his part, Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, LES-AC Chairman, stressed the importance of partnership between the Society and the Arab Foundation, which comes in line with the professional responsibility of each of them, in connection with the dissemination of awareness among Arab industrialists, businessmen, technology developers, inventors and investors, regarding the protection and marketing of inventions, and strengthening of cooperation between the academic institutions and the economic and industrial sectors.

Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh added that the Forum’s agenda this year covers the various legal and strategic aspects for the protection and investment of inventions, in an attempt to transform the invention into a realistic product available in the market that provides a new technology, so as to offer a new product for the Arab consumer, or to develop an existing product in the market, in terms of quality and price.

He also stressed that this Forum represents a form of support for economic development in the Arab countries through strengthening the Arab experts’ capacities, providing a catalyst climate to link the industrial companies, industries and the universities in the Arab countries and to achieve economic growth.

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UK minister awestruck by students' interest in region

Dubai: UK Minister for Middle East and North Africa, Alistair Burt, says he was struck by Arab students' genuine curiosity and their keen interest in political issues, during a visit to the University of Sharjah (UOS) on Tuesday.

Burt is currently in the UAE to meet with government officials as part of the UK-UAE Taskforce, which builds cooperation in the areas of culture, education, business and defence. The minister held a roundtable discussion with UOS students on recent events in the region. He answered questions and gave a UK perspective on political activities.

"There is a huge and genuine spirit of enquiry and students, like the rest of us, are surprised at what has happened after many years of apparent stability," Burt said.

UOS media student Sally Saeed said her friends were interested in Burt's feedback on Gaza, Iraq and Libya and their questions were about the UK's policies relating to those countries. "I think the minister was very surprised as there isn't a high expectation that Arab students are interested in politics. He said that we have a very good background of Middle East Affairs and said our countries would be very proud of us."

He said students were curious to know what the UK's stance is on issues such as action against Libya and how it was distinguishing between various countries.

"And, of course, Israel and Palestine is a long-running sense of concern and they wanted to know what our attitudes were towards that."

Foreign influence

The students also asked Burt if there was any foreign influence on the turn of events in the Middle East.

"We don't think there is. We think in all these cases... there have been enough domestic reasons for concern and protest...," he said.

However, the minister said that the UK has tried to ensure consistency in their stance, emphasising their belief in the freedom of expression, of assembly, and the right to demonstrate in a peaceful manner.

Burt added that behind some of the questions "there was obviously personal experience, sometimes very heartfelt but with emotions in check no matter how difficult the circumstances were.

"I think any politician finds it enormously rewarding when they're listening to people who have such personal experience to bring and where you get a challenge where a global issue becomes immediately personal. …we believe all politicians should be exposed to enquiry from people, and it's in those places where that spirit does not exist that we see the greatest risk," he said.

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