Problem & Solution

Many people today in the UAE are obese or seriously overweight. Why, and what can be done about it?

Introduction:

Obesity: in statistics

People are getting fatter almost everywhere in the world. The World Health Organization predicts there will be 2.3 billion overweight adults in the world by 2015 and more than 700 million of them will be obese. Figures for 2005 show 1.6 billion adults were overweight and 400 million were obese. People are getting fatter almost everywhere in the world. The World Health Organization predicts there will be 2.3 billion overweight adults in the world by 2015 and more than 700 million of them will be obese. Figures for 2005 show 1.6 billion adults were overweight and 400 million were obese. Obesity is a modern problem - statistics for it did not even exist 50 years ago. The increase of convenience foods, labour-saving devices, motorised transport and more sedentary jobs means people are getting fatter.

BMI Explained

The body mass index (BMI) is the most commonly-used way of classifying overweight and obesity in adult populations and individuals.

(http://news.bbc.co.uk/)


So, growing obesity rates are a worldwide problem. It is a particular problem here in the UAE. In the past, most Emiratis lived a harder, more nomadic existence, involving hard travel and physical labour. Today most live a softer, more sedentary life, travelling by car and holding desk jobs requiring little physical exertion. That these jobs exist is due to the rapid economic expansion over the past 40 years, since the discovery and exploitation of oil. In addition, many people today entertain themselves by watching TV or playing computer games, neither of which involves physical exercise. Even when they leave home, many Emiratis no longer walk; they drive everywhere and many seem to have an antipathy towards leaving their cars: for example, parking outside shops and tooting for service seems to be a local pastime. Finally, as well as traditional Arab cuisine, itself often quite high in fat and sugar content, there is today the widespread temptation and easy availability of high-fat and high-sugar fast food. McDonalds, KFC, Dunkin' Donuts,and various pizza chains are ubiquitous throughout the UAE. As a consequence, the UAE had the highest rate of diabetes in the world in 2007, with 19.5% of the population aged 20-79 affected ( The Economist, Pocket World in Figures, 2009, p. 84), with 17.1% of total male population and 31.4% of female population clinically obese, meaning a body mass index of over 30 (The Economist, Pocket World in Figures, 2009, p.87).

The solutions? The only viable long-term solution is education. At an early age, children should be taught the importance of two things: a healthy diet and regular physical exercise. A better diet involves not just choosing healthier ingredients, such as fruit and vegetables. Sauces and style of cooking need to be watched. A healthy salad becomes a less healthy option if coated in, say, mayonnaise. Fish and potatoes are themselves good nutritious foods, but less so if fried as fish and chips. Governments around the world can help by encouraging schools to teach nutrition seriously. Campaigns in the media to educate all sections of the population, especially parents, to eat healthily, can also help. Cars, TVs and computers are not going to disappear so the only viable solution is education to encourage better diet and more physical exercise.

535 words

Bibliography:

The Economist, Pocket World in Figures, 2009, Profile Books, London, 2009.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7151813.stm

Traffic congestion in Abu Dhabi

Traffic congestion and parking problems are faced by most large cities around the world, and Abu Dhabi is no exception. In particular, parking is a major problem here in Abu Dhabi. The main overall reason for these problems in Abu Dhabi is the rapidly expanding population. More people means more drivers and thus more cars on the roads. Many of these drivers are young and inexperienced which means more accidents and more hold-ups. Another factor is Abu Dhabi's rapid economic development over the past few decades. Abu Dhabi’s wealth is based on oil and huge sums of petrodollars have financed a remarkable expansion of the city’s infrastructure: roads, bridges, tunnels, overpasses, underpasses, port facilities, banks, schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, service industries, hotels, high-rise buildings, numerous and varied construction ventures, including man-made islands such as Rheem and Sadiyat, not to mention the F1 island of Yas, with its, by now, world-famous motor racing circuit, along with Ferrari World, hotel complexes and so on.. This economic and industrial expansion has transformed the city over the past thirty or forty years; indeed Abu Dhabi is unrecognizable from what it was forty years ago. More commercialization and industrialisation inevitably means more business and so more commercial vehicles, many of them large and slow-moving. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Dhabi ) The economic expansion and consequent growth in traffic is likely to continue. Strong government spending, especially in Abu Dhabi, and improved consumer confidence will boost private consumption. Abu Dhabi plans to develop the emirate as a manufacturing hub, with the Khalifa Port & Industrial Zone providing essential infrastructure. A virtually tax-free environment and good infrastructure will lead to foreign workers returning after a fall in the expatriate population in 2009. Even if oil prices failed to reach forecast levels, ‘the Abu Dhabi government would be able to use its vast overseas investments to sustain public spending’ (http://country.eiu.com=1674940018country=UnitedArab Emirates). There are also now many more new, high-rise buildings but they haven't all been constructed with adequate parking space and this has led to massive parking problems in the business district. The fact that Abu Dhabi is an island with limited space for transport development has further added to the problem. Dubai has developed a metro system to ease traffic flow, but there is less space on the island of Abu Dhabi for a similar rail system. There is thus a massive traffic and parking problem facing the city of Abu Dhabi. What are the possible solutions? One obvious solution is to improve the existing road network by constructing more bridges, overpasses and underpasses to ease traffic flow. Another possible solution is to improve public transport, with better bus services and a new rail network, as in Dubai with its new metro. Yet another possibility is for the authorities, as in Singapore, to make motoring more expensive, through higher registration fees, restrictions on where and when motorists may use their cars, etc. Another answer often suggested is to relocate government buildings, ministries, embassies and so on off-island. There have also been reports that the authorities are planning to introduce a road-toll system in Abu Dhabi to reduce the number of cars on the road. (http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/traffic-transport/abu-dhabi-plans-to-introduce-road-toll) The first solution is already underway, an example being the recently opened underpass on Salam Street, near Khalifa Park. Roads can be, and are being, widened and improved. Similarly, public bus services have been much improved recently. A few years ago most buses in Abu Dhabi were old, poorly maintained and badly driven, but recently newer, safer, more reliable bus services have been introduced. The problem with regard to thr second possible solutiom, that of imposing greater restrictions on motorists, is that many people will see them as an attack on individual liberty and no doubt they would prove unpopular, at least to begin with. What works in Singapore will not necessarily work here in Abu Dhabi. It would be possible to introduce new legislation, for example to raise the age limit for driving licence application, increasing parking/speeding fines and so forth, but a major problem is the enforcement of such laws. There has been a recent drive to solve parking problems by introducing paid parking but there have been many complaints about the cost, fairness and effectiveness of parking permits. With regard to solving parking problems, the existing rules regarding new buildings having adequate parking space, preferably underground, must be strictly enforced. It’s of little use to have regulations if they are not rigorously enforced. As we can see, it’s easy to list possible solutions to Abu Dhabi’s traffic and parking problems but rather more difficult to ascertain which are likely to be most effective and viable. Bibliography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Dhabi http://country.eiu.com/article.aspx?articleid=167494001&country=United Arab Emirates http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/traffic-transport/abu-dhabi-plans-to-introduce-road-toll-to-reduce-traffic-congestion-1.62014 651 words.

Reflection 1

The first thing I taught the students was referencing; I emphasised the difference between online citations (brief) and bibliography (full details). Unfortunately several students started the course late, one in week 6 & without a laptop, and some of the students didn't pay 100% attention, and so with a few students there was confusion as to what citations and bibliography meant.

The students then summarised a magazine article and referenced using easybib.com (1st research task).

The 2nd research task was the comparison between the Bugatti Veyron & the Porsche 911 Turbo. The main problem was getting the students to do accurate citations & bibliography; several wanted to use numbering in their texts rather than citations.

The students are now working on Report Submissions 1 & 2. Some have posted 2, some 1 and some 0. Further reflections on this later.

E-mail

The innovation which has transformed my professional life in recent years is the e-mail. At ADMC we faculty live and die by electronic mail. We send, every day, e-mails to people who are only a few desks away. In the past we would have gone to see these people in person or written hard copy notes to leave on their desks.

Electronic mail predates the inception of the Internet, and was in fact a crucial tool in creating the Internet. MIT first demonstrated the Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS) in 1961. It allowed multiple users to log into the IBM 7094 from remote dial-up terminals, and to store files online on disk. This new ability encouraged users to share information in new ways. E-mail started in 1965 as a way for multiple users of a time-sharing mainframe computer to communicate. Although the exact history is murky, among the first systems to have such a facility were SDC's Q32 and MIT's CTSS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail).

So e-mail has been around a long time but it is only in the last 10-15 years that it has played a part in my professional development.In fact, all aspects of life have been changed by e-mail. When I first went to Brunei (we landed in Bandar Seri Begawan, or BSB, the capital, on 1st January, 1980) there was no widely available worldwide web. No-one had a computer. E-mails were unheard of. There were no projectors in classrooms. There weren't even whiteboards or airconditioning units in classrooms. I used chalk on a blackboard. And this was in the Pusat Tingkatan Enam (Sixth Form Centre), at that time the leading academic institution in the whole country. We didn't even have air-conditioning in our staff room, and papers had to be weighted down on desks to prevent them being blown away by the fans.

The contrast with the situation here today in ADMC is striking. Every classroom has a/c, projectors, smartboards, whiteboards. http://www.admc.hct.ac.ae/internet/. I can communicate with all my students by e-mail; getting them to check and read their e-mails is a different matter.

E-mails have transformed not just my professional life but all aspects of life in general. Increasingly people in their everyday lives, as well as their professional ones, are switching from old-fashioned letter writing to e-mail. It would appear to be an inexorable progression from hard to soft copy. When, in 1986, I was studying for my Licentiate Diploma in TESOL with Trinity College, London, (http://www.trinitycollege.co.uk/), I received work modules by airmail, and returned the completed work likewise. It would take weeks for work to arrive, be completed, returned to London, get marked and sent back. The same tasks could be completed today by e-mail in a fraction of the time. The world has been transformed by electronic mail.

503 words


Bibliography:

"E-mail." En.wikipedia.org. http://www.google.com/. Web. 15 Nov. 2009.

"E-learning." www.admc.hct.ac.ae/internet. Web. 15 Nov. 2009.

http://www.trinitycollege.co.uk/

Child car seats

It’s in your hands

The article says that child seats in cars save lives. In the UAE, traffic injuries cause most childhood fatalities but they are preventable. The shocking statistics, from Health Authority - Abu Dhabi (HAAD), are that 98% of children here do not travel in child safety seats. 23% of children travel frequently and illegally in the front seat, 96% of them unrestrained. In 46% of all countries the use of child safety restraints is mandatory by national law but, among GCC countries, only in Saudi Arabia.

83% of belted and restrained children remain uninjured in accidents. So Chevrolet, a division of General Motors, is launching in initiative to raise awareness of infant car safety across the UAE. Chevrolet is working with HAAD, Dubai Health Authority, Sharjah Medical District and the child injury prevention agency Safe Kids Worldwide, to train maternity nurses in car safety across three hospitals in the UAE. It will also donate 1,500 premium Maxi-Cosi child car seats to parents of new-born babies. The basic idea is that if parents take home their babies strapped in a child seat they are more likely to continue to strap them in throughout childhood. The article concludes with advice on which car seat best suits the size and age of your child.

Thekkepat, Shiva Kumar. "It’s in Your Hands." Gulf News Friday Magazine 25 Feb. 2011: 14-19

205 words.

Bibliography & Citation

Kharma and Hajjaj (1989) describe characteristics of conditional usage in writing by learners whose first language is Arabic. The Type 1 conditional (If + present + future) was the next most common form they encountered. They state that it generally does not pose a problem for Arab learners (Kharma and Hajjaj, p.138). This correlates with my experience in the UAE where I have found upper elementary and lower intermediate learners quickly demonstrate an ability to conceptualize and use the Type 1 conditional.

Bibliography:

Kharma, N., & Hajjajj, A. (1989). Errors in English Among Arabic Speakers: Analysis and Remedy. Essex: Longman. pp. 137 - 142

(1) Who did the original research? Kharma, N & Hajjajj, A
(2) What was the name of the book? Errors in English Among Arabic Speakers
(3) Who was the publisher? Longman
(4) Where was the book published? Essex
(5) When was the book published? 1989
(6) What format has been used? MLA