Author: Zara

11/10/2015

“The customers are our guests and deserve the best of what we can offer.” With these words HH Sheikh Mohamed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, honored the Services Centre of the Emirates Identity Authority. These words filled the hearts with feelings of delight and pride and articulated the awareness and exceptional ability of the leadership to absorb the requirements of the future, the needs of the nation and the dreams of the citizen.

We are the happiest people as our leaders are full of love for the country, commitment to the people and preparedness to sacrifice for their wellbeing and progress. The UAE could not have achieved what it did without the ability of its people who sailed the cosmic seas to harvest the pearls of success in order to assert his existence in a world in a constant state of change economically, socially, politically and culturally. This UAE accomplishment did not come from nowhere; it is the result of hard work and the ideas of its leadership that never postponed to tomorrow what is to be done today and never hesitated in taking advantage of the possibilities and capacities of the citizen and the resident in various spheres of life.

When a visitor who comes to an organization for some transaction becomes a guest, we must remember hospitality is a deep-rooted Arab virtue. When this happens, it means the UAE has transcended the knowledge levels of many countries. This culture is attainable only to a people whose necks reached the stars. The community has been blessed with values that teem with love, honesty and sincerity. This community is satisfied that work is worship and a sacred task and the one who does not work does not deserve to be among the human species.

This is what we learn from the words of HH Sheikh Mohamed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. This is the message that reaches every person living in this country in which no tree without fruits will rise.

This is how we understand this plaque and the meaning of national identity. This is how we comprehend the quality that sets the emirati human being apart from the rest because the UAE has become the paragon of these virtues. It is sensitive to the pain of others because life here and on this earth is like a wave in our emotions.

23/08/2015

As the reign of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, father of the Emirates and the Arab sage, was about creation of the state, the reign of HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of State, is about empowerment. We know this fact in the United Arab Emirates. The empowerment is achieved indeed in this sense by the exceptional speech of the President marking the National Day 2005. This speech has been later considered a historic document that contains the approach of HH Sheikh Khalifa which has become a government action plan after the Federal Supreme Council adopted the speech and the underlying goals. The speech covered aspects of development and called for moral or moral-like actions such as environment protection or volunteering.

However, the main focus of HH Sheikh Khalifa speech in 2005 as stressed in his national day speech in 2007 is related to the elections of the Federal National Council to empower the Emirati citizen through gradual political participation. Since then, empowerment in all senses especially that of elections and political participation is somewhat on the table. We hope that this term would be our daily and strategic concern and would be labeled as top priority in our national agenda.

Zayed’s creation of the state was conducive to Khalifa’s empowerment. That is a fact. The constitution of the United Arab Emirates was advanced and really ahead of its time. In the constitution, the Federal National Council is the fourth federal authority after the Federal Supreme Council, president and vice president of the state and the cabinet. According to the constitution, the fifth authority is the federal judiciary which has stood tall in the last decades as a safety for this country.

What does it mean that the founding fathers including the late Sheikh Zayed have decided to have the Federal National Council is the fourth authority? It is an early call to engage the kind and dear people of the United Arab Emirates (according to a video by HH Sheikh Zayed) in legislation and country management.

The FNC has managed to achieve part of this. It was a school from which several ministers, heads of departments and officers have graduated. The FNC must positively play its role to the end, giving honest and transparent opinions on the referred issues. This point has been reiterated by both the Late Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Khalifa.

What has been written in documents should be put into force. The FNC does not have as low ceiling as some suggests. This ceiling is going to be higher on gradual basis in the years to come. However, this needs positive and limitless contribution from the members as the parliamentarian representation of people cannot tolerate: compromised solutions and half measures.

The members should extensively give inside and outside the State. Always take steps forward and never go back. Build on what has been done without a break with the past. The council should encourage teamwork and avoid the blocs we have seen before at sporadic events. Some say that they feel the ceiling will not allow for this. Such feeling should be ignored

The ceiling allows for a lot of things unlike some allegations. The FNC members have time and should use it all to serve country and citizens. We should here state a fact. The FNC has wasted a lot of time because of some interruptions, longer summer vacation before the constitutional amendment, meeting for one day only instead of two consecutive days unless there is an emergency or because of repeatedly discussed issues.

Empowerment can be achieved through more knowledge of both the local and international affairs and hard work to review laws, legislation and regulations on a regular basis. This would include coordination with the executive and higher authorities on some long-awaited constitutional amendments. The amendments include modification of article that provides for the number of the FNC members at 40. It is not reasonable to have the same number in both 1972 and 2015 while citizen numbers are multiplying, scholarships are making comeback to the UAE and institutions are developing within a remarkable governmental performance not only on the region but also on the world.

Will the 2015 FNC work together with senior executives on constitutional amendments that live up to the UAE expectations?

Election slates

Such slates are key in terms of choice and representation. This year, slates are almost free of the errors of the two previous experiences which contained some names of deceased people. These errors may have been avoided because of the reliance on the Emirates ID Authority and the Population Register. We should thank the Emirates ID Authority on their effort and learn from this experience after extracting the participant numbers. Like our previous experiences, some names are still away from the competition whether as voters or candidates. We should consider election as one consistent and indivisible experience.

26/07/2015

Keeping pace with the technological development is a welcome thing for service providers. It is in the interest of the recipients of the services. The Emirates Identity Authority’s follow up on the development of its smart application is commendable as it is in line with the expectations of all as it meets their needs in the shortest possible time frame.

Its plan to implement these things in a gradual manner allows the customers to take to the changes in a comfortable manner and to deal with the application in tune with the stages of its evolution, enabling the customers to take maximum advantage via their mobile phones for renewal of their ID cards or their replacement.

Therefore, the variety in smart applications offered by listed entities in the framework of the smart government policy will become a quality addition in the civilizational march.

29/05/2015

Doubtless; the recent decision of the Cabinet to set up a national unified database for all medical registers for the sick – via e-linkage among public sector and private sector hospitals reporting to either the Ministry of Health or the Health Authorities in Abu Dhabi and Dubai and the Emirates Identity Authority – will serve the government’s policy of strengthening relations among institutions. The e-linkage will be established by using the ID card in the provision of government services and adopting the unique ID number as the unified number for updating patients’ data.

The decision is in sync with the UAE’s efforts to establish a national health care system on par with the global standards as per the UAE Vision 2021. This is in order to strengthen the competitive edge of the country in health care and enhance its global ranking as per the performance indicators of health systems according to the World Health Organization. As of now, the UAE enjoys the 27^th ranking globally in the WHO assessment.

The decision came at the same time as the announcement of the government’s smart transition in regard to government services reaching 96.3% with 331 services provided to the public on a daily basis having been made ‘smart’. It is a significant step in the UAE’s efforts to keep pace with global changes by relying on technology and smart applications for purposes of improving the quality of life for the people.

The decision is expected to improve the medical services provided to the patients as it would make it easier for them to receive suitable treatment as it ensures easy access to their illness history right up to their family background.

Another important advantage of the decision is that it will create a national database of genetically transmitted diseases endemic to the country, making it easier for the concerned authorities in the country to conduct studies and research about them and to adopt policies as well as preventive and curative programs for the prevalent diseases in the local community, besides putting in place mechanisms and strategies suitable for enhancing the performance of medical institutions in general.

The new system will also reduce the cost of treatment individually and institutionally through reduction in average cost of medical tests and the utilization of the available data for purposes of medical research.

The enhancement of performance in the medical sector in the UAE is sure to improve the position of the country in the world map for medical tourism. This will also strengthen various other components of the whole process, such as government spending on the health sector, the infrastructure of the sector and medical projects with qualitative importance such as the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi.  This is in addition to the several medical legislations that the country adopted and its effort to enhance the standards for medical practices, such as the launch of the initiatives ‘the UAE Board’ and the decision to approve mobile health care to provide medical services to those who are unable to visit the hospitals such as the elderly living in remote areas. This is aimed at executing the UAE strategy of guaranteeing the right of every individual in the UAE society to receive basic and comprehensive medical care to the best standards and of giving care to the special needs people.

These intensive efforts are integral to a comprehensive development perspective that the UAE has adopted in order to make the standard of living in the UAE society one of the best in the world in various walks of life.

26/05/2015

The most important prayer that emanates from your heart is for Allah to grant those who you love full health and a long life.

And the most important thing you can do to any human being is to extent him a helping hand when he faces health problems.

“The health of our citizens and those who live amidst us in our country is our priority,” said HH Sheikh Mohamed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

As such, an integrated health system on par with global specifications will be set up, including a national health database register that will include all those who visit government and private hospitals, with each patient having a unique number to identify him in whichever hospital in the UAE he visits. This number will be his password using which his doctor will access his health file.

The ID number is the medical key which will enable all doctors to access the files of the patients and understand the views of other doctors about their health conditions.

It is important for everyone to know how to utilize the technological development to serve him, facilitate work and save time.

The important thing about health files is to avoid errors committed by doctors and reduce the confusion felt by the patient. Whenever a patient is referred by a doctor to a hospital, he is forced to undergo the same tests that he had just got done days or weeks before.

The new development is bound to limit wastage of time and money for the patients, as well as the pain of carrying numerous files from one hospital to another as if he was starting a new treatment process from point zero. It is important for any hospital to accept the test results from another.

The country now wants to link the medical files to the development it is witnessing all around, and to offer a helping hand and a sense of happiness and comfort. Its eyes are fixed also on the world outside to extend medical and humanitarian help for those who need it. Today, it is carrying to the UAE the injured and affected families from Yemen and other regions suffering from devastation and plunder at the hands of the Houthis in order to provide them treatment in the hospitals here.

What the UAE is now doing for Yemen is nothing new. It is the same country that entered Palestine, particularly the besieged Gaza. It is the same country that sets sail towards any country near or far whose people need help as a result of catastrophes or wars.

It is a country that strives to extend to others the advanced health care and services that its people and residents enjoy.

 

14/05/2015

I continue to suffer from many complexes and search for my identity all the time. Is it more appropriate for me to belong to the sea or the land? At times I visit the animal farms run by my friends in the Western Region and feel I am actually here. At other times, I go into the sea in Ajman with my friends and feel I belong there. Last Friday, my friend in the Coast Guard refused to go into the sea along with the group of friends under any circumstance. No amount of cajoling would make him budge an inch and made it clear his was the final decision. Whoever does not carry the ID card would not venture into the sea, he ruled. The Law is supreme!

You know that your ID card carries your beautiful picture and you use it for many things. I wish its use could be further expanded to include everything in life. I wish a day will come on which we do not carry our driver’s licenses, car ownership card, health card, library card from Sharjah Library, access card for parks, exchange card from Western Union and thousands of other cards we carry. Before I forget, let me add the ATM card as well……They are an organization that works. It is said they have a wonderful workforce that is beautiful, quick in service delivery and excellent in performance. They have air-conditioned buildings offering Wi-Fi service too!

The point is that many government departments do not let you enter nowadays without producing your ID card at the entrance. Frankly, I don’t know if it is legal but it happens. Naturally, it is great that your meeting inside a government department is fruitful. So you rush out, spread the news among your partners and later realize you had left your ID at the entrance! After five meetings daily throughout the week for a period of a whole month, you don’t remember in which department you left your ID. Returning to all of those departments and enquiring after your ID as if you are a child who lost its toy is a trifle embarrassing: is my identity here? Does the picture not resemble me? I swear it is me. I know my granddad’s name is weird! It had derived from a species of peregrines….feign ignorance about what you don’t know!

Keeping the ID then becomes the duty of an employee in that department, who over time begins to feel you are late to take it back. He tries to call you or look for your number but finally returns it to the Authority which delivers it back to you. Of course it is a favor from them. There is another type who leaves your ID in his shelf until it gathers rust and you discover you had lost it while you are at the border crossing in Khatm Al Mallaha. You will definitely be forced to return home. Good right?!

It will not please anyone to be in that situation, except for the fish ‘Hamour’ that escaped from the iron grip. (That is my name in the sea). It will be nice of the government entities and the Identity Authority to put in place some mechanism to return the ID cards to their owners. This is particularly so if they are planning to expand the use of the card.

May you be healthy. By the way, how much for card replacement?

16/04/2015

In the journey of life, you pass through many experiences and stations. They take us far towards the shores of many beginnings. That is the divine order of things in creation. We learn and unlearn, and then again relearn the same, as if age is a train that traverses different stations each with its own unique environment and traits that impact on us and leave its imprint on our personalities.

At an early age our theory of life is marked by a kind of innocence and simplicity for everything in us then remains pure and uncontaminated by life’s pollutants. The rules of interests and benefits have not begun to dominate us at that stage. Our friendships, our love, our hate – they are all based on our emotions and our sense of the love of others for us.

In the spring of life, changes begin. Rules and fundamentals differ. Calculations come into the picture. Weaving of relations is based on new references. Selection and estrangement begin on the basis of priority lists. Mutuality of interests, beginning from simple things, gradually becomes the basis on which we look at everything and deal with everything.

In the midst of all that, there are principles that are changeless and foundational things at the core of our convictions that are beyond disturbance. Among them are our father and mother, our fundamental base and reference, the roots about which if we play our calculations, we lose the flavor of our life.

In this context, there was a composition that impressed me, from among the many messages that we receive daily on our smart phones and for which we spend a lot of our time. The title of that composition was ‘I and My Father: The Story of My Life’. I believe each of us went through what it conveys. The composition that I mention here is as follows:

At the age of 4: My father is the best.

At 6: My father knows everything and he is matchless

At 10: My father is wonderful, but he is obstinate

At 12: My father was kind when I was small

At 14: My father turned against me and is very sensitive

At 16: My father is incapable of keeping pace with the times and wants me to live my life according to the norms of his time

At 18: With each passing day, my father appears bitterer.

At 20: It is very difficult to tolerate my father. I wonder how my mother suffered him

At 25: My father opposes everything I want to do

At 30: It is impossible to agree with my father. Did my grandfather tire of my father when he was young?

At 40: My father brought me up in this life with a lot of disciple and I must do the same

At 50: It is difficult to control my adolescent sons. How much my father must have suffered in bringing us up?

At 55: My father had a long term vision and plan to achieve our interests, putting in all efforts. He was outstanding and kind.

At 60: My father is matchless. He was the best.

The conclusion was the same as the beginning. It took us 56 years to realize that ‘my father was the best.’

Let us do good to us parents before it is too late. Time does not return to compensate for what we lost. Goodness to parents is among the best things Allah directed us to do. He linked goodness to parents with our worship for Him, the One who accepts no partners.

Oh Lord, be merciful to them as they brought us up when we were small.

05/04/2015

Change is an inevitable mode of life and a reality that we must not only experience and accept but also seek to achieve in all social, economic, environmental or knowledge-related walks of life and try to harness for moving from the actual reality to a brighter and more distinctive future.

It was Allah Who created the universe and made change one of the laws that govern it and regulate the relationship among its components. It is emphasized in several parts of the Holy Quran that a steady life for a human being is totally out of question as understood from Allah’s verses: “And these days We alternate among the people” (Al Imran-140). This not only makes it easy for us to accept change but even encourages us to strive to create the conditions that will contribute to making it a success in the best way to our benefit as individuals and to the benefit of our organizations and society.

To make it a success in organizations, this being our concern in this stage, change must be dealt with according to scientific methodologies and managed by such methods that will render it a major contributor to achieving a quantum leap in the organization’s output, no matter if the organization is service-related, industrial, educational or otherwise. This is achieved by applying a holistic and practical approach ranging from the current reality to the reality wanted to be reached.

Managing change in an organization means planning for transition from  an actual situation to a targeted one with the aim of achieving specific objectives within a clear common vision combining the leadership and employees, through which changes to a certain system are made. These changes are implemented in such a manner that can be controlled through following specific framework and model in an orderly manner coupled with minimum harassment or inconvenience to the organization’s internal and external audience.

All the employees of the organization must be urged to take part in carrying out the change project by raising their awareness and familiarizing them with the situation intended to be moved to, developing their aptitudes and skills for dealing with the new situation in a skillful and simple manner and helping them accept the change and the associated regulations and instructions and understand the new roles and responsibilities of those affected by it.

Finally, I must say that today is yours but tomorrow is someone else’s and that one’s weakness is embodied in one’s inability to maintain the position one has already assumed. This requires each of us to accept the change and ignore all the effects that may lead one to reject it or fail to deal with it. Each one of us is also required to overcome the obstacles and difficulties by means of self-challenge and the ability to prove one’s worth in order to be distinguished and unique. Thus, change in itself is a cure for instability and lack of the spirit of creativity and innovation. Without the fluctuation of the living conditions, there is no way for an arrogant man to become humble or an ignorant man to learn.

Raya Hilal Al Darmaki / Registration Executive
Fujairah Customer Service Center

03/02/2015

The elections to the Federal National Council (FNC) are expected to be a greater success not just because we are now in the year 2015 and not in 2011, but due to multiple reasons, chief among them being the early decision to form a committee reflective of the eagerness of HH Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE President, for carrying on with the UAE’s experience in political participation. The diverse competencies and expertise that characterize the members of the National Committee for Elections are indicative of that eagerness – no excellence without an excellent work team. In its meeting last Thursday, the Committee reviewed many of the technicalities of the upcoming elections, particularly the services expected of the organizations and authorities, with the Emirates Identity Authority in their forefront. Our society expects the conduct of elections to be more efficient and error-free in light of the Emirates ID’s achievements such as the population register.

We want our society to contribute towards the success of the FNC elections in 2015 and even later, but how?

Success is not the responsibility of the Committee alone. We want the FNC itself to play a role – its chairman, members and the General Secretariat. We want more transparency from the members. We want the relationship between the FNC members and the citizens to be a permanent, lively, vibrant and lasting one, not a seasonal and narrow one focused on the elections.

We want our society to try electoral practices and train themselves on them wherever they are found, especially in public welfare societies and in public joint stock companies.

Elections are an educative experience as well as a knowledge and culture. We have to congratulate HH Dr. Sultan Bin Mohamed Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah for his pioneering idea for setting up consultative councils for children and youth. The schools must begin to take up this role, so must the home – the role of educating and sensitizing.

It is necessary here to appreciate the joint initiative of the Ministry of State for Federal National Council and the UAE University to hold an annual forum for strengthening the values of political participation.

All of us, each according to his capacity, are keen on the continuous success of political participation as per the methods laid down by HH the President. These methods have proved their merit in the midst of  the storms brewing in the region.

01/02/2015

A friend of mine answered his own question about the benefits of the identity card, which I least expected. Even before I responded, he said the identity card was supposed to make carrying passport unnecessary. In fact; during the card’s promotion and propagation, it was told that it would make carrying a host of cards that our purses contain unnecessary – such as the health insurance card, even the ATM card. But the reality is quite the contrary; those were merely the expectations and orientations of the Smart Government and smart applications and initiatives of “paperless administrations.”

The unexpected question of the man was justified in view of what is happening before us, in terms of the similar experiences that customers went through. When you present your identity card to complete your transaction, the officer, who has not heard about faster procedures, creativity and innovation except from the media, asks you for a copy of the passport. The customer tries to convince the officer that an identity card is issued only for a UAE national who possesses a passport and a family book, and for an expatriate who possesses a passport and a legally valid residency from an empowered authority (in this case ‘the Residency and Immigration Affairs’).

The expatriate approaches the officer with a copy of his son’s residency, which clearly states that he is a student not allowed to work, but the officer demands a document for the same, reflecting the bureaucratic method of the likes of this officer who tend to accumulate papers and photocopies of transactions merely to satisfy his ego and to indulge in what he considers to be the power and privilege that come with his position! The likes of this officer with his behavior do not only pursue a bureaucratic path, but also expresses doubts about the validity and accuracy of information documented by another government authority.

Before we demand the Emirates Identity Authority to restore the esteem of its card and to show that the purpose behind it being mandatory is to make life easier for its carrier and to consolidate his data and protect them against loss, we called upon all concerned authorities directly dealing with the people to sensitize their staff that the times have changed. We are moving in the direction of a culture of smart government and smart applications that do not jell with an authority that asks for attested rent contract or its copy or electricity bill for vaccinating a child, as if the officer believes that the customer is a lover of darkness or has turned absent-mindedly towards the power of the sun and winds!