Here's a quicky. Although I believe that the erosion of Emirati culture by Western influences is wholly exaggerated, some interesting points were made during a discussion titled ‘Emirati Authors Write for Emirati Children' at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair 2011 (ADIBF).
 |
| Amazon: Gold Ring (Volume 1)  |
Qais Sedki the author of the Arabic manga Gold Ring, which won the Shaikh Zayed Book Award for Children's Literature in 2010 believes that "The problem is that Emirati children and young adults do not currently have a wide variety of books or characters from our culture that they can identify and connect with, which is why they turn to other cultures to bridge that gap," The panel noted that for children and young adults, there are a lack of programs, books or characters that Emirati youth can identify with and enjoy reading about, saying that one of the reasons for this is because Arabic authors writing for children usually write at their audience, instead of writing for them.
The discussion was highlighted in Gulf News, where they quoted one of the panelists as saying "Other cultures have a strong foundation for writing children's literature… they have developed techniques that encourage children to not only read but also engage with the characters… unfortunately, in this region we are still struggling to find that technique."
Although there maybe some truths to this, I do hate these stories that often appear in the media that often reinforce a misconception and stereotype that Emirati culture is weak, none existent or even irrelevant amongst the current generation of young Locals, when this is far from the truth...
0 Shout Backs:
Post a Comment