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The UAE's Year of Reading will drive creativity

The ambitious future cannot be conceived without developed minds.

I grew up in a household that was adorned with books. They belonged to my late father who had acquired a special appreciation for them. While his collection at the time was relatively small, I grew attached to the stacks of paper seeing him being so fond and protective of them. They reminded him of his first venture as an entrepreneur when he jointly opened a bookshop. This meant a lot especially that it came from a person who never went to formal schooling and only received basic teaching as a child. All the rest of his knowledge was self-taught, and books were definitely one of his windows into the world.
Books are cherished because they feed our curiosity. They enable us to be explorers, debaters, and dreamers. Inquisitive minds will always ask questions - never mind if they ever get answered - and reading is one means of fulfilling such probing. It is perhaps one of the most personal activities that we can engage in throughout our lifetime. It is a dialogue between the written word and us as readers - almost solitary and exclusive. Nothing can disrupt or interrupt such a dialogue. And it is because of it that we become zealous devotees as soon as we fall in love with the written word.
Inevitably, making reading a dedication in life means that the seed is planted at an early stage - that is even before children are able to jabber a letter, let alone walk. It is this spell that introduces a child into the world of wonder, one that weaves a fondness towards a story being heard for the first time. Reading from there on becomes at best a craving or only an occasional habit. But what hooks us all on reading is the pleasure it brings to us. If children discover that reading is fun and can be enjoyable, mainly at home and later school and college, the habit will become a life companion.
All of us who have a dependency on reading as part of our existence have reached it as a result of an encounter, at one point in our lives. We can vividly recall which event - or person - that prompted us to pledge allegiance to the world of the written word. It is this bond creation that is the most challenging of all when it comes to making reading part of our lives - regardless of the genre, form, medium or quantity that we may seek.
So why is the UAE so keen on making reading an official agenda for 2016 as it is dubbed the Year of Reading? There are already several reputed book fairs that take place throughout the year, numerous initiatives encouraging people to engage in reading, as well as various entities that have established programmes that include reading as an integral part of it. Why should a year be dedicated to an already existing array of activities that in one way or the other, cover reading? Has the UAE in some way stopped reading? Or are all these ongoing efforts just not been enough?
"Scientists, thinkers, researchers, and innovators do not descend from the sky. Instead, their base is built from the earth. and the strongest base from which a construction is raised is love for reading and curiosity for knowledge. Current generations are suffering from a reading crisis and we do not compliment ourselves when it comes to developing these generations, and the government is concerned in graduating an educated reading generation", said His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
It is with an eye towards the future that the UAE views itself. Ambitiously, it wants to excel and achieve. For instance, it wants to be in outer space and has set the calendar to 2020 when the Emirates Mars Mission probe is set to be launched as the first major venture into the field. Numerous grand museums that aim at creating a cultural base would open soon one after the other. A changing role of development and concept of participation outside the nation's geographical parameters has set the pace of how the nation is engaged beyond its borders. Internally and externally, the country has set a course of rapid action in various fields. All of these and more are indicators of a future where the UAE would like to be in the coming decades.
So what does all of this have to do with reading? Well, we cannot go into space without scientists. We cannot reach out with development programmes or share the knowledge encompassed in museums without experts in the field. We cannot be creative in the arts and culture without genuine writers, painters, and performers. The ambitious future cannot be conceived without developed minds. We are in much need of the scientific brains, analytical experts, and other imaginative creatives. All of whom will certainly not be with us today or tomorrow if reading is not rooted in them.
Najla Al Rostamani is a UAE-based columnist and media consultant with interests in local and international socio-political affairs