Major General Mohammed bin Al Awadi Al Menhali, Director General of Police Operations at Abu Dhabi Police opened a workshop organized by the Social Support Centers Department. The workshop kicked off at Fairmont Bab Al Bahr in Abu Dhabi under the title: “Passive Consumption and its effect on individuals and society.”
During his opening speech, Major General Al Menhali praised the active cooperation between the Abu Dhabi Council for Economic Development (ADCED) and the Marriage Fund, in addition to the Abu Dhabi Police General Headquarters whose collaboration contributed to achieving the goals of the workshop. He stressed on the joint efforts among different bodies and society members to put an end to this consumption trend that has a negative impact on both national and resident families in the United Arab Emirates.
“The consumerism culture that has overwhelmed the Emirati society due to economical prosperity, high per capita income, and open economy has resulted in many economic problems directly destabilizing families. Many young people took out bank loans for illogical reasons and were eventually unable to repay their debts leading them to be legally followed by the banks,” Al Menhali said.
“Many society members are imprisoned because of failure to repay their debt to banks. This imprisonment has affected their behavior stopping them from actively participating in the prosperity and development rise that our country is witnessing in all fields,” he added.
Furthermore, Brigadier Najem Abdullah Al Hosani, Director of the Social Support Centers Department said that this workshop comes under its annual plan to spread awareness among society members and remedy some of family-related problems.
“The Social Support Centers Department is keen to enhance the role of its partners and shed light on some public issues, in order to garner the attention of officials. We are discussing such issues via workshops involving all concerned parties to come up with suggestions, solutions, and recommendations to benefit society,” Al Hosani said.
Regarding the workshop papers, Al Hosani said that they are focusing on the economical factor as an essential element of life.
“The negative social trends have affected families on an economical level, as households focus on their role as financers and forget their role in education and follow up. Due to this disturbance, mismanagement in spending occurs and money resources are used for entertainment instead of essential needs,” he added.
“Negative social behavior is a problem that affects most families, especially national families that enjoy shopping and consuming, disregarding the consequences of such behavior,” he continued.
“We should attract the attention of concerned authorities to support families by educating them and finding alternative means of entertainment other than travelling outside the country during the summer holidays. Travelling must be controlled by enhancing internal tourism; the UAE enjoys numerous touristic attractions that put us ahead of many other countries.” Al Hosani said.
“Families ought to educate youngsters on controlling their material desires; it is a very important element to remedying this trend of overspending. Correcting this behavior from an early age will allow families to affectively curtail the impending future misfortune of bad debt.” Al Hosani added.
Colonel Mohammed Ahmed Al Hosani, Deputy Director of Social Support Centers Department, said: “Problems and challenges that both individuals and families are facing need to be addressed. We have to look for solutions by exam