ABU DHABI // Parents, prepare for the sound of thousands of excited, squealing children - the Cartoonival cast are back in town.
The troupe, made up of cartoon characters such as Dexter, of Dexter's Laboratory, and Mojo Jojo, an evil genius monkey, joined the Summer in Abu Dhabi celebrations at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (Adnec) yesterday.
MORE UAE NEWS: Our pick of today's top local news stories
Unpaid workers on strike at Dh7bn Reem Island project More than 300 workers on the Tameer Towers project have not been paid since April and have stopped working on the development. Read article
Most private schools hold fees steady Fees rise an average of 12 per cent but only in 60 schools across the capital. Read article
Modern icons: towers that bend space and light The Etihad Towers are not yet finished but they already dominate in the Ras Al Akhdar district.
Read article
MORE UAE NEWS
And The Powerpuff Girls, the mortal enemies of Mojo Jojo, will also join the festivities.
The cast, which will perform 12 shows over the last nine days of this year's programme, arrived at Adnec on an open-top double-decker bus.
Faisal Al Sheikh, an events manager for the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA), said: "We have prioritised keeping Summer in Abu Dhabi as fresh as possible this year, with shows and acts coming and going as the festival progresses.
"The ever-changing lineups and things to see and do will come to a natural conclusion with Cartoonival - our big show for 2011."
Joining Cartoonival daily at 7.30pm, with matinee performances at the weekend, will be SpongeBob SquarePants.
The square sponge made his first TV appearance more than a decade ago and will star in the Stories of SpongeBob at Adnec.
The shows will take place at the specially built Show World, which seats 120.
zalhassani@thenational.ae
Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Cargoz%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EDate%20started%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20January%202022%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Premlal%20Pullisserry%20and%20Lijo%20Antony%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2030%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Seed%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
What is the FNC?
The Federal National Council is one of five federal authorities established by the UAE constitution. It held its first session on December 2, 1972, a year to the day after Federation.
It has 40 members, eight of whom are women. The members represent the UAE population through each of the emirates. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah six, and Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain have four.
They bring Emirati issues to the council for debate and put those concerns to ministers summoned for questioning.
The FNC’s main functions include passing, amending or rejecting federal draft laws, discussing international treaties and agreements, and offering recommendations on general subjects raised during sessions.
Federal draft laws must first pass through the FNC for recommendations when members can amend the laws to suit the needs of citizens. The draft laws are then forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration and approval.
Since 2006, half of the members have been elected by UAE citizens to serve four-year terms and the other half are appointed by the Ruler’s Courts of the seven emirates.
In the 2015 elections, 78 of the 252 candidates were women. Women also represented 48 per cent of all voters and 67 per cent of the voters were under the age of 40.
Company Fact Box
Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019
Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO
Based: Amman, Jordan
Sector: Education Technology
Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed
Stage: early-stage startup
Investors: Adam Tech Ventures, Endure Capital, Equitrust, the World Bank-backed Innovative Startups SMEs Fund, a London investment fund, a number of former and current executives from Uber and Netflix, among others.