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Bahraini Long Weekend

by malyousif | March 29, 2007 at 03:21 pm | 141 views | add comment

Happy Prophet's birthday! May it return to us with health, happiness and remembrance of a great man.

Bahrain, once again is celebrating this auspicious day by announcing it as a holiday, but as this time it will fall on Saturday and as Saturday is already the second day of the normal weekend, public sector employees will be compensated and given Sunday too as a holiday!

Nothing new there. It's a de facto standard.

But not so for our friends in the UAE:

The UAE Government announced in a circular today that Sunday April 1st 2007 is a working day for the Federal Ministries, according to a WAM report.

"As Saturday will be a public holiday to mark the Prophet's birthday, Sunday will be a normal working day and there will be no compensation or extension of the holiday," said the statement.
ArabianBusiness.com

Once again, the UAE is leading the Gulf (especially) in forging ahead and breaking with tradition. Good for them. Maybe, just maybe, this will rub on us too before too long.