Birthday confections

It’s our birthday. We would have loved to invite you all for a grand celebration if that was possible but instead we present you with a confection of youth - fresh, bold and brilliant on our front page and throughout.

Young Lebanese fashion model Lana Wehbe is wearing a dress designed by Indian fashion designers Kailash Menon and Amrita Laxmi Rajgopalan, a professor and student respectively at the University of Mahe Manipal Fashion Department in Dubai.

The fabric is all XPRESS, a weekly newspaper made possible by a team that comprises Emirati, Dutch, British, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Syrian, Sudanese, American, Filipino, Lebanese, Jordanian, Canadian and Irish journalists who work together in harmony to give you all the news you want in a lively, fun package.

When Kailash visualised the design for the XPRESS dress he had the petals of the rose in mind. Not unlike our paper, I must add.

When we launched on March 15, 2007 our paper was a tightly packed bud and because you loved and supported us, we are on our way to full bloom.

Our mission was to be an inclusive community paper – inclusive not just of nationalities but also of ideas, differing perspectives, cultures and thought.

As a reaffirmation of that mission XPRESS today has brought you a different perspective on the melting pot culture of the UAE, a colourful look at the people who help build our society, who help those in need, those who keep it safe, those who nurture the lost – 64 action-filled pages.

Our intention this week is also to celebrate the number one. We are one year old, the UAE is one community despite the many differences.

We have also featured tens of people who are one with us and the ones that are not – and the one woman camel polo player in the world, Hollywood couples who have worked to remain as one, the one chance before summer strikes to enjoy the great outdoors…

And if you are simply not interested in any of these offerings, turn to page 23 and for once in your lifetime laugh out aloud at Danesh Mohiuddin’s cartoon on how the XPRESS team brings you all the news you want every week.

Nirmala Janssen
Editor@alnisrmedia.com

Xpress4me.com/letters