Museum of Middle East Modern Art Expresses Dubai’s Cultural Ambitions

Check out the amazing pictures of this new cultural museum and what it intends to portray for Dubai and Khor Dubai.

Link: Museum of Middle East Modern Art, Dubai, Perspektif, 7 September 2008.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: One perspective of the Museum of Middle East Modern Art. (Picture courtesy of Perspektif at the above link)

Abu Dhabi Billionaires Obsessed with Lavish Lifestyle

If the focus wasn’t on Abu Dhabi earlier it certainly is now since the purchase of the Manchester City Football Club and the splashing out to draw Robinho into the Manchester/Abu Dhabi fold.

Journos are flocking to the capital of the Emirates in search of motives, signs and wonders. They write of the lavish lifestyles of the Abu Dhabi oil barons, typified by the Bugattis and limos outside the Palace.

If the wealthy members of the royal family are seeking to bring ‘glory’ to their city they are at least capturing attention.

While the Footy Club purchase has galvanized the attention reporters are noting the recent purchase of the Chrysler Building in Manhattan, the $7bn chunk of America's biggest bank Citigroup, the Guggenheim branch, the Louvre franchise, the film studios, the Formula One racing circuit.

But that’s not all. There’s more on the shopping list.

Check out the article in which Frank Kane notes not only the purchases but the way that wealth is changing the social and religious landscape of the Emirates.

Link: Frank Kane, ‘The Gulf's new bling kings’, The Guardian, 7 September 2008.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: A Pur Sang Bugatti Veyron in Abu Dhabi. It is one of a handful in the world and it costs a mere $1.4 Million.

If you’d like to see the Abu Dhabi owner drive this car and hear its throaty sound check out the video clip at this link.

Manchester City Asked to Consider UAE Human Rights Record

The purchase of the Manchester City Football Club by the Abu Dhabi royal family is not quite as easy as putting millions of dirhams on the table.

The question of the human rights record of the UAE is being raised and the extent to which the British Football Club will be tarnished by it association with the Gulf nation’s record and laws that discriminate against Israelis and gays.

The British Mirror reports this complication

A human rights campaign group has called on the FA and Premier League to review the Fit and Proper Person Test after Manchester City's takeover by Abu Dhabi United Group.

The investment arm of the Abu Dhabi royal family, rulers of the second largest of the United Arab Emirates, bought out the club on Monday and instantly splashed out £32.5million on Robinho.

But campaign group Mafiwasta has questioned the country's human rights record.

Mafiwasta, an organisation which campaigns for the UAE to sign up to International Labour Organisation conventions on freedom of association and collective bargaining, said: "To protect the reputation of the game, Mafiwasta urges both the FA and Premier League to undertake a wholesale review of the formulation of the Fit and Proper Person Test currently in force- one which in its present form is utterly insufficient to address the role of the principal actors in the takeover of Man City FC in human rights abuses in the UAE."

The entire article can be read at:

Mirror, 5 September 2008.

What do you think? Is the relationship one in which the club will be seen to condone human rights abuses and discrimination? To what extent will the Manchester City Football Club be affected by its association with the Emirates?

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: The Manchester City, Mafiwasta, human rights, football, Robinho and dirhams.

Old Cars in UAE Get the Chop

When the new regulation becomes law in January 2009 a car that is twenty years or older will be banned from UAE roads.

But there is more! From 1 January 2011 cars older than 15 years are going to get the axe!

This is happening in the country that holds the world record in having the highest number of cars per head of population. (There are 1.8 million registered cars in the Emirates as of August 2008)

In a statement introducing the transport policy (Gulf News 30 August 2008) it was argued that the law was needed “to reduce pollution and accidents because mostly old cars break down.”

Where is the evidence to suggest that old cars are involved in more accidents than new cars? The UAE unfortunately holds the world record in having the highest car accident rates on the planet. However, the surveys that have been conducted in the UAE concluded by saying that it is caused by the old habits of drivers, not the old cars that they drive.

The reduction of pollution issue does have some validity and UAE leaders who are seeking to address the environmental crisis of the country have stated as one of their aims to “reduce the life span of cars across the UAE.” But to cull old cars is such a drastic step when other less draconian laws have not been introduced or applied such as insisting on effective exhaust systems and filters and conducting regular emission tests whenever they are re-registered. Introducing high taxes on the purchase of gas guzzling vehicles would be much more effective environmentally than taking twenty year old cars off the road.

The move to do away with twenty-year old cars next year, fifteen year old cars a little later and the law that will make it impossible next January to import cars into the country older than five years makes this legislation look like a deal that is done with the only people who will be happy about it—the new car dealers.

The spokesperson tried to underplay the impact of the new ruling saying that as the UAE already has newish cars (the average age of cars in the UAE is 5-6 years making this another world record), the rule will not have much of an effect.

Not much of an effect? Only 10,277 vehicles will receive the death sentence in January 2008!

The biggest effect of this ruling will be the dropping of the price of cars in the UAE. It will be much harder to get rid of cars the nearer they get to the new UAE automobile life expectancy age of twenty and soon to be, fifteen.

The only types of car not to receive a life ban will be the classic (1931-1948) and vintage (1919-1930) cars but how will cars have a chance to reach the antique status when they are prized for their automotive history and years on the road?

What do you think? How is this new law going to impact on you?

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: Spare a thought for this man who can’t bear to give up his old VW.

Why People Visit Fujairah

Ramadan with its slower pace has commenced. Temperatures are beginning to fall as we proceed through September. It’s not a bad time to plan a day trip or a weekend to the eastern Emirate of Fujairah and explode the myth that the UAE is only Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Check out and keep in touch with everything Fujairah at the sister site, Fujairah in Focus.

At the moment Fujairah is undergoing a building boom. Have a look at the different sorts of constructions that are going up out east, in the ‘Fujairah Building Boom’ series that commences at this link.

Even though Fujairah has more cranes now than at any time in its history there is no way this emerging city will compete with the shine of Dubai’s skyscrapers and the glitziness of the UAE capital. That is what makes Fujairah different and a delight to visit. If you want all the shopping malls, the theme parks, the high towers, lavish hotels, traffic congestion and western commercialism, stay in the large UAE cities over on the west of the UAE.

Fujairah is east in geography and eastern in culture.

Why do people visit Fujairah? Find out a few reasons from the new and developing series entitled ‘Visit Fujairah For…’ which begins here.

Pack your towel and swimming gear, get out your snorkel and diving equipment, bring your book to read beside the sea or the pool and don’t forget your camera to snap pictures of Fujairah’s mountains and historic buildings.

Fujairah is a slow and often sleepy work in progress, so don’t expect it to be finished, highly organized and polished. Much of the architecture is ordinary and tacky. It has sensational scenery that is being threatened by quarries and quarry dust, an amazing coast which gets polluted far too often by oil tankers. But Fujairah has the potential to be one emirate in the country that is 100% natural and authentically Emirati.

If you have been out east, why did you visit Fujairah?

What did you enjoy and not enjoy?

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: Symbols of the Fujairah culture.

Do You Know these Ten Things About Dubai?

Dubai has been squarely in the international media focus for several years but Time Out Dubai, which regularly publishes “authoritative views and reviews of everything that’s great in Dubai,” has an interesting photographic gallery of ‘10 things you didn’t know about Dubai’.

See how many you know on this link: Dubai City Gallery, Time Out Dubai.

Image: Dubai city of gold: “80% of us own gold. According to statistics, we spend an average of Dhs14,000 a year each on the stuff. We think someone’s got our share.”

Dr Geoff Pound

Abu Dhabi for Pearls, Fish and Rich Marine Life

The National has posted an important article on the pearl heritage of Abu Dhabi, the rich marine treasures and gives many reasons why the coastal environment must be protected.

Link:
M K Wong, Abu Dhabi’s Coastal Treasure, The National, 3 September 2008

Dr Geoff Pound

Images of Abu Dhabi Marine Life

Get Your Film Produced in Abu Dhabi

It’s hard to keep up with the Abu Dhabi billionaires.

One day they are spending millions of dollars buying a Football Club, the next day they are snaffling a Brazilian footy player for their team for another pile of million dollar notes and less than a day later they are doing deals with international film companies.

What a frenetic spending spree and this is only the first week of Ramadan, the holy month when Muslim businessmen should be slowing down and turning their minds away from footy and films. But maybe Ramadan has been the key to the timing of these deals. Go without food, drink and sex, think about Allah, and the inspiration fires up.

The Abu Dhabi Media Co., a government-owned media arm, has revealed plans to spend more than $1 billion making feature films over the next five years.

The subsidiary, called Imagenation Abu Dhabi, will work with Hollywood on international projects and invest in regional talent to create Arabic- and mixed-language content with crossover appeal.

If you have a film to shoot get in fast with your idea while the sheikhs are splashing their dirhams all over the world. Adapting the words of Ray Nagin, Mayor of New Orleans, “I am telling you to get your butt over here to the Emirates right now.”

You’ll have to eliminate any critical talk of government leaders, tone down your romantic scenes, omit excessive touching and certainly not have a plot like Brokeback Mountain.

But what small compromises to make if you can get the Abu Dhabi oil barons to bankroll your new trilogy.

Looking for an agent?

Dr Geoff Pound

Arab Media Reaction to Republican Convention

CNN has been examining the media reaction by international television channels, blogs and newspapers to the Republican National Convention in the USA.

They look at McCain’s timing of the announcement of his running mate, his choice of a prospective VP and how this decision took the anticipated ‘bump’ and afterglow away from Senator Obama’s party.

There is a comparison of the two tickets and some Arab media commentators are analyzing the influence of Hurricane Gustav and wondering whether Allah was acting to favor one convention and blow away the other.

Check out the video and see what your reaction is to the Arab media coverage.

Link: Arab Media Reaction to RNC, CNN, 3 September 2008.

Dr Geoff Pound

Video about Manchester City Takeover by Abu Dhabi

The news of the Abu Dhabi takeover was posted on an earlier article at this link.

See how it happened and listen to Manchester City’s new owner, Sulaiman al-Fahim, who is being hailed as the ‘Donald Trump of Abu Dhabi’.

Manchester City Takeover, CNN, 3 September 2008.

Dr Geoff Pound