In 1990, Raed Barqawi was a reporter for Arabic newspaper Al Khaleej when the First Gulf War broke out.
As a wave of panic spread across the region and people sought to travel abroad in fear of an expanding conflict, Barqawi received news from the office of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid – then the country’s Minister of Defence – saying he was planning on building a second golf course in Dubai.
Barqawi could not discern why the future Dubai Ruler chose that specific moment in time to announce the project.
“There was war going on,” he tells The National. “Embassies wanted to evacuate their staff from here and from Saudi Arabia. Everybody was scared.”
Sheikh Mohammed took Dubai to another level. He was a leader and a dreamer
Raed Barqawi,
author of 'Dare to Dream: How Mohammed bin Rashid Made His Dream of Dubai Come True'
It was a question that stayed with him for nearly a decade.
“I didn’t have an answer because I didn’t have any connections with His Highness,” Barqawi, who is now the editor-in-chief of Al Khaleej, says. “I finally met him in 1999 and I asked him.”
Barqawi says Sheikh Mohammed remembered that decision well, and that the announcement was a symbolic way of alleviating the propagating anxiety.
“He said he wanted to give a message to the world that we are not worried,” Barqawi says. “That everything will be fine. It was a way of saying: 'If you want to leave, leave, but you’re doing the wrong thing because we are not worried. We are building and our battle is with developing the country, not with war.'”
This foresight and steadfast dedication to Dubai’s development fascinated Barqawi, and inspired the veteran journalist to write a new Arabic-language book about Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai.
Dare to Dream: How Mohammed bin Rashid Made His Dream of Dubai Come True launched on Sunday at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature and highlights how the vision and leadership of Sheikh Mohammed turned Dubai into a success story and leading global hub.
The book is divided into three chapters: “Working Wonders”, “A Man Destined to Lead” and “The Oasis of Imagination”. It also includes an introduction, “The Wind Beneath His Wings”, and an epilogue, “Life is a Story of Our Dreams”.
Barqawi dives into the history of the UAE and explores Sheikh Mohammed’s childhood, analysing the factors that helped to shape his personality.
“Sheikh Mohammed took Dubai to another level,” Barqawi says. “He was a leader and a dreamer. His Highness travelled with his father in the late 1960s, early 1970s all over the world. He went to New York and saw the Empire State Building, which was then the tallest building in the world, and asked why we couldn’t have something like that in our country. He went to London and saw Heathrow Airport, the face of the town, and asked the same question. We can do this, he said. He was dreaming when he was young.”
Barqawi says he tried to address two key questions in his book: how Sheikh Mohammed managed to turn Dubai into a unique global role model and how he empowered “a culture of dreaming in the Arab world, a world that had stopped dreaming decades ago”.
However, Barqawi says his book is as much about the history of the UAE as a whole as it is an homage to Sheikh Mohammed and the city he built.
The reason he focused the work on Dubai’s development is because he witnessed it first-hand during his three decades of experience as a local journalist.
“It is fascinating to be around a personality like His Highness, who has been racing against time to improve the present and future of not just Emiratis but all Arabs."
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PROFILE BOX
Company name: Overwrite.ai
Founder: Ayman Alashkar
Started: Established in 2020
Based: Dubai International Financial Centre, Dubai
Sector: PropTech
Initial investment: Self-funded by founder
Funding stage: Seed funding, in talks with angel investors
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
RESULT
Bayer Leverkusen 2 Bayern Munich 4
Leverkusen: Alario (9'), Wirtz (89')
Bayern: Coman (27'), Goretzka (42'), Gnabry (45'), Lewandowski (66')
School counsellors on mental well-being
Schools counsellors in Abu Dhabi have put a number of provisions in place to help support pupils returning to the classroom next week.
Many children will resume in-person lessons for the first time in 10 months and parents previously raised concerns about the long-term effects of distance learning.
Schools leaders and counsellors said extra support will be offered to anyone that needs it. Additionally, heads of years will be on hand to offer advice or coping mechanisms to ease any concerns.
“Anxiety this time round has really spiralled, more so than from the first lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic,” said Priya Mitchell, counsellor at The British School Al Khubairat in Abu Dhabi.
“Some have got used to being at home don’t want to go back, while others are desperate to get back.
“We have seen an increase in depressive symptoms, especially with older pupils, and self-harm is starting younger.
“It is worrying and has taught us how important it is that we prioritise mental well-being.”
Ms Mitchell said she was liaising more with heads of year so they can support and offer advice to pupils if the demand is there.
The school will also carry out mental well-being checks so they can pick up on any behavioural patterns and put interventions in place to help pupils.
At Raha International School, the well-being team has provided parents with assessment surveys to see how they can support students at home to transition back to school.
“They have created a Well-being Resource Bank that parents have access to on information on various domains of mental health for students and families,” a team member said.
“Our pastoral team have been working with students to help ease the transition and reduce anxiety that [pupils] may experience after some have been nearly a year off campus.
"Special secondary tutorial classes have also focused on preparing students for their return; going over new guidelines, expectations and daily schedules.”
Brief scoreline:
Al Wahda 2
Al Menhali 27', Tagliabue 79'
Al Nassr 3
Hamdallah 41', Giuliano 45 1', 62'
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UFC Fight Night 2
1am – Early prelims
2am – Prelims
4am-7am – Main card
7:30am-9am – press cons
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
