Such is the grip my fellow Arabs appear to have on central London these days, two weeks in this most cosmopolitan of cities felt like I'd never left the Middle East.
Gone are the dark days of post-September 11 paranoia, when Arabs were personae non grata in Europe and were forced to find sanctuary in Rafiq Hariri's shiny new Beirut, a city where at least they knew they would be greeted with fawning and forelock tugging and anything was available at a price.
So while supporters of the United Kingdom Independent Party, or Ukip, may last week have voiced their resentment in local elections about the influx of foreigners threatening what they call the "English way of life", their anxiety was, I suspect, aimed more at hard-working Eastern Europeans who they claim are taking all the jobs, than the swarthy Ferrari-driving young men and the doe-eyed girls in open-top Mercedes who "own" the roads of Kensington and Chelsea.
Indeed, one only has to linger in half-decent hotels and department stores to catch a whiff of weapons-grade cologne and perfume, a constant reminder that Arab, along with Russian and Chinese, money is keeping this part of London afloat. All this does not bode well for a Beirut that went from the darling of Arab tourism to no-go zone in a few frenzied weeks last summer.
In Harvey Nichols or Selfridges, you might as well be in the souqs of Dubai or Beirut. Harrods is still the mother ship especially after the 2010 sale to Qatar Holdings for £1.5 billion (something of a steal given that revenues are now estimated at about £650 million) has added another layer of crowd-pleasing bling.
Lebanon was never far away, as I discovered during a lunch in Soho where I met a man whose company makes the most expensive beds in the world. I knew this because when I said I was Lebanese, he told me how three of his creations, with a combined value of £70,000 (Dh399,016) and destined for a Kuwaiti customer's Lebanese property, are still apparently languishing at the port of Beirut.
"Someone must have under-invoiced the shipment to pay less duty," he shrugged. "Beirut customs called me to check and I told them the truth. It's the agent's problem.
"That was four years ago - as far as I know they are still there. Either that or a Lebanese customs officer is having the best night's sleep of his life."
The man was Alistair Hughes and his company is Savoir Beds, bought by him from the Savoy Group in 1997. "I started with two and half men and a sewing machine," he laughed.
He now makes 600 units, with a turnover of £7m with 10 per cent of sales in the GCC. Mr Hughes hopes this number will grow and has just opened two showrooms in China and one in Qatar, where he is still working out how to encourage couples to "try" beds in a traditionally conservative region. "Maybe we can use a screen or something?," he said.
But if British goods are wowing the Arabs, Lebanese cuisine is still popular with the residents of South Kensington, who queue up patiently at lunchtime for a table at Comptoir Libanais.
Owned by the marathon-running, Algerian businessman Tony Kitous and styled by the Lebanese designer Rana Salam, the super-kitsch chain has taken Lebanese cuisine out of the dowdy Edgware Road formula and is proving a powerful platform.
But back in Beirut the entrepreneurial spirit for which we are famed has been crushed in the past year. Driving into town from the airport, I ask the driver about the mood in the city since I left. "All I want is a good summer with a lot of tourists so I can have a bit of money in my pocket."
Sadly, I think they may all be elsewhere.
Michael Karam is a Beirut-based freelance writer
How to join and use Abu Dhabi’s public libraries
• There are six libraries in Abu Dhabi emirate run by the Department of Culture and Tourism, including one in Al Ain and Al Dhafra.
• Libraries are free to visit and visitors can consult books, use online resources and study there. Most are open from 8am to 8pm on weekdays, closed on Fridays and have variable hours on Saturdays, except for Qasr Al Watan which is open from 10am to 8pm every day.
• In order to borrow books, visitors must join the service by providing a passport photograph, Emirates ID and a refundable deposit of Dh400. Members can borrow five books for three weeks, all of which are renewable up to two times online.
• If users do not wish to pay the fee, they can still use the library’s electronic resources for free by simply registering on the website. Once registered, a username and password is provided, allowing remote access.
• For more information visit the library network's website.
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Diriyah%20project%20at%20a%20glance
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The specs: 2018 Mercedes-Benz S 450
Price, base / as tested Dh525,000 / Dh559,000
Engine: 3.0L V6 biturbo
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Power: 369hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 500Nm at 1,800rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 8.0L / 100km
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Mountain%20Boy
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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.”
Honeymoonish
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Other must-tries
Tomato and walnut salad
A lesson in simple, seasonal eating. Wedges of tomato, chunks of cucumber, thinly sliced red onion, coriander or parsley leaves, and perhaps some fresh dill are drizzled with a crushed walnut and garlic dressing. Do consider yourself warned: if you eat this salad in Georgia during the summer months, the tomatoes will be so ripe and flavourful that every tomato you eat from that day forth will taste lacklustre in comparison.
Badrijani nigvzit
A delicious vegetarian snack or starter. It consists of thinly sliced, fried then cooled aubergine smothered with a thick and creamy walnut sauce and folded or rolled. Take note, even though it seems like you should be able to pick these morsels up with your hands, they’re not as durable as they look. A knife and fork is the way to go.
Pkhali
This healthy little dish (a nice antidote to the khachapuri) is usually made with steamed then chopped cabbage, spinach, beetroot or green beans, combined with walnuts, garlic and herbs to make a vegetable pâté or paste. The mix is then often formed into rounds, chilled in the fridge and topped with pomegranate seeds before being served.
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