It was December 2009, when the world was in the grip of the financial crisis, and with widespread international pessimism about the future of Dubai, that Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, decided to go for a walk.
He parked his car and strolled among the crowds at the Souq Madinat Jumeirah, pausing at intervals to speak with tourists and locals alike, all somewhat astonished at his presence.
One Indian woman asked to take a photograph with him and when the Ruler agreed, she suddenly realised she did not have a camera. A member of Sheikh Mohammed’s security detail was sent shopping at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel to buy one, the photograph was taken, then the camera presented to the delighted woman.
The anecdote is recalled on the opening pages of a new authorised biography of Sheikh Mohammed, with the Dubai-based British author, historian and documentary maker Graeme Wilson explaining: “The difference between the man in the kandura and the delighted people he was meeting was that he had never for one moment doubted, even in the darkest days, that positivity and confidence in the future would conquer all.”
Titled To Be The First, the book is a 351-page journey through Sheikh Mohammed’s earliest years at the home of his grandfather, Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum, through his education and appointment as Crown Prince to the present day, as Ruler of Dubai.
'An inbuilt competitive drive'
While drawing on Sheikh Mohammed’s own account of his life, the book includes stories from many of those who know him best, revealing a portrait of a brilliant and complex man, never afraid to make difficult decisions, always pushing those around him to achieve more, but with compassion for those less fortunate.
The strength of his personality became obvious even as a toddler, when his cousin Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa reveals he was always getting into trouble.
“When we played hide-and-seek, he would find somewhere to hide and, with that inbuilt competitive drive, determinedly stay hidden even when the game had ended and we were all calling for him to come back. Sheikha Latifa [his mother] was constantly trying to find him.”
Later, school was something to be endured rather than enjoyed, with Sheikh Mohammed not spared from the clipped ears or taps from a wooden ruler that his first teacher in Dubai employed to keep discipline. Still, the future Ruler worked hard and did well in his exams, while developing a love for the natural world that inspired him to keep a small menagerie of creatures in the family home.
At 17, his father Sheikh Rashid decided his son needed to improve his English and he was sent to a language school in Cambridge, England. Dr Abdullah Omran Taryam, a former UAE minister and friend of the family, recalls that Sheikh Rashid had one overriding instruction for the teenager before he departed.
“When he eventually returned to Dubai, his official responsibilities would start in earnest. That period in Europe was likely his last opportunity to live as a ‘normal’ person. This is what the Ruler wanted, to offer his boy a last hurrah; a time when Sheikh Mohammed could exist in his own space.”
Lifelong passions formed in the UK
In Cambridge, Sheikh Mohammed boarded with a local family, Barry and Jo Summers. Saturday evenings might be spent watching football on the BBC’s Match of the Day TV programme, where he liked to follow the fortunes of Liverpool and Arsenal.
A trip to the cinema and a bag of popcorn was an inexpensive night out and way to improve his English. A favourite film was Dr Zhivago, starring the Egyptian actor Omar Sharif. Sheikh Rashid bought his son an Aston Martin DB6, and allowed him to visit London. A significant outing was a trip to Newmarket Racecourse, in Suffolk, eastern England, in May 1967, where Sheikh Mohammed saw Royal Palace win the 2000 Guineas, sparking a lifelong passion for horses and racing.
Sheikh Mohammed returned to the UK in 1968 to train at the Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot, south-east England, where no special treatment was offered. An officer at the school reported that: “Like all others, he polished his own boots, cleaned his own living space and took his turn to scrub the floors and clean the toilets. No one escaped these basic duties.”
Some compared life at Mons with conditions in prison, but the 18-year-old thrived, even when long marches in harsh terrain left his feet a mass of blisters and blood. But it was now time to return to Dubai and begin his official duties as a son of the Ruler.
Stories about Sheikh Mohammed in public life confirm his unwavering belief in Dubai’s future, but also his expectations of those who would help him build it. Looking at the plans for Dubai Duty Free in 1983, he ordered it to be doubled in size. Setting up the new airline two years later he rejected the name Dubai Air, saying: “Call it Emirates, and put the flag on the tail.”
A determination to succeed
Ignoring naysayers, he pushed ahead with plans to make Dubai an international tourist destination. Gerald Lawless, the founding chief executive of the Jumeirah group, remembers keeping a set of clean clothes next to his bed ready for a summons even in the middle of the night that would almost certainly come.
“During my career, I have managed properties all over the world and never seen the owner. This one has dozens of hotels, and also a country to run, and still finds time to see that things were running to his personal satisfaction,” he said. “Sheikh Mohammed works 18 hours a day, so you have to be prepared. That is the deal when you work for him.”
Dr Taryam agreed, adding: “Meetings would finish at 11pm and we would head off into the night, relieved to be heading for our beds, only to be called back a few hours later as Sheikh Mohammed had started his next working day on three hours sleep.”
Sheikh Mohammed rejected the initial plans for The Palm Jumeirah, originally a circular island, instead sketching out the now familiar Palm design because he realised it offered more beach frontage for properties and hotels. Shown the first design for what would be the Burj Khalifa, he was told, at 90 storeys, it would be the tallest building in Dubai. Sheikh Mohammed is said to have replied: “Ninety is tall, but it is not the tallest, is it? Review the tallest buildings in the world, then come back and see me.” The completed building has 163 storeys.
The biography confirms Sheikh Mohammed has no time for slackers, visiting government offices first thing in the morning and catching latecomers, issuing final warnings and sometimes dismissals. At the same time, he has consistently promoted humanitarian missions around the world, while the book details his devotion to horses, expressed in his Godolphin Stables and personal successes in the sport of endurance riding.
The world is also familiar with Sheikh Mohammed’s love of writing nabati poetry. Perhaps less well known is that he is also equally well versed in coffee brewing, enjoying blends from Yemen to the Ivory Coast.
Reem Al Hashimy, Minister of State for International Co-operation, recalls a moment during the Covid-19 pandemic, when Sheikh Mohammed spotting she was drinking from an Expo 2020 coffee mug.
He asked, teasingly, “Reem, what type of coffee are you drinking?” Wilson notes: “Discussion turned to whether the minister was sipping on a special blend, or a routine coffee from Costa. It was a moment of levity amid virus-strained uncertainty.”
To Be The First, the authorised biography of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum by Graeme Wilson, is published by Motivate.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid from 1995 to 2006 – in pictures
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EHayvn%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2018%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EChristopher%20Flinos%2C%20Ahmed%20Ismail%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAbu%20Dhabi%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Efinancial%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInitial%20investment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Eundisclosed%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESize%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2044%20employees%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Eseries%20B%20in%20the%20second%20half%20of%202023%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EHilbert%20Capital%2C%20Red%20Acre%20Ventures%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
hall of shame
SUNDERLAND 2002-03
No one has ended a Premier League season quite like Sunderland. They lost each of their final 15 games, taking no points after January. They ended up with 19 in total, sacking managers Peter Reid and Howard Wilkinson and losing 3-1 to Charlton when they scored three own goals in eight minutes.
SUNDERLAND 2005-06
Until Derby came along, Sunderland’s total of 15 points was the Premier League’s record low. They made it until May and their final home game before winning at the Stadium of Light while they lost a joint record 29 of their 38 league games.
HUDDERSFIELD 2018-19
Joined Derby as the only team to be relegated in March. No striker scored until January, while only two players got more assists than goalkeeper Jonas Lossl. The mid-season appointment Jan Siewert was to end his time as Huddersfield manager with a 5.3 per cent win rate.
ASTON VILLA 2015-16
Perhaps the most inexplicably bad season, considering they signed Idrissa Gueye and Adama Traore and still only got 17 points. Villa won their first league game, but none of the next 19. They ended an abominable campaign by taking one point from the last 39 available.
FULHAM 2018-19
Terrible in different ways. Fulham’s total of 26 points is not among the lowest ever but they contrived to get relegated after spending over £100 million (Dh457m) in the transfer market. Much of it went on defenders but they only kept two clean sheets in their first 33 games.
LA LIGA: Sporting Gijon, 13 points in 1997-98.
BUNDESLIGA: Tasmania Berlin, 10 points in 1965-66
WISH
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The specs: 2018 Maserati Levante S
Price, base / as tested: Dh409,000 / Dh467,000
Engine: 3.0-litre V6
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 430hp @ 5,750rpm
Torque: 580Nm @ 4,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 10.9L / 100km
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Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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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
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Brief scoreline:
Liverpool 5
Keita 1', Mane 23', 66', Salah 45' 1, 83'
Huddersfield 0
Have you been targeted?
Tuan Phan of SimplyFI.org lists five signs you have been mis-sold to:
1. Your pension fund has been placed inside an offshore insurance wrapper with a hefty upfront commission.
2. The money has been transferred into a structured note. These products have high upfront, recurring commission and should never be in a pension account.
3. You have also been sold investment funds with an upfront initial charge of around 5 per cent. ETFs, for example, have no upfront charges.
4. The adviser charges a 1 per cent charge for managing your assets. They are being paid for doing nothing. They have already claimed massive amounts in hidden upfront commission.
5. Total annual management cost for your pension account is 2 per cent or more, including platform, underlying fund and advice charges.
TRAINING FOR TOKYO
A typical week's training for Sebastian, who is competing at the ITU Abu Dhabi World Triathlon on March 8-9:
- Four swim sessions (14km)
- Three bike sessions (200km)
- Four run sessions (45km)
- Two strength and conditioning session (two hours)
- One session therapy session at DISC Dubai
- Two-three hours of stretching and self-maintenance of the body
ITU Abu Dhabi World Triathlon
For more information go to www.abudhabi.triathlon.org.
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Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20myZoi%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202021%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Syed%20Ali%2C%20Christian%20Buchholz%2C%20Shanawaz%20Rouf%2C%20Arsalan%20Siddiqui%2C%20Nabid%20Hassan%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20UAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2037%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Initial%20undisclosed%20funding%20from%20SC%20Ventures%3B%20second%20round%20of%20funding%20totalling%20%2414%20million%20from%20a%20consortium%20of%20SBI%2C%20a%20Japanese%20VC%20firm%2C%20and%20SC%20Venture%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
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
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre supercharged V8
Power: 712hp at 6,100rpm
Torque: 881Nm at 4,800rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 19.6 l/100km
Price: Dh380,000
On sale: now
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
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The specs
Engine: 2-litre 4-cylinder and 3.6-litre 6-cylinder
Power: 220 and 280 horsepower
Torque: 350 and 360Nm
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Price: from Dh136,521 VAT and Dh166,464 VAT
On sale: now
