Dubai International (DXB) has raised the bar on its contribution to Dubai’s economy by welcoming a record 44.9 million guests during the first six months of this year.
Dubai International (DXB) has raised the bar on its contribution to Dubai’s economy by welcoming a record 44.9 million guests during the first six months of this year.
Dubai International (DXB) has raised the bar on its contribution to Dubai’s economy by welcoming a record 44.9 million guests during the first six months of this year.
Hussein Shobokshi is a Saudi businessman and columnist
September 04, 2024
Airports can be very lonely places, even when they are busy with huge crowds. One interesting encounter I had with a fellow traveller at Dubai International Airport is proof that they are truly miniature versions of the global melting pot.
I was dragging my feet to the lounge, ready to rest for a few minutes before catching my flight back home to Jeddah. I sat in a comfortable leather seat, ordered a cup of Earl Grey tea and turned my head towards a loud voice coming from the reception.
The source was a very tall gentleman who appeared to have come right out of a John Wayne western. He wore a ten-gallon, broad-brimmed Stetson cowboy hat, Wrangler jeans topped with a huge silver belt buckle and Lucchese boots. Soon, he sat down in the seat opposite me.
A Middle East Airlines (MEA) plane departs from Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport, in Beirut, Lebanon, 12 August 2024. Several countries including the US, Britain, France, Australia, Canada, South Korea, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Kuwait, Jordan and Italy have urged their citizens to leave Lebanon amid growing fears of a wider conflict in the region. EPA / WAEL HAMZEH
He took off his hat and said in a Texan drawl: “Howdy.” I replied with a simple hello. He was clearly in the mood for a conversation, commenting on my Saudi national dress: “I bet what you are wearing is cooler and much more comfortable in this terribly hot weather.”
I smiled and said: “I guess so. Which part of Texas are you from?”
He laughed and asked, “Is it that obvious? Well, I am from Dallas, but how did you guess?”
I went to university next door, in Oklahoma, I explained.
“Are you visiting the region, or do you live here?” I asked him. “And may I add, at the risk of sounding stereotypical – you also must be working in oil and gas, right?”
He said that he had been living in the region for the past 20 years but lately was going back and forth between the Gulf and Dallas. Despite the length of time he had spent here, he added, there were a few things that he simply couldn’t comprehend although he had tried hard to do so. Why is religion such an integral part of your lives, he asked me. Doesn’t that hold you back from becoming a civilised society?
His assumption that we are “uncivilised” societies was very patronising and derogatory, I argued. By the same token I explained that I had a great problem accepting that Americans’ unbelievably easy access to guns – which directly leads to preventable deaths and mass shootings – can in any way be a sign of civility. But, I added, I had learnt to accept and respect these differences rather than asking them to change.
This exchange of views took me to a very special book by one of my favourite Indian writers, Gurcharan Das. It’s called The Difficulty of Being Good and in it Das explores questions such as why we should be good, how we should be good and how might we more deeply understand the moral and ethical failings that have not only destroyed lives but caused widespread calamity, bringing communities, nations and indeed the global economy to the brink of collapse.
I do believe there is a lack of “goodness” in the world today. I wish I had a more sophisticated way of analysing the reasons behind all these cracks between people, such as I experienced in my Dubai airport encounter, as well as nations.
I recalled my meeting with Nelson Mandela shortly after he became the president of South Africa and how I was mesmerised by the man and his aura. He was filled with peace, calm and serenity of a kind I never experienced before or since. He was the walking example of spreading goodness. I quoted a sentence from South African writer Alan Paton’s famous book Ah, But Your Land is Beautiful to him when we met. He smiled and said, “but our hearts are more beautiful”.
That is what David Brooks, the Canadian-American writer, highlighted in his 2015 book The Road to Character:the ability to stand out by being good. This is not something we are born with. It needs to be developed and worked on. But, oh, what a wonderful world it would be if more people did that. It might be a world where a Saudi and a Texan crossing paths in a global airport hub find that they have more in common than what divides them.
Name: Thndr Started: 2019 Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr Sector: FinTech Headquarters: Egypt UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi Current number of staff: More than 150 Funds raised: $22 million
Investors: Class 5 Global, Equitrust, Gulf Islamic Investments, Kairos K50 and William Zeqiri
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
Kamindu Mendis bio
Full name: Pasqual Handi Kamindu Dilanka Mendis
Born: September 30, 1998
Age: 20 years and 26 days
Nationality: Sri Lankan
Major teams Sri Lanka's Under 19 team
Batting style: Left-hander
Bowling style: Right-arm off-spin and slow left-arm orthodox (that's right!)
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.”
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
