It wasn’t the most attractive beach in the world, but for the four years I lived in the UAE the small, nameless strip of sand tucked behind the breakwater at the southern entrance to Dubai Marina, unknown to tourists and most expatriates, was my launch pad for countless maritime adventures.
Sandwiched between the marina and the vast desalination complex to its south, this was a slice of land that happily had somehow been overlooked by developers. Few ventured down the sandy track that led past a small boat yard to the water’s edge, and it was here that I’d park my car and launch my kayak from that forgotten beach.
One favourite destination was the then-undeveloped tip of the uppermost frond of the Palm Jumeirah, inaccessible by road. Landing to sit in the shade afforded by the overhead monorail bridge, I would eat my sandwiches and watch the holidaymakers at the Palm Atlantis lying side by side on the sand just across the narrow stretch of water.
For the price of a paddle-powered 14-kilometre round trip I had the same stretch of sea to swim in, my own private beach and my own crowds to share it with – nervous bubbler crabs which, if one sat perfectly still, would re-emerge from their holes and continue creating their astonishing patterns in the sand.
Another frequent destination was the most southerly of the twin Logos, the kilometre-long mirror-image islands raised in the shape of palm leaves just off the shore on either side of the stem of the Palm. The northerly Logo, developed as a private retreat, was lush and green, but its southerly sister lay barren, littered with the detritus of an abandoned building site.
Coming ashore to sit on the deserted island felt faintly piratical – like planting a flag and staking a claim to a previously undiscovered territory. It was so close to civilisation – indeed, it had been created by that civilisation only recently. Yet, despite the proximity of the Palm and the comings and goings of vessels from the northern entrance to Dubai Marina, it offered an adventurous sanctuary from the bustle of the city.
It wasn’t entirely undeveloped. Adapting to the human occupation of the Gulf littoral, industrious ghost crabs had colonised this man-made island and, as part of the process of excavating their burrows, were piling up the spoil into miniature towers of sand.
Standing as they did in the shadow of the giant man-made structures of Dubai Marina, the towers created by these crabs had something at once optimistic and yet poignant to say about the relationship between human beings and nature.
All that was almost five years ago. I left the UAE in March 2012. Since then, everything has changed. The breakwater beach has gone, along with the boat yard, both buried beneath a reclamation project protruding a kilometre or more into the sea. The return of the developers to the Palm has also doubtless seen the bubbler crabs evicted from their once-secret beach.
And now, with the announcement this month that a spectacular new marina development is to be built at the opposite end of Jumeirah Beach, complete with berths for 1,400 yachts and the now obligatory iconic building (a 135-metre tall hotel-cum-“lighthouse”), the days of the ghost crabs and their deserted desert island are also numbered.
The success of the vision set in train by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid with the creation of the Burj Al Arab Hotel, which opened in December 1999, has been astonishing. No one would deny Dubai its ever-evolving development – like a shark dependent upon the constant passage of oxygen-rich water across its gills, it has to keep moving, creating fresh attractions to maintain the all-important flow of visitors. And, of course, Dubai was not built solely to pander to the foibles of a British expat with a penchant for paddling kayaks.
But when I read about the 20 million square foot Dubai Harbour project in the UK's Daily Mail newspaper – the international media coverage itself a measure of the success of Dubai's build-it-and-they-will-come philosophy – I experienced a wholly unexpected sensation of loss and nostalgia.
When I moved to the UAE in May 2008, I was a reluctant expat, persuaded to leave the United Kingdom not by career ambition but by unhappy personal circumstances and necessity. I spent much of the time I was there missing my corner of England, especially a riverside village in the eastern county of Suffolk, where little has changed for hundreds of years.
Since leaving the UAE in March 2012 and returning to Suffolk, however, I find my thoughts drifting frequently to a place 5,500 kilometres away, where everything changes, all the time. Being parted from a special place, wherever it is, can be as emotionally testing as being parted from a loved one. Discovering that part of that place has been wiped from the map sets the sense of loss in stone.
It is, of course, foolish to expect time to stand still, especially in a place such as Dubai, the time-lapse capital of the world. Ever since British explorer Wilfred Thesiger, who visited the then Trucial States in the late-1940s, pronounced himself “distressed” that the Bedouin were poised to “exchange … the hardship and poverty of the desert for the security of a materialistic world”, those of us passing through this enigmatic land have sought to impose our own, restrictive notions of what life in this part of the world should be like.
But this is about much more than the nostalgic memories of a transient expat, as the appeal last week by art lovers and architects in Dubai for the city to save its pre-iconic buildings demonstrates. At immediate risk are Al Amal psychiatric hospital on Al Wasl Road and the pavilion in Safa Park, both built during the 1980s and now facing destruction. Each, say those campaigning for their preservation, is a vital link in the chain of progress that defines Dubai and its people.
This is not, of course, about a small, insignificant beach, or even a whimsical man-made island that surfaced from the waters of the Gulf only a little more than a decade ago and failed to fulfil its intended destiny. But memories of places, as well as people and experiences, are important, and in the headlong rush to the future, the UAE must take care not to eradicate entirely the landscape of its past.
As Dubai marches rapidly towards tomorrow, it is the small places – the seemingly insignificant buildings and spaces that serve no obvious, wealth-generating purpose – that are in danger of being forever lost. We in the UK passed this way in the 1960s and 70s. In the enthusiastic rush to embrace the new and cut the ties with a not always happy past, London’s forward-looking planners destroyed much of the city’s irreplaceable built heritage.
Icons are invaluable, as Dubai has proved again and again. But let us hope that someone, somewhere in Government, has their eye on the rear-view mirror, with a view to preserving the best of the past for the benefit of tomorrow.
Jonathan Gornall is a regular contributor to The National
Company%20Profile
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
A Bad Moms Christmas
Dir: John Lucas and Scott Moore
Starring: Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Bell, Susan Sarandon, Christine Baranski, Cheryl Hines
Two stars
How to avoid crypto fraud
- Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
- Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
- Avoid suspicious social media ads promoting fraudulent schemes.
- Only invest in crypto projects that you fully understand.
- Critically assess whether a project’s promises or returns seem too good to be true.
- Only use reputable platforms that have a track record of strong regulatory compliance.
- Store funds in hardware wallets as opposed to online exchanges.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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THE%C2%A0SPECS
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Points to remember
- Debate the issue, don't attack the person
- Build the relationship and dialogue by seeking to find common ground
- Express passion for the issue but be aware of when you're losing control or when there's anger. If there is, pause and take some time out.
- Listen actively without interrupting
- Avoid assumptions, seek understanding, ask questions
Vidaamuyarchi
Director: Magizh Thirumeni
Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra
Rating: 4/5
If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.
When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.
How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
'HIJRAH%3A%20IN%20THE%20FOOTSTEPS%20OF%20THE%20PROPHET'
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Ultra processed foods
- Carbonated drinks, sweet or savoury packaged snacks, confectionery, mass-produced packaged breads and buns
- margarines and spreads; cookies, biscuits, pastries, cakes, and cake mixes, breakfast cereals, cereal and energy bars;
- energy drinks, milk drinks, fruit yoghurts and fruit drinks, cocoa drinks, meat and chicken extracts and instant sauces
- infant formulas and follow-on milks, health and slimming products such as powdered or fortified meal and dish substitutes,
- many ready-to-heat products including pre-prepared pies and pasta and pizza dishes, poultry and fish nuggets and sticks, sausages, burgers, hot dogs, and other reconstituted meat products, powdered and packaged instant soups, noodles and desserts.
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The Beach Bum
Director: Harmony Korine
Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Isla Fisher, Snoop Dogg
Two stars
If you go
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Seattle from Dh5,555 return, including taxes. Portland is a 260 km drive from Seattle and Emirates offers codeshare flights to Portland with its partner Alaska Airlines.
The car
Hertz (www.hertz.ae) offers compact car rental from about $300 per week, including taxes. Emirates Skywards members can earn points on their car hire through Hertz.
Parks and accommodation
For information on Crater Lake National Park, visit www.nps.gov/crla/index.htm . Because of the altitude, large parts of the park are closed in winter due to snow. While the park’s summer season is May 22-October 31, typically, the full loop of the Rim Drive is only possible from late July until the end of October. Entry costs $25 per car for a day. For accommodation, see www.travelcraterlake.com. For information on Umpqua Hot Springs, see www.fs.usda.gov and https://soakoregon.com/umpqua-hot-springs/. For Bend, see https://www.visitbend.com/.
Zayed Sustainability Prize
FROM%20THE%20ASHES
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Europa League group stage draw
Group A: Villarreal, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Astana, Slavia Prague.
Group B: Dynamo Kiev, Young Boys, Partizan Belgrade, Skenderbeu.
Group C: Sporting Braga, Ludogorets, Hoffenheim, Istanbul Basaksehir.
Group D: AC Milan, Austria Vienna , Rijeka, AEK Athens.
Group E: Lyon, Everton, Atalanta, Apollon Limassol.
Group F: FC Copenhagen, Lokomotiv Moscow, Sheriff Tiraspol, FC Zlin.
Group G: Vitoria Plzen, Steaua Bucarest, Hapoel Beer-Sheva, FC Lugano.
Group H: Arsenal, BATE Borisov, Cologne, Red Star Belgrade.
Group I: Salzburg, Marseille, Vitoria Guimaraes, Konyaspor.
Group J: Athletic Bilbao, Hertha Berlin, Zorya Luhansk, Ostersund.
Group K: Lazio, Nice, Zulte Waregem, Vitesse Arnhem.
Group L: Zenit St Petersburg, Real Sociedad, Rosenborg, Vardar