A woman decorates her shop in the Al Ain Heritage Village during the celebration of the UAE 38th National Day.
A woman decorates her shop in the Al Ain Heritage Village during the celebration of the UAE 38th National Day.

UAE

Al Ain set for spectacular day

Final preparations are underway hours before Al Ain sees its most elaborate National Day celebration yet.

Essam Al Ghalib

December 02, 2009

AL AIN // Final preparations are underway for Al Ain's most elaborate National Day celebration. From 4pm until midnight and for the next two days, thousands will celebrate the nation's 38th birthday at the Al Ain Heritage Village. The Al Ain Municipality has worked during the past 12 months to bring spectacular events and activities to rival those of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. From daybreak today, labourers, mechanics, vendors, dancers, acrobats and Olympic athletes, have been doing their part to ensure this year's celebration will be one to remember. In front of the main stage at 11am this morning, Lavinia Hansen, a German citizen who was, "born and bred in Dubai", has been practising atop her dancing stallion. She is one of the riders, part of a team of six from Hoofbeatz, who will be performing One Thousand and One Horse Tails, featuring the horse dancing troupe from Dubai. "It's awesome to be here in Al Ain. We are honoured to have been asked to be a part of such a patriotic event," Ms Hansen said. "We have prepared a special performance and costumes based on a UAE theme. We can't wait to get started." Bjorn Hanefield, of Sanostra Performing Communication, a German dance troupe comprised of Australian Olympic athletes was putting the final touches to his team's performance which will kick off today's festivities. "With our performance we want to honour the Emirates and the strength and power it has" Mr. Hanefield said. "We are going to have flying drummers who will be drumming as they go up into the air in a spectacular and powerful way. Then we will come in with dancers with balls. The balls will symbolise the unity of the Emirates. First there will be a small ball then other dancers will come in with bigger balls symbolising the other Emirates. Then we will bring in these huge giant balls which are transparent and there will be dancers inside them." Fire dancers from Phoenix Fire Dancers, also from Germany, will be performing the Arabian Fire Show. Traditional Emirati dances and the UAE University's opera group will also perform. The UAE national anthem will be played in unison with lasers and a dancing fountain. A military band will be performing as parachutists fly in and aerial acrobatics take place in the skies above. On the children's stage 16 different acts, including cartoon characters from the UAE and Disney, will be dancing, along with magicians, a circus, Aladdin, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Cinderella. The fireworks are predicted to be as grand as any taking place in the UAE. ealghalib@thenational.ae

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The White Lotus: Season three

Creator: Mike White

Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell

Rating: 4.5/5

How much sugar is in chocolate Easter eggs?
  • The 169g Crunchie egg has 15.9g of sugar per 25g serving, working out at around 107g of sugar per egg
  • The 190g Maltesers Teasers egg contains 58g of sugar per 100g for the egg and 19.6g of sugar in each of the two Teasers bars that come with it
  • The 188g Smarties egg has 113g of sugar per egg and 22.8g in the tube of Smarties it contains
  • The Milky Bar white chocolate Egg Hunt Pack contains eight eggs at 7.7g of sugar per egg
  • The Cadbury Creme Egg contains 26g of sugar per 40g egg
Test

Director: S Sashikanth

Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan

Star rating: 2/5

Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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The specs: McLaren 600LT

Price, base: Dh914,000

Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8

Transmission: Seven-speed automatic

Power: 600hp @ 7,500rpm

Torque: 620Nm @ 5,500rpm

Fuel economy 12.2.L / 100km

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.”

Water waste

In the UAE’s arid climate, small shrubs, bushes and flower beds usually require about six litres of water per square metre, daily. That increases to 12 litres per square metre a day for small trees, and 300 litres for palm trees.

Horticulturists suggest the best time for watering is before 8am or after 6pm, when water won't be dried up by the sun.

A global report published by the Water Resources Institute in August, ranked the UAE 10th out of 164 nations where water supplies are most stretched.

The Emirates is the world’s third largest per capita water consumer after the US and Canada.

The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
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Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
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Three ways to limit your social media use

Clinical psychologist, Dr Saliha Afridi at The Lighthouse Arabia suggests three easy things you can do every day to cut back on the time you spend online.

1. Put the social media app in a folder on the second or third screen of your phone so it has to remain a conscious decision to open, rather than something your fingers gravitate towards without consideration.

2. Schedule a time to use social media instead of consistently throughout the day. I recommend setting aside certain times of the day or week when you upload pictures or share information. 

3. Take a mental snapshot rather than a photo on your phone. Instead of sharing it with your social world, try to absorb the moment, connect with your feeling, experience the moment with all five of your senses. You will have a memory of that moment more vividly and for far longer than if you take a picture of it.

Director: Laxman Utekar

Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna

Rating: 1/5

Real estate tokenisation project

Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.

The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.

Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.