LONDON // It wasn't as sunny in London as she had hoped, but the first Emirati landscape designer at the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show was "thrilled" to win a silver-gilt medal.
Kamelia bin Zaal had been hoping for a bright day because her design, The Beauty of Islam, dedicated to founding President Sheikh Zayed, uses a play of light and shade.
But even as the rain fell her design caught the judges’ eyes – and those of Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, and his wife Camilla.
“To receive a silver-gilt is incredible. Honestly, I can’t really explain it,” she said on Tuesday. “I wasn’t really expecting a medal as a first-timer.
“Everyone is describing the garden as serene and peaceful. I’ve had a lot of people saying, ‘You should have won gold’.”
She said Prince Charles showed an interest partly because one of the gardens at his home, Highgrove House in Gloucestershire, drew on Middle East influences.
“He was very appreciative, because he has his own Islamic garden at Highgrove,” said Ms bin Zaal, who lives in Dubai.
Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex, and his wife Sophie also visited the garden, as did veteran TV presenters Esther Rantzen and Angela Rippon.
Abdulrahman Ghanem Almutaiwee, the UAE’s ambassador to the UK, was another high-profile visitor to The Beauty of Islam garden.
"I am overwhelmed with what I have seen – it is something we should be very proud of," he told The National. "We are very proud to have UAE participation here."
Ambassador Almutaiwee said the garden honours the legacy of Sheikh Zayed, given the late President’s historic involvement in Chelsea.
Sheikh Zayed exhibited many of his own gardens at Chelsea, including the 2003 gold-medal winner Garden from the Desert, designed by Christopher Bradley-Hole.
Ms bin Zaal’s garden, which was also inspired by the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, features references to the Spice Route with species including cardamom, fig, citrus and olive.
She wanted her garden to convey a positive image of Islam, something to which the public proved receptive.
It had rained on Monday when the main round of judging took place and Ms bin Zaal displayed her garden to media, royalty and celebrities.
There were 15 entrants in the “show garden” category at the Royal Horticultural Society event, which is an intrinsic part of the British social calendar.
The Laurent-Perrier Chatsworth Garden, designed by Dan Pearson, was on Tuesday named the best show garden.
Gold medallists also included A Perfumer's Garden in Grasse by L'Occitane and The Brewin Dolphin Garden.
The Morgan Stanley Healthy Cities Garden, designed by Chris Beardshaw, was another gold medal winner.
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Army of the Dead
Director: Zack Snyder
Stars: Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana de la Reguera
Three stars
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.”
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The specs: 2018 Nissan Altima
Price, base / as tested: Dh78,000 / Dh97,650
Engine: 2.5-litre in-line four-cylinder
Power: 182hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque: 244Nm @ 4,000rpm
Transmission: Continuously variable tranmission
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.6L / 100km
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THE BIO:
Favourite holiday destination: Thailand. I go every year and I’m obsessed with the fitness camps there.
Favourite book: Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. It’s an amazing story about barefoot running.
Favourite film: A League of their Own. I used to love watching it in my granny’s house when I was seven.
Personal motto: Believe it and you can achieve it.
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
No_One Ever Really Dies
N*E*R*D
(I Am Other/Columbia)
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Ads on social media can 'normalise' drugs
A UK report on youth social media habits commissioned by advocacy group Volteface found a quarter of young people were exposed to illegal drug dealers on social media.
The poll of 2,006 people aged 16-24 assessed their exposure to drug dealers online in a nationally representative survey.
Of those admitting to seeing drugs for sale online, 56 per cent saw them advertised on Snapchat, 55 per cent on Instagram and 47 per cent on Facebook.
Cannabis was the drug most pushed by online dealers, with 63 per cent of survey respondents claiming to have seen adverts on social media for the drug, followed by cocaine (26 per cent) and MDMA/ecstasy, with 24 per cent of people.
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
