According to the front page news article Don't lecture UAE on women, Israel told (March 28), the female Federal National Council member Dr Amal al Qubaisi replied sharply to a remark by the Israeli deputy foreign minister Majali Wahabi that the UAE should be talking about womens' rights in its own country instead of criticising Israel's actions in East Jerusalem. At the annual meeting of the International Parliamentary Union in Bangkok, Dr al Qubaisi retorted that according to UN data, the UAE ranks higher than Israel on the empowerment of woman.
She should be applauded and supported 100 per cent for her reaction to the desperate comments by the Israeli deputy foreign minister. When Israel feels it has to criticise a benign and peaceful country like the UAE, you know two things. First, the UAE is making its mark on the global stage and, second, Israel is increasingly isolated and worried - and so it should be. It's time for Israel to act within the norms of international law and to abide by the many existing UN resolutions.
Adil Ali, Abu Dhabi
I read with interest Rym Ghazal's opinion column Hospital horrors: gold teeth, bribery and terrible food (March 25).
As a Saudi doctor practising in Canada for the past four years and currently on medical leave due to work-induced stress, I would like to say this: yes, horror stories exist in the medical profession and perhaps always will. At the risk of sounding callous, for as long as there are humans pushed to work beyond their human abilities, there will be tragedies.
I do not mean to defend the cases of malpractice or neglect, as those are certainly grave injustices and should be appropriately reprimanded. For the large part though, doctors are human beings who will set aside basic needs such as sleep and food while working long shifts lasting more than 24 hours at a time, unthinkable in other professions.
After that eight-hour wait in the emergency room, the doctor who came to see Ms Ghazal could have been me. And I can tell you this much: in those sleep-deprived eight hours, I would have seen perhaps eight other sick people, resuscitating several from the throes of death, at times feeling close to collapsing myself. I would have dealt with distressed and often angry families, broken bad news and held someone's hand while they cried.
Across the globe, is there a problem with health care systems? With the added perspective of having practised in Saudi Arabia, I'll say there sure is. However, I doubt a perfect solution will ever exist as humans are a difficult species to please.
Give us more doctors and perhaps the waits and mistakes will be less. But for now, and on behalf of my fellow doctors, I think we're doing a darn good job, most times at the expense of our own health, sanity and personal relationships. The rates of depression, suicide and divorce among doctors bears testimony to that.
Dr Grazala Radwi, Saudi Arabia
Referring to a reader's comment in the letters page titled Womad should include all fans (March 25), the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, organiser of Womad, would like to clarify the following: audiences of all ages and nationalities are welcome to enjoy Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage events. Womad is one of our mass audience events which is open for all.
Last year the event was open for all and more than 80,000 people enjoyed the event in the three-day open-air festival. A small number of people were not allowed to enter for not dressing properly for such a family event. It is notable in all musical and cultural events everywhere that the dress code is important.
Though the festival did not follow a restrictive policy regarding the dress code, some people were not properly dressed; the people turned away were requested to change and come back.
The Media Office, Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, Abu Dhabi
In reference to the front page news article Seventeen sentenced to death for 'bootleg' murder (March 29), what the government feels about the large problem of trade in bootlegged alcohol is true.
There are so many people selling alcohol inside Jebel Ali Free Zone and the Dubai Investment Park area. All are illegal. Still they sell alcohol openly and even claim that the police cannot prevent them from doing this. It is a mafia which operates this trade.
Punishing some individuals will definitely not end this menace of illegal bootlegging as this is organised crime. The Dubai Government and police need to take a tough stand if they really care to end it.
John Abraham, Dubai
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
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
Emergency
Director: Kangana Ranaut
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry
Rating: 2/5
Game Changer
Director: Shankar
Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram
Rating: 2/5
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.
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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.”
How to help
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
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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.
Key changes
Commission caps
For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:
• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• On the protection component, there is a cap of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated.
• The remaining commission after deduction of the indemnity commission is paid equally over the premium payment term.
• For pure protection products, which only offer a life insurance component, the maximum commission will be 10 per cent of the annualised premium multiplied by the length of the policy in years.
Disclosure
Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.
“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”
Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.
Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.
“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.
Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.
