Just outside Abu Dhabi Island, Binji Khanji, 38, briefly takes his eyes off the giant television screen in one of the on-site recreation centres at his labour camp to explain his luck.
"I was unemployed at home," he says, trying to describe the undignified reality of long-term unemployment in Gujarat, India. "Here, I work six days a week. I am able to send home 10,000 Indian rupees (Dh774) a month to my family."
Like most of the nearly 41,000 other labourers working to make Aldar's Yas Island project come to life, Mr Khanji travelled to the UAE for a better life, which he hoped to achieve through work. He has been here for six months, before which he lived at a labour camp in Dubai.
"Life is better here," he says. "Better than home."
But about 20 minutes away in Mussafah, Ranjan, a 40-year-old air conditioning repairman from Kerala, India, offers an altogether different reality. He refuses to open the door fully to the tiny room he shares with seven other men in Musaffah, clearly embarrassed by its condition. So he leans halfway out into the hall, sweating profusely, waving his hand in front of his face in an attempt to chase away the smell coming from the cooking area beside him, apologetically.
The hallway floor lies at an angle and sinks with each step. Dirty shoes, clothes, safety goggles, dirty plates and cookware mingle on the floor, attracting flies.
"I was given photos of the UAE before I came here five years ago, but this is not what was in those pictures," he says. "I know there is better accommodation in this country than here."
The UAE has been criticised by human rights groups for Dickensian conditions of labourers like Ranjan, who says he was misled about working here. But the lack of space, volume of bodies and sometimes poorly built buildings will, officials hope, be soon rectified by better oversight and regulations.
Under the new housing standards passed by the federal cabinet, labour camps with such conditions will be denied permits, ultimately making way for improved living quality of the sort being pioneered by Aldar in Yas Island.
"We don't call them labour camps any more, actually. Not here," says Scott Dowding, logistics co-ordinator for the Yas Island project.
"We call [the accommodation] Operative Villages," Mr Dowding says. "We're trying to get away from the idea of labour camps."
The philosophy is firmly rooted in the belief that happier workers are better workers.
Labourers on Yas Island live in cabins the size of a large mobile home, eight to a room.
Everyone is allowed internet access, up to 30 minutes daily. Also available are gymnasiums, a cricket pitch, a library and recreation rooms showing films in a variety of languages.
"The Ministry of Labour comes every two months to check on Aldar and the main contractors," Mr Dowding said.
During a tour of the Yas Island facilities in October 2008, the Minister of Labour, Saqr Ghobash, said the facility should be held up as a standard to which all labour camps in the country should aspire.
"There are no more excuses for the private sector to not meet these standards," he said at the time.
But it is not just the conditions themselves that make one camp better than another, the labourers say, they also reflect how they are viewed by their employers; good conditions allow them dignity and show respect, which ultimately lead to better productivity.
"My company provides me with good accommodation," says Mohammed Naveed, 22, of Pakistan, who is a steelworker at an Al Nasr project. "That makes me satisfied. I am satisfied, so I will work."
jhume@thenational.ae
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
How Voiss turns words to speech
The device has a screen reader or software that monitors what happens on the screen
The screen reader sends the text to the speech synthesiser
This converts to audio whatever it receives from screen reader, so the person can hear what is happening on the screen
A VOISS computer costs between $200 and $250 depending on memory card capacity that ranges from 32GB to 128GB
The speech synthesisers VOISS develops are free
Subsequent computer versions will include improvements such as wireless keyboards
Arabic voice in affordable talking computer to be added next year to English, Portuguese, and Spanish synthesiser
Partnerships planned during Expo 2020 Dubai to add more languages
At least 2.2 billion people globally have a vision impairment or blindness
More than 90 per cent live in developing countries
The Long-term aim of VOISS to reach the technology to people in poor countries with workshops that teach them to build their own device
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.”
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
