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29 February, 2004

Something is rotten in the state of camels

During lunch at The Wahid we were invited to buy a chocolate biscuit camel to help raise money for special needs children to buy back a brightly coloured camel they painted. Munching the caramel coated, chocolate studded animal, its sweet stickiness begins to cloy as we consider the actual set up of the Camel Caravan.

Around eighty painted fibreglass jamals are scattered across Dubai. It costs ten thousand American dollars to "sponsor" a plain white model, which is then painted by an artist for display. Eighty camels@10,000 dollars a piece=US$0.8 million. According to sources, the original plan was to get two hundred camels (US$2 million).

At the end of the exhibition, the camels are auctioned off for charity. This is the only money that goes to charity. The rest of the funds provided by sponsors - the initial US$0.8 million - is used to organise Camel Caravan.

...make the camels, supply the paints, pay the artists and in general mount the public art event.

The artists are paid US$800 per camel. We can assume the fibreglass mould and shipping from the US cost no more than US$1000. Then allow a generous US$100 for paints. With Dubai Municipality "supporting" the event, the exhibition costs would be negligible - say US$100 for the concrete mounting block plus labour (US$100 is nearly a month's salary for a manual labourer). This leaves US$8,000 clear profit on every plastic quadruped gracing the parks and pavements of the Emirate.

Money not going to any good cause other than the private coffers of the Scamel Caravan.

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