Secret of Dubai's success
What is the secret of Dubai's success?
The desert.
[Sheikh Mohammed] said: "It is due to the vast desert spaces of his country, where the mind has the freedom to think, to explore and to dream."
So those of you who guessed oil/cheap expat labour/absolute power were all wrong.
It's sand.
The desert.
[Sheikh Mohammed] said: "It is due to the vast desert spaces of his country, where the mind has the freedom to think, to explore and to dream."
So those of you who guessed oil/cheap expat labour/absolute power were all wrong.
It's sand.
Labels: environment, politics
54 Comments:
It is oil, and oil alone. Plus a small local population. Thats all, lots of oil, small local population. That leaves enough for some income redistribution, and leaves the rest for superyachts, jumbo jets, and shameless debauchery for the rulers.
Dont let anyone tell you otherwise.
I bet the gritty feeling of sand in his crotch must be oh-so-wonderful.
maybe he was looking at it from an architects point of view.its a piece of art they are making there and an empty canvas can be an artists best source of inspiration
On the brain?
I didn't think Dubai had much oil. Is there anything wrong with a country man waxing poetic about his country? As for the cheap labor, I'd like to see us focus on cheap managers and employers who short change their employees while living in the lap of luxury. If anything the Emiratis are guilty of following the example of capitalism that's been thrown up in their faces. Let's see if Halliburton pays anyone already living here the same they paid their fellow Texans before they pulled out!
Burying ones head in the sand sounds more likely.
LOL. Based on this premise, Saudi Arabia and Libya should be even more advanced countries...
The empty spaces of the desert, actually does let my mind wander and dream...
Bravo, bravo to the WAM and other PR people, nice formulation.
what he said is correct
http://dubai-best-hotels.blogspot.com/
To be fair, all the economic advantages Dubai finds itself in are not the only reasons why Dubai is what it is today. As someone pointed out, Libya for instance could have outdone Dubai long ago, but they didn't.
You have to consider that he could have said, "due to the wise directions of so and so.. and the visions of so and so.. and blabla" which we have all heard before and switch off as soon as someone starts to say. Instead, he gives credit to the desert.
Makes sense to me. The truth is, it's because the Maktoum family are a business people.
"Makes sense to me. The truth is, it's because the Maktoum family are a business people."
If they are a business people, why do they not earn their money instead of plundering govt coffers.
Look, I give it to the maktoum family, if your compare them with the usual shit that exists in other countries, then they are miles ahead. But only because the usual Arab dictator is probably the most thieving leader in world history.
Their brutality to their subjects vary, from the benign to the outride genocidal. However in their thieving they are uniform.
If Maktoum was the average leader in a western country, he would most definately be hanging outside a light pole, metaphorically speaking.
These lot are just interested in luxury, shameless luxury and debauchery. If anyone of you are blessed with money, and happen to mix with these people or work for them you will know what i mean. Somethings words do not do justice, you simply have to be there to experience it.
I would like to remind the people here, Saudi Arabia has lots of land. Infact its nearly the size of western europe. So lots of real estate there. A few decades ago it was booming like hell, I was there. The cranes in the port were not enough to unload the cargo, they had to use helicopters as auxiliary cranes.
To most people at the time, things were only going to get better. If you said you were from Saudi, everyone assumed you had money.
Well forward a few years, multiply the population by two, and multiply the princes by ten. The result is that the Saudi middle class has been hollowed out, and lobotomised. There is now lots of poor people, lots of people who get by, and a fraction of a middle class, and the top you got the royal family that is increasing by leaps and bounds, stealing with impunity.
If you are an average Saudi, your blood literally reaches boiling point whenever you pass by the palaces. Its horror story bar none.
Anyways I personally think, the same fate awaits the UAE. Its been postponed by high oil prices, but its coming. The dynamics are the same as Saudi. Its a small place, with a small population with lots of hydrocarbons in Abudhabi, which by the way has been financing Dubai's expansion. However there are seven royal families. I would like to see the emirates wiggle out of this one. Its coming, its coming. No two ways about it.
Saudi has got it, Oman's got it, Bahrains got it....you my friends are no different from the mentioned countries. You are cut from the same cloth. But unfortunately you have seven royal families to boot.
In the meantime enjoy it, it aint gonna be pretty.
anon@23.47.. nice...very nice..would like to hear more often from you
you missed the couple of explosions going off in saudi which changed the investment climate..god forbid that here...there is not enough place for two. and how long can you pay the wolves to keep them at bay...the chicken do come home to roost someday
Wow..anon @ 24 May, 2007 23:47
I think the parallels you draw between Saudi and the UAE are really unfair. The boom Saudi experienced in the 70's and 80's may look similar to the one experienced by Dubai today -- from the surface. However, the UAE and KSA are fundamentally different.
1. Dubai is booming using other people's money. Dubai itself had nothing.
2. Abu Dhabi _is_ financing Dubai's expansion. So?
3. Dubai welcomes foreign investments with open arms, Saudi is still struggling to grasp this concept.
4. Saudi played the power game with Egypt and now with Libya (to a much lesser extent). The UAE is essentially apolitical. KSA to the UAE is like the USA to Canada.
5. The UAE has the advantage of watching the Saudi's rise and fall (and begin to recover again slowly, while trying to hopelessly copy Dubai).
6. The UAE is investing its money everywhere.
But all this aside, I think the fact that the UAE (and Dubai specifically) opened up its arms and said, "come on in, set up shop, do your thing.. we'll build the infrastructure [small print: and we'll make a killing out of you this way]" is what makes it an entirely different ball game.
Don't be such a pessimist :)
I've been reading your blog for awhile and really appreciate the insider's perspective you provide. All I ever hear about in the States is how magnificently fantastic the UAE is and how we all must visit. Certainly it sounds like a place to behold, but there's always dust on the top shelf that needs to be pointed out and you do that really well.
Thank you for being honest.
Also, this post cracked me up like no other. Your sarcasm was impeccable.
It's sand. Ha ha ha!
I havent read the comments but.. what hes probably trying to say is..THATS where he goes to think about the future of Dubai..and hence gets his ideas
The ironic beauty of this post is that land is actually the reason of the current post-2000 boom and success for the Emirate of Dubai.
All the ingredients for this to take place are the result of vision and planning since Sheikh Rashid had Jebel Ali Port built, capitalizing on Dubai's greatest resource, its location as a trading port. The land had no value in the 70's 80's and 90's. Now it does hold value because of all the reasons you know: great tourism, ease of business, relaxed rules with regard to entertainment, good infrsatructure (and they are always improving infrastructure based on International Best Practices). So since the real estate has value, they sure as well better develop it and sell it for dirhams per sqft to private developers, this is progress.
A lot of you anonymous poster pose as highly intellectual economics professors, it scares me that people might be believing all the nonsense you write. At least have the decency to write your name. I would not be surprised if you base all your theories on what your friends tell you at a party and your below average grades you got in school. I would be surprised if any of you even passed economics.
Mukund Menda
" If anything the Emiratis are guilty of following the example of capitalism that's been thrown up in their faces."
Anon is right, to a degree. Except the took our practices of employing illegal labour to save $$$, and turned that into an official policy.
Mukund Menda....
I am sure your name is a parody of some swahili words. Do me a favour please. Ask anyone who speaks Swahili, the lingua franca language of East Africa what "Mkundu Mkende" means. There are loads of East Africans in the middle east.
I am sure they will be happy to tell you.
Oodles and oodles of cash is what gives "the mind ... the freedom to think, to explore and to dream."
Maybe that one got forgotten, eh?
Going back to the original point.
I agree totally that the desert does allow the mind to wander and dream.
But why then is he allowing it all to be built up with the horrors, for example, of DubaiLand on the Bab Al Shams road?
What a waste of totally beautiful desert land.
what about the first and quasi only city in the region that is liberal and hosts prostitution?
i hope im not shocking, but yes, a great great deal of visitors to dubai are looking for "pleasure" and 30% of hotel guests are Emiratis....wonder why!
Good post SD, and relates to my recent blog about Abu Dhabi.
Plenty of open deserts in both but then why the difference?
http://dubaibuy.blogspot.com
Is it the desert that makes him think, or the acres of green in his palace that inspires him. I dont know.
What I can say though, in his house, he prefers green.
I have posted pictures of his crib. Now the link might not show properly, because the blog is not set up correctly.
If SD wants , she can do a link to it, where you just click and it will take you.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/1200/buildingfn7.png
http://www.pbase.com/bmcmorrow/image/33646157
http://www.pbase.com/bmcmorrow/image/41291889
http://www.pbase.com/bmcmorrow/image/41291892
http://www.pbase.com/bmcmorrow/image/41291894
Now here is sheikh hasher's palace. Remember this boy is just a kid. I wonder where the money came from. Anyways here you go.
http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums/516268-post71.html
oh yeah, before I forget. Here is the video of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjKS6Pl8qR4
"...vast desert spaces of his country, where the mind has the freedom to think..."
Like the time he took the government to the desert to define the new 'Strategic Plan 2015' -
- They actually went to Bab Al Shams luxury resort!
[http://uaeinteract.com/news/default.asp?ID=3; 16/02/2007]
Anon @ 25 May, 2007 21:54
"What a waste of totally beautiful desert land."
Very good point. At the present rate of construction very soon there will be no desert, thus no freedom to think, explore and dream!
Wow, what weird reactions to a seemingly innocent statement by the Shaykh. Guys, give the Shaykh a break!
I think most people here are taking his words out of context. Shaykh Mohammad happens to be a poet (I can already see some laugh at this). His reference to Dubai's success to the desert is symbolic and metaphoric. In traditional sufi poetry, the desert's vastness and mystiqueness signifies an ascetic's desire to learn and explore and reach ultimate success - The Truth.
I think that is what the Shaykh meant. His was a poetic take on the success of Dubai. Very similar to his couplet on the Palm that talks of men of vision being able to ride on water. That certainly doesn't mean he is going to LITERALLY start a horse race on water!
By the way, Abu Dhabi is NOT financing Dubai's economic growth. Yes, Dubai gets its fair share of economic assistance from Abu Dhabi just like all the other states. Just like any other country, Abu Dhabi is the federal authority that provides necessary funds and assistance to its other states. But, Dubai alone is making this progress and it is only now that other states such as Ras Al-Khaimah are following.
Dubai's success, in my humble opinion, is not a "bubble". If such were the case then companies like Halliburton would not be planning to set their headquarters here. The fact of the matter is that Dubai is strategically located and offers a very conducive environment for Foreign Direct Investments.
hey....al-republican...stop commenting as if you are the authority in whatever topic is being discussed...we know why Halliburton is setting up its shop here..
-fake democratic
Surprising. Upon hearing this news, I went out into the desert for a much needed kick start to my creativity.
Just want to inform all here that hospital food is not as bad as think it is, especialy when its being pumped into you...
This is a regular Sandabarbara show...
Thank you SD for giving us a blog to vent our hate and frustration at this stupid place. If only they can let us run the show like in Iraq.
I know the people here dont like the sheikh's or monarchs etc.
But if you take the rulers(Arab) as a whole, then the gulf is infinately better off than the countries with "common rulers".
I mean just look at those countries, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq( pre, and after america), Tunisia(God Forbid) where even the Hijab is banned, Libya, Algeria, Yemen.
So in the scheme of things, we can deduce the Arabs as a whole are crap at producing rulers, but as you know everyone has to have a ruler. In that case, it is far better to have the sheikhs.
Now having said that, that doesnt mean I like the way the sheikhs behave with government funds, or the size of the royal family, which get exponentially bigger each generation.
To anon@17:19 - haha... you a Texan?
SD- love the post. Have to agree with al-republican on something though. I mean, the sheikh could easily have said: "Secret to Dubai's success? ME! ME! It was all ME, and well, Sheikh Zayed helped out a bit too..."
But instead he says: "go yonder into The Desert and figure it out for yourselves..." or something to that effect. See?
al-republican's one of the only ones on this comment thread with their facts straight. The rest are views expressed by people on the dole with no education.
Re the comment on Dubailand being a waste of desert:
Firstly, um, there's plenty of desert in the UAE, so a development on the edge of Dubai can hardly be called "wasting the desert".
But more importantly, to get a sense of what Dubailand will be, do yourself a favour and go into the visitors centre to look at the truly astonishing scale model on display.
I guarantee you've never seen anything like it, and it will change your attitude to Dubailand.
The tacky roller-coaster-rocket thing visible from Emirates Road gives a totally wrong impression of the vision and the strategy.
Al Republican
I thought it was a man of vision to 'write on water' NOT ride on water? By the way the moment people start talking about the poor conditions of labourers everyone starts comparing with other third world countries like India or Pakistan. Why not compare yourselves to the best nations? Why take the developing world as the benchmark? Especially if Dubai wants to be the 'best'?
Anon 13.03
"do yourself a favour and go into the visitors centre to look at the truly astonishing scale model on display.
I guarantee you've never seen anything like it, and it will change your attitude to Dubailand."
Weeeell, did you see the plans for the Al Barari development along the road to Bab Al Shams?
Themed hotel after themed hotel - all bigger and better than the previous one? Hollywood? Asia? Africa? Fashion? 500+ rooms per hotel? All staffed by underpaid Phillippinos & Indians dressed up to act the part??
I can't wait. We'll never need get on a plane and visit a real country again. I mean, why go to unsanitary India or nasty dangerous Africa when you can visit it right here in Dubai?
Well.. To be perfectly honest, who doesn't want to be that rich???
Im a hardcore business person, and for me, luxury is success.. If I was in his place, I would probably have a much bigger palace, in every country in the world, and hell, ill just install a few radars, increase the parking fees, along with the toll money..and maybe i'd buy hawaii.
Well said Anon at 21:52.
When it comes to high rents, you hear rents are high in London and tokyo as well, and as Dubai is a world class city just like them, its perfectly ok for Dubai to have high rents.
When it comes to laborer's salaries, you hear about how salaries are even lower in Timbuktu and India and therefore the salaries are perfectly ok
A few reasons why dubai should, and would never be compared to west in terms of life or lifestyle or expenses by anyone who has seen the west a few times atleast
1. shittiest weather...you touched 50 this year yet
2. Humidity that makes stepping out to breathe a suicide
3. Unhealthy A/C weather year round, killing all activities of family and kids
4. Traffic jams that really suck
5. Lack of personal freedom, i mean intrusion on everything that is in personal domain
6. terrible service quality, compared to evolved world
7. never a chance to get any rights or even residence in this country for your kids even if you live for 100 yrs here
When did you see a really successful and famous person of high professional credentials ever move to permananently live adn work there? forget the failed footballers, even they dont live here.
who in their right sense would anyway want to be here, other than slaves and financially broke, and of course failures in their own places. and those who dont repsect their lives enough to know how it is getting wasted here when there is a beautiful world elsewhere.
To anonymous above:
Actually almost all the successful businessmen and entertainers are looking at Dubai.
Halliburton's CEO is moving here, a few months ago the top of the top RE CEOs were here from NY and went gaga over this place, famous photographer Annie Liebovitz was here, wanna know who else calls this place their home? Roger Federer, check out this issue of MEN's Vogue and read why he loves this place and has bought an apartment in Dubai Marina. Gee wheez who else... Oh ya and when they dont live here, they are busy spinning that they own property here: Tommy Lee, Angelina Jolie, Richard Branson.
All these people are associating themselves one way or the other to Dubai because they want to. Its good for their brand. The only ones whining about this place are those who couldnt find a decent job in their homeplace and cant find a decent job here either. Its resentment at its most childish.
Wake up everyone. Dubai is here and it is happening! And i cant help but say this:
IF YOU DONT LIKE IT, LEAVE IT :)
rocket science...petro business halliburton finally moving to the area where the petro business is. what took them so long. they even took US to Iraq for the war, for the petrol.
as for the rest of names dropped,who visited dubai for a piss and crap on the way back home a few months back, could anyone, i beg, anyone of you, give me ten names of real world biggies who spend atleast 4-6 months of their year in dubai ( not just own sinking villas on islands gifted before they vanish)
..do i hear bill gates...al pacino..steve jobs...ford...branson...paul mccartney...maybe vincent van gogh...maybe the whole london philharmonic orchestra...all moving to dubai to REALLY live there, not give PR bullspin..for the love of heat and sweat and traffic..and lack of greenery..and lack of any plastic building older than 25 years...and of course the fantastic wildlife ( in nighclubs of course)...
leave if i dont like....laugh if i dont like is the new motto...
To anonymous above:
Not everyone who visits, lives here is publicized.
Out of the few you have mentioned all have visited:
bill gates, yes, twice.
al pacino, erm yes and owns a sinking island in fact,
steve jobs, yep gave a speech even
ford... which one? Harrison? yes and is a partner in filmin studio project
branson, I already mentioned his name above. Not only did he buy England, he is revisiting in November
paul mccartney... not that i know of.
Like i mentioned, there are quite a few that call this place home. Eg: Did you know that Roger Federer spends 4-6 months here every year? Read Men's Vogue and thats what he says. It's a great place for his training.
And who decided Dubai was a success?
Is 'success', a few fancy skyscrapers and some decent highways, but a socially retarded and backward population unwilling and unable to create or produce?
Steve Jobs visited the UAE?
When?
debbie seems to have lost it...must be the desert heat and sand. since the claim is the worlds center of gravity moved to dubai, i was asking for people who live in dubai who are at the top of their field, whatever be it. and i get a laundry list of people who passed through dubai airport last year. babe, whats up, we are not visitors here, we live here, and i want a list of the toppers who live here. dont throw the airport visitors list at me,who really moved to live here since you claim this is the heaven on earth.as for federer practising 4 months here, yeah once he can breathe in this shit heat and humbity he can play even in hell, maybe thats why. also people will invest wherever there is a buck to be made,even in New York stock exchange, i dont think it means they live in the stock exchange.
france gets 60- million tourists a year, all the people you mentioned and their parents did pass by, i dont think France claims that all these people live in Paris, like dubai desperately advertises. get the point...or do i need to dig the sand out more..and SD...forget steve jobs...it is part of the PR lie - spin of dxb probably, he has better places to piss on...
Yeah right.The desert.I bet that's what inspires ideas like the Palm Island in fertile minds.
It happened that I was born as a local, and it seems that it is enough guilt for some to be hated !
What makes such blog very interesting is the way the topics are written and how diverse the comments are, so enjoy such freedom of speech, which not necessarly means in anyway that you are reading a correct and true statements, including mine.
Now, as a local, I spend good time studying abroad in a developed country which has a good democratic system and a good reputation in human rights. I can see very clearly what is lacking in my country, and believe me there are lots of defeciencies in our system. When u look at the political system we have, u can easily see that the people have no say on our policies, and lots of laws and ligistlations are forced on us. It is also ironic that so many decisions are made in a hasty manner without even looking into concequences.
For example, Deporting after minor offences is really unfair, and in my opinion it should be reevaluated.
Other issue is the realestate boom in UAE, and the shame that brought to us by such developers regarding the labourers work conditions and the low and delayed salaries.
One funny thing is the statement of Sheikh Mohammed about his desire that ordinary local people should live like him !! Hey, I don't want palaces or villas, what I want is my freedom as a citizen, that I can speak out and question goverment acts, thats what I want, Sheikh Mohammed. I want my opinion to be heard, I want my people to decide their future and control the country's wealth. I want people to be treated equally without discrimination. I want the local, the Indian and the British if they carry the same qualification to get the same pay and incentives. Thats what a civilized country will do, not like what is happening in my country.
Fancy Dubai will decieve many people, but for many others its so obvious that a real civilized country is not there, yet.
expressindia.com - Dubai, June 9: For the five million Indians residing in the Gulf countries, many of them in blue-collar jobs, life is not that easy, thanks to higher cost of living.
According to a survey conducted by a Dubai-based non-governmental organisation, 95 per cent of Indians in the Gulf return empty-handed to their home country even after working for a decade.
"Though only 10 per cent of Indian workers in the GCC nations live with families, a majority of them fail to save sufficient money due to low wages and high expenditure on medical treatment," K V Shamsuddin, chairman Pravasi Bandhu Welfare Trust said.
"We had conducted a survey among 10,100 middle and low income expatriate Indians in GCC and found that only five per cent had some financial resources to sustain themselves on return. While 95 per cent felt the need for some regular source of income when they return back to India and look after their families," he said."
lets talk about sand baby.
LOL
SAND!! we have tons of it here in Libya...sooo will we be as succecful as Dubai economicaly or even by tourisim??
maybe one day we will stop looking to the north and look south to our largest Sahara in Africa.. all it needs is imagination... they said.
hmm interesting.....don't you think?
Oh thank god...I was hoping for something like this-- now I know that the gravel in my backyard isn't for naught. Whew.
Thanks for the wonderful laugh. ;)
SC - this is not a linkback jobby. It more that you may like the little vid I just made as a tribute to the labourers;
http://going-cold-turkey.blogspot.com/2007/06/my-first-tube-post.html
Hope you like
@ anonymous..
yeah true there are 5 mill indians and even (brits and aussies..yada yada) that will live here for a decade and prob not have money when they go back..
But has it occured to you that the best 10 years of their lives they got a better life than from where they came?
dosnt that count for somethinG?
Cheers
My 10 fils
Dubai’s so called growth is akin to a woman putting on make up, going for liposuction and doing botox to look young and pretty as opposed to working out and eating healthily.
The influx of people, the rulers’ aspiration for Dubai to become a metropolis, the construction growth, it is all part of a put-on imitation of development.
Unlike HK and Singapore and now China where real progress was made primarily as a result of hard work from the locals, Dubai’s raised profile is as a result of a bribed attempt that includes millions being spent on glitzy marketing from the outside and highly paid tax free jobs from the inside. Real growth is the result of hard work from people that are patient, persevering and hard working. I am sorry but UAE nationals are none of that. They carry an air of self importance and they are anything but hard working. Dubai would be nothing but a barren landscape (as most of it still is) were it not for the millions of expats who, in their search for a better paid job, flocked in this land and toiled to make a decent living. As such, the frivolous ambition of the powers that be here, to make this a world class city is based on the following approach:
We want to make our city look great but we either cannot do it ourselves or we cannot be bothered to do it ourselves. So hey you the expat, we’ll pay you to do it for us. So come on over we’ll pay you good bucks… do our roads, build our city, cook our food give us you knowledge and technology, your time and your skills and just make us look good to the outer world. So that we can then say we are great.
This is as illusionary as a woman having done botox thinking she has no wrinkles. It’s as close to growth as your next door neighbour who was rich anyway, deciding to hire a gardener to landscape his garden, a goldsmith to put gold knobs on his doors and a chauffeur to drive his limo. Great for all these guys that suddenly get a job as a result of it but hardly a progress for the spendthrift that simply pays them from money he had anyway as opposed to money he earned from hard work.
This is the long and the short of it and long may it last for all of us that are here, lured by the cash.
"A few reasons why dubai should, and would never be compared to west in terms of life or lifestyle or expenses by anyone who has seen the west a few times atleast
1. shittiest weather...you touched 50 this year yet
2. Humidity that makes stepping out to breathe a suicide
3. Unhealthy A/C weather year round, killing all activities of family and kids
4. Traffic jams that really suck
5. Lack of personal freedom, i mean intrusion on everything that is in personal domain
6. terrible service quality, compared to evolved world
7. never a chance to get any rights or even residence in this country for your kids even if you live for 100 yrs here
When did you see a really successful and famous person of high professional credentials ever move to permananently live adn work there? forget the failed footballers, even they dont live here.
who in their right sense would anyway want to be here, other than slaves and financially broke, and of course failures in their own places. and those who dont repsect their lives enough to know how it is getting wasted here when there is a beautiful world elsewhere"
Having been living there for 13 years, I felt nothing but hate in such a tacky yet modern city we call Dubai. Rights,Freedom and Equality are virtually non-existent in such a vast city.All of Dubai's architectures symbolise materialism to the highest extent devoiding them of true artistic quality. Even the iconic Burj al Arab is an expression of extreme opulence.
Etncitiy and to a lesser extent Credentials plays an important role in getting a job offer. The concept of racial supremacy in such a Modern city is beyond me!
But after moving out of Dubai 4-5 years ago and arriving in Sydney, I said to myself "THANK THE LORD"
And that was when I was 13.
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