Remembering Zayed

"People, trees and even sand grains cried when Shaikh Zayed passed away."

Which was two years ago today, but feels like only yesterday; still so sharp is our grief.

The Erring Eye

Where to start with the glaring mistakes, misunderstandings and swallowed-down-myths in this Asia Times "Roving Eye - Dubai" article?

1. "Dubai... is a self-described "door to a market of more than 1 billion consumers"."
"Self-described" for a very good reason: it's completely misleading. The vast majority of the billion "consumers" at Dubai's door are dollar-a-day third-worlders. They won't be turning up for a luxury stay at the Ritz Dubailand any time soon.

2. "Most of all, [Sheikh Zayed] had every reason to be proud of his family's intuition and business acumen - as already in the 1940s they had decided to drain Dubai's port while competitors were sleeping."
No. Zayed's family are the Al Nahyans. The Maktoums run Dubai and dredged the Creek. And the "competition" was Sharjah, part of the UAE. And the Creek was actually dredged in the 1950s and Port Rashid built in the 1960s.

3. "Sheikh Zayed was promised as he lay dying that Dubai would continue to flourish - even without gambling casinos. Not for long, it now seems. Arab Las Vegas, anyone?"
Does anyone else find this touching deathbed scene more than a little absurd to imagine? Not to mention completely irrelevant, as Zayed's main concern would have been Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, and the UAE as a whole.

4. "In this mish-mash of wealthy Arab women covered in silk black chadors"
Try black georgette abayas.

5. "armies of men in dishdashas and fake gold Rolexes"
Try solid gold. Fakes are for tourists and expats.

6. "In the totally deregulated airport, anyone may land piloting any sort of aircraft."
Time to patch up the Zeppelin with sellotape and book a landing slot - the DCA will be waiting with open arms.

7. "Dubai remains in essence a protectorate - a status not substantially different from the tribal sheikhdoms dominated by the British until 1971."
Just like New York is a protectorate of Washington. (Did someone forget to decommission the Trucial Scouts?)

8. "During the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, Dubai was neutral. Thus no al-Qaeda attacks [...] an al-Qaeda attack on Dubai remains unlikely."
Sez who? Osama?

9. "If only Dubai realised that $300 billion would buy the entire outstanding debt of the developing world."
So? What's the point here, get the chequebook out? The US 2007 military budget is $463 billion, excluding Iraq.

10. "[Sheikh Mohammed] only acceded to power last January after the death of his elder brother"
No. Sheikh Mo has been in power as Crown Prince since 1995 and has singlehandedly driven the development of Dubai long before ascending to the Rulership.

11. "The "diversification" may have been one-sided so far - it revolves around tourism, real estate and commercial projects."
Surely this would make it three-sided? Quite apart from the fact that it also involves trade, heavy industry, aviation, finance, IT and media (unless they're all lumped in as "commercial").

12. "Five years ago, Dubai's Internet City was literally desert sand."
DIC opened in October 2000.

13. "Ibn Battuta... was reborn as a mall [with] "Chinese", "Indian", "Persian" or "Moroccan" halls."
Andalucia, Tunisia, Egypt, Persia, India, China. No Morocco. Nor is Morocco in any way interchangeable with Persia.

14. "If she's a woman and works as a maid or in a hotel, she can be sexually harassed - and there will be no recourse."
Sexual harassment is a crime in every emirate of the UAE. Her chances of succeeding in an action may be slim, but there is recourse.

15. "Foreign companies can only operate by paying a UAE kafeel (sponsor, guarantor)"
Not if they're in a freezone, where 100% foreign ownership is permitted.

16. "Everyone knows there's a property-market bubble and the stock market is bound to fall."
Terrible journalism. Nobody "knows". People suspect/predict/reckon/speculate and hedge their interests accordingly. And not everyone agrees...

Green dream

Al Ain was Sheikh Zayed's most beloved city. Already an oasis, he made it greener and more verdant than anywhere else in the UAE.

From the peak of Jebel Hafeet, the city is an impressive expanse of emerald in contrast to the rolling red sands around it.

It may have been an expensive project. It may be environmentally unsustainable. But it is a place of great peace and beauty, and somewhere to remember Zayed and how very greatly we miss him still.

A song in praise

A German band, Papermoon, released a song in tribute to Sheikh Zayed, which you can download a preview of here. Some lyrics:

For all the visions you believed in
For the goals you have achieved
And for the peaceful ways you chose
The country flourished like a rose
For all the good things you did start
We want to thank you from our hearts
Your name will echo in our heads
A name we never will forget
Zayed

The music might not be to everyone's taste - it's a little bit "Eurovision" - but the sentiment transcends.

Stellar skyscraper

A gold titanium-crystal-covered skyscraper is certainly an innovative way of commemorating the UAE's still greatly missed ruler, Sheikh Zayed.

"An amazing building is set to dominate the Abu Dhabi skyline as a tribute to the late Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

"The 255-metre Stellar Tower in the centre of the city will house shops, offices, a restaurant and a 300-bed hotel."

But the architect's impression is somewhat alarming, showing the tower on a vast and empty stretch of seaside sand. Exactly what are they planning to do to Abu Dhabi's existing city centre - blitz it?

The mourning after

Moving as the Victorians did from full-mourning black, to half-mourning grey and later to mauve, Dubai's dreadful English-language radio stations have progressed from Arabic Qu'ran readings through bad classical music to a horrifying blend of muzak.

Wherever Sheikh Zayed is now, he would not want his people to be suffering. And pan-piped Elton John is torment indeed. Bring back Eminem and "classic" 80s hits.

The gloriously iconic portrait of Zayed in front of the UAE flag has been put up in several places in Dubai, with several mega-billboard sized prints along Sheikh Zayed Road. It suggests the UAE is adopting a North Korean-style "Eternal leader/Great Leader" vs "Dear Leader" approach - very advisable given the circumstances of succession.

Exceptional vision

More than a week since his death, tributes to Sheikh Zayed still pour in, many giving startling new perspectives on him. It is well known that Zayed championed women's education and rights with in the UAE, but we learn that he also sent them abroad to be educated and insisted they be given managerial positions. In Gulf culture, to send women away from their families at any age is still unthinkable among many tribes and families. Yet here was Zayed personally encouraging and paying for young girls to go to schools overseas.

He also shook women's hands - which some Muslim men refuse to do, due to misguided piety:

"Recalling an incident with Shaikh Zayed [Hussa Al Khaldy] said: "I was once shaking his hand and he said: "This is not the hand of a woman, this is the hand of a woman that is equal to 20 men."

"It was because of Sheikh Zayed that I never felt that any man was better than me or that I couldn't do something because I was a woman."

An exemplary life

The sad but expected news arrives: Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan President of the UAE and one of the most outstanding leaders in the history of the world, has died.

It is very difficult for someone born in an already advanced, Western culture to fully appreciate the achievements of Sheikh Zayed. This was a man who grew up in a bedouin desert tribe, had very little formal education, and spent the first fifty years of his life in a quiet country of farmers, fishers and camel traders.

At a time when most people start to contemplate retirement, the second phase of Sheikh Zayed's life began. Oil was discovered, the United Arab Emirates was formed, and the country was suddenly transformed from a Gulf backwater into a significant regional and even world power.

Much of Sheikh Zayed's influence in the Middle East has been carried out behind the scenes, with the careful diplomacy required in such a sensitive and volatile region. It is a badly-kept secret that he funded the first Gulf war from his personal fortune, when Kuwait was unable to pay.

A new era begins tomorrow, with thirty days of public mourning.

A storm in a qahwa-cup?

Thicker than the morning smog and the evening dust-storms, the swirling fog of rumour continues in the United Arab Emirates. A thousand different accounts come from "top sources" and "senior officials" and "wives of close advisors" - all anonymous, all wildly contradicting one another. Islamic laws are cited in discussions of what could and couldn't have happened, as the chatter continues in coffee-houses, offices, through email, instant-messaging and internet discussion forums, spreading Chinese whispers to the far corners of the globe.

Now a company called Strategic Forecasting has published an analysis on the Succession Question, also citing many unnamed sources. It has been picked up by the Kuwait Times (gone but Mirror here) and Tunezine (mirror here). The article contains six possible succession outcomes, and even hints at civil war.

"Sources in Dubai told Stratfor the wife of a lower-level sheikh says the wives and families have standing orders to go to Oman or elsewhere in case of Sheikh Zayed’s death - because the power struggle could get ugly.

Whatever the outcome, let us all pray it is not Option 6. Which would be goodbye to life as we know it.

The passing of legends

Great deaths often seem to happen in pairs, as with Princess Diana and Mother Theresa. And on the day portrayer of the silver screen's greatest hero flew into the skies forever, rumours fly around the United Arab Emirates that a far greater hero has also passed on.

According to Islamic belief, if a Muslim dies during Ramadan he ascends directly to heaven. The new moon for this year's Ramadan is not expected to be sighted until Friday. But after a life of such visionary leadership and tireless service to ones people, the Almighty will surely overlook a slightly early release.

A Prestige Purchase

Forget fine-detailed antique silk carpets from Persia, painstakenly hand-woven with thousand of knots per inch. Cast aside the richly-coloured tribal rugs from Afghanistan, with vibrant geometric designs.

Instead, consider this: from the most luridly fluoro-lit discount store in the tacky heart of Satwa, displayed alongside the cluttered plastic finery of throwaway made-in-China tat, the World's Most Marvellous Mat.

Machine-processed of the purest nylon in some sweatshop in Asia, colours exquisitely bland, adorned with the badly-pixellated image of a 30-years-younger Sheikh Zayed - hand raised in greeting, smile toothy and wide - surely only this is fit to grace the walls of Flat 103, Depths of Bur Dubai. "Sixty dirhams ma'am." But he accepts fifty.

And Sheikh Zayed, in all his spectackular glory, arrives home at last.