Hello again Frankfurt

While it's sad my Dubai time is over, it's also great to see my colleagues in Frankfurt again...

In the picture, the German Market Leader says 'hello again'.

I brewed some Arabic coffee with Cardamom and Saffron, and imported some good dates and Omani Halwa for them as a taste of Arabia.

Bye bye Dubai

Final day in office - and a good bye lunch with many of my Dubai colleagues, including some nice presents which I'm receiving here from the Market Leader.

As I said in a good bye-email, it's been a great time: I'm taking home loads of impressions, insights and good memories, with a whole new region now on my personal map - and the great feeling of having new friends. Thanks to all of you.

Till we meet again, inshalla.

Glimmer of hope

Today, The National reports that "the worst of the financial crisis might be over for the Gulf as steadily strengthening oil proces and the return of foreign investors help to restore confidence in battered stock markets".

Go here for the full story.

Back to the Past

Believe it or not, but Dubai does have a past.

And the best place to rush through what made Dubai the place it is is Dubai Museum, located in the city's old fort close to the Creek - and often packed with tourists being dumped there in bus loads.

The following is a short version of the official history line you can follow there - illustrated, of course, by some of the omnipresent dioramas.

The first archeological findings in the area date back to 3,000 BC. In 1580, then, an Italian explorer mentioned Dubai, saying it's a prosperous community in which many make a living from pearl diving.

Some time after 1833, Dubai looked about like the small village in the photo - this is the area of Bur Dubai today. That year, the first 800 or so members of a local tribe settled there and built a wall around their homes - of which you can still find a few pieces in the reconstructed area, Bastakia. About ten years later, people began to settle in what is today Deira, on the other side of the Creek.

Part of Dubai's economic development is due to offering foreigners tax-free areas - in fact, giving tax exemption to traders from other countries is what is seen as sparking the economic development after 1894. Pearls, shells and dried fish from Dubai were traded for goods such as rice, sugar and pepper from India, or wood and cane from East Africa.

Government and low taxes encouraged more development from 1900 onwards, with two contracts with the British (who were a major influence in the region at that time) being signed which allowed planes to land in the Emirates and the search for oil. At the time of the Second World War, about 20,000 people lived in Dubai, and had to face a shortage of food supplies and deal with the emergence of cultured pearls.

In the 1950s, gold trade become important and helped Dubai prosper. At the same time, officials started to build infrastructure and public services including police, courts, electricity, water, the airport and road network planning.

In the 60s, oil was discovered and, by 1969, exports started. The decade also saw the finalization of many infrastructure projects. Bridges were built, Port Rashid as well. In 1968, Abu Dhabi and Dubai decided to unite - the first step towards the UAE. At this time, Dubai had 59,000 citizens.

The UAE were then formed in 1971, with Dubai aiming for becoming the commercial capital of the Emirates. (By the way, according to a colleague, the main currency used in the Emirates up to then was the Indian rupee - as there was no indigenous currency before the Dirham).

It was in the 70s that, driven by high oil prices and ensuing wealth, the development accelerated to what some call "the miracle of modern Dubai". The bigger Jebel Ali Port was opened as well as other key facilities such as the Dry Dock, the World Trade Center, and more infrastructure such as another bridge across the Creek, a tunnel below it, an Aluminium company and a water desalination plant.

By 1977, the population had increased to 207,000 - which continued to grow, reaching 550,000 in the early 1990s. In the 1980s and 1990s, service industries expanded, housing projects were initiated, the airport was expanded to accomodate the new Emirates Airlines. A new focus on tourism sparked the building of recreational and sport facilities. Oil and gas were found in the desert. Foreign trade crossed $16 billion.

And then came the developments that really got people's attention internationally, with the self-proclaimed 7 star hotel Burj Al Arab being one of the first high-profile extravaganzas.

Today, the Emirate of Dubai has a population of more than 2 million people, generating $ 35 billion (2005), mainly from tourism, trade, real estate and financial services. Oil and gas revenues made for less than six percent of that in 2006. The current crisis, of course, slows down the city's boom, with many developments not yet sold or being on hold.

Welcome to the present - with all its achievements and issues. Let's see how the future looks like. In my view, one great current thing is Masdaar City, a big-scale development focusing on sustainability.

Now, that would be a great area to set some records in!

Dancing Waters

I guess you have a pretty busy day as a Sheikh.

On top of your government work, you're also supposed to be out and about for events of economic or social importance.

Last week, for instance, H. H. Sheikh Mohammed at the least made an appearance at travel exhibition ATM, watched a cricket game in Dubai's brand-new cricket stadium (Pakistan defeated Australia in the "short" Twenty20 form of the sport, which about half of Dubai's taxi drivers will tell you), and he also came for the inauguration of Dubai Mall - the biggest mall in Dubai. And that's only what I'm aware of without any sort of research.

When Sheikh Mohammed arrived outside the mall last Friday evening, he came surrounded by a huge cloud of people who all sported a distinct air of importance. The Sheikh's quick stride made it hard for the numerous journalists to catch a picture of the stern-looking leader.

Equipped with a press pass myself, I only managed to get a half-way decent shot when he and his entourage were finally seated for the first official performance of what is said to be the largest performing water fountain in the world.

The spectacle was part of the official inauguration of Dubai Mall, with the impressive silhouette of the Burj Dubai just next to it. Nice composition of perfectly orchestrated water beams, music (not live, though) and light.

You could easily be forgiven if this makes you forget you're in a desert state...

Surreal Sharjah Sight

Quite ghostly sight, isn't it? I took that picture with my high-quality 1 megapixel mobile phone camera last weekend in Sharjah.

As the oppressing afternoon heat subsided, I strolled lazily around the city's reconstructed old area, after I left the Art Museum. And in a little side street, I found what I had been looking for for some time already: Tiny handle-less coffee cups matching the dhalla (the traditional Arabic coffee pot) I had bought a few weeks ago as a souvenir.

Quite happy with my two dirhams-a-cup purchase, I then briefly visited the Al Hisn fort which strangely squats right in the middle of a road leading to the sea shore.

As the sun slowly settled, I walked along the sea, amazed at the chaotic sight of Dhows being loaded and unloaded with anything you can imagine.

Meet the Falcon at ATM

Me and a living bird of prey at the Abu Dhabi stand at Arabian Travel Market (ATM), which takes place right now in Dubai's Convention Center. What lovely and proud birds these falcons are!

ATM is the biggest travel exhibition in the Middle East. From airlines to hotels to destinations, tourist industry members from all over the world come together to show off and do business.

Even Germany was represented - although with a stand whose design must have originated in the early 60s, a time when walls were quite fashionable in Germany. It's basically a long counter in front of a Bauhaus-style-inspired checkered wood-panel wall featuring the colors of the German flag and a couple of unmotivated German scenery motifs.

This year visitor numbers are visibly down compared to earlier years. I was told you could hardly walk in a straight line without bumping into people in 2008, which is nothing like that this year. A taxi driver, from his own perspective, described the exhibition's situation like this:

"Normally, people wait for taxis. Now taxis wait for people."

There shall be one currency

Few people in Europe have noticed so far that there is a process going on here in the Middle East that will create a new currency potentially rivalling the Euro and the US dollar.

Since 2001, the GCC countries are working on replacing their dinar, dirham or riyal with a common currency. Originally, that project was set to be finished by January 1, 2010. While it's been delayed, the region's leaders yesterday announced an important decision: they finally agreed on where the GCC central bank would be located. And it's not Bahrain or Dubai, with their reputation as financial places; but Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - which is not surprising if you consider that Saudi Arabia is not only the largest, but also the strongest country in the area in terms of economy and political power.

It remains uncertain though, when exactly the currency will be introduced, whether it should be pegged to the US dollar - and how it will be called. Some analysts, apparently, have suggested the term "khaliji", which means "of the Gulf", as using an existing name would probably not find agreement from all members of the union. Watch out for more debates about this!

Seeing the economic power of the member states, I think we should expect a strong player in the world markets when the new currency is finally introduced.

An arty glimpse of Sharjah

Sharjah City, located right to the East of Dubai with no perceptible transition between the emirates, positions itself as the culture capital of the UAE. I went there last weekend to see for myself if the place can live up to that promise.

A colleague had warned me that the traffic in Sharjah is almost as mad as in Dubai's most busy times, and that parking spaces are in very short supply. So I decided to take the bus to get there.

And I was grateful once more for having an accurate guide book, which sent me to Deira bus station while, in reality, I had to depart from the Bur Dubai bus station. So after sweating my way from one shore of the Dubai Creek to the other, I took a bus back to the side I started from and was happily on the bus to Sharjah just one hour after I had left the hotel.


Größere Kartenansicht

Arriving in Sharjah around midday, I quickly changed my earlier plan of walking to the city's Al Hisn Fort and to go on a culture walk through the reconstructed older part of Sharjah from there, passing a number of museums. Instead, I decided to take a taxi to Sharjah Art Museum, which is the biggest art museum there (and probably across the UAE), and host of the Biennal, a two-month multi-exhibitions festival including program.

It's easy to spend a few hours there - even if you don't read every little board telling you about the artists and his or her grand ideas.

One current exhibition is "Lure of the East", curated by Tate London, which shows British Orientalist Paintings from dozens of museums worldwide (go here for a random review I found).

Between about 1830 and 1925, a number of British artists travelled the East - among them Lord Byron, David Roberts, John Frederick Lewis, or David Wilkie. And there was even a female painter travelling the East at that time - Henriette Brown, who insisted on accompanying her husband on a diplomatic trip.

They all benefited from the region's growing connection with Western Europe, through railway, steamboats and the Suez channel.

I think many of the stereotypes and cliches along the lines of the style of"Lawrence of Arabia" originate in that era - as the contemporary painters seem to have focused on depictions of the (desert) scenery, bedouins dressed in traditional clothing and portrayals of other high-standing people in local dresses, colorful street scenes, old prunk buildings from the inside or outside, bazaars and markets, and scenes with camels; at least judging from that exhibition.

And of course the harems captured the male painters' imagination, for obvious reasons, one being they were absolutely denied access which must have made it even more alluring. Also, it seems that even Western people at the time liked to have themselves painted in Oriental clothes, in order to demonstrate their cosmopolitanism and cultural refinement.

While it was interesting to see how artists at the time viewed "The Orient", I found most paintings not very captivating; in fact, many seemed quite plain to me. There seemed to be little behind most of them. Or maybe it was only me looking at them superficially, as most failed to capture my interest beyond what they reflected regarding the painters and their views.

The other exhibits at the museum were a stark contrast to that, as many were quite playful and made use of space, sounds, and light in a partly quite engaging way.

Sharjah, by the way, as many sources emphasize, is one of the most conservative of the seven emirates of the UAE. So you better stick to the strict dress code, and absolutely stay away from alcohol. And you also may want to show your affection for your partner only within the privacy of your own room.

Unless you want to get into trouble, as others before you have found out themselves: There are every now and then stories about couples, doing, well, you know what, only to be put to prison and then banned from the UAE for life.

And we wouldn't want that, would we.

What's wrong with them?

I honestly don't know what these digital cameras have against me.

First, one denies duty pretending to have a "lens error". Granted, that one had to go through a lot, braving desert wind and sands two times. (I hear it's been to the camera doctor by now, and may be well again).

The next camera insidiously came with a virus-infected memory card, eating up about 50 percent of my Bahrain pictures. And to top it off, that unfaithful little beast just quietly slipped away one evening. I wonder if it disliked having to photograph the strangely artificial all-year indoor ski slope at Dubai Mall? Anyway, it was simply gone, and no frantic calling all the places I had been to, including speaking to several taxi drivers, brought it back so far.

The third camera, then, lent by a very nice colleague, just went into permanent shivering mode which made taking any non-wiggly pictures impossible when I went to Sharjah City last weekend. (By the way, that camera worked again the moment I tried it out back at my hotel.) So I took to using my fantastic 1 megapixel mobile phone camera.

Gee! All I want is simply take a few pictures. What's wrong with you, digital cameras?! Maybe I should go analog again. That would teach you.

Swine Flu Label Debacle?

So this is the season of the swine flu. Not overlooking the seriousness of the current outbreak and the need to contain it in a concerted worldwide effort, I seem to have missed something.

There is a lot in the news about how it spreads (still waiting for "Swine flu reaches the moon"), questions of where it originated (with journalists going to interview neighbors of 'the first cases' in Mexico City), and how people react. But why exactly is it called swine flu?

Ok, swine influenza is caused by strains of influeza virus that usually infect pigs; an illness not uncommon for pigs in some areas of the world. This virus, though, is rarely transmitted to humans, and even then often just results in antibodies being developed. And that's it.

Without getting into details (mainly because I don't know them), the current outbreak, while we call it 'swine flu', results from a new strain that developed from bits of several different types of influenza viruses - only one of them actually is part of the swine influenza virus; and according to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the new strain has not yet been isolated in pigs.

Nonetheless, the term, suggesting a close link to those animals, is used widely in the media, and has quickly become a fixed expression in our daily vocabulary. (Amazing area for linguists, by the way - to trace how the term spread around the world).

Maybe this is partly because the label 'swine flu' is easier for journalists and people to use than something like 'influnza A virus subtype H1N1', and it links into a concept people are used to from their experiences with bird flu. Other animal, more advanced virus, same scary story?

With the bird flu outbreak, many thought it was sensible to kill chicken populations in the fight to curb the virus. Handy as the term 'swine flu' might seem to speak about the current phenomenon, it may be misleading, though.

Consider this reaction: I read that officials in Abu Dhabi have issued a circular banning the import and sale of all types of pork in the country "as a precautionary measure against swine flu". Background is "the alarming situation".

Now, from what I understand you can't get 'swine flu' through eating pork. So what does it help to keep pork out of a country where, in addition, that sort of meat isn't consumed widely due to Muslim belief anyway?

Maybe it'd indeed be better to use a more technical term when we speak about the current flu, one that is not misleading in helping to understand and discuss what measures are appropriate to take.

This might actually also make it easier for governments to communicate their actions. Who knows if there aren't people around asking for killing pigs, as they had seen similar measures taken against the bird flu?

And then we should help our fellow journalists find a short and striking way of referring to the flu within the limitations of a 15 seconds news spot.

Meanwhile, better wash your hands.


PS: On May 5th, the ban on pork products was lifted in the UAE. You may now notice thermal scanners at Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Dubai airports, though, checking for people with high fevers entering the country.