How majlis, moxie and global talent are shaping the modern UAE
If you tune in to Monocle Radio, follow our weekday newsletters or were on the rooftop of Iliāna at Jumeirah Marsa Al Arab on Wednesday, you will know that Monocle was very much in the UAE this week. While much of the action was at the World Governments Summit (WGS) just along the beach, there were other colleagues zipping back and forth to Abu Dhabi (who can pass up an invite to a Ricky Martin concert with CNN’s Becky Anderson as your front row seatmate?), scoping out new retail ventures and simply getting a read on the country at this most enjoyable time of year – 26C by day and cool enough to dine outdoors into the wee hours.
My first UAE touchdown was in early 1994. I was being evacuated from Afghanistan by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) via Islamabad and Dubai. I had been shot in Kabul 48 hours earlier, was high as a kite on morphine and remembered a low-rise city that looked like it might have a story or two worth telling. Six months later, I returned with photographer Zed Nelson and spent a week at the Le Méridien near the airport hunting for stories to file to the various titles that had assigned us. If you can track down copies of Arena magazine from late 1994 or early 1995, you’ll likely land on some of the fine reportage we did from various corners of the world. I was thinking about our time spent in seedy Dubai clubs and overlit Lebanese restaurants when I touched down last Saturday.
As I passed the towers around the Dubai International Financial Centre, I was also reminded of a story we’d done in Singapore at about the same time. We’d found a bunch of young and wealthy locals who were game to talk about the transformation of their city and had arranged for them to stand in front of a forest of girders and cranes that were erecting the soon-to-debut Suntec City. I was also reminded of the sharp Emiratis who told me that same autumn that they wanted to be the Singapore of the Middle East but with more natural resources and a better airline. Three decades ago, with Dubai all low-rise buildings, dusty and scrubby, it seemed like wishful thinking at best. We now have a pretty good idea how that thinking has evolved and it’s an impressive, crazy and ambitious tale.
Just as Singapore’s Shangri-La Dialogues helped define it as a key diplomatic broker in the region, this week’s WGS and various side summits in Abu Dhabi have vaulted the UAE into the spotlight as a region that generates datelines for stories ranging from aviation to big infrastructure, and peace brokering to top-chef talent attraction. Western diplomats like to take the odd sideswipe at the UAE, remind you that all is not what it seems and trot out a host of reasons why Europe, despite all its challenges, is still on the right track. Thankfully there were enough European business leaders at the WGS who were only too happy to point out that working 40 hours a week and pushing for even fewer hours isn’t really a strategy when the continent plays host to the highest social costs on the planet and growth has largely stalled. Meanwhile, the number of young Europeans arriving in Dubai and Abu Dhabi to run restaurants, train as concierges, man architecture firms and open galleries is booming.
“The French are leading the way but others are catching up fast,” explained one luxury industry exec. “There are some 60,000 French in the UAE, it’s their new Hong Kong.” And why are they choosing the UAE? “Simple. These are people who want to work, gain experience, build brands, go about safely and be part of something that is growing and exciting.” And perhaps, unlike many corners of Europe, they’re attracted to a place that is open all hours, puts service at the core of its economy and is probusiness.
Off the back of Greenland shenanigans, civil unrest in Minnesota, an English-language news cycle that can’t find the off-ramp from Epstein and too much shouty commentary, the polite and thoughtful conversations found in the majlis suddenly makes much Western political and business conduct feel passé and rudderless.
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Keen to read more from Monocle’s week in the UAE?
– Neutrality is not passive: Dr Anwar Gargash explains the UAE’s diplomatic stance
– Amid heightened geopolitical tensions, the World Governments Summit is a masterclass in soft power
