Dubai

Pranay Gupte

Description

From desert sands to a glittering metropolis: the inside story of Dubai s transformation. In just two decades; Dubai has reinvented itself from a small; poor and quiet fishing village to a dazzling city with a vibrant urban life. How did this happen? Home to more than 200 nationalities particularly those from the Indian subcontinent the emirate s choice to welcome expatriates has paid off. Cultivating an open and welcoming culture; Dubai manages to attract people from all over the world; heartily embracing any entrepreneurial contribution they wish to make. The emirate is now also known for its cosmopolitan melting-pot culture; and its enabling environment to conduct business; and this; along with the tax-free system and hassle-free infrastructure; makes it a much sought-after site for multinational enterprises who want a base in Asia. Unlike the Gulf emirates that can count on petroleum wealth; Dubai has wound its way to prosperity by planning carefully and executing those plans methodically. Its airline and luxury construction have made it a popular destination for luxury tourism. Projects like the Burj al-Arab; the Palm Jumeriah and the Burj Khalifa; along with events like the world s richest horserace the Dubai World Cup and the Dubai Shopping Festival; have sustained tourist interest and focused the world s attention on the emirate. Pranay Gupte draws on his deep knowledge of the region and its leading personalities to trace the city-state s extraordinary and fabulous journey.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Lifestyle
• History of the Middle East
• Humanities

Informations

• Publié par: Penguin Books Ltd
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9788184755046
• Langue: English

Extrait

PRANAY GUPTE
Dubai
The Making of a Megapolis
BOOKS BY PRANAY GUPTE

Mother India: A Political Biography of Indira Gandhi
Global Emirates: An Anthology of Tolerance and Enterprise
Power and Influence (with Robert L. Dilenschneider)
The Sands of Thought (edited by John Strassburger)
20 : An Anthology Celebrating the Higher Colleges of Technology (edited by Dr. Tayeb A. Kamali)
All of Us: An Anthology of Sustainable Development
The Silent Crisis
Indira Gandhi: A Political Biography
India: The Challenge of Change
Vengeance: India After the Assassination of Indira Gandhi
The Crowded Earth: People and the Politics of Population
This book is for His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahayan, President of the United Arab Emirates, and Ruler of Abu Dhabi.
This book is for His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice-president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, and Ruler of Dubai, and for the Al Maktoum Family.
This book is for my mentor, His Highness Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, the UAE s minister of higher education and scientific research.
And this book is in memory of Sheikh Nahayan s late father, His Highness Sheikh Mabarak bin Mohammed Al Nahayan
This book is also dedicated to the people of the United Arab Emirates.
And this book is for Sunita Menon for her prescience, wisdom, great mind and heart, and for her continuing kindness.
I have been blessed and honoured by their friendship and generosity.
Contents
Dedication
Introduction
PART ONE: THE HISTORY
From Unforgiving Desert to Brand Dubai
The Gifts of the Arabs
The Maktoum Tradition
Learning from Father and Mother
Drilling for a Fortune
Growing Up in a Different Dubai
The Building of a Nation
PART TWO: DUBAI RISING
The Making of Modern Dubai
Flying High
The Shapers of Modern Dubai
The Dubai Way
Welcoming the World to Dubai
Speed and Its Consequences
Developing the Knowledge Economy
Forward with Finance
Abayas and Ambition
The Lion s Visit
The Diamond Cut
At the Races
PART THREE: THE FUTURE, AND BEYOND
Dubai Cares
Ending Stagnation in the Middle East
The Soul of a City
Epilogue: Their Desert Forever
Endnotes
Selected Bibliography
Glossary
Rulers of the Emirate of Dubai: Al Abu Falasa Dynasty
Timeline: United Arab Emirates and Dubai
Acknowledgements
Copyright Page
Introduction
I began working on this book long before the Arab Spring of 2011 began. Four years before the popular revolts that were to shake the leaders of Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Libya and Syria began, I arrived in Dubai from my home in New York delighted at the prospect of being back in the Middle East. I had been covering the region as a journalist since the 1970s, but this was the first time that I would be actually living in a Middle East country on a long-term basis. In the event, I have been here now for more than four years, time enough to organize my thoughts into a book.
This book appears at a time when a new Middle East is emerging, one that seems to bode well for democratic change. Without exception, the popular anti-regime protests have been in countries characterized by poor governance, high corruption and brutal systems. The Syrian government even took to shooting its own citizens.
Dubai and the United Arab Emirates have not been adversely affected. (In fact, some news reports say that Dubai banks have been the recipient of more than $500 billion from wealthy individuals in the countries hit by revolution, especially Egypt. The political, social and economic stability of Dubai and the UAE has been constant through the turbulence that s rocked the Middle East and North Africa. Why? Partly because the UAE is governed well, and governed benignly. And partly because the expatriate majority, constituting some 85 per cent of the population, comes to this country to make money and live well, not to agitate for political causes. It s safe to say that Dubai and the UAE are oases of stability and peace in a region marked by political uncertainty.
The premise of this book is simple: Dubai, known widely as the City of Gold , is on a timeless journey. It has an ancient civilization, rooted in the Bedouin traditions of the great Arabian Desert, but, although it has risen from that desert and has already become arguably one of the world s most modern cities, it is still a work in progress. It would not have been built without the involvement of men and women from the Indian subcontinent 1 of all classes. Oil-rich Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, would not have been built without the active engagement of people from the subcontinent, nor would have most member-countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council-Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and, of course, the UAE-which marks in 2011 the fortieth anniversary of its founding as a federation of seven sheikhdoms that had earlier been under British administration.
The stories of some of these men and women who built Dubai appear in this narrative. I have highlighted the contemporaneous role of Indians in developing the UAE, since this remarkable society is a special testament to Islamic tolerance of other faiths-such as Hinduism, to which a vast majority of Indians in Dubai belong-and also to the willingness of South Asians to work beyond the call of duty. Their work ethic in Dubai is something to behold.
The larger story of Dubai: The Journey , of course, is that of the UAE itself, of how it has evolved from a tribal society to a twenty-first-century nation of enterprise, a country that is the world s fourth biggest exporter of crude oil, and one of its most modern.
That is why the stories of Emiratis such as His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum-vice-president and prime minister of the UAE, and ruler of Dubai-and his late father, His Highness Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, appear at some length in this book. They encouraged Indians and Pakistanis to come to Dubai to help advance the ruling Al Maktoum family s vision of a global city rising from the unforgiving deserts of the Arabian littoral. If substantial space is devoted to the life of Sheikh Mohammed, it is because he is truly the architect of modern Dubai. In order to understand the making of the city-state, it is essential to understand what drove this charismatic Arab, what fuelled his energy, what sustained his ambition and what explains his preternatural willpower. It is important to understand, too, why it is that Sheikh Mohammed continues to hold India and Indians in such high regard.
We look upon India as our neighbours and its people as friends; we consider India a force for peace. It is a great economic power, not only regionally but also internationally. With this in mind, we are keen to maintain and enhance existing bridges of cooperation with India for the mutual benefit of both nations, so that the security and the economic stability of the Gulf region, the Indian subcontinent and the whole world can be achieved, Sheikh Mohammed told Venu Rajamony, who served until early 2010 as India s consul-general in Dubai. 2
Like many of his predecessors, Rajamony was widely sought after by both Indians and Emirati nationals for key advice about bilateral relations. 3 Equally popular was Talmiz Ahmad, who left Abu Dhabi in January 2010 as India s ambassador to the UAE to take up the ambassadorship to Saudi Arabia. Ahmad says, In the past, this region used to depend on India for food, clothing, jewellery and all items of luxury. In return, India used to import dates and pearls. Indian traders have been living here for several centuries. 4
Even to this day, Dubai, quite possibly the most streamlined metropolis in the world, is largely managed by Indians, who occupy key positions in the bureaucracies of the public and private sectors: they run businesses, large and small; they operate medical centres; they own grocery chains. Today, India-a nation of 1.2 billion people-is the largest trading partner of Dubai and also of the UAE, the federation of seven sheikhdoms that was fashioned in December 1971 from what had been a British protectorate. The UAE is India s biggest trading partner, eclipsing even the United States and China. 5
In this book I use Dubai as shorthand for the UAE; for example, it is impossible to talk about Dubai and not refer to Abu Dhabi, whose proven crude oil reserves of nearly 100 billion barrels are expected to last for at least 150 years. Ian Fairservice, founder of Motivate Publishing in Dubai, warned me that I shouldn t use Dubai as a metaphor for the UAE because that would upset the folks in Abu Dhabi . But I stayed with the idea because the velocity of change of the UAE is truly symbolized by Dubai.
Mohan Jashanmal, who came to Abu Dhabi in 1964, recalls that even back then the city was called souk Hindu -the bazaar of Indians. 6
In his view-and certainly mine-the relationship between Dubai and the Indian subcontinent will endure long after the geopolitics and financial uncertainties of today are played out. Some Westerners seemed to have given up on Dubai as a land of continued economic opportunities after the financial crisis of 2008-10, when the real-estate sector collapsed in the emirate. But South Asians, for the most part, persisted in their faith in Dubai, even though some of them cavil that they feel not quite as welcome nowadays as in yesteryears.
It isn t just the geographical proximity of the two entities. Dubai and India share common values such as tolerance and the freedom of worship. There are 1.75 million Indians in the UAE, a country of about 4.5 million people-the largest cohort of foreigners. 7
In fact, the number of Indians in the six countries that constitute the Gulf Cooperation exceeds the population of the UAE. Former Indian Foreign Secretary Muchkund Dubey has estimated that Indians form 31 per cent of the Gulf s total population-21.5 per cent in Kuwait, 54 per cent in Oman, 25