Tahmima Anam has always been fascinated by migration. After all, the award-winning novelist of A Golden Age and The Good Muslim is a migrant herself. Born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 1975, she grew up in Paris, New York and Bangkok before becoming a British national three years ago.
Her latest work, which will be vying for the world’s most valuable short story prize – the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award – tomorrow, focuses on the way migration has changed in the last 20 years. And there was only one place she could set such a tale of hopes, dreams and gruellingly hard work. Dubai.
“We used to think about migration as one-way, where people where I’m from would go to places like London, stay there and form communities. Migrant labour has made this very different,” she says, explaining the idea behind her story, titled Anwar Gets Everything.
“When a worker goes to Dubai, he doesn’t want to become Emirati, he purely wants to send money home. So migration is no longer about reinvention, it’s about using yourself, in a way, to improve conditions for loved ones back home – a place to which you will eventually return.”
In Anwar Gets Everything, which was originally published in Granta’s prestigious Best of Young British Novelists edition alongside work by Zadie Smith, Kamila Shamsie and Nadifa Mohamed last year, Anam is typically unflinching in her portrayal of a migrant labourer’s lot.
The protagonist, Anwar, muses that “no one cares about your speck of a life”. Anam hopes that the story might change perceptions of what migrant labourers have to deal with.
“Anwar feels he is invisible, but he’s trying to reclaim some form of humanity and the way he does that is by thinking about his child,” she says. “That makes him feel he’s not like an ant, a disposable person. And I suppose that all of these men spend their lives thinking about what they’ve left behind and what they hope they’re going back to. Their pleasure is derived in that fantasy, but the world of the imagination and world of work are in stark contrast to each other.”
And if Anwar’s situation provides food for thought – even Anam is curious how this story might go down in the UAE – then at least there is the sense that progress is being made: recently The National reported on the presentations made to the UN Human Rights Council by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dr Anwar Gargash, which dealt with improving labour regulations and human- trafficking laws.
Through this short story, Anam deftly gives a human face to events usually painted in the broad brushstrokes of news headlines or history books, as she did in her two linked novels about a Bangladeshi family during and after the country’s Liberation War in 1971. “This is what fiction can do,” she agrees. “It was finding Anwar’s voice which persuaded me to try writing this story.”
Incredibly, it’s also the first short story Anam has ever had published, so she is both “thrilled” and “surprised” at the shortlisting. But one senses she knew she was onto something good: Anwar Gets Everything has now become part of Shipbreaker, the third book in her Bangladesh trilogy, which Anam hopes to finish by the end of the year.
“It’s a very different book to the other two, because the war narrative has faded,” she says. “But the family connection is still there, and Anwar’s story reflects what I was interested in – the people who leave Bangladesh but come back. I just think if you grow up in a place like Dhaka, whether you leave or return will always be a major theme in your life, no matter who you are.”
• The Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award will be announced tomorrow
artslife@thenational.ae
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
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Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
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The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
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Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
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Tickets
Tickets start at Dh100 for adults, while children can enter free on the opening day. For more information, visit www.mubadalawtc.com.
