An exhibition has just opened at The JamJar, an art gallery in Dubai, that offered an open-call to residents to show-and-tell 100 objects relevant to their time in the UAE.
It's a great idea - one that worked well when it debuted last year - and its timing with National Day is also perfect, as it shows a very day-to-day side to this place. Some are personal, others more irreverent.
But I missed the call. A trinket that says a little something about my experience of this place isn't in there. But if I had put something in, it would definitely be an innocuous little copper pot that someone gave me only a fortnight into my time here.
Said friend, long since departed from the UAE and us having drifted from regular contact, had just come back from the Empty Quarter, the Rub' Al Khali desert that stretches from Liwa all the way to Yemen, east Oman and into Saudi. Somewhere along this weekend safari, she'd bought an unremarkable, very touristy 3ins-high pot made of lacklustre metal and, amid the limitless dunes, filled it with smoky red sand for me.
I was, without exaggeration, over the moon: as someone then as now enamoured with the more raw, more adventurous history of this part of the world, this simple little gift was like a postcard to all the things that I knew were out there but as yet felt so distant.
The ubiquity of chain restaurants, a very British workplace and the general chaos of trying to find a place to stay combined with the adjustment factor that goes with any big move made this desert seem out of reach. So when I did finally get sorted, the little pot came with and occasionally, I'd pour a bit out and have a look at the sand against the white of my cheap Ikea desk. Sounds odd, I know, but there was something a bit magical about those red grains.
It wasn't until I finally did my own jaunt into that great ocean of sand that I touched for myself some of its magic and the experience has stayed with me.
I've moved house eight times in three-and-a-half years. Despite this exodus around the city, the pot has never been lost. There's nothing else - be that things or friends - from my time here that's stuck around that long.
But the reserve of sand is starting to dwindle. So I think it's time for a trip back to the desert.
When my family first came out to see me here, one of them remarked - having last seen Dubai firsthand in the late 1980s and early 1990s, pre-Metro, pre-Burj Khalifa, pre-Marina: "You don't know the imagination that it must have took for all this. Back then there was literally nothing."
For all its quirks, this place has risen mirage-like from the sands in less than a lifetime. That's what a jaunt to the desert reminds you of. It's the perfect fix for topping up the reserve.
clord@thenational.ae
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
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.”
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5