Space commodity

Dubai's practice-starved musicians find some room. Near the height of the housing bubble, Ian Svenonius, rock'n'roll's most eloquent Marxist, wrote an essay declaring that the new century's first fads in independent music - electro-clash and the folk revival - were the spawn of Alan Greenspan. The US Federal Reserve Chairman's ultra-low interest rates had fuelled a frenzy of real estate speculation that had emptied American cities of their bohemian populations and left those who remained with a daunting lack of affordable practice space. The musicians' response was to create two new genres of music that didn't require acoustic drums - the loudest and most neighbour-alienating component of most rock line-ups. In this, their aesthetic response to market forces inverted that of the punks in the 1970s, who took over abandoned industrial spaces and filled them with deafening squall. Rock, Svenonius argued, is an expression of real estate. To be a garage band, you need a garage.

Within this theory lies the silver lining of the property crash for the musicians of Dubai. While the boom-time mentality of the city might not have left much space for them last year, this year has brought lower property prices and the beginnings of a market in soundproofed practice spaces. The Thomsun Group, for example, has been running music stores in Dubai for more than 30 years and music schools for 10, but only began renting its rehearsal rooms to bands after school hours in January - arguably the property market's darkest hour.

Trevayne Fernandez, a bald, energetic Australian whose obsession with buying a piano wherever he goes has left him with instruments stashed all over the world, heads the education division at Thomsun Pure Music. He says the company decided to open up the practice rooms at its schools in the Wafi and Ibn Battuta malls in a spirit of public service. "There just aren't places to practise," he says. "There are one or two, and they are very expensive. This just feels like the right thing to do."

Of course, the decision was also good business. While Thomsun charges bands what Fernandez calls "peanuts" to rent the spaces - Dh100 an hour, which is normally split four ways - the bands that come have trouble resisting the gauntlet of guitars tantalisingly dangled from the store's curved display walls. Neil McCullough plays bass in a cover band of co-workers from the engineering consultancy Scott Wilson. (Their catalogue consists mainly of songs by The Clash and The Stooges.) Playing right into Fernandez's business plan, McCullough ended up buying a bass from the Thomsun store after he started practicing there in the evenings. The band's drummer, Douglas Cormie, signed up for drum lessons.

Thomsun may have profited from the band, but the band pretty much owes its existence to the store. Finding the ad on Dubizzle for the practice space was the impetus that turned the group -called Santalucia - from just an idea into a functioning band that does a pretty mean version of London Calling. "That was half the battle, trying to find somewhere to practice," Cormie said. There are a couple of other places to practise, they said, but they are more expensive and don't come with Thomsun's perk of supplying one free instrument per room. In theory, bands can pick any instrument, but Fernandez says they almost always pick drums, that impractical urban luxury that transforms music from something merely entertaining into something cathartic and unignorable.

This week at Thomsun's Ibn Battuta Mall outlet, one of Dubai's more established bands was subjecting its music to that very transformation. The Meerkats, a reggae-inflected indie act led by a tall, bed-haired Brit named Ben Jones and guitarist Ashley Adams (whom Jones refers to as "the pretty one"), have already made a name for themselves as an acoustic duo, opening for acts like Arrested Development and The Charlatans after playing together for less than a year. But their upcoming gig at Dubai's first Sound City festival in November, a three-day mega-event led by the Stone Roses' Ian Brown, seemed to require something more.

"Until now, we've been playing in my bedroom," Jones said. "It was just myself and the pretty one over there. We are just putting a full band together now." While a lot of his friends in the Dubai music scene rehearse in warehouses in the Al Quoz industrial area - a scenario with more than a few echoes of New York's SoHo in the 1970s - for the moment that requires more music-world connections than Jones has. So he believes the music school fills a large gap.

"You need somewhere where you can just plug in and play," he said. "Especially with the living situation here, you can't be having drum kits in your house because you'll get thrown out. We've been looking around, and this is the first place that we've found."
* Keach Hagey

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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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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.”

US%20federal%20gun%20reform%20since%20Sandy%20Hook

%3Cp%3E-%20April%2017%2C%202013%3A%20A%20bipartisan-drafted%20bill%20to%20expand%20background%20checks%20and%20ban%20assault%20weapons%20fails%20in%20the%20Senate.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E-%20July%202015%3A%20Bill%20to%20require%20background%20checks%20for%20all%20gun%20sales%20is%20introduced%20in%20House%20of%20Representatives.%20It%20is%20not%20brought%20to%20a%20vote.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E-%20June%2012%2C%202016%3A%20Orlando%20shooting.%20Barack%20Obama%20calls%20on%20Congress%20to%20renew%20law%20prohibiting%20sale%20of%20assault-style%20weapons%20and%20high-capacity%20magazines.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E-%20October%201%2C%202017%3A%20Las%20Vegas%20shooting.%20US%20lawmakers%20call%20for%20banning%20bump-fire%20stocks%2C%20and%20some%20renew%20call%20for%20assault%20weapons%20ban.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E-%20February%2014%2C%202018%3A%20Seventeen%20pupils%20are%20killed%20and%2017%20are%20wounded%20during%20a%20mass%20shooting%20in%20Parkland%2C%20Florida.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E-%20December%2018%2C%202018%3A%20Donald%20Trump%20announces%20a%20ban%20on%20bump-fire%20stocks.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E-%20August%202019%3A%20US%20House%20passes%20law%20expanding%20background%20checks.%20It%20is%20not%20brought%20to%20a%20vote%20in%20the%20Senate.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E-%20April%2011%2C%202022%3A%20Joe%20Biden%20announces%20measures%20to%20crack%20down%20on%20hard-to-trace%20'ghost%20guns'.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E-%20May%2024%2C%202022%3A%20Nineteen%20children%20and%20two%20teachers%20are%20killed%20at%20an%20elementary%20school%20in%20Uvalde%2C%20Texas.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E-%20June%2025%2C%202022%3A%20Joe%20Biden%20signs%20into%20law%20the%20first%20federal%20gun-control%20bill%20in%20decades.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A

Europe’s rearming plan

Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital

Plastic tipping points

Millennials step up campaign against plastic

Woman with genetic disorder says single use plastics are 'vital' to her life

Election pledges on migration

CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"

SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"

The National's picks

4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young

A MINECRAFT MOVIE

Director: Jared Hess

Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa

Rating: 3/5

The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950