You have probably seen the poster of the boy playing with a model dhow in pristine waters of the Gulf. Abu Dhabi's new branding initiative is designed to portray the Emirate as a clean, sophisticated, enchanting Islamic destination where tourists and businessmen are welcome. The posters are on view in the airport, on hoardings and in hotels.
But haven't these image makers left something out? What about Abu Dhabi's pre-eminent export that already boasts an impressive global reach - its exports of crude oil?
The truth is they have probably ignored them on purpose.
Western oil companies have long held the view that crude is not their most valuable asset when it comes to image making. Adverts for Shell, for example, more often portray open oceans and concerned staff expressing an interest in ecology than a drill-bit or tanker. Esso has a tiger in its tank. And BP actively sought to move away from oil with its "Beyond Petroleum" campaign.
Kuwait is one exception. Its national oil company runs a network of 4,000 service stations across Europe branded with the "Q8" logo. But as a rule, oil exporters allow retailers in consumer countries to establish brands for fuels, and accept the popular image of their crude oil as a necessary evil, at best.
Newsweek, the American weekly magazine, captured oil's image problem for the Middle East in a recent front-page story where Christopher Dickey, its Middle East correspondent, suggested that Gulf nations were trying to create paradise on earth with buildings like the Emirates Palace, because the origin of their wealth "carries more than a whiff of hellfire and brimstone".
Oil producing nations appear to accept the negative brand value that comes with their oil resources, but this does not come without a cost. Allowing others to define you means you have no control over your public image, nor can you manage perceptions over time.
So, recent increases in the cost of crude have prompted many interest groups in the West, particularly in the US, to vilify their oil suppliers.
And if Arab oil exporters are not to blame for prices that are, after all, determined on futures markets in the West, they are demonised for preventing free access to their resources by western capitalists.
This hostility is fuelled by the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, and perceptions that money from exporting oil is used to finance violence against America.
T Boone Pickens, the Texan businessman who made billions of dollars from oil but is now promoting a huge wind farm in his home state, exploited these associations in testimony to the Senate last month. "We are paying for a war against ourselves and we have got to stop it," he said.
Developing alternatives to oil is increasingly seen as a patriotic duty in the West, and this will undermine the long-term viability of the petroleum era. Embracing the theory of peak oil - and the prediction of an imminent collapse in global production - has become an ideology for those in fear of their energy security.
Even oil exporters recognise the need to develop alternatives to petroleum, and Abu Dhabi is investing in just that. But the level of hostility towards the Middle East and its primary export is both unwelcome and inefficient. Xenophobia is easily camouflaged by economic scare stories and national security, while concerns over the level of oil imports could could lead to a poor allocation of resources and lower standards of living.
The crisis over climate change and carbon emissions shows that oil is a victim of its own success. The West needs to learn how to use these resources more efficiently, reducing waste and mitigating emissions with new technology in carbon capture and recycling. But crude oil remains an amazing natural wonder.
What might branded Abu Dhabi oil look like?
Murban and Zakum, the emirate's top sellers, could be sold as the finest "single origin" crudes in the world. They are costly because they are light in gravity and contain a high proportion of the most valued fuels such as petrol, diesel and jet fuel. "Reassuringly expensive", perhaps?
Uniquely for the Gulf, Abu Dhabi's crude is produced in association with some of the top names in European, American and Asian energy companies. And the revenue from Abu Dhabi's oil is better managed than almost any other major exporter, barring perhaps Norway, as evidenced by its growing stock of sovereign wealth.
Branding Abu Dhabi's oil might not make Abu Dhabi too many friends among fellow producers in the region, who may not benefit from such comparisons, but perhaps someone ought to come to the defence of the nation's economic mainstay.
@Email:tashby@thenational.ae
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Voy!%20Voy!%20Voy!
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The%20specs
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Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
Things Heard & Seen
Directed by: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
Starring: Amanda Seyfried, James Norton
2/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Top tips to avoid cyber fraud
Microsoft’s ‘hacker-in-chief’ David Weston, creator of the tech company’s Windows Red Team, advises simple steps to help people avoid falling victim to cyber fraud:
1. Always get the latest operating system on your smartphone or desktop, as it will have the latest innovations. An outdated OS can erode away all investments made in securing your device or system.
2. After installing the latest OS version, keep it patched; this means repairing system vulnerabilities which are discovered after the infrastructure components are released in the market. The vast majority of attacks are based on out of date components – there are missing patches.
3. Multi-factor authentication is required. Move away from passwords as fast as possible, particularly for anything financial. Cybercriminals are targeting money through compromising the users’ identity – his username and password. So, get on the next level of security using fingertips or facial recognition.
4. Move your personal as well as professional data to the cloud, which has advanced threat detection mechanisms and analytics to spot any attempt. Even if you are hit by some ransomware, the chances of restoring the stolen data are higher because everything is backed up.
5. Make the right hardware selection and always refresh it. We are in a time where a number of security improvement processes are reliant on new processors and chip sets that come with embedded security features. Buy a new personal computer with a trusted computing module that has fingerprint or biometric cameras as additional measures of protection.
Draw for Europa League last-16
Istanbul Basaksehir v Copenhagen; Olympiakos Piraeus v Wolverhampton Wanderers
Rangers v Bayer Leverkusen; VfL Wolfsburg v Shakhtar Donetsk; Inter Milan v Getafe
Sevilla v AS Roma; Eintracht Frankfurt or Salzburg v Basel; LASK v Manchester United
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
RESULT
Los Angeles Galaxy 2 Manchester United 5
Galaxy: Dos Santos (79', 88')
United: Rashford (2', 20'), Fellaini (26'), Mkhitaryan (67'), Martial (72')
Company%20Profile
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Other ways to buy used products in the UAE
UAE insurance firm Al Wathba National Insurance Company (AWNIC) last year launched an e-commerce website with a facility enabling users to buy car wrecks.
Bidders and potential buyers register on the online salvage car auction portal to view vehicles, review condition reports, or arrange physical surveys, and then start bidding for motors they plan to restore or harvest for parts.
Physical salvage car auctions are a common method for insurers around the world to move on heavily damaged vehicles, but AWNIC is one of the few UAE insurers to offer such services online.
For cars and less sizeable items such as bicycles and furniture, Dubizzle is arguably the best-known marketplace for pre-loved.
Founded in 2005, in recent years it has been joined by a plethora of Facebook community pages for shifting used goods, including Abu Dhabi Marketplace, Flea Market UAE and Arabian Ranches Souq Market while sites such as The Luxury Closet and Riot deal largely in second-hand fashion.
At the high-end of the pre-used spectrum, resellers such as Timepiece360.ae, WatchBox Middle East and Watches Market Dubai deal in authenticated second-hand luxury timepieces from brands such as Rolex, Hublot and Tag Heuer, with a warranty.
Usain Bolt's World Championships record
2007 Osaka
200m Silver
4x100m relay Silver
2009 Berlin
100m Gold
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
2011 Daegu
100m Disqualified in final for false start
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
2013 Moscow
100m Gold
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
2015 Beijing
100m Gold
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
Company Profile
Name: JustClean
Based: Kuwait with offices in other GCC countries
Launch year: 2016
Number of employees: 130
Sector: online laundry service
Funding: $12.9m from Kuwait-based Faith Capital Holding
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
SHALASH%20THE%20IRAQI
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Company%20profile
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The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Abaya trends
The utilitarian robe held dear by Arab women is undergoing a change that reveals it as an elegant and graceful garment available in a range of colours and fabrics, while retaining its traditional appeal.
RECORD%20BREAKER
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How it works
A $10 hand-powered LED light and battery bank
Device is operated by hand cranking it at any time during the day or night
The charge is stored inside a battery
The ratio is that for every minute you crank, it provides 10 minutes light on the brightest mode
A full hand wound charge is of 16.5minutes
This gives 1.1 hours of light on high mode or 2.5 hours of light on low mode
When more light is needed, it can be recharged by winding again
The larger version costs between $18-20 and generates more than 15 hours of light with a 45-minute charge
No limit on how many times you can charge
Company%20profile
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Company%20profile
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