Gingerbread and carolers come to Abu Dhabi's hotels, Sarah Wolff writes.
The hotel staff choir at the Abu Dhabi Intercontinental Hotel sing with trained precision: "Outside the snow is falling and friends are calling you hoo....you HOO!" No one seems to care a figgy pudding that there hasn't been snowfall in the United Arab Emirates since, well, ever. Christmas cheer will be had, no matter what. In the UAE, known to the rest of the world for its flashy glamour, it's not a surprise that Christmas is also done to the hilt, even though the majority of residents come from places that don't celebrate the holiday. Just walking up to the front door of the hotel, visitors are greeted with rows of red and white poinsettia lining the driveway, twinkling lights strewn about the hedges and at least three christmas trees decorated tastefully, if brightly, with red and gold balls. Even the revolving door, which features two glass window boxes, houses chic gray topiary trees with gold tinsel, just in case guests haven't yet realised it's Christmas.
Once inside, there is a huge and functional gingerbread house where guests can buy holiday treats from around the world, such as German pfefernussen - crumbly shortbreads covered in powdered sugar - and Italian pannetone - a giant brioche studded with candied fruits. The oven-baked house at the Intercon is an A-frame, perhaps a cheeky reference to the 1970s. But it's not the only gingerbread monument in town: the Sheraton corniche hotel in Abu Dhabi decided to let form follow function, building its edible edifice around its coffee shop counter, so that staffers serve cappuccinos and the like from gingerbread takeout windows.
But the main event at the Intercon is the choir's floor show of caroling, for which the singers have practiced nearly every day for about a month. The chorus has 22 members, nearly all of them Filipino and all from different parts of the hotel's staff. They swish into place wearing a blush-inducing combo of red satin sleeveless capes and Santa hats. Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone and Bass sections are all lined up into neat rows set up on the main steps of the lobby piano lounge. The choir sings Christmas ditties like Jingle Bell Rock - a song that has no religious significance but does somehow evoke boozy office Christmas parties - alongside church classics such O Come All Ye Faithful, as sunburned tourists from Europe stroll in and out, sometimes pausing for a minute or two.
There are also a few tables of Arab businessmen who are smoking and deal-making. They seem totally unbothered by the loud singing and proceed without any visible acknowledgement of the carolers. A European mum comes to sit right in the front with her two little boys, the smaller of which, a toddler, begins to howl along with the tunes. Every day at around six o'clock, after 30 minutes of cheerful singing, the choir goes back into a private room where they review their performance. "It's a time we can all get together and laugh at our mistakes," says Josie, an executive secretary who has been with the Abu Dhabi Intercontinental for 24 years. "It's fun actually." The choir keeps in reserve one song in Tagalog, Pasko Na Naman (It's Christmas Again), which they don't perform every afternoon but sing only when the spirit moves them.
Ivan "Magic" Mejica, the security supervisor at the hotel, conducts the choir and even sings a lovely solo on O Holy Night. A tenor who has been singing since high school, Mejica says he ended up conducting the choir only because everyone else was too timid to step up. "I used to sing in church too as a tenor," says Mejica, a former member of the Filipino military with a buzz cut hairdo and the requisite security-team accessory, a walkie-talkie, hanging inside his jacket. His favorite carol to sing, conduct and hear is Silent Night. "When I sing it, I feel the presence of the music," he says. "I love soft songs - when I hear them it's like a form of unwinding."
swolff@thenational.ae13:35:12
NO OTHER LAND
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Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
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
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- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
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- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
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Credits
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Dr Afridi's warning signs of digital addiction
Spending an excessive amount of time on the phone.
Neglecting personal, social, or academic responsibilities.
Losing interest in other activities or hobbies that were once enjoyed.
Having withdrawal symptoms like feeling anxious, restless, or upset when the technology is not available.
Experiencing sleep disturbances or changes in sleep patterns.
What are the guidelines?
Under 18 months: Avoid screen time altogether, except for video chatting with family.
Aged 18-24 months: If screens are introduced, it should be high-quality content watched with a caregiver to help the child understand what they are seeing.
Aged 2-5 years: Limit to one-hour per day of high-quality programming, with co-viewing whenever possible.
Aged 6-12 years: Set consistent limits on screen time to ensure it does not interfere with sleep, physical activity, or social interactions.
Teenagers: Encourage a balanced approach – screens should not replace sleep, exercise, or face-to-face socialisation.
Source: American Paediatric Association
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
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Mainz 0 Augsburg 1 (Niederlechner 1')
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Test
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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.”
