Early in 2003, I was booked on a 10-day tour of Iraq. I was due to depart with a British travel company, with flights to Baghdad, via Baku. The itinerary included Hillah, Samarra, Ur, Babylon and Nineveh. Nineveh!
As I’d already seen, not least from previous trips to Egypt, Jordan, Israel and Palestine, the image that the mainstream media was portraying of the Middle East, Arabs and Muslims in general was homogenous, alarmist and inaccurate. And I worked in the media. Even before the war in Iraq, which put paid to my planned trip, the western portrayals of the region as ablaze with conflict and religious extremism were starting to bother me, as was the reactionary media landscape in general.
The war itself, in all its bloody, destructive horror, was a wake-up call. I was ashamed and angry about what the country of my birth did in Iraq, dismayed by the pro-war propaganda and at the lack of contrition shown afterwards. Civilians were dismissed as “collateral damage”. Too many people, especially those with power, were seeing other countries in a one-dimensional light, unable to see people as equals.
I had even started to get bored of the knee-jerk reactions I myself was coming out with, or expected to come out with, when it came to commentary in the mainstream media. Travel had taught me that there were less judgemental and more enlightened ways of thinking that came from broader perspectives and exposure to the world. One of the reasons I moved to Abu Dhabi in 2008 was to explore a different perspective offered both by its geographical position and genuinely international demographic.
Writing the launch feature for The National’s Arts&Life section on April 17, 2008, I reported on the heady cultural ambition of Abu Dhabi’s planned cultural quarter, borne of a unique combination of cultural awareness and financial resources.
“Abu Dhabi has cultural plans that would have made [Wilfred] Thesiger quake,” I said. “It is about making Abu Dhabi the cultural headquarters of the Middle East and an attempt to stimulate a new international cultural awareness through the acquisition and display of cutting-edge art.”
This week, at the opening of Louvre Abu Dhabi, I was pleased to see the ambitious messages have not been toned down; merely refined.
Mohamed Al Mubarak, chairman of TDIC, got straight to the point when he said that one of the aims of the museum was to allow visitors to “feel at one with each other and at one with the world”. The museum would “broadcast tolerance and world connectivity” so that “culture wins” and “better generations” could grow. Manuel Rabate, director of Louvre Abu Dhabi, said that encounters with artwork would “change the lives of its visitors” and “make Abu Dhabi the focal point of the region.”
It would be impossible not to be blown away by the Louvre’s architecture, and I think it does, crucially, embody the place.
The jury is still out on what audiences themselves will make of the collection and how it is presented. But as the museum makes clear, the days of silos and spoon-feeding are over.
Meanings are made through context, perspective and unique personal engagement, and are constantly changing; clarity of perception requires the reduction of egos and an “us and them” approach. Could this signal a new age of enlightenment?
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Public bus service to Louvre Abu Dhabi launched
How to visit Louvre Abu Dhabi
Watch: fascinating facts about Louvre Abu Dhabi
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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
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
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%3Cp%3EDeveloper%3A%20EA%20Vancouver%2C%20EA%20Romania%3Cbr%3EPublisher%3A%20EA%20Sports%3Cbr%3EConsoles%3A%20Nintendo%20Switch%2C%20PlayStation%204%26amp%3B5%2C%20PC%20and%20Xbox%20One%3Cbr%3ERating%3A%203.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
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Dirham Stretcher tips for having a baby in the UAE
Selma Abdelhamid, the group's moderator, offers her guide to guide the cost of having a young family:
• Buy second hand stuff
They grow so fast. Don't get a second hand car seat though, unless you 100 per cent know it's not expired and hasn't been in an accident.
• Get a health card and vaccinate your child for free at government health centres
Ms Ma says she discovered this after spending thousands on vaccinations at private clinics.
• Join mum and baby coffee mornings provided by clinics, babysitting companies or nurseries.
Before joining baby classes ask for a free trial session. This way you will know if it's for you or not. You'll be surprised how great some classes are and how bad others are.
• Once baby is ready for solids, cook at home
Take the food with you in reusable pouches or jars. You'll save a fortune and you'll know exactly what you're feeding your child.
The Gentlemen
Director: Guy Ritchie
Stars: Colin Farrell, Hugh Grant
Three out of five stars
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
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
On racial profiling at airports
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Rain Management
Year started: 2017
Based: Bahrain
Employees: 100-120
Amount raised: $2.5m from BitMex Ventures and Blockwater. Another $6m raised from MEVP, Coinbase, Vision Ventures, CMT, Jimco and DIFC Fintech Fund
