When the images of Pope Francis wearing a white puffer jacket went viral on social media, millions of people around the world believed that the pontiff had a newly found passion for modern fashion. And while the AI-generated pictures duped the world, they also demarcated a new frontier in our relationships with the four institutions we measure in the 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer Global Report.
That frontier is the increasing commodification of trust. Belief and trust are now as polarised as the world we live in today. Trust around the world is being challenged by a precarious balance of information or, in fact, misinformation.
And trust – over belief – has the power to define the perceptions of the institutions that govern and influence everyday life for billions of people around the world. For the past 23 years, Edelman has measured trust in government, business, media and NGOs globally through our Trust Barometer report to assess the health of the relationships between social, commercial and political life around the world.
This year’s report, Navigating a Polarised World, has studied the increasing divide between institutions and 32,000 respondents in 28 countries. The report outlines the increased social and political polarisation globally, driven by a lack of trust in government and media; economic pessimism; and a lack of shared values. Today, people are having to navigate an uncertain global economic future without a trust safety net.
People in the top quartile of income live in a different trust reality than those in the bottom quartile
With global economic shocks such as inflation and spiking interest rates, economic optimism is collapsing around the world, with 24 out of 28 countries in our study recording all-time lows, and 53 per cent of respondents saying that their countries are more divided today than in the past. Meanwhile, a once-shared media landscape has given way to the many echo chambers available online, making it harder to solve problems collaboratively. Overall, media is not trusted globally, with especially low trust in social media. And the social divide across the world affects perceptions. People in the top quartile of income live in a different trust reality than those in the bottom quartile.
Yet, the 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer Global Report has found that the UAE continues to be one of the most unified and trusted countries, according to its residents. Despite a global cost-of-living crisis, as well as soaring energy costs in Europe and North America, the UAE is ranked as one of the most trusted countries in the world. The UAE’s government once again was the most trusted institution at 86 per cent, followed closely by business at 78 per cent.
Respondents to Edelman’s report believe that the UAE’s government, businesses and NGOs are seen as competent and ethical. Meanwhile, 72 per cent of respondents in the UAE believe they will be better off economically in five years’ time, while only 40 per cent – a staggering ten point drop since 2022 – of global respondents believe they and their families will be better off in five years.
It is the very real experiences in the UAE that buck the trend we see in the 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer Global Report. Contrary to the global economic fragmentation post-Covid-19, the UAE has sought to build bridges around the world with trade deals such as the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement or the 23 trade and investment agreements with South Korea to bring businesses in the two countries closer together.
The UAE government and businesses are united in their long-term outlook to navigate the impacts of rising polarisation. For example, the UAE Strategy for the Future covers solutions to optimise broader economic and social welfare in the country, encompassing technology, infrastructure, healthcare, international relations and food security – all combining to ensure the prospect for stability and unity in the nation continues in the long term. Ultimately, decisive and clear action is leading to trust, and that trust is giving the UAE a licence to lead.
As trust increasingly becomes a commodity elsewhere, the UAE has found a way to value it the most. While AI and a polarised world might well make many across the globe question what they see, it is the lived experiences in the UAE that make it rank so highly in the 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer Global Report. Our trust in the country goes beyond belief and is based on action.
Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
Tips to stay safe during hot weather
- Stay hydrated: Drink plenty of fluids, especially water. Avoid alcohol and caffeine, which can increase dehydration.
- Seek cool environments: Use air conditioning, fans, or visit community spaces with climate control.
- Limit outdoor activities: Avoid strenuous activity during peak heat. If outside, seek shade and wear a wide-brimmed hat.
- Dress appropriately: Wear lightweight, loose and light-coloured clothing to facilitate heat loss.
- Check on vulnerable people: Regularly check in on elderly neighbours, young children and those with health conditions.
- Home adaptations: Use blinds or curtains to block sunlight, avoid using ovens or stoves, and ventilate living spaces during cooler hours.
- Recognise heat illness: Learn the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke (dizziness, confusion, rapid pulse, nausea), and seek medical attention if symptoms occur.
VEZEETA PROFILE
Date started: 2012
Founder: Amir Barsoum
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: HealthTech / MedTech
Size: 300 employees
Funding: $22.6 million (as of September 2018)
Investors: Technology Development Fund, Silicon Badia, Beco Capital, Vostok New Ventures, Endeavour Catalyst, Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Ventures, Saudi Technology Ventures and IFC
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Company%20Profile
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The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
