Never underestimate the Arab ability to find a creative way around an obstacle. And of course, the Arabs facing the most obstacles these days are in Syria.
I keep hearing Lebanese people saying that while their country is used to reviving itself after conflicts, the Syrians will have a tougher time, as they are "not used to instability".
But I am not sure about that, especially after I sat and talked for over two hours with someone who was just there, on the ground, for almost a month during Syria's most difficult time.
Recently I interviewed Mohammed Salim Al Kaabi, the only Emirati monitor who was part of the first batch of Arab League observers. He had been based with 11 others in the south-western city of Deraa, dubbed the cradle of the revolt that started over 11 months ago. A lot of our discussion was off the record, but still it helped me to see Syria through the eyes of a neutral party.
"Somehow, everyone there, whether they were for or against the government, knew that my eldest son's name is Marwan," said Mr Al Kaabi. So he was called "Abu Marwan" by protesters, officials and even random shopkeepers he visited.
This is the Syrian network, intelligence and otherwise, at its best. When people couldn't reach him on his Syrian-number mobile phone - the calls would get cut off - they hid the latest news, and the names of those detained, in bread baskets. Or they would show up by the roadside as the convoy drove by carrying olive branches. "I was in awe at the Syrian people's enterprise and ability to find solutions," he said.
The area had become a conflict zone, with bombed-out cars and torched police stations, mosques and houses. Main roads have army checkpoints. Soldiers were wary of the "jaish al hurr", or army defectors.
Troops were visible near major mosques in Deraa, preventing people from praying inside. I can only imagine how this provokes worshippers. The soldiers do this because mosques have become symbols of the uprising; Sheikh Ahmad Hayasneh, the elderly imam of the Omari mosque, is widely said to have sowed the first seeds of dissent. He is under house arrest at an undisclosed location.
One of the biggest problems the monitors faced was that everything they did, even eating, was taped and posted on the internet. "You will have hundreds of people talking to you at the same time, and asking you questions while holding their mobile phones to tape it," Mr Al Kaabi said.
Other difficulties included duplications in the names of detained or missing protesters. Where people had the same name, the names of their mothers had to be used.
One positive side effect of the mission was that some detained protesters met by the monitors were released next day. The head of the mission said he had confirmation that 2,239 detainees had been released.
The observers' daily reports were sent by convoy to the headquarters in Damascus, at the Sheraton Hotel and at the "Israel boycott office" the Arab League has had since the 1970s. Having visited that office a couple of years ago, I was told that it is now more active than ever before.
Mr Al Kaabi, after pausing for a moment, admitted: "We would break our protocol sometimes to make sure there was no escalation of violence." He described several incidents in which the team would ask soldiers to stay back as they talked to protesters.
By the end of our talk, it was clear that the story was not clearcut. There is now blood on both sides and it has reached the point where the truth is difficult to know.
When Mr Al Kaabi asked a boy at a hospital why he had a big bloody bandage around his waist, he was told by the boy's parents that he had had an "appendix operation".
"But what about the injuries on his face?" he asked. The mother answered: "He fainted because of his swollen appendix, and hurt his face."
That may seem farcical, but the world should not underestimate the ability of Syrians to come up with an answer.
rghazal@thenational.ae
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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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
Emergency
Director: Kangana Ranaut
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry
Rating: 2/5
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Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League final:
Who: Real Madrid v Liverpool
Where: NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine
When: Saturday, May 26, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: Match on BeIN Sports
Multitasking pays off for money goals
Tackling money goals one at a time cost financial literacy expert Barbara O'Neill at least $1 million.
That's how much Ms O'Neill, a distinguished professor at Rutgers University in the US, figures she lost by starting saving for retirement only after she had created an emergency fund, bought a car with cash and purchased a home.
"I tell students that eventually, 30 years later, I hit the million-dollar mark, but I could've had $2 million," Ms O'Neill says.
Too often, financial experts say, people want to attack their money goals one at a time: "As soon as I pay off my credit card debt, then I'll start saving for a home," or, "As soon as I pay off my student loan debt, then I'll start saving for retirement"."
People do not realise how costly the words "as soon as" can be. Paying off debt is a worthy goal, but it should not come at the expense of other goals, particularly saving for retirement. The sooner money is contributed, the longer it can benefit from compounded returns. Compounded returns are when your investment gains earn their own gains, which can dramatically increase your balances over time.
"By putting off saving for the future, you are really inhibiting yourself from benefiting from that wonderful magic," says Kimberly Zimmerman Rand , an accredited financial counsellor and principal at Dragonfly Financial Solutions in Boston. "If you can start saving today ... you are going to have a lot more five years from now than if you decide to pay off debt for three years and start saving in year four."
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
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.”
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions