Hamad Al Shamsi and his son, Mohammed, know a beautiful camel when they see one.
It must have a long neck and legs, a shapely hump, large head, thick lashes and a sleek dark coat.
“Every part of the camel is evaluated,” says Mr Al Shamsi, 48, who has been judging camel beauty competitions for more than a decade.
“The cheeks how wide they are, the lips how long they are, the ears how elevated they are, the legs how straight they are.”
These details, that can be easily overlooked by the untrained eye, can mean the difference in millions of dirhams at lucrative events like Al Dhafra Festival - which opened on Monday.
This year’s winner of the camel beauty contest – who will be announced at the end of the month when the festival ends - will take home a cash prize of between Dh110,000 and Dh1 million.
Fifteen camels are selected as finalists for each of the categories – which are separated by their ages and types.
Those camels are then medically examined to ensure none have had their beauty illegally enhanced and that they are all in good health before whittling the list down to 10 winners for each category.
“The committee checks if their features have been tampered with, like if any Botox has been injected in the face,” says Mr Al Shamsi.
“The camel in the middle is the most beautiful,” says Mohammed, 16, pointing at three camels stood side by side and adorned in shiny lavender decorative necklaces.
“See how straight her leg is? And the space from the tip of the tail until the hump is just right, and the wideness of the hump. Look how it stands tall and the size of its neck,” he says.
He and his father have been raising camels for as long as he can remember.
They keep around 70 camels at their farm in Al Ain, most of which participate in races on a weekly basis.
Mohammed learnt the trade from his father, having accompanied him to camel beauty pageants for years. He believes he will be ready to become a judge himself within a year.
Across the paddocks, camel owners perch anxiously on the bleachers, eyeing the selection process from afar and taking turns to pass round a pair of binoculars for a closer look.
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Read more:
Al Dhafra Festival 2017: How to spot a beautiful camel
Special report: Inside the UAE's multimillion dollar camel beauty pageants
Everything you need to know about the Al Dhafra Festival
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“Every year I come to the competition and bring my camels with me,” said Hamad Al Tweel Al Marri, 30, from Saudi Arabia, who walked down to calm his camel before the competition.
Back home, he and his brothers own around 100 camels between them.
“This year I am only participating with one camel,” said the singer.
“Since I was a child I have been brought up to love camels and all of those around me loved them too, and now the government is sponsoring such competitions – we love that.”
His camels have brought him victory twice before, earning first place at Al Dhafra last year and the year prior.
“I hope I will win again this time.”
Mr Al Marri has a special trick for keeping his camels calm before competition: he sings to them. The folk songs he sings are known as shallat, the verses are Nabati poems chanted in a specific rhythm.
“I sing this to my camel to calm it down,” he says.
For those who are not confident in their singing skills, Mr Al Marri advises feeding the camel, “calling it by its name and touching it so it will know that you are being friendly.
“They can sense if you are angry by the way you talk.”
Back at the stands, three middle-aged men swap a pair the binoculars between them swiftly.
“We want to see who is getting eliminated,” says Fahad Al Hajeri, an electric technician from Saudi Arabia.
He has three camels competing in this year’s contest.
“The reason is because there are good prizes, and it is a nice way to give the camels some attention,” says the 53-year-old who lowers his binoculars and sits back, relaxed.
“My two camels have been chosen.”
Coming soon
Torno Subito by Massimo Bottura
When the W Dubai – The Palm hotel opens at the end of this year, one of the highlights will be Massimo Bottura’s new restaurant, Torno Subito, which promises “to take guests on a journey back to 1960s Italy”. It is the three Michelinstarred chef’s first venture in Dubai and should be every bit as ambitious as you would expect from the man whose restaurant in Italy, Osteria Francescana, was crowned number one in this year’s list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Akira Back Dubai
Another exciting opening at the W Dubai – The Palm hotel is South Korean chef Akira Back’s new restaurant, which will continue to showcase some of the finest Asian food in the world. Back, whose Seoul restaurant, Dosa, won a Michelin star last year, describes his menu as, “an innovative Japanese cuisine prepared with a Korean accent”.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
The highly experimental chef, whose dishes are as much about spectacle as taste, opens his first restaurant in Dubai next year. Housed at The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal will feature contemporary twists on recipes that date back to the 1300s, including goats’ milk cheesecake. Always remember with a Blumenthal dish: nothing is quite as it seems.
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
The specs
Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
Power: 620hp from 5,750-7,500rpm
Torque: 760Nm from 3,000-5,750rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed dual-clutch auto
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh1.05 million ($286,000)
Analysis
Members of Syria's Alawite minority community face threat in their heartland after one of the deadliest days in country’s recent history. Read more
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
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.”
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
