KUWAIT CITY // For the young Kuwaiti artists, musicians and performers gracing the stage inside the country's largest mall at the weekend, it was a special chance for them to show off their talents.
But behind the smiling faces and acrobatic leaps the three-day event had a far greater and pressing importance - to promote a work ethic in the Gulf state where some fear a lackadaisical society is threatening the country's identity.
The event, called Corners of Passion Brought to Life, was organised by 15 young Kuwaitis who attended the Oqsim summer scheme that ran from June to August for the first time this year. The scheme's organiser, Zawaya, a non-profit organisation, said it tried to instil the values of tolerance, pluralism, respect for the law and dedication to work in the participants, who were aged between 15 and 20. It is part of a concerted drive to change the attitudes of young people in the country.
"It's not a problem with the youth. It's an overall problem we are suffering from," said Rana al Khaled, the general manager of Zawaya. "There is no investment in values such as tolerance, having a work ethic and being a good citizen. We believe involving the youth will have an impact. It's like ripples in the water."
Ms al Khaled, who left her 12-year career in public finance to work on the project full-time, added: "Our objective is to try and focus on the individual in society. We believe every individual has the power to change, and these attitudes can be infectious." She said she does the work for "self-satisfaction", and supports herself financially with existing business interests including Sharanis Spa in Khalifa City, Abu Dhabi, which she partly owns.
Earlier this year, Zawaya started trying to raise public awareness of values such as tolerance, respect for the law, respect for others, integrity at work and the protection of public resources in Kuwait by running workshops. One was named "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People", based on Steven Covey's popular self-help book. The book promotes values including synergy, meaning creative co-operation, and mutual benefit, termed "think win-win".
Inside The Avenues mall yesterday the acts included a display of Parkour the French art of leaping over boxes and scaling obstacles with as little effort and as much speed as possible, miming from an amateur dramatics club, fencing and impressive displays from a range of local artists, including a blind 11-year-old girl.
The event came about at the end of the Oqsim summer scheme, when the Kuwaitis decided to provide a platform for local talent and raise money for charity with a show in one of the country's busiest malls.
Lamia al Salahi, 20, who took part in the Oqsim summer programme and helped organise the event, said half of the profits from sales of T-shirts and a book they created to document the achievements of Kuwait since the 1950s will go to the Middle East's first children's hospice, Bayt Abdullah.
Zawaya's first campaign was a four-and-a-half minute television advertisement with 40 local celebrities endorsing values such as respecting the law, respecting other people's opinions and not driving through red lights. Ms al Khaled said the video was inspired by the "I pledge Obama" video, a montage of over 50 Hollywood stars, each vowing something beneficial for America, that was presented to the US president at his inauguration.
The advertisement was launched on Kuwait's nine television channels in February. To attract local talent to the show this week, the company advertised again in the local media and recruited the local radio DJ Mic Embalta to host the event.
One of the most impressive displays at the mall was by Basma al Sawawe, a blind 11-year-old girl who moulds clay into depictions of flowers, cars and faces. Basma said her next project will be a plane and her mother, Daliah, said most of her images were already sold at the event for around 50 Kuwaiti dinars (Dh640) each.
"We hope she has a future as an artist," Daliah said.
Ahmad al Ostad, a member of the Parkour Jaguar display team that can often be seen practising somersaults in the country's parks, said: "We're the first Parkour team in the Middle East. We've done other shows before, but we had more equipment for this one, so it was better."
Mr al Ostad, who is slightly heavier than his extremely slight teammates, prompted a round of applause from the hundreds-strong crowd when he performed a knee-wrenching leap off a three metre high box, breaking into a roll as soon as he hit the ground.
Another distinctive act came from the Mr Format Group, when they performed a mime. "It's like Charlie Chaplin," said one of the four, Mohammed Dashti. "Eighty per cent of the guys in Kuwait want muscles and they use injections to get them, so in our act we use a pump to get inflated and deflated. We're saying: 'easy come, easy go'."
"There are 10 people in our group, and we normally just post videos on YouTube. This is our first time on the stage," he said.
"There is a lot of talent in Kuwait, but no shows," said another member of the group, Hassan Karim. "Now we have a chance to show our act and get real experience."
jcalderwood@thenational.ae
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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- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
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- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
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Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
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Previous winners
2016 Islamabad United
2017 Peshawar Zalmi
2018 Islamabad United
2019 Quetta Gladiators
Most runs Kamran Akmal – 1,286
Most wickets Wahab Riaz –65
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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.”
The chef's advice
Troy Payne, head chef at Abu Dhabi’s newest healthy eatery Sanderson’s in Al Seef Resort & Spa, says singles need to change their mindset about how they approach the supermarket.
“They feel like they can’t buy one cucumber,” he says. “But I can walk into a shop – I feed two people at home – and I’ll walk into a shop and I buy one cucumber, I’ll buy one onion.”
Mr Payne asks for the sticker to be placed directly on each item, rather than face the temptation of filling one of the two-kilogram capacity plastic bags on offer.
The chef also advises singletons not get too hung up on “organic”, particularly high-priced varieties that have been flown in from far-flung locales. Local produce is often grown sustainably, and far cheaper, he says.
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
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