There are 4,000 workers at the Saadiyat Accommodation Village; housing them, providing food, drink and a place to pray is a sizeable job. In part of an ongoing look at the building of the Louvre Abu Dhabi,
James Langton
finds out how employer and employee adapt to a summer Ramadan on the job.
Through the open door of the cavernous dining hall in Saadiyat Accommodation Village, the ferocious August heat is falling very slightly as the light begins to fade with the setting sun.
It is still well over half an hour before sunset and the breaking of the fast, but the first workers are already filing in for the only food and drink they will have had for nearly 15 hours.
Collecting a steel tray in exchange for a green meal ticket, they walk the length of the 60-metre hall to collect their food: some dates and fresh fruit, a serving of aromatic chana dal and water or a carton of laban. To one side, there are five huge tea urns, all but one with sugar.
Then the men find a spot at one of the hundreds of empty tables, place the food in front of them, tantalising, and wait patiently for the first sound of the maghrib prayer.
Soon the reason for the early arrivals becomes clear. The groups of one or two become a steady flow and then a flood. By the time iftar is less than 10 minutes away, there are lengthy queues for trays and the food.
Small wonder. The Accommodation Village is home to more than 2,500 workers on the Louvre Abu Dhabi museum project, of which around 72 per cent are Muslim. Tonight, as on every night during Ramadan, they are hungry and thirsty. And all at the same time.
Serving the evening meal for about 4,000 workers - the village also houses workers for other projects - is the great challenge for Brookfield Multiplex, the Dubai-based company that runs the housing complex.
Amazingly, by the time that the call to prayer rises above the murmur of hundreds of voices, all but a handful are seated and ready to eat.
Most of those workers have risen early, first for suhoor, then to head out to the site before the heat of the sun hammers home. The combination of the summer midday break and the shorter Ramadan working hours means that they are back in the village by early afternoon, although a very small number remain on site for essential duties.
By sunset, they have changed from their blue boiler suits into neatly pressed jeans and shirts or more traditional shalwar kameez. The meal to break the fast doesn't look like much, but it is a healthy mix of energy-giving fruits and carbohydrates. The main meal is served later, after prayers.
Rashid Khamir, a security supervisor from Mombasa in Kenya, admits that enduring the heat on site while fasting is a challenge. "It is a big test," he says. "In my country it is not so hot."
But he manages to resist the temptation of a cooling sip of water. "It is my faith. Ramadan is a holy month and different from others."
Even with safety precautions, Khamir, 34, says he sees several workers seeking treatment for heat stress every day. It's hard to balance being a Muslim in such an environment, but being among so many fellow Muslims is a help, he says.
"We support each other. If someone feels like eating, we give him moral support."
Less than 10 minutes after breaking the fast, the first workers are leaving the dining area, heading outside to begin their ablutions.
The village is a series of accommodation blocks, each with its own communal hall that includes everything from a library and computer room to a games area, laundry, several widescreen TVs and a barbershop, where a haircut costs just Dh5.
Outside, a pleasant green area surrounded by mature trees overlooks a beach on the western edge of Saadiyat, with views over the channel to Abu Dhabi, towards Reem Island and the distant towers of the new business district.
Now, though, it's fully dark, and the press of men heads towards the mosque, a low, white, domed building decorated with coloured lights for the Holy Month. So many have come for prayers that the congregation overflows to the surrounding paved area.
Some worshippers bring carpets large enough for a group, others lay out individual prayer mats, squeezing to the edge if a friend needs to share. The atmosphere feels relaxed and communal.
By 8pm, the focus is back in the dining hall, where the main meal of the evening is being served. The hard-pressed staff have cleared away the debris from the iftar and replaced the fruit and beans with more substantial vegetarian and meat curries, along with mountains of boiled rice and vast piles of chapattis. No one leaves hungry.
Meal over, the workers line up to clear away their trays, emptying leftover food into large, black bin liners. Some settle down to watch Sri Lanka fail to beat South Africa at one-day cricket. Others find a quiet spot or a book or watch satellite television from their own country.
In a few hours, the dark will begin to dilute with the rising sun, and the meal hall will fill again for suhoor. Then the buses will arrive for the 6am shift. Like Ramadan, the building of the Louvre Abu Dhabi must follow strict timetables; one for God, the other for man.
jlangton@thenational.ae
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Where can I submit a sample?
Volunteers can now submit DNA samples at a number of centres across Abu Dhabi. The programme is open to all ages.
Collection centres in Abu Dhabi include:
- Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC)
- Biogenix Labs in Masdar City
- Al Towayya in Al Ain
- NMC Royal Hospital in Khalifa City
- Bareen International Hospital
- NMC Specialty Hospital, Al Ain
- NMC Royal Medical Centre - Abu Dhabi
- NMC Royal Women’s Hospital.
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ULTRA PROCESSED FOODS
- Carbonated drinks, sweet or savoury packaged snacks, confectionery, mass-produced packaged breads and buns
- margarines and spreads; cookies, biscuits, pastries, cakes, and cake mixes, breakfast cereals, cereal and energy bars;
- energy drinks, milk drinks, fruit yoghurts and fruit drinks, cocoa drinks, meat and chicken extracts and instant sauces
- infant formulas and follow-on milks, health and slimming products such as powdered or fortified meal and dish substitutes,
- many ready-to-heat products including pre-prepared pies and pasta and pizza dishes, poultry and fish nuggets and sticks, sausages, burgers, hot dogs, and other reconstituted meat products, powdered and packaged instant soups, noodles and desserts.
How being social media savvy can improve your well being
Next time when procastinating online remember that you can save thousands on paying for a personal trainer and a gym membership simply by watching YouTube videos and keeping up with the latest health tips and trends.
As social media apps are becoming more and more consumed by health experts and nutritionists who are using it to awareness and encourage patients to engage in physical activity.
Elizabeth Watson, a personal trainer from Stay Fit gym in Abu Dhabi suggests that “individuals can use social media as a means of keeping fit, there are a lot of great exercises you can do and train from experts at home just by watching videos on YouTube”.
Norlyn Torrena, a clinical nutritionist from Burjeel Hospital advises her clients to be more technologically active “most of my clients are so engaged with their phones that I advise them to download applications that offer health related services”.
Torrena said that “most people believe that dieting and keeping fit is boring”.
However, by using social media apps keeping fit means that people are “modern and are kept up to date with the latest heath tips and trends”.
“It can be a guide to a healthy lifestyle and exercise if used in the correct way, so I really encourage my clients to download health applications” said Mrs Torrena.
People can also connect with each other and exchange “tips and notes, it’s extremely healthy and fun”.
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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.”
Company: Instabug
Founded: 2013
Based: Egypt, Cairo
Sector: IT
Employees: 100
Stage: Series A
Investors: Flat6Labs, Accel, Y Combinator and angel investors
'Gehraiyaan'
Director:Shakun Batra
Stars:Deepika Padukone, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Panday, Dhairya Karwa
Rating: 4/5
