On the evening of May 22 this year, the plush, chandelier-lit Al Silia ballroom of the Grand Hyatt hotel in Doha was the setting for a spontaneous expression of solidarity with protesters who had taken to the streets of cities across the Arab world.
The occasion was a lecture organised by Georgetown University's Center for International and Regional Studies, and the man at the lectern was Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor of Arabic Studies at New York's Columbia University.
Khalidi's talk was entitled "The Arab Revolutions of 2011" and his audience - mainly academics and Arab students from across the region studying at the eight western universities in Doha's Education City - listened intently as the historian listed what he saw as the causes of the widespread upheaval.
There were, he said, specific issues common to all the countries where revolt had flared - "internal problems of democracy, the establishment of the rule of law, constitutions, inequality and social change".
On another level, he was certain, these were also a pan-Arab rejection of the post-colonial influence of western powers, "revolutions against the neoliberal world order and the free-trade market fundamentalist dogma underpinning it". The entire Arab regional system, he said, was "upheld by US power, whose support was crucial to the survival of many of the dictatorial regimes now trembling as their people challenge them".
But it was what Khalidi said next that straightened backs in seats.
"I would add that there was another demand of the people who in the streets have changed history in this part of the world; this was a demand for dignity - karama."
Up to this point, the traditionally dressed young Arab sitting to my left had been messaging on his smartphone. Now he set it down and fixed his attention on the speaker.
Dignity, continued Khalidi, was a personal and a collective matter. Thanks to "incessant infringement by these all-powerful states on the dignity of the Arab citizen, and their rulers' constant affirmation of their citizens' worthlessness - of their subjects' worthlessness", Arabs everywhere had internalised this view of themselves, producing "a pervasive self-loathing and an ulcerous social malaise ... part of the social problem in many parts of the Arab world".
Worse, these rulers had shown contempt for their peoples as a whole, regarding them as "immature, potentially dangerous if allowed free rein [and] definitely not ready for democracy".
Out of the mouths of the likes of Mubarak, Al Assad and Qaddafi had poured scorn. "These rulers," said Khalidi, "said openly what most Arab rulers believe: that their peoples are easily deluded and misled, that their peoples in fact have no dignity. This is the reason that people demanded karama, because they were being denied dignity by their rulers, on an individual basis."
The Arab region was one of the few parts of the globe unaffected by the democratic transitions of the late 20th century. Now, suddenly, the Arabs had shown that "they are no different from anyone else, and these revolutions have in consequence created a sense of collective dignity that was best reflected in the pride of Tunisians and Egyptians after the fall of their respective tyrants".
When Khalidi quoted the words chanted by the triumphant crowds in Tahrir Square - "Raise your head, you are an Egyptian" - his audience broke into spontaneous applause.
"This," he continued, raising his voice to be heard, "was the collective dignity of the Egyptian people, and with them of the entire Arab people, that was being asserted."
Earlier this week, the US President Barack Obama echoed Khalidi's theme when he called on Qaddafi to concede defeat. The people of Libya, he said, were "showing that the universal pursuit of dignity and freedom is far stronger than the iron fist of a dictator".
Yet few in the Arab world will have failed to see past the irony of that rhetoric. Arabs, as Khalidi said in Doha, "are well aware of the long-standing gap between the proclaimed ideals of the great western democracies and their cynical realpolitik policies ... The US has always been torn between its principles - support for democracy, human rights - and between its interests - including upholding dictators who do what is wanted of them".
American support for stability in such countries "in fact really meant support for repression, or corruption, or the frustration of popular demands and the subversion of democracy. It also meant the subordination of the Arab countries to the dictates of US policy and to the demands of Israel".
The demand for collective dignity, he said, was "a call to end this unnatural situation and for the Arab world to return to actually having agency in the face of outside powers, including regional powers like Iran, Turkey and Israel".
In the light of this woeful history, he added, "it probably would be a good thing if American and European statesmen would refrain from preaching to the people of Tunisia or Egypt, who have already engineered striking revolutionary change, or to others in the Arab world who are trying to do the same".
"These young revolutionaries know better what they need to do to achieve democracy and social justice than policymakers in Washington who, until a few months ago, were the closest friends of the dictators and the torturers in Tunis, Cairo, Tripoli and elsewhere and are still intimately linked to a number of other Arab despots."
What happens next is anybody's guess, but a great deal will depend on the hydra-headed protest movements in each country being able not only to coalesce into systems of effective governance that can tackle pressing social and economic concerns and pave the way to democracy, but also to end what Khalidi called the "servility towards Israel and the United States that was one of the key features of the stagnant Arab order ... which robbed the Arabs of their collective dignity".
All of this will be a tough task and much hangs in the balance. Speaking this week by telephone from New York, Khalidi urged caution; the Arab Spring, he said, could not yet be said to be an event as momentous as the fall of the Berlin Wall.
"We've had two and half transitions in 20-odd countries, why don't we wait just a bit and see how this plays out before we compare it to the Berlin Wall? That was enormously important and decades later we can see that it was just as momentous as it appeared at the time. I don't think we can say that yet about the Arab uprisings; they haven't yet succeeded."
In his speech at Doha, and again this week, Khalidi drew a comparison between the Arab Spring and the 1848 Spring of Nations, when social injustice and a hunger for human dignity lit the flame of revolution in countries across Europe. But it is a comparison fraught with an ominous warning.
"We have just passed a great turning point in the story of the world ... an actual passage from old things to new," reported The Times of London in January 1849.
"Questions hitherto discussed in the closet have been decided by armed populations. The majestic creations of policy or of time have been submitted to the suffrages of the casual populace ... princes, dynasties, constitutions, ranks, honors, privileges, everything venerable or effete, noble or debased, has had to plead for existence against opinion and passion ... "
The year of 1848 had begun "like the morning of an earthquake ... The surface was everywhere ruffled, though the several states were too much occupied with their private affairs to note the stealthy inroads of a general disorder."
So far, so 2011.
But, continued The Times, the final act of the drama had still to be written: "The questions propounded are not yet answered, the pledges given are not yet redeemed, the council has only been interrupted by disorder, the sitting has still to be resumed, and the decision proclaimed."
In Paris, where the storm had broken in February 1848 and which had "led the dance of revolution", there was now "every appearance that France under Louis Napoleon and an Assembly will be Louis Philippe and the Chamber of Deputies over again, with no difference but in names. Prussia, also, is falling back to her old military regime.
"To both nations the same order is given, 'As you were', and a year of revolution is forgotten."
In the event, little changed quickly in Europe - it was another 40 or 50 years before the kinds of reforms the revolutionaries fought for in 1843 were finally achieved.
Post-2011, says Khalidi, "The lives of many Arabs, I'm afraid, won't change as much as they hope", but, "If we are lucky, this may be the beginning of a process such as we saw in Europe in 1848.
"It may take less time - let's hope it does - but it may well take a long time before the things the people in the Arab countries, like everybody else, want - dignity, social justice, democracy, transparency, rule of law - come about.
"But there is no going back, this genie has been unleashed. The people know what they want and these are universal values; everybody accepts them now, whether they are Islamist or not."
And human dignity, as history has shown, will not be forever denied.
jgornall@thenational.ae
A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
GOLF’S RAHMBO
- 5 wins in 22 months as pro
- Three wins in past 10 starts
- 45 pro starts worldwide: 5 wins, 17 top 5s
- Ranked 551th in world on debut, now No 4 (was No 2 earlier this year)
- 5th player in last 30 years to win 3 European Tour and 2 PGA Tour titles before age 24 (Woods, Garcia, McIlroy, Spieth)
The%20specs
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Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh132,000 (Countryman)
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Booklava works on a subscription model. On signing up you receive a free book as part of a 30-day-trial period, after which you pay US$9.99 (Dh36.70) per month to gain access to a library of books and discounts of up to 30 per cent on selected titles. You can cancel your subscription at any time. For more details go to www.booklava.com
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Conservative MPs who have publicly revealed sending letters of no confidence
- Steve Baker
- Peter Bone
- Ben Bradley
- Andrew Bridgen
- Maria Caulfield
- Simon Clarke
- Philip Davies
- Nadine Dorries
- James Duddridge
- Mark Francois
- Chris Green
- Adam Holloway
- Andrea Jenkyns
- Anne-Marie Morris
- Sheryll Murray
- Jacob Rees-Mogg
- Laurence Robertson
- Lee Rowley
- Henry Smith
- Martin Vickers
- John Whittingdale
Spare
Profile
Company name: Spare
Started: March 2018
Co-founders: Dalal Alrayes and Saurabh Shah
Based: UAE
Sector: FinTech
Investment: Own savings. Going for first round of fund-raising in March 2019
UAE WARRIORS RESULTS
Featherweight
Azouz Anwar (EGY) beat Marcelo Pontes (BRA)
TKO round 2
Catchweight 90kg
Moustafa Rashid Nada (KSA) beat Imad Al Howayeck (LEB)
Split points decision
Welterweight
Gimbat Ismailov (RUS) beat Mohammed Al Khatib (JOR)
TKO round 1
Flyweight (women)
Lucie Bertaud (FRA) beat Kelig Pinson (BEL)
Unanimous points decision
Lightweight
Alexandru Chitoran (ROU) beat Regelo Enumerables Jr (PHI)
TKO round 1
Catchweight 100kg
Marc Vleiger (NED) beat Mohamed Ali (EGY)
Rear neck choke round 1
Featherweight
James Bishop (NZ) beat Mark Valerio (PHI)
TKO round 2
Welterweight
Abdelghani Saber (EGY) beat Gerson Carvalho (BRA)
TKO round 1
Middleweight
Bakhtiyar Abbasov (AZE) beat Igor Litoshik (BLR)
Unanimous points decision
Bantamweight
Fabio Mello (BRA) beat Mark Alcoba (PHI)
Unanimous points decision
Welterweight
Ahmed Labban (LEB) v Magomedsultan Magomedsultanov (RUS)
TKO round 1
Bantamweight
Trent Girdham (AUS) beat Jayson Margallo (PHI)
TKO round 3
Lightweight
Usman Nurmagomedov (RUS) beat Roman Golovinov (UKR)
TKO round 1
Middleweight
Tarek Suleiman (SYR) beat Steve Kennedy (AUS)
Submission round 2
Lightweight
Dan Moret (USA) v Anton Kuivanen (FIN)
TKO round 2
How%20champions%20are%20made
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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.”
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
Omar Yabroudi's factfile
Born: October 20, 1989, Sharjah
Education: Bachelor of Science and Football, Liverpool John Moores University
2010: Accrington Stanley FC, internship
2010-2012: Crystal Palace, performance analyst with U-18 academy
2012-2015: Barnet FC, first-team performance analyst/head of recruitment
2015-2017: Nottingham Forest, head of recruitment
2018-present: Crystal Palace, player recruitment manager
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Three ways to boost your credit score
Marwan Lutfi says the core fundamentals that drive better payment behaviour and can improve your credit score are:
1. Make sure you make your payments on time;
2. Limit the number of products you borrow on: the more loans and credit cards you have, the more it will affect your credit score;
3. Don't max out all your debts: how much you maximise those credit facilities will have an impact. If you have five credit cards and utilise 90 per cent of that credit, it will negatively affect your score.
'Worse than a prison sentence'
Marie Byrne, a counsellor who volunteers at the UAE government's mental health crisis helpline, said the ordeal the crew had been through would take time to overcome.
“It was worse than a prison sentence, where at least someone can deal with a set amount of time incarcerated," she said.
“They were living in perpetual mystery as to how their futures would pan out, and what that would be.
“Because of coronavirus, the world is very different now to the one they left, that will also have an impact.
“It will not fully register until they are on dry land. Some have not seen their young children grow up while others will have to rebuild relationships.
“It will be a challenge mentally, and to find other work to support their families as they have been out of circulation for so long. Hopefully they will get the care they need when they get home.”
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
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 specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
Ruwais timeline
1971 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company established
1980 Ruwais Housing Complex built, located 10 kilometres away from industrial plants
1982 120,000 bpd capacity Ruwais refinery complex officially inaugurated by the founder of the UAE Sheikh Zayed
1984 Second phase of Ruwais Housing Complex built. Today the 7,000-unit complex houses some 24,000 people.
1985 The refinery is expanded with the commissioning of a 27,000 b/d hydro cracker complex
2009 Plans announced to build $1.2 billion fertilizer plant in Ruwais, producing urea
2010 Adnoc awards $10bn contracts for expansion of Ruwais refinery, to double capacity from 415,000 bpd
2014 Ruwais 261-outlet shopping mall opens
2014 Production starts at newly expanded Ruwais refinery, providing jet fuel and diesel and allowing the UAE to be self-sufficient for petrol supplies
2014 Etihad Rail begins transportation of sulphur from Shah and Habshan to Ruwais for export
2017 Aldar Academies to operate Adnoc’s schools including in Ruwais from September. Eight schools operate in total within the housing complex.
2018 Adnoc announces plans to invest $3.1 billion on upgrading its Ruwais refinery
2018 NMC Healthcare selected to manage operations of Ruwais Hospital
2018 Adnoc announces new downstream strategy at event in Abu Dhabi on May 13
Source: The National
