DUBAI // Three young Emirati women showcased their debut books at the annual literature festival yesterday.
The five-day event aims to spark a love of reading and writing in young people.
One first-time author, Hamda Al Bastaki, told how her children's book was inspired by her own girlhood hatred of bath time, with her mother having to drag her to the tub.
"At university, we were asked to write a children's book as part of our final project," Al Bastaki said. "I tried to come up with many story ideas. I thought of writing about my hatred of taking a bath at a young age because I know many children do not like cleaning."
The book, I Don't Want to Shower, written with Fatema Al Kamali, is about a young girl named Sara who dislikes showering. After a nightmare about bugs being in her bed, she realises that the key to sweet dreams is keeping clean.
"We made sure that our book contained fewer words and more expressive illustration," Al Kamali said. "We drew the characters so that the child thinks the author is a child of his age.
Fatma Ibrahim hopes her debut book will encourage children to eat healthily, especially her own four-year-old daughter, Mahra, who loves junk food.
Mahra's Magical Tree is about an Emirati girl who takes shelter under a palm tree while waiting for her friends.
The tree is magical and will grant her wishes, and she asks for bars of chocolates and lollipops, which lead to cavities and obesity.
Mahra feels sad about her condition and asks the tree to return her to her former self.
"I wanted to help my daughter and others to cut down their intake of fast food," said Ibrahim, a nursery teacher.
"The story is a mixture of fantasy and reality because children enjoys fantasies."
The festival was well-attended by authors, students and book lovers.
Hind Ahmed Jamal, a first-year media student at the Higher Colleges of Technology in Dubai, expressed concerns during a question and answer session at the "Picture Books into Print" panel.
"It is known that the Emirati community do not read much," said the mother of two. "Because we weren't brought up to loving books at a young age."
Ms Jamal said she visited many book stores in Dubai and they lacked children's books in Arabic.
"I found some books but they were poorly written and not attention-grabbing," she added. She said that since the UAE was one of the fastest developing countries in the world, it should also develop quickly in terms of literature.
Bashayer Al Moosawi, a second-year media student at the Higher Colleges of Technology in Dubai, was inspired by the authors.
"Our country is competing with other international countries, which makes me proud," she said. "Things are changing for the better, gradually. I am proud of these young Emirati authors."
The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature is at the Intercontinental Dubai Festival City until Saturday.
aalhameli@thenational.ae
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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 Transfiguration
Director: Michael O’Shea
Starring: Eric Ruffin, Chloe Levine
Three stars
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
