In early 1869, a French sculptor was working on a monumental design, one that he hoped would become a world-renowned symbol for the country in which it was to be erected.
And so it came to pass … except that instead of lighting up the gateway to the Suez Canal in Egypt, his statue would eventually become the beacon that welcomed millions to America at the gateway to New York.
Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi hoped that his 27-metre high figure of an Egyptian peasant woman holding a torch, created after the style of the ancient Colossus of Rhodes and to be named Egypt Bringing Light to Asia, would serve as a lighthouse. In his mind, he saw it standing at the entrance of what was about to be one of mankind's greatest feats of engineering, the Suez Canal.
But it was not to be. Funding for the statue was never secured and instead, the design became a template for Lady Liberty in New York.
This is just one of the many stories linked to the 146-year-old artificial waterway that forever changed history, trade and the map of the world.
Over the years the canal has changed in size and ownership, with each era and leader leaving a mark. It remains an important bargaining chip on both the political and economic front, and a source of great national pride for Egypt.
This week, the canal is in the headlines again. On Thursday, a new 72-kilometre channel parallel to the original will be officially opened, allowing ships to sail in both directions at the same time and shortening the journey time from 18 hours to 11.
The UAE’s National Marine Dredging Company played a key role in building the new waterway, dubbed the “Suez Canal Axis”, which included 37km of dry digging and 35km of expansion and the deepening of the existing canal. If the opening of the original canal ushered in the first great age of globalisation, it is hoped this second chapter will lead to a renaissance for Egypt.
Like all the great ventures in history, the original canal, known as Qanat Al Suways in Arabic, began with a man who dreamt big.
“To accomplish great things we must not only act but also dream, not only plan but also believe,” said French diplomat, engineer and pioneer Ferdinand de Lesseps, who drove through this mammoth project of connecting not just the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, but also of Europe to Arabia, the Indies and the East.
“Since 1849 I have studied incessantly, under all its aspects, a question which was already in my mind since 1832. The scheme in question is the cutting of a canal through the Isthmus of Suez,” he said.
“This has been thought of from the earliest historical times, and for that very reason is looked upon as impracticable.”
As he rightly said, many before him had had the same idea, including Napoleon Bonaparte, but it was through de Lesseps’s push and his close relations with the Egyptian viceroy, Said Pasha, that the project finally materialised. Ironically, given later events, the British were vehemently opposed, fearing it would threaten their imperial possessions in India and the East.
On November 17, 1869, after 10 difficult years of mainly manual digging and dredging by tens of thousands of Egyptian peasant labourers – many of whom died – the Suez Canal was unveiled.
The grand opening was said to have cost Egypt £2 million – billions of dollars in today’s prices – and attracted statesmen and royalty from across the world. It was hosted by Ismail Pasha, then Khedive of Egypt. Among his guests were the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph, crown prince Frederick of Prussia, prince Henry of Holland and one of the event’s most honoured guests, the French empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III.
She summoned images from the Bible for her toast to mark the occasion. “Thirty-five centuries ago, the waters of the Red Sea drew back at the word of Moses. Today, at the order of the sovereign of Egypt, they return to their bed,” Eugenie proclaimed.
According to the Suez Canal Authority, the project at the time cost 200 million francs and was 164km long and 8 metres deep. Expanding over the decades, the length reached 193.3km and the depth 24m, in 2010.
It quickly became the most important communications link on the planet. Overnight, Europe and India were 7,000km nearer. The old trade routes around the Cape of Good Hope on the southern tip of Africa were made almost redundant.
To this day, that has hardly changed, although until now the largest of tankers and container ships have had to take the southern route to Europe and the Americas. But the new canal should be deep enough for today’s VLCCs: the Very Large Crude Carriers.
Ten years ago, more than 8 per cent of all world trade passed through the canal every year. With today’s opening of the new sections, the traffic will only increase.
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In recent decades there have been many involved in the waterway’s expansion, including Dr Abdulrahman Makhlouf, the man behind the Abu Dhabi city master plan who also mapped a plan for the canal, one of the ports and its infrastructure.
He’s 92 now, but this Egyptian urban planner is as passionate about the project as ever. “The canal is always a work in progress,” he says. “It is like a living being. You have to accommodate it as it grows and its demands increase.”
At the northern terminus of the canal is Port Said, with Port Tewfik at the city of Suez at the southern terminus. Ismailia is on its west bank, 3km from the halfway point.
“I did a project for Port Said,” Dr Makhlouf says. “It is at the entrance of the canal. When traffic through the canal increased, it became necessary to widen and deepen the canal.
“But at the entrance, there are actually two cities, two ports. So if you widen it, you would destroy one of the two ports. One way around it was to extend a second branch beyond Port Fuad, which is on the opposite side of the canal from Port Said,” he says, pointing to a 1967 drawing.
“I wrote up a whole study of how to build this Free Zone area along the new branch extending out of the main canal, located east of the canal, and south of Port Fuad.
“From the logistics to the transport and communications needs, such as connections with the railway, I mapped out everything that had to be done along the 6km extension.”
He presented his idea to the Egyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser, but the Six Day War with Israel intervened and nothing happened. The project, like many others, remained shelved until the next president, Anwar El Sadat, took it up. Despite another war with Israel – the 1973 October War – it was completed in 1974 at a “very charged political” time. However, the canal remained shut until 1975 when president Sadat reopened the Suez Canal as a gesture of peace, after talks with Israel.
It took a year of hazardous work to clear the debris from the conflict from along the waterway. This ranged from sunken ships to mines strewn along the canal’s sloping banks.
Dr Makhlouf was unable to make it to the eventual reopening, as he was busy with projects in Abu Dhabi with the late Sheikh Zayed, founding father of the UAE. Four decades later, his pride and enthusiasm for the canal remains undiminished.
“The canal was there long before we came around, and so we should always look into our past to understand how to proceed into the future,” says Dr Makhlouf.
“The Suez Canal remains one of our greatest treasures and gifts to mankind.”
rghazal@thenational.ae
Farasan Boat: 128km Away from Anchorage
Director: Mowaffaq Alobaid
Stars: Abdulaziz Almadhi, Mohammed Al Akkasi, Ali Al Suhaibani
Rating: 4/5
Profile
Name: Carzaty
Founders: Marwan Chaar and Hassan Jaffar
Launched: 2017
Employees: 22
Based: Dubai and Muscat
Sector: Automobile retail
Funding to date: $5.5 million
The specs
Engine: 0.8-litre four cylinder
Power: 70bhp
Torque: 66Nm
Transmission: four-speed manual
Price: $1,075 new in 1967, now valued at $40,000
On sale: Models from 1966 to 1970
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
City's slump
L - Juventus, 2-0
D - C Palace, 2-2
W - N Forest, 3-0
L - Liverpool, 2-0
D - Feyenoord, 3-3
L - Tottenham, 4-0
L - Brighton, 2-1
L - Sporting, 4-1
L - Bournemouth, 2-1
L - Tottenham, 2-1
The Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index
The Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index
Mazen Abukhater, principal and actuary at global consultancy Mercer, Middle East, says the company’s Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index - which benchmarks 34 pension schemes across the globe to assess their adequacy, sustainability and integrity - included Saudi Arabia for the first time this year to offer a glimpse into the region.
The index highlighted fundamental issues for all 34 countries, such as a rapid ageing population and a low growth / low interest environment putting pressure on expected returns. It also highlighted the increasing popularity around the world of defined contribution schemes.
“Average life expectancy has been increasing by about three years every 10 years. Someone born in 1947 is expected to live until 85 whereas someone born in 2007 is expected to live to 103,” Mr Abukhater told the Mena Pensions Conference.
“Are our systems equipped to handle these kind of life expectancies in the future? If so many people retire at 60, they are going to be in retirement for 43 years – so we need to adapt our retirement age to our changing life expectancy.”
Saudi Arabia came in the middle of Mercer’s ranking with a score of 58.9. The report said the country's index could be raised by improving the minimum level of support for the poorest aged individuals and increasing the labour force participation rate at older ages as life expectancies rise.
Mr Abukhater said the challenges of an ageing population, increased life expectancy and some individuals relying solely on their government for financial support in their retirement years will put the system under strain.
“To relieve that pressure, governments need to consider whether it is time to switch to a defined contribution scheme so that individuals can supplement their own future with the help of government support,” he said.
Brief scores
Barcelona 2
Pique 36', Alena 87'
Villarreal 0
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
Picture of Joumblatt and Hariri breaking bread sets Twitter alight
Mr Joumblatt’s pessimism regarding the Lebanese political situation didn’t stop him from enjoying a cheerful dinner on Tuesday with several politicians including Mr Hariri.
Caretaker Culture Minister Ghattas Khoury tweeted a picture of the group sitting around a table at a discrete fish restaurant in Beirut’s upscale Sodeco area.
Mr Joumblatt told The National that the fish served at Kelly’s Fish lounge had been very good.
“They really enjoyed their time”, remembers the restaurant owner. “Mr Hariri was taking selfies with everybody”.
Mr Hariri and Mr Joumblatt often have dinner together to discuss recent political developments.
Mr Joumblatt was a close ally of Mr Hariri’s assassinated father, former prime minister Rafik Hariri. The pair were leading figures in the political grouping against the 15-year Syrian occupation of Lebanon that ended after mass protests in 2005 in the wake of Rafik Hariri’s murder. After the younger Hariri took over his father’s mantle in 2004, the relationship with Mr Joumblatt endured.
However, the pair have not always been so close. In the run-up to the election last year, Messrs Hariri and Joumblatt went months without speaking over an argument regarding the new proportional electoral law to be used for the first time. Mr Joumblatt worried that a proportional system, which Mr Hariri backed, would see the influence of his small sect diminished.
With so much of Lebanese politics agreed in late-night meetings behind closed doors, the media and pundits put significant weight on how regularly, where and with who senior politicians meet.
In the picture, alongside Messrs Khoury and Hariri were Mr Joumbatt and his wife Nora, PSP politician Wael Abou Faour and Egyptian ambassador to Lebanon Nazih el Nagari.
The picture of the dinner led to a flurry of excitement on Twitter that it signified an imminent government formation. “God willing, white smoke will rise soon and Walid Beik [a nickname for Walid Joumblatt] will accept to give up the minister of industry”, one user replied to the tweet. “Blessings to you…We would like you to form a cabinet”, wrote another.
The next few days will be crucial in determining whether these wishes come true.
Company%20Profile
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The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
- 2018: Formal work begins
- November 2021: First 17 volumes launched
- November 2022: Additional 19 volumes released
- October 2023: Another 31 volumes released
- November 2024: All 127 volumes completed
What are the GCSE grade equivalents?
- Grade 9 = above an A*
- Grade 8 = between grades A* and A
- Grade 7 = grade A
- Grade 6 = just above a grade B
- Grade 5 = between grades B and C
- Grade 4 = grade C
- Grade 3 = between grades D and E
- Grade 2 = between grades E and F
- Grade 1 = between grades F and G
TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa
Rating: 4.5/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Eco%20Way%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20December%202023%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Ivan%20Kroshnyi%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Electric%20vehicles%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Bootstrapped%20with%20undisclosed%20funding.%20Looking%20to%20raise%20funds%20from%20outside%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
THE SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder
Transmission: Constant Variable (CVT)
Power: 141bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Price: Dh64,500
On sale: Now
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
Company%20Profile
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Business Insights
- Canada and Mexico are significant energy suppliers to the US, providing the majority of oil and natural gas imports
- The introduction of tariffs could hinder the US's clean energy initiatives by raising input costs for materials like nickel
- US domestic suppliers might benefit from higher prices, but overall oil consumption is expected to decrease due to elevated costs
The specs
Engine: Direct injection 4-cylinder 1.4-litre
Power: 150hp
Torque: 250Nm
Price: From Dh139,000
On sale: Now
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.
When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.
How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
Company profile
Name: Infinite8
Based: Dubai
Launch year: 2017
Number of employees: 90
Sector: Online gaming industry
Funding: $1.2m from a UAE angel investor
SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20APPLE%20M3%20MACBOOK%20AIR%20(13%22)
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How to play the stock market recovery in 2021?
If you are looking to build your long-term wealth in 2021 and beyond, the stock market is still the best place to do it as equities powered on despite the pandemic.
Investing in individual stocks is not for everyone and most private investors should stick to mutual funds and ETFs, but there are some thrilling opportunities for those who understand the risks.
Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank, says the 20 best-performing US and European stocks have delivered an average return year-to-date of 148 per cent, measured in local currency terms.
Online marketplace Etsy was the best performer with a return of 330.6 per cent, followed by communications software company Sinch (315.4 per cent), online supermarket HelloFresh (232.8 per cent) and fuel cells specialist NEL (191.7 per cent).
Mr Garnry says digital companies benefited from the lockdown, while green energy firms flew as efforts to combat climate change were ramped up, helped in part by the European Union’s green deal.
Electric car company Tesla would be on the list if it had been part of the S&P 500 Index, but it only joined on December 21. “Tesla has become one of the most valuable companies in the world this year as demand for electric vehicles has grown dramatically,” Mr Garnry says.
By contrast, the 20 worst-performing European stocks fell 54 per cent on average, with European banks hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic, while cruise liners and airline stocks suffered due to travel restrictions.
As demand for energy fell, the oil and gas industry had a tough year, too.
Mr Garnry says the biggest story this year was the “absolute crunch” in so-called value stocks, companies that trade at low valuations compared to their earnings and growth potential.
He says they are “heavily tilted towards financials, miners, energy, utilities and industrials, which have all been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic”. “The last year saw these cheap stocks become cheaper and expensive stocks have become more expensive.”
This has triggered excited talk about the “great value rotation” but Mr Garnry remains sceptical. “We need to see a breakout of interest rates combined with higher inflation before we join the crowd.”
Always remember that past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. Last year’s winners often turn out to be this year’s losers, and vice-versa.
