City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism (53 page)

25.
His five daughters, Mariam, Hessa, Maitha, Shaikha, and Fatima, probably also stayed close.

26.
Material on Sheikh Rashid’s illness from Wilson,
Rashid’s Legacy
, 441–49.

1.
Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum,
My Vision: Challenges in the Race for Excellence
(Dubai: Motivate, 2006).

2.
Sheikh Ahmed is the product of Sheikh Saeed’s late union with a second wife.
Ahmed was born in 1958, forty-five years after his eldest half-brother, Sheikh Rashid.

3.
Flanagan wasn’t at the meeting, but others present reported Sheikh Mohammed’s statement to him.

4.
Graeme Wilson,
Emirates: The Airline of the Future
(Dubai: Media Prima, 2005), 86.

5.
Ibid., 248–49.

6.
Ibid., 249.

7.
Emirates Web site,
http://www.emirates.com/uae/AboutEmirates/TheEmiratesStory/TheEmiratesStory.asp
. In March 2009, Emirates stopped flying A-380s to New York and shifted them to routes serving Toronto and Bangkok.

8.
IATA figures for international traffic in 2007. Does not include domestic flights. When combined international and domestic figures are measured, American and United are numbers one and two, respectively.

9.
Van der Meulen (“The Role of Tribal and Kinship Ties,” 191) claims that Emirates’ profits are mainly on paper. A footnote in his 1997 thesis alleges that the Maktoum family infuses the airline with millions of dollars to enable it to keep up its high standards, subsidies not reflected in balance sheets. The airline’s financial statements, he contends, do not properly reflect its financial performance. He gives no source for these allegations. Van der Meulen, a former U.S. diplomat in the UAE, did not respond to interview requests.

10.
Vivian Salama, “Passenger Increase Sees Dubai Lead Charge in Airport Retail Growth,”
The National
, August 23, 2008.

11.
Tom Wright (of W. S. Atkins), author interview, September 9, 2008.

12.
The hotel sent a golf pro to tee off a few balls first, to make sure Tiger wouldn’t bean anyone at the waterpark or on the beach.

13.
Jaylyn Garcia (Dubai Tourism and Commerce Marketing Department), author interview, September 4, 2008.

14.
The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2007, World Economic Forum, 24
.

15.
U.N. World Tourism Organization,
World Tourism Barometer
, June 2008.

16.
Dubai Strategic Plan—2015: Highlights booklet
.

17.
Ibid.

18.
Jim Krane, “Sept. 11 Factors That Hurt U.S. Economy Led to Economic Boom in Gulf,” Associated Press, August 25, 2005.

19.
UAE GDP growth in 2008 was 7.4 percent. Economists at Standard Chartered Bank in March 2009 predicted 0.5 percent GDP growth in 2009. The Economist Intelligence Units assessment was bleaker: a recession, with GDP dropping 1.4 percent.

20.
Dubai’s 565 square miles under development figure is from The Executive Office planner Abdulla al-Nedhar’s personal assistant, Iman, telephone interview, September 8, 2008. That includes uninhabited land being cleared for development. The 2000 U.S. Census lists Houston’s city limits as 580 square miles with nearly 2 million inhabitants, not including suburbs.

21.
Joel Bowman, “Value of Gulf Projects Surges Past $2tn—Report,” Arabian
Business.com
, March 31, 2008,
http://www.arabianbusiness.com/515087-gulf-project-value-eclipses-2tn-mark
.

22.
Nasser Saidi (chief economist, Dubai International Financial Centre), author interview, September 22, 2008. Valuations have plummeted since then.

23.
A Google search in 2008 on “world’s fastest-growing city” found overwhelmingly in favor of Dubai, but the City Mayors Web site listed number one as Beihai, China.

24.
Prices supplied by Better Homes on October 20, 2008.

25.
Peter Riddoch, CEO Damac Properties, “Dubai Boom Isn’t Over—or Is It?”
Homes Overseas
, September 1, 2008.

26.
Afshin Molavi, “Profile—The Arab Sheik: Meet Dubai’s Leader: Ultramodern, Apolitical, and Open for Business,”
Newsweek
, August 6, 2007,
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20011278/site/newsweek/page/
.

27.
Gergawi’s identity in this story comes from Afshin Molavi, “Talent, critical mass drive Dubai forward,” from
Bitterlemons-International.org
, Dec. 27, 2007;
http://www.bitterlemons-international.org/previous.php?opt=1&id=208
.

28.
A federal media law under consideration in 2009 proposed tough penalties, including huge fines, for coverage considered insulting to UAE royals. Most worryingly, journalists and their employers could be penalized for stories deemed to have damaged the economy. The law was widely panned inside the country and by international media watchdogs. It had not been ratified by the time this book went to press. The law does not affect international media firms operating in Media City and the free zones.

1.
Martin Hvidt, “Governance in Dubai: The Emergence of Political and Economic Ties between the Public and Private Sector” (working paper, Centre for Contemporary Middle East Studies, University of Southern Denmark, June 2006), 4.

2.
Nabil al-Yousuf resigned from The Executive Office in March 2009. At the time, the office’s role in running Dubai was on the wane.

3.
“Dubai in World Competitiveness 2005,” IMD, December 2005; also cited by Molavi, “Profile—The Arab Sheik: Meet Dubai’s Leader.”

4.
“Suit Filed to Block Port Takeover by Arab Firm,” Associated Press, February 18, 2006 (
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11435262/
).

5.
Marwan al-Shehhi, born in Ras Al-Khaimah, probably radicalized in Germany and Afghanistan; Fayez Banihammad, possibly born in Khor Fakkan, in Sharjah; may have worked as a UAE immigration officer and attended university in Saudi Arabia’s Asir Province.

6.
“Global Ports Connecting Global Markets,” PowerPoint presentation downloaded from Dubai World Web site,
http://www.dubaiworld.ae/en/Our%20Portfolio/Transport%20and%20Logistics/bu_DP%20World.html
(accessed October 25, 2008).

7.
Peter Overby, “Lobbyist’s Last-Minute Bid Set Off Ports Controversy,”
All Things Considered
, NPR News, March 8, 2006,
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5252263
.

8.
Doreen Hemlock, “Lauderdale Firm Maps U.S. Legal Challenge to Dubai Deal on Ports Company,”
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
, March 7, 2006,
http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/419435/lauderdale_firm_maps_us_legal_challenge_to_dubai_deal_on/index.html
.

9.
Michael Kreitzer, lawyer representing Eller and Co., author interview, November 12, 2008.

10.
Overby, “Lobbyist’s Last-Minute Bid Set Off Ports Controversy.”

11.
Stephanie Kirchgaessner, “Bill Clinton Helped Dubai on Ports Deal,”
Financial Times
, March 1, 2006,
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/60414c4c-a95e-11da-a64b-0000779e2340.html
.

12.
Jamal Majid bin Thaniah, chief executive officer, DP World, author interview, September 29, 2008.

13.
James Kuhnhenn, “Arabs Drop Ports Deal; S. Fla Firm in Running,”
Miami Herald
, March 10, 2006.

14.
Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, “Our Ambitions for the Middle East,”
Wall Street Journal
, January 12, 2008.

15.
No one I interviewed would reveal names of U.S. politicians who’d said they were sorry.

16.
Al-Maktoum,
My Vision
.

1.
Warren Pickering (concept designer, Nakheel), author interview, October 8, 2008.

2.
Robert Lee (executive director of investment, Nakheel), author interview, September 21, 2008.

3.
Ibid.

4.
Sampler and Eigner,
Sand to Silicon
, 85.

5.
“The Master Builder of the Middle East,”
BusinessWeek
, July 2, 2007,
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_27/b4041056.htm
.

6.
Emaar’s market capitalization sank to $8 billion in the turmoil of fall 2008.

7.
“The (Secret) Life of Mohammed Ali Alabbar,” The Kipp Report, May 2008.

8.
Ibid.

9.
Greg Sang (Emaar director of projects), author interview, October 13, 2008.

10.
They’ve installed sensors to monitor the building movement. If it’s swaying too much, the sensors slow the elevators.

1.
Peter Meeus, CEO of Dubai-based International Diamond Laboratories, author interview, July 6, 2008, and Youri Steverlynck (CEO Dubai Diamond Exchange), author interview, July 9, 2008.

2.
Peter Meeus, author interview, July 6, 2008.

3.
Youri Steverlynck, author interview, July 9, 2008.

4.
Nathaniel Popper, “As Dubai Heats Up, Is Israel Frozen Out?”
The Jewish Daily Forward
, December 5, 2007.

5.
Jane Kinninmont (Middle East economist with Economist Intelligence Unit, London), author interview via e-mail, April 2, 2008.

6.
Carmiel Arbit (Arabian Peninsula project manager, American Jewish Committee), author interview, November 3, 2008.

7.
Chaim Even-Zohar, From Mine to Mistress: Corporate Strategies and Government Policies in the International Diamond Industry (London: Mining Communications Ltd., 2007), 618–20
.

8.
Ibid., 627.

9.
Ernest Blom (president of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses), author interview, Dubai, November 9, 2008.

10.
Carmiel Arbit, author interview, November 3, 2008. Many of the dentists failed to get UAE visas.

11.
Abbas Lawati, “Israeli Jeweller Has No Trade Licence to Open Shop in Dubai,”
Gulf News
, April 30, 2008; Lawati, “Embassy in Tel Aviv Sparks Protest,”
Gulf News
, September 19, 2008.

12.
Essa Kazim (CEO, Bourse Dubai), author interview, June 30, 2008.

1.
Most material from this incident comes from Zayed University student newsletter, summer 2008.

2.
Abdulla al-Mutairy (director, Sheikh Saeed al-Maktoum house), author interview, October 21, 2008.

3.
Ibid.

4.
“United Arab Emirates: Mohammed bin Rashid drives Dubai,” Oxford Analytica report, July 3, 2007.

5.
Davidson,
Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success
, (New York: Columbia University Press), 145.

6.
Nassouh Nazzal, “Five Minutes That Changed a Citizen’s Life,”
Gulf News
, June 28, 2008.

7.
Nada El Sawy, “Life on the Dole in the UAE,”
Financial Times
, September 15, 2008,
https://members.gulf2000.columbia.edu/?p=238418
.

8.
The Emirates Palace Hotel is reputed to be the most expensive hotel ever built.

9.
Yasar Jarrar (government management adviser, former executive dean at Dubai School of Government), October 12, 2008, speech at Dubai School of Government to a delegation of African ministers from Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Seychelles, Malawi, Mozambique, Ghana, Swaziland, and other countries.

10.
Sampler and Eigner,
Sand to Silicon
, 120.

11.
Although it is unclear whether Sheikh Mohammed was married to all the women who have borne him children, it is legal under UAE and Islamic law to keep up to four simultaneous wives.

12.
Sheikh Mohammed’s surviving older brother, Hamdan bin Rashid, would have also been a strong candidate. He remains Dubai’s deputy ruler, sharing the title with his nephew Maktoum bin Mohammed.

1.
Economist Intelligence Unit estimate, 2008. The Indian consulate in Dubai gave the rough estimate of 1.5 million Indians in the UAE, and the same amount in Saudi Arabia.

2.
Venu Rajamony (consul general of India), author interview, October 13, 2008.

3.
Graeme McCaig (Dutco Construction Co.; head of safety advocacy group Build Safe UAE), in conversation with the author, April 22, 2008.

4.
“Site Worker Death Toll Exceeds 800,”
Construction Week
, August 6–19, 2005.

5.
The Dubai government reported thirty-four construction deaths in 2004 and thirty-nine in 2005, according to figures cited by Human Rights Watch in its 2006 report “Building Towers, Cheating Workers.” The group said the government and companies involved appeared to be covering up the true death toll, but another source said companies were not obliged to report deaths.

6.
Dubai police figures cited by Economist Intelligence Unit, United Arab Emirates Country Report, April 2007.

7.
For instance, in July and August 2007, I regularly watched laborers working in blatant violation of the law from my office in the Emirates Office Tower. The violations would have also been visible to top Dubai officials working in the same building.

1.
Analize Viljoen (filmmaker), author interview, October 11, 2008; Viljoen interviewed the victim for a film funded by the U.S. State Department.

2.
I changed her name and nationality to disguise her identity.

3.
Sharla Musabih, former director, City of Hope women’s shelter, Dubai, author interview, October 19, 2008.