shiva

Same same but with obscene wealth thrown into the mix

NorthernLad

That was a very good overview...and interesting to see the way they have been jostled around.

If I were born into that circle I'd take a few hundred million dollars to live the quiet life and leave the rest to scrap over power.

shiva

more than a few do just that and of late a few of the top dogs have been backing away from it as their sons step up.

Irishbeekeeper

I am sure some do just that, but as is the case with money and power, the more you have, the more of it you need

"I only have 3 bintlies and that son of a camel has bibteen bintlies, I must have more money!! But I wont earn it mind you"

Ethos83

Ok, perhaps Shiva can answer this:

In the UAE there are a number of local companies with recognisable names like Naboodah or Gargash or Futtaim. Are these families related to the tinpot royals or are they simply 'great' families with wasta? What makes a family have wasta as opposed to those without wasta? Is it because of blood connections?

shiva

Are they related to the royal, yes but then so is every emarati in the country. Are they minor royals, no.

Pretty much all of the trading families made their money in the last 70 odd years, they were the entrepreneurs who started selling brackish water out of an oil drum on the back of a wheel barrow or donkey, the guys who imported the first cars 20 yet as before there were any roads.

For the most part this lot originally worked their nuts off to get out of poverty .

Now wasta is a whole world of complicated factors from who's great grandfather rode in a ride against Sharjah to who gives the best eid gifts.
For the trading families its a massive combination of the above plus financial an political support and the unspoken agreement to never challenge the status quo. Throw in a few marriages here and there and you have the current set up.

Are they powerful, yes are they as powerful as the royals, nowhere ****ing near it.
Some of these families were from old time powerful families most weren't an have had a pretty meteoric rise to riches.

You have to remember that wealth here 70 years ago meant you had a working rifle less than 200 years old and enough camels and goats to feed your kids regularly. The royals had some money but not actually that much, what they had was the power to raise small armies and send out raiding parties. Dubai for example had a reasonable amount of wealth but it was mostly held by the Indians and Iranians who owned the pearl diving dhows. For the most part emaratis were the pearl divers who got paid a pittance.

An Abu Dhabi example is the al fahims who 70 years ago were near penniless pearl divers. They are now obscenely wealthy and relatively powerful.

The greatest irony and contradiction in the UAE is that the generation that built the place were incredibly hard working, entrepreneurial and canny, their grand and great grand children however are not.
I know of more than one local family business owner who doesn't want to retire and hand everything to his kids because they know it will all be gone inside 20 years.

Maxima

Adding on that there is a distinction between those business families whose ancestors sailed from across the Gulf in the last 150 years and those who did not. And from among those who sailed, there are 2 very obvious groups.

Maxima

http://www.thenational.ae/uae/transp...14-major-roads

After going through all that, the recent renaming of some roads does make some sense

kittycat1

What is the point in the world expo? genuine question, who attends and what do they see/trade etc? is it basically a bigger version of global village?

mikewot

Lots of problems to overcome for the expo, and someone has mentioned the elephant in the room:
"The frustration among those who run airports and airlines is evident.

Needless concerns over sovereignty, nationalism and politics "are getting in the way of logic", said Dubai Airports' chief executive Paul Griffiths in a recent widely reported speech. Huge investment on the ground was now threatened by a failure to address airspace issues, he warned."



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25015322

Boomhauer

Boomhauer

I dodn't see the point either; waay back in the turn of the century it appeared to be a huge deal but now you have industry specific expos , which makes more sense because you can be focused and detail oriented towards your segment.

Kix

I DO see the point, it's a great way of getting everything in one place - think of it like dragonmart on a worldwide scale - it will boost the economy, more and more people will come here and it'll put/keep Dubai in the public eye.

It's brilliant from Dubai's point of view.

No way have they lost this. it's a nailed on cert.

Millhouse

Really? Do you know anyone who will be going to the Milan one in 2015? or the 2000 one in Germany?

Ethos83

I'm amused that no one has actually answered Kitty's question.

What *is* the expo?

What *do you see* at the expo?

What *happens* at the expo?

I poked around the net. Milan has an expo coming up. The papers, including the Italian ones, are barely talking about it. By the way has anyone in Dubai noticed that Kazakhstan is hosting the expo in 2017 after Milan's and before Dubai (assuming Dubai wins it)?

These are the other recent expos:
Yeosu, South Korean (2012)
Shanghai, China (2010)
Zaragoza, Spain (2008)
Aichi, Japan (2005)
Hannover, Germany (2000)

Any of the above expos ring a bell? Some of them apparently lost tons of money and I doubt Yeosu, Zaragoza and Aichi are recognisable world city names....looking at the list of expos held since the 1960s almost all the cities are firmly second or even third tier cities.