H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum: “Our intervention in Dubai World was carefully planned and reflects its specific financial position. The Government is spearheading the restructuring of this commercial operation in the full knowledge of how the markets would react.”
Photo credit: Katrin Greiling

Al Barari, the developer of the luxury residential development of the same name in Dubailand where houses were sold for as much as $27.2 million, announced plans for a similar development in Jeddah.
photo credit: Hatim Saleh, www.choppershoot.com

To celebrate the 10th birthday of Dubai’s quintessential icon, the Burj al Arab hotel, we present an interview with architect Carlos Ott from the archives of Al Manakh 1.

UAE papers reported the launching today of a new media campaign and its logo: “We are all emirates.” Fitting well with Sheikh Mohammed’s recent speech in which he countered the opinion that there are feuds between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the campaign aims to show that unity is a means of showing an exit from the financial crisis.

Taken from the website of Arabian Business, here is the transcription of a recent speech by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Prime Minister and Vice President of the United Arab Emirates and the Ruler of Dubai, on the health of Dubai’s economy and on the need to see the UAE as one nation. As National Day approaches, the efforts to present Abu Dhabi, Dubai and the other emirates as a unified entity are increasing (”So the success of Dubai is an extension of the success of Abu Dhabi and vice versa.”). Sheikh Mohammed reaches back to the past successes of his father to gather perspective on how much Dubai has achieved in a short time and how the current crisis needs to be considered through the broader angles of history. Above is a graphic from the Dubai-based paper Emarat al Youm, which covered the speech and provided its own reasons for Dubai’s eventual recovery. For a translation, provided by Sandra Bsat, follow the link.
photo credit: Hatim Saleh, www.choppershoot.com