City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism (52 page)

BOOK: City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism
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14.
“Persian Gulf Hydrology,” Encyclopedia Britannica Online,
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-22739/Persian-Gulf
(accessed April 27, 2008).

15.
Fatma Umm Hussain, Emirati housewife living in Dubai, interview with author, April 30, 2008.

16.
There are now eight: Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, and Oman.

17.
J. G. Lorimer, Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, 2252; cited by Davidson, The United Arab Emirates, 6
.

18.
Wilson, Rashid’s Legacy, 50
.

19.
As quoted in Wheeler and Thuysbaert,
Telling Tales
, 52.

20.
Davidson, The United Arab Emirates, 7
.

21.
Ibid., 35; and author interview with Christopher Davidson, political science professor at Durham University in England, April 1, 2008.

22.
Nadia Rahman, “Memory of Place and Space in the Emirate Tales,” undated paper by Zayed University professor.

23.
Davidson, author interview, April 1, 2008.

24.
Heard-Bey, From Trucial States to United Arab Emirates, 250
.

25.
Fatma al-Sayegh (history professor at UAE University), author interview, April 10, 2008.

26.
Wilson, Rashid’s Legacy, 43.

27.
Rosemarie Said Zahlan, The Origins of the United Arab Emirates: A Political and Social History of the Trucial States (London: Macmillan, 1978), 151
.

28.
Ibid., 152–53.

29.
Ibid., 156.

30.
Christopher M. Davidson,
Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success
(New York: Columbia University Press, 2008), 35. Davidson cites British foreign office cor respondence for the death toll.

31.
Zahlan, The Origins of the United Arab Emirates, 160–61
.

32.
Anthony Harris, e-mail interview, June 18, 2008; Peter Hellyer confirmed November 5, 2009.

33.
Wilson, Rashid’s Legacy, 89
.

34.
Zahlan, The Origins of the United Arab Emirates, 161
.

35.
Davidson, The United Arab Emirates, 41
.

36.
Ibid., 40.

37.
Ibid., 31–36.

38.
Zahlan,
The Origins of the United Arab Emirates
, 165–66, with input from historian Peter Hellyer, UAE National Media Council.

39.
Zahlan, The Origins of the United Arab Emirates, 163–66
.

40.
Ibid., 174.

41.
Abdulkhaleq Abdulla (professor of political science, UAE University), author interview, May 11, 2008.

42.
Heard-Bey, From Trucial States to United Arab Emirates, 298–99
.

43.
The buildings of Sharjah’s 1932 aerodrome still stand, and have been turned into a museum that features a 1930s newsreel showing a triple-winged Imperial Airways (now British Airways) plane rumbling in from the sky as Bedouin on camelback stare in wonder.

44.
Dubai International Airport Web page, DIA and History,
http://www.dubaiairport.com/DIA/English/TopMenu/About+DIA/DIA+and+History/
.

45.
Van der Meulen, “The Role of Tribal and Kinship Ties,” 63.

46.
Davidson, The United Arab Emirates, 90–92
.

47.
Wilson,
Rashid’s Legacy
, 66–67.

48.
Heard-Bey, From Trucial States to United Arab Emirates, 300–1
.

3. Oil, Slaves, and Rebellion
 

1.
Iran’s efforts to develop nuclear energy date to 1957, when it signed an agreement with America’s Atoms for Peace program. See Greg Bruno, “Iran’s Nuclear Program,” Council on Foreign Relations, September 4, 2008.
http://www.cfr.org/publication/16811/
.

2.
Edward Henderson,
Arabian Destiny
(Dubai: Motivate, 1988), 72.

3.
Malcolm Jones Jr., “Air Conditioning,”
Newsweek
, Winter 1997,
http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/mvigeant/therm_1/AC_final/bg.htm
(accessed May 25, 2008).

4.
Easa Saleh Al-Gurg,
The Wells of Memory: An Autobiography
(London: John Murray, 1998), 18–20.

5.
See “The (Secret) Life of Mohammed Ali Alabbar,” The Kipp Report, May 2008,
http://www.kippreport.com/secretlifeofemaarcombined.php?id=2&sec=bg
.

6.
Daniel Yergin,
The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power
(New York: Free Press, 1993), 284.

7.
Hawley, The Trucial States, 209
.

8.
Ibid., 209–15.

9.
U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Intelligence Administration, “United Arab Emirates Country Brief,” July 2007,
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/UAE/Oil.html
(accessed May 25, 2008).

10.
Ibid.

11.
Hawley, The Trucial States, 220
.

12.
Heard-Bey, From Trucial States to United Arab Emirates, 307
.

13.
Wheeler and Thuysbaert,
Telling Tales
, 136.

14.
Noor Ali Rashid (royal photographer), author interview, Sharjah, May 13, 2008.

15.
Oxford Business Group, “Emerging Dubai, 2007,” 129.

16.
Economist Intelligence Unit, January 2009 UAE Country Report. Dubai figure is an estimate.

17.
Heard-Bey, From Trucial States to United Arab Emirates, 152
.

18.
Hawley, The Trucial States, 136
.

19.
Heard-Bey, From Trucial States to United Arab Emirates, 231
.

20.
Ibid., 84.

21.
Ibid., 89.

22.
Ibid., 91–93.

23.
Hawley, The Trucial States, 136.

24.
Donald Hawley,
The Emirates: Witness to a Metamorphosis
(London: Michael Russell, 2007), 65.

25.
Ibid., 65, 69.

26.
Daniel Lerner,
The Passing of Traditional Society: Modernizing in the Middle East
(Toronto: Free Press, 1964), 399; Karl W. Deutsch, “Social Mobilization and Political Development,”
American Political Science Review
55, no. 6 (1961); and Samuel P. Huntington,
Political Order in Changing Societies
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1968), 140–91. All cited by Davidson,
The United Arab Emirates
, 66.

27.
Davidson, author interview, April 1, 2008. Davidson cites official correspondence between Hawley and the Foreign Office in London.

28.
Anthony Harris, author interview, May 21, 2008.

29.
Al-Gurg, The Wells of Memory 73–75.

30.
Nico Vellinga (economist, Zayed University), author interview, June 11, 2008.

31.
Bahrain still receives half the revenue from an oilfield operated by Saudi Arabia.

32.
CIA World Factbook,
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-fact
book (accessed August 15, 2008). Per-capita income in Abu Dhabi reached $74,000 in 2006, according to government figures.

33.
Wheeler and Thuysbaert,
Telling Tales
, 82.

34.
Van der Meulen, “The Role of Tribal and Kinship Ties,” 91.

4. It’s Sheikh Rashid’s World—We Just Live in It
 

1.
Most of the funeral description comes from Hawley,
The Emirates
, 94–95.

2.
Noor Ali Rashid, author interview, May 13, 2008.

3.
Hawley,
The Emirates
, 75.

4.
Ibid., 98.

5.
Al-Gurg, The Wells of Memory, 143
.

6.
George Chapman, former director of Gray Mackenzie operations in Dubai, author interview, May 8, 2008.

7.
Graeme Wilson, Father of Dubai: Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum (Dubai: Media Prima, 1999), 133
.

8.
George Chapman, author interview, May 8, 2008.

9.
Anthony Harris, author interview, June 3, 2008.

10.
He was the world’s eighty-sixth richest man in 2007, with a fortune of $8 billion, according to
Forbes
,
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/10/07billionaires_Abdul-Aziz-Al-Ghurair-family_JDP8.html
.

11.
Hawley, The Trucial States, 245
.

12.
Ibid., 245.

13.
George Chapman, author interview, May 8, 2008.

14.
Hawley, The Trucial States, 244
.

15.
Davidson, The United Arab Emirates, 158
.

16.
As quoted in Jeffrey Sampler and Saeb Eigner,
Sand to Silcon: Achieving Rapid Growth Lessons from Dubai
(London: Profile Books, 2003), 174.

17.
Al-Gurg, The Wells of Memory, 102–6
.

18.
Hawley, The Trucial States, 245–46
.

19.
Christopher Davidson, “Dubai: The Security Dimensions of the Region’s Premier Free Port,”
Middle East Policy
15, no. 2 (Summer 2008): 144.

20.
Wheeler and Thuysbaert,
Telling Tales
, 52–53.

21.
Ibid.

22.
See Robin Moore,
Dubai: A Novel of Gold, Oil, and Insurgency
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976).

23.
Record of conversation between UK Minister of State John Profumo and Sheikh Rashid on June 8, 1959. Referenced in
Records of Dubai, 1761–1960
, Volume 8: 1959–1960 (London: Archive Editions, 2000), 34; hereinafter Profumo/Rashid conversation, June 8, 1959.

24.
Davidson, “Dubai: The Security Dimensions,” 144.

25.
Profumo/Rashid conversation, June 8, 1959.

26.
George Chapman, author interview, May 8, 2008.

27.
“Making Dubai,”
Al Manakh: The Dubai Guide
(Amsterdam, Moutamarat, 2007, published for the International Design Forum, May 27–29, Dubai), 154–55.

28.
Qassim Sultan, The Years of Construction and Transformation. Dubai: From
Small Village to Global City
(Dubai: Dubai Municipality, 2003). Population data taken from several pages. U.S. population figures come from the 2000 U.S. census.

29.
Ray Vicker, “Is Dry Dock in Dubai to Be High and Dry and Pie in the Sky?”
Wall Street Journal
, May 6, 1980.

30.
Qassim Sultan (former director, Dubai Municipality), author interview, May 15, 2008.

31.
Vicker, “Is Dry Dock in Dubai to Be High and Dry and Pie in the Sky?”

32.
At the time, there were discussions about moving Dubai International Airport to Jebel Ali to create synergies with the new port. The Dubai airport was already getting hemmed in by growth on the Dubai-Sharjah border. But the idea was shelved until a few years ago, when plans for Al Maktoum International Airport in Jebel Ali revived it.

33.
Al-Maktoum, Mohammed bin Rashid,
My Vision: Challenges in the Race for Excellence
(Dubai: Motivate, 2006).

5. The Road to Dominance
 

1.
Iran formally dropped its claim to Bahrain in 1970, but calls for reclaiming the island, which separated from Persia in the late eighteenth century, are still voiced periodically in Iran.

2.
Davidson, The United Arab Emirates, 49
.

3.
Encylopedia Iranica online,
“TONB (GREATER AND LESSER),”
http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articles/ot_grp8/ot_tonb_20050606.html
.

4.
Zahlan, The Origins of the United Arab Emirates, 195
.

5.
Davidson, “Dubai: Security Dimensions,” 153.

6.
Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, author interview, May 11, 2008.

7.
The UAE didn’t have to wind up as a confederation of tribal autocrats. Interest groups pushed for distinct styles of governance. One group wanted an undivided state with a single government and a strong legislature. It argued that divisions among the sheikhdoms had been exacerbated by the British, who had given more power to tribal leaders than they might have seized on their own. This stance sounded too much like democracy and came at the expense of at least six ruling families. It got nowhere.

8.
Thesiger,
Arabian Sands
, 234–35.

9.
Al-Fahim, Mohammed,
From Rags to Riches: A Story of Abu Dhabi
, 2nd ed. (Dubai: Makarem, 2007), 132.

10.
Peter Hellyer, author interview, July 8, 2008.

11.
Peter Hellyer and Simon Aspinall, “Zayed: Caring Environmentalist,”
Tribulus: Journal of the Emirates Natural History Group
14, no.2 (Autumn/Winter 2004): 4.

12.
Mohan Jashanmal, over lunch with author.

13.
Al-Fahim, From Rags to Riches, 135
.

14.
Fatima al-Sayegh, author interview, June 23, 2008.

15.
Al-Fahim,
From Rags to Riches
, 135–39.

16.
Ibid., 140.

17.
Anthony Harris, author interview, July 15, 2008. Similar numbers given by Peter Hellyer at the National Media Council in Abu Dhabi.

18.
I heard this story from a number of people connected with the hospital and the renovation of the house.

19.
Wayne White (U.S. State Department’s lead intelligence analyst on the Iran-Iraq war), author interview, June 17, 2008.

20.
Wilson, Rashid’s Legacy, 475
.

21.
I could only use this story on condition of anonymity.

22.
George Chapman, author interview, May 8, 2008.

23.
Coverage of Satwa’s demise appeared in “The End of Satwa,”
Time Out Dubai
, May 2008.

24.
Al-Gurg, The Wells of Memory, 102
.

BOOK: City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism
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