the Grand Mosque Masdar City model

The following was originally written Tuesday the 23rd of February!


So a recap of the last few days:

After arriving Friday evening and having a quick bite to eat at our beautiful hotel, we got to bed relatively early, being exhausted from a good amount of traveling coupled with the time difference. Saturday we visited the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.

(Sheikh Zayed is the late ruler of the Emirates, he established the country in 1971 and led the vision for the growth and diversification of the economy...he was uneducated, as, for example, Abu Dhabi used to be just a village of pearl divers, who stopped diving for pearls when the Japanese invented synthetic pearls...Abu Dhabi was basically settled in the 50s when fresh water was found on the island...desalination is now the second largest industry after oil). The Mosque was quite an engineering feat, with the largest carpet in the world, and it is a structure that was built in about 10 years and is enormous, though not very detailed, and used largely as a tourist attraction; it has only been open for 2 years. After that we went to the Marina Mall, and finally back to the pool for a relaxing afternoon.

Sunday was our first full day. It is also the first day of the week, as Friday is the holy day so their weekend here is Friday/Saturday. We went to SNC Lavalin, a construction company, and to the Canadian embassy, where we met the Canadian ambassador and received some very interesting insight on expats working in Abu Dhabi, along with interesting details such as the 26,000 Canadians working in the city and the fact that Australians have quite a large presence in the city. In the afternoon, we visited Masdar City, which is the first carbon-neutral, zero-waste city in the world. Largely an experiment for renewable technologies and what a fully sustainable city could look like. They are testing 41 different solar technologies, they have an institute for research which involves 88 students from 42 countries, and also a 10 megawatt solar firm, of which 3 mega watts is currently being used for the construction of the city, and the rest is currently going back to the Abu Dhabi grid. The city, when it is completed, will require 280 mega watts of power, so there are other technologies that are being developed as well for extra power; unfortunately they can't use wind as it's right next to the Abu Dhabi International Airport, and there are many other elements of the city to critique as well. For dinner, we ate at a Lebanese restaurant and met with some people working in Abu Dhabi, so were able to hear about things such as why Dubai is not by any means in serious trouble, why there has been a large shift in focus in growth to Abu Dhabi, and why fundamentalists haven't yet attacked the city, which stems from many reasons from laundering of money to a hidden drug trade.

Monday started at Etihad Airways, currently one of the largest airlines in the world which connects North America, Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Australia like never before, creating Abu Dhabi as a hub of the world. We met with the CEO, CFO, and other executives, and had a fascinating tour of their 12-month-old facility. We also met with the Director of the National, Abu Dhabi's English language newspaper, which is only 2 years old. The rules of the media are quite different in a place controlled by a monarchy, and news is more about in-depth analysis than breaking news, as everything has to be passed through the government. Yesterday, Monday, we did several things, including a meeting with the COO of the largest public hospital in Abu Dhabi, the Sheikh Khalifa Medical Center, managed by Cleveland Clinic. Sheikh Khalifa is the current ruler of the Emirates and the eldest son of the late Sheikh Zayed. If you've kept in touch with the area, you'll know that the tallest building in the world was named the Burj Khalifa after this man. We also went to the New Medical Center, a hospital started by a Dr. Shetty, an entrepreneur who owns 26 horizontally integrated businesses and is one of 3 people in the Emirates to have been offered citizenship. Emiratis make up just 15% of the population here, and it is impossible to achieve citizenship (except for these exceptional 3). In fact, businesses cannot be majority-owned by foreigners. The Abu Dhabi government must own over 50% of any business started in the UAE. We had a chance to go to the Emirates Palace, which is quite astounding, and I finally got my first taste of beach sand.

Today we visited Studio Twofour 54 (which doesn't represent beer for you Canadians, it represents the coordinates of Abu Dhabi). We also went to Mubadala, the firm whose mandate it is to invest the government's money to deliver a financial and social return. Driving into Dubai today was quite fascinating. The development that has gone on here is capitalism on crack to say the least.Anyway, the food, the people, and the experiences have been great so far. Many details I have left out, but Im sure you get the idea of what a fabulous opportunity for our whole group.