Abu Dhabi is a wonderful place but to the casual observer, there is a crisis brewing.
An identity crisis.
As I look across the citiscape from the high rise balcony of my friend's apartment, the heat haze obscures the view today but in the brightness, a thousand points of light sparkle in the desert heat, as cars passing far below reflect the glare.
We are all accustomed to stepping off the plane into the heat of a holiday destination. Even at 5am when the flight landed, we were greeted by the offspring of a sauna and a hairdryer. Chilled by the air conditioning, our sunglasses steamed up and our skin became clammy as the moisture condensed in the saturating humidity.
As the taxi pulled into the city, the sun was an orange disc, rising into the early morning haze, sillouetting the avenues of recently completed skyscrapers; peeping through the skeletal super-structures of more under construction.
At the very least the city is a testament to mankind's ability to prosper in an inhospitable environment. Summer temperatures exceed 50 degrees with high humidity as the moist winds blow off the Persian Gulf. There is no fresh water to speak of and nothing grows naturally apart from the date palm and desert scrub.
But more than this, some may say it represents the very pinnacle of human achievement. The Emirate, one of seven forming the United Arab Emirates, has conjoured a stunningly modern high rise metropolis from the desert in less than 50 years. The first oil tanker left the newly constructed terminal in 1963. Since then oil revenues approaching $150 billion per year have propelled Abu Dhabi to a constellation of superlatives. It accounts for 57% of the UAE's total GDP. It is the richest city on earth with an average revenue per man, woman and child exceeding $500,000 per annum. Each individual is reputed to have assets averaging $3 million.
Overshadowing its more glitzy neighbour Dhubai, whose oil has largely run out and who teeters of the verge of insolvency, Abu Dhabi occupies a position that far exceeds its diminutive population or land mass.
But beyond first impressions, the contradictions start to emerge.
In all countries, wealth fosters self indulgence and the heat breeds indolance. Like a throw back to Victorian England, it is the norm here for any self-respecting home to be run by servants. Despite palatial residences, kitchens are tiny, almost after thoughts, as Emiratees themselves would never have cause to use them. An indiginous population of 600,000 is supported by an army of ex-patriates approaching three times that number. Some bring western technical skills and others menial labour.
We wandered the city in the heat. There are almost no houses, only skyscrapers crowding close together in avenues like New York in a heat wave. There was no public bus service until two years ago. There are no trains, trams or metro. The first public library will open later this year. The city has one art gallery and no parks. If a giraffe is a horse designed by committee, then Abu Dhabi is a city designed by a statistician; angular, utilitarian and modular. Breathtaking, but at the same time strangely uninspirational.
The route of the problem, if that is how you see it, is this. Money has come quickly and in staggering amounts to this small place. The state and the family have a tight grip on a young Emiratee's destiny and there is little scope for self expression. Few women work and few men have to work hard. Opportunity, like low hanging fruit, is so freely available for the taking that there is no need to strive. The luxurious life is assured almost regardless of merit or effort.
How can ambition and aspiration thrive without need?
Abu Dhabi is like a gangly teenager with a no limit credit card. It is in the process of a growth spurt that its cultural development cannot hope keep up with. Its architecture screams for attention; the Guggenheim and the Louvre will parachute outposts in next year. Its spending patterns look like the shopping spree of a summer job's first pay packet. There are no classic cars on the roads and no classic buildings on the foreshore. Leisure time revolves around the giant shopping malls and fast food outlets. The incidence of obesity and heart disease are rising fast. Per capita road deaths are the fourth highest in the world.
Money allowed Abu Dhabi to leap-frog the normal development cycle and step straight from Start-Rite into hand tooled Gucci.
In the mad dash to acquire the newest and the best, little of the past has survived. When the oil runs out, will Abu Dhabi have constructed something permanent and sustainable?
The great Egyptian and Nubian desert cities were engulfed by the sand in past times, when trade and water was diverted.
Time will tell whether the same fate awaits this great city.
An identity crisis.
As I look across the citiscape from the high rise balcony of my friend's apartment, the heat haze obscures the view today but in the brightness, a thousand points of light sparkle in the desert heat, as cars passing far below reflect the glare.
We are all accustomed to stepping off the plane into the heat of a holiday destination. Even at 5am when the flight landed, we were greeted by the offspring of a sauna and a hairdryer. Chilled by the air conditioning, our sunglasses steamed up and our skin became clammy as the moisture condensed in the saturating humidity.
As the taxi pulled into the city, the sun was an orange disc, rising into the early morning haze, sillouetting the avenues of recently completed skyscrapers; peeping through the skeletal super-structures of more under construction.
At the very least the city is a testament to mankind's ability to prosper in an inhospitable environment. Summer temperatures exceed 50 degrees with high humidity as the moist winds blow off the Persian Gulf. There is no fresh water to speak of and nothing grows naturally apart from the date palm and desert scrub.
But more than this, some may say it represents the very pinnacle of human achievement. The Emirate, one of seven forming the United Arab Emirates, has conjoured a stunningly modern high rise metropolis from the desert in less than 50 years. The first oil tanker left the newly constructed terminal in 1963. Since then oil revenues approaching $150 billion per year have propelled Abu Dhabi to a constellation of superlatives. It accounts for 57% of the UAE's total GDP. It is the richest city on earth with an average revenue per man, woman and child exceeding $500,000 per annum. Each individual is reputed to have assets averaging $3 million.
Overshadowing its more glitzy neighbour Dhubai, whose oil has largely run out and who teeters of the verge of insolvency, Abu Dhabi occupies a position that far exceeds its diminutive population or land mass.
But beyond first impressions, the contradictions start to emerge.
In all countries, wealth fosters self indulgence and the heat breeds indolance. Like a throw back to Victorian England, it is the norm here for any self-respecting home to be run by servants. Despite palatial residences, kitchens are tiny, almost after thoughts, as Emiratees themselves would never have cause to use them. An indiginous population of 600,000 is supported by an army of ex-patriates approaching three times that number. Some bring western technical skills and others menial labour.
We wandered the city in the heat. There are almost no houses, only skyscrapers crowding close together in avenues like New York in a heat wave. There was no public bus service until two years ago. There are no trains, trams or metro. The first public library will open later this year. The city has one art gallery and no parks. If a giraffe is a horse designed by committee, then Abu Dhabi is a city designed by a statistician; angular, utilitarian and modular. Breathtaking, but at the same time strangely uninspirational.
The route of the problem, if that is how you see it, is this. Money has come quickly and in staggering amounts to this small place. The state and the family have a tight grip on a young Emiratee's destiny and there is little scope for self expression. Few women work and few men have to work hard. Opportunity, like low hanging fruit, is so freely available for the taking that there is no need to strive. The luxurious life is assured almost regardless of merit or effort.
How can ambition and aspiration thrive without need?
Abu Dhabi is like a gangly teenager with a no limit credit card. It is in the process of a growth spurt that its cultural development cannot hope keep up with. Its architecture screams for attention; the Guggenheim and the Louvre will parachute outposts in next year. Its spending patterns look like the shopping spree of a summer job's first pay packet. There are no classic cars on the roads and no classic buildings on the foreshore. Leisure time revolves around the giant shopping malls and fast food outlets. The incidence of obesity and heart disease are rising fast. Per capita road deaths are the fourth highest in the world.
Money allowed Abu Dhabi to leap-frog the normal development cycle and step straight from Start-Rite into hand tooled Gucci.
In the mad dash to acquire the newest and the best, little of the past has survived. When the oil runs out, will Abu Dhabi have constructed something permanent and sustainable?
The great Egyptian and Nubian desert cities were engulfed by the sand in past times, when trade and water was diverted.
Time will tell whether the same fate awaits this great city.
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