Posted by 
By Jo Tatchell
Read Online or Download A Diamond in the Desert: Behind the Scenes in Abu Dhabi, the World’s Richest City PDF
Similar middle east books
City of Oranges: Arabs and Jews in Jaffa
Jaffa - famed for its orange groves - used to be for hundreds of years a urban of investors, retailers, academics and directors, domestic to Muslims, Christians and Jews alike. that's, until eventually the founding of the nation of Israel, which used to be at the same time a second of jubilation for the Jews and a catastrophe - the Naqba - for the 100,000 Arabs who fled Jaffa in 1948.
Post-Colonial Syria and Lebanon: The Decline of Arab Nationalism and the Triumph of the State
The advanced courting among Syria and Lebanon is the political fulcrum of the center East, and has ruled headlines because the withdrawal of French colonial forces from the Levant in 1943. one of many nice paradoxes of this courting is how such very various political structures emerged in what many Syrian and Lebanese humans see as one society.
A History of the Arabian Peninsula
The significance of this assortment lies in its origins: for the 1st time, top Saudi Arabian historians have created a historical past of the Arabian Peninsula which analyzes that historical past from an inner Arabian standpoint. The ebook explores the unique Bedouin payment of the quarter, the improvement of the key city components of Arabia throughout the Umayyad interval, the socio-political and financial advancements within the Hijad and Najd as much as the eighteenth century into the fashionable period and the increase and improvement of the Saudi nation.
Commanding Syria: Bashar al-Asad and the First Years in Power
This is often the 1st significant paintings on Bashar al-Asad. It assesses the sturdiness of his father, Hafiz's legacy together with the chronic effect of the outdated power-brokers, the effectiveness of Bashar's makes an attempt to maneuver clear of his father's shadow, and the customers for reform. principally, it evaluates Bashar's carrying on with carry on strength following Syria's humiliating retreat from Lebanon in Spring 2005 and the competitive American force to impose democracy within the center East.
Additional info for A Diamond in the Desert: Behind the Scenes in Abu Dhabi, the World’s Richest City
Sample text
I am thrown back in my seat and his speedometer hits 120 kilometres per hour. ‘Mafi, mafi. Sway, sway. No, no. Slow, slow,’ I shout. I’ve seen the YouTube footage of the world’s biggest car crash – two hundred vehicles mangled on the highway between Abu Dhabi and Dubai. ‘Ha! You don’t want go fast? ’ I grit my teeth. ’ This city demands surrender. You have to fall in with the unpredictable pace of things. Momentarily overwhelmed with terror and exhilaration, I feel an unexpected wave of affection for the place.
Very cool. You will not know anything from then. ’ He directs me to the booth on his right and mutters in Arabic to the immigration officer. Sitting in his glass booth, in a freshly laundered kandura, the man tilts back in his chair and chuckles quietly. Then he begins to list the many improvements that have been made to the city, as if I had come to him for advice. ‘So many islands. Lulu Island, you can go there. Emirates Palace, very nice. ’ He thumps the stamp on my passport and secures the immigration card inside.
Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan, another of Khalifa’s half-brothers, was emerging into the public eye as a model investor. Media coverage showed advisers coming to buy Manchester City Football Club for a couple of hundred million, and the tabloids were splashed with chirpy headlines: ‘Abu Dhabi Doo’, ‘Trillion-dollar Wealth of New Manchester City Owner’ and ‘How I Learned to Love Sheikh Mansour’. 5 billion in Barclays Bank for a huge stake in its equity. Elsewhere Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth funds have bought into foreign businesses and institutions.