Gulf Insider - July 2011

The multi-award winning Arabian magazine

Gulf Financial Insider

GulfInsider -The Arabian Review Bahrain

Training expert engineers

Dubai

DXB vs LHR

Saudi Arabia

Women to sell lingerie

Oman We discover a land rarely seen by tourists Bahrain BD2

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Issue 78

Gulf Financial Insider

GulfInsider

Inside this issue...

10. Oman

23. UAE and Iran

32. Wealth

14. Bahrain

24. Germany

38. Luxury Living

17. Iran

26. Afghanistan

46. F1

18. Dubai Airport

28. Marriage

48. Fashion

We discover a land rarely seen by tourists

The aircraft engineers of tomorrow

How to dress

Is it bigger than Heathrow?

Oil problems

Angela Merkel denied by Iran

Most abused women

Child brides

Rich people want discipline

Exclusivity in Switzerland

It must return says Shaikh Salman

What’s new in Massimo Dutti

comment “You can’t do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.”

- Evan Esar

Bahrain’s Bloggers in Top 100 The popular social networking website, Twitter, has taken the Arab world by storm these past few months. Now, in an article published by Foreign Policy magazine, three of Bahrain’s bloggers have been named among the top 100 people to follow.

Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Global Voices Middle East editor Amira Al Hussaini and computer programmer Ehsan Kooheji were featured in the article on “tweeters” or Tweeps from around the world who “will make you smarter, infuriate you and delight you - 140 characters at a time,” as written by the article’s author and magazine’s managing editor Blake Hounshell.

Amira Al Hussaini or @JustAmira also writes a blog on which she is called Silly Bahraini Girl, though she is more active on Twitter. This nomination comes just after her mention on the top 10 list of ‘dynamic list of foreign policy tweeters’ published on CNN in May. In a tweet to Gulf Insider, Amira said the accolade was great and “also important for my work @globalvoices where we monitor and report on social media.”

geek, father, programmer, writer. Worked in telecoms, real estate, and advertising. Loves photography and football.

Hate stupidity.” In his tweet to Gulf Insider he said the nomination is “a burden I’m honoured to have.” He further stated that he joined the site “to share my nonsensical thoughts but I’m glad poeple appreciated my more serious tweets.”

Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa expressed shock in a general tweet: “I did not expect to be included in that prestigious list,” he wrote.

The list is a personal guide which states: “The best tweeters are like personal news curators, separating the wheat from the chaff, and fact from fiction.” Moreover, Mr Hounshell described his chosen top Tweeters as his guide to the global feeds most worth people’s time and that the three Tweeters from Bahrain served as “collecting points for more country-specific conversations.”

Others on the list included notable writers, analysts, reporters, politicians and diplomats who are particularly active on Twitter around the world.

Ehsan Kooheji describes himself on Twitter as “Bahraini, IT Gulf Financial Insider

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your views

The multi-award winning Arabian magazine

Gulf Financial Insider

GulfInsider -The Arabian Review

Issue 77

Send your views to

gulfinsider@ArabianMagazines.com

Bahrain

LMRA faces a struggle

Bahrain

Top 50 tourist destinations

Dubai

10 years for British businessmen

Simple yet effective Although I haven’t been a fan of every single cover of your GI, I do have to say I find them simple and effective in getting the message across. I particularly liked June’s cover which really demonstrated that Bahrainis are behind economic growth every bit as much as expats. It’s great to see someone honestly covering the positive aspects of our island during such turbulent times.

A Market for Bahrainis Hardworking, dedicated Bahrainis are already in the job market and employers are being encouraged to hire them Bahrain BD2

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Gulf Financial Insider

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Issue 76

Bahrain

Travel banned and stuck

Bahrain

A battle for compensation

Dubai

Climbing the Burj Khalifa

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Your article on the LMRA last month was hilarious! I can’t believe the palaver you went through. I know exactly what you mean though - I’ve had the whole back and forth dilemma before. It is SO tiresome! And now we find out about all the corruption that’s going on there; it makes me mad. Particularly as there’s been so much controversy surrounding the LMRA - although of course, ‘it’s ‘not their fault’.

Rather unfair

The multi-award winning Arabian magazine

GulfInsider

Gulf Financial Insider

Time for a new solution indeed

Frustrated But Amused

As SMEs struggle, the government generates solutions Bahrain BD2

Khalid Sharif

-The Arabian Review

Issue 75

Bahrain

Asian workers attacked

Bahrain

Inaccurate media coverage

Dubai

Is it real?

I’m referring to your article on the LMRA of course. These obligations are a pain but they are part of everyday life. These workers have so many people to deal with every day and it is unfair to point out every little mistake and hardship they come across. Many people complain about the LMRA but I’ve never had a problem with them and my papers have always been processed quite quickly. Perhaps I’m lucky but cut them some slack I say!

Joanne

Job market for Bahrainis

Rebuilding Bahrain

Time to move forward and overcome sectarian and economic strife Bahrain BD2

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I’ve only been on this island for just under a year but it was refreshing to read your interview with Ali Daylami of

Jobs4Bahrainis last month GI as I was beginning to wonder what was being done for the natives of this island!! I came prepared, ready to learn all the Arabic I could from everyone I came across but I’ve had more chance of learning Hindi, Urdu, Tagalog or improving my English than ever uttering a Bahraini word! It really goes to show that there is a huge lack of Bahrainis in the job market and that is a real shame because the few I have come across have been hard workers and very eager to learn. It’s great to see that they now have options and representation.

Keep up the good work!

Kyle Green

I want more!

I found your ‘Budding Businesses’ article very intriguing last month Gulf Insider. It was inspiring to see all the great work being done by such a variety of different people in Bahrain. It made me feel as though I could do something just as interesting and work for myself instead of for ‘the man’. I also liked how you didn’t just showcase corporate pioneers as there is so much more to business and life.

Well done.

Businessowner-in-the-making

Go Saudi women!

The news coming out of Saudi Arabia (and reported in last month’s GI) about women rebelling against ‘laws’ which stop them from driving is fabulous I think.

This is a clear and utter violation of human rights and I do hope they succeed in their endeavours as I couldn’t even imagine how restrictive life must feel without being able to drive!!! It would be like living without legs for me. Obviously there are many other issues in terms of equality for women that need sorting out too, but at least this is a step in the right direction.

Good luck!

Yvonne, Driver

Business Roundup

Engine of the Year The 4499 cc V8 engine powering the Ferrari 458 Italia has won two categories in the prestigious 2011 International Engine of the Year Awards, taking the accolade of Best Performance Engine as well as winning the Above 4-litre category. The jury for the awards is made up of 76 motoring journalists from 36 countries who assess engineering excellence in engines in terms of driveability, performance, economy and refinement. In assigning the awards, the jury also praised the 458 Italia’s engine for its unmistakable sound.

Ferrari’s dry-sump, flat-crank, 90-degree V8 sets a number of firsts for a naturally-aspirated engine of this displacement. Representing the peak of engine technology, the V8 reaches a maximum of 9,000 rpm – a first on a road car – with a high 12.5:1 compression ratio and maximum power output of 570 CV. This equates to an outstanding power output of 127 CV/litre, a new benchmark.

The generous torque available - 540 Nm at 6000 rpm, with over 80 per cent available from 3250 rpm – ensures rapid pick-up from all revs.

The specific torque output of 120 Nm/l is another record.

The design of the engine components has been influenced by the carry-over of racing technology – F1 in particular – for maximum fluiddynamic efficiency in order to achieve both performance and fuel consumption objectives, and meet the most stringent international emissions restrictions. With the introduction of the HELE (High Emotions Low Emissions) system, the 570 CV V8 now produces a best-in-class 275 g/km of C02 with fuel consumption of just 11.8 l/100 km (ECE + EUDC combined cycle).

Arab Social Media Report The number of Facebook users in the Arab world reached 27.7 million by the end of Q1 2011, an increase of 30 per cent since the beginning of the year, according to the second Arab Social Media Report (ASMR). The report is the second edition of a series produced by the Governance and Innovation Program at the Dubai School of Government. This edition monitored the growth of Facebook and Twitter in the region, propelled by the uprisings sweeping the Arab world. It revealed a substantial shift in the use of social media from social purposes towards civic and political action.

The number of active Twitter users in the Arab world during the same period, according to the report, was over 1.1 million users who tweeted at least once every two weeks. These ‘active users’ generated over 22.7 million tweets during Q1 2011. Regional Twitter trends during this period focused primarily on events unfolding during the Arab uprisings. The words ‘Egypt’, ‘Jan25’, ‘Libya’, ‘Bahrain’ and ‘protest’ were the top ‘hashtags’ used by Twitter users in the Arab region.

Budget Car and Van Rental offer a wide range of cars, with a choice of sizes and styles to suit your leisure or corporate car hire requirements.

Call us and get going.

Main Office Airport Office

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Tel: +973 17534100 Tel: +973 17321268

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reservations@fakhro.com

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Tel: +973 17564680 Tel: +973 17735900

Fax: Fax:

+973 17564633 +973 17735888

www.budgetbahrain.com

Gulf Insider July 2011

7

Business Roundup

Bert Plas Becomes General Manager for Sofitel Bahrain Bert Plas has been appointed as General Manager of Sofitel Bahrain Zallaq Thalassa Sea & Spa. Bert Plas has a vast experience in hotels business in general; his career in Switzerland, Canada, Turkey, Caribbean, South America and Egypt has given him great expertise in the international hotel industry and has worked for IHG, Delta hotels and resorts and before joining Sofitel in 2009 in Taba, Egypt he was working for Le Meridien hotels and resorts Bert Plas, General Manager ,Sofitel in South America.

After finishing his studies Plas began his career in Switzerland; his cosmopolitan background and experience allowed him to understand the know-how of the hospitality business and shine in it. Adding to his talents, Plas masters four languages; English, German, Spanish and Dutch of course his mother tongue. Beside the professional traits; Plas is also an active member in a number of associations and social clubs and he is very keen on practising his role when it comes to community services.

Innovative solutions to your hiring needs. m2r Ltd – An award winning UK company with many years experience of helping companies throughout Bahrain recruit the best staff.

• International database • 90% of all hires are from within Bahrain • Considerable Bahraini database at all levels • Excellent multi sector and multi discipline experience • Thorough knowledge of Bahrain and the entire GCC By using m2r you are safe in the knowledge that your recruitment needs are being handled by an organisation with a passion for Bahrain, proven success with well known Bahraini companies and considerable on the ground knowledge.

Contact us today to find out how our unique services can benefit your business.

Chose m2r Ltd as your online recruitment advertising partner www.m2rglobal.com

info@m2rglobal.com

Any vacancy. Anywhere.

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Gulf Insider July 2011

Dubai’s financial crisis - 217 new properties axed The extent of Dubai’s financial crisis has been laid bare after revealing that 217 property transactions were axed or put on hold in the wake of the troubles hitting the country.

The revelations came as Dubai laid out plans for a bond issue last month, in part designed to restore its finances in the wake of the crisis.

The bond documents showed that the country’s real estate watchdog cancelled the registered real estate projects over the past two years after the bursting of the property bubble.

The Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) determined that the properties were unlikely to be completed after a review of 450 projects.

Dubai’s total value of real estate transactions dropped to dhs119.4 billion last year compared with dhs152.9 billion in 2009.

The property sector has been hit hard by the downturn, with projects worth billions of dollars put on hold or cancelled, while property prices slumped as much as 60pc.

Land sales fell by 14.9pc in the last year, according to data from Dubai’s Department of Land and Properties.

The prospectus said only 129 projects have been completed since the beginning of 2009.

High-profile projects that have been put on hold or cancelled in the last two years as a result of the downturn include Tiger Woods’ residential and golf course project, Dubai Properties, and developer Nakheel’s kilometrehigh tower.

Date: 27th of July 2011 Venue: Ritz Carlton - Bahrain Time: 8:30-16:00

How to Benchmark your performance?

Application to Supply Chain Management

SCC WORKSHOP Middle East Chapter

This workshop is designed to provide an overview of the benchmarking practice in Supply Chain Management. Benchmarking is currently one of the most powerful management tools, and will give an edge to your organization against

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performance of a process is indeed the first step towards its optimization.

“You can’t improve what you don’t measure” This workshop will cover benchmarking along the entire Supply Chain, with a particular emphasis

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interpretation techniques. It uses a newly developed business case study to provide attendees with initial practice.

4 Good reasons PROGRAM to attend this workshop

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Introduction & workshop

You will leave this workshop with:  A new & deeper understanding of the reason why benchmarking your Supply Chain is a fundamental requirement to be competitive today  A comprehensive knowledge of the key performance indicators to be developed to efficiently benchmark your Supply Chain  Knowledge of how the best in class companies are performing for each indicator  Knowledge of how interpret and communicate indicators, and how to plan corrective actions targeting specific areas of your Supply Chain

overview 09:15

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Case study #1: business case presentation

 Participation cost: 25 BHD  Pre-registration is required at: events@b2g-consulting.com or www.supply-chain.org/events Select country: BAHRAIN

About the Supply Chain Council (SCC)

Refreshment break

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Oman

The other Oman In a country better known for its beach resorts, Kate Humble heads into the mountains and discovers a world rarely seen by sun-seeking tourists.

F

rom a patch of bare ground between the main road and some apartment buildings on the outer edge of Muscat came the most extraordinary sound. Great snorts and bellows mingled with the early-evening traffic noise as if some mythical creature from The Odyssey had been let loose in the suburbs. The truth, perhaps, is just as unlikely.

Tied up to stakes encircling an open area of sand that could double as a football pitch or cricket ground were about ten bulls, coats gleaming, nostrils flared, front legs pawing the ground and filling the air with dust.

As we parked our car, a pickup truck swept past, carrying another bull standing on a thick bit of padded foam in the back, a garland around its neck, gazing out at its surroundings with the baleful arrogance of a despotic leader in a sedan chair. This was the beginning of a bullfight, Omani style, unlike any bullfight I’ve ever heard of.

Oman is one of those Gulf countries that people seem to go to for guaranteed sun, a little lazy trinket shopping and nothing more.

Several people I know had been to Oman and claimed it was “fabulous”, only for me to discover that they had never actually left their resort. Yet, culturally and historically, it is as rich and varied as its landscapes.

How to make the most of Oman

Just outside Muscat is a dramatic rocky jumble of peaks and wadis that looks

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Gulf Insider July 2011

tantalisingly wild and undiscovered.

There is not much in the way of vegetation because there is not much in the way of water, which is one of the great challenges of taking on the mountains in Oman.

The other is a lack of a map, which is why we needed Rob. Rob is an expat who went to Oman as an engineer but was happier crawling about in caves or scampering up rockfaces. He

There is not much in the way of vegetation because there is not much in the way of water, which is one of the great challenges of taking on the mountains in Oman. abandoned engineering and set up an adventure travel company to help groups or individuals like us experience the wilder side of the country.

Over a biryani we explained that we wanted to get into the heart of the mountains and see something of the more rural, traditional Oman.

“No problem,” he said. “We’ll climb Jebel Akhdar and then meet my friends

Glynn and Izzy and go really off piste.

How does that sound?”

Scrabbling hand-over-fist up a gully, following no discernible route, I wondered during a brief, vertiginous pause what Rob meant by “off piste” if this wasn’t.

It was the beginning of day one, and I had the impression that we were going to start with a fairly standard ascent of one of the more popular and accessible mountain regions for tourists.

“You are,” Rob said. “Well, fairly standard, anyway. I take some groups up this route. There is an easier one, but I didn’t think you’d like it as much.”

Jebel Akhdar isn’t a peak, as I had thought, but a range of mountains with a scattering of small traditional mountain villages. Our breathless ascent brought us to a rocky plateau and along a narrow goat track watched by a small herd of wild donkeys and circling Egyptian vultures. It felt as though we were the first people ever to have been here; the landscape was bleakly beautiful, but without water, without trees, without soil.

No one could, or would, live here, surely? Yet in a few hundred yards we came across a collection of simple stone houses built in and around a cave and perched eyrie-like above the valley. The village was abandoned. When Oman’s leader, Sultan Qaboos, ousted his father and took power, the modernisation of Oman began in earnest. Part of that modernisation has meant that the people who lived in these remote mountain villages have been encouraged to move to the modern houses that have sprung

Oman

up along the ever-expanding network of roads. Traditional village life in these mountains will soon, it seems, be a thing of the past.

We walked all day and saw no one. It was a little disappointing, then, to be in a place that felt so remote, so unaffected by human development, only to plod up a final rise and see our support vehicle sitting at the side of a new tarmac road waiting for us. But, as Rob said, these new roads have allowed him to get farther off the beaten track. It is possible to carry enough water for one or, at a push, two days, but no more than that.

Having vehicle access meant we could spend more time in an area which, although barely two hours’ drive from Muscat, felt like a different country.

We camped in a rather beautiful bowl among a rare grove of trees. With no danger of rain we slept out in the open – a rare treat that I never fail to take advantage of; we were, though, at 8,200ft and we woke at first light with frost in our hair and water bottles frozen.

Rob’s friends Izzy and Glynn arrived with a car full of red wine and grand

plans for adventure. This astonishing couple had met in Oman and neither had been particularly interested in walking or camping before then.

With the most basic of maps and a bit of help from Google Earth they spend the majority of their weekends searching out new walking routes and discovering an Oman that few people experience.

Frustrated with the same old expat routine of beaches and bars, they started to explore, and it is probably fair to say

that they know the mountains around Muscat better than anyone, Omani or otherwise. With the most basic of maps and a bit of help from Google Earth they spend the majority of their weekends searching out new walking routes and discovering an Oman that few people experience.

Their plan this time was to try to fill in a gap between a route they had found from a village nearby and a route that Rob knew from another village in a different valley. We would have to be completely self-sufficient, but they thought it was achievable in two days of walking.

We began with a long descent to the bottom of a wadi and a climb up to another traditional mountain village on the other side. This one was inhabited.

It was immaculately clean and ordered; its neat stone houses almost invisible against the rock and the majlis (meeting house) open to the breeze and farreaching views across the valley.

The men and boys were busy carrying loads of goat manure from a store above the village down an almost vertical slope to the fields on the terraces. We met the

Gulf Insider July 2011

11

Oman

women farther up, collecting firewood and tending goats. They nodded to us shyly, their brightly coloured clothes and scarves in stark contrast to the barren rock around them.

At every turn immense peaks, vistas and valleys would open up ahead of us.

We were walking through a maze of rock and I was constantly in awe of Izzy’s and Glynn’s navigation skills.

“How do you know you’re heading anywhere?” I asked. “You get to know clues. The path down a wadi is never straight down; it usually follows a contour to the head of the valley and around.

Omanis don’t like going up or down if they can avoid it. Donkey poo is also a pretty good sign you’re on a path.”

On our own, Ludo and I would soon have been lost, but with the help of the others we became hooked on path-finding. When the route we were following petered out we would all spread out looking for shiny stones or donkey poo and feel a tremendous sense of achievement when we found the next bit of the jigsaw. We came across the remains of ancient villages, small circles

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Gulf Insider July 2011

of stones high up on rocky plateaus and neat piles of stones that Izzy explained were graves.

Towards the end of the first day we reached the edge of a plain and Glynn said: “It is entirely possible that you and Izzy are the first European women to

The men and boys were busy carrying loads of goat manure from a store above the village down an almost vertical slope to the fields on the terraces. have been here.” From then on it was virgin territory for all of us. We crossed the plain, then picked our away across and down the side of a mountain which, when we looked back at it, looked totally impenetrable. Dusty and jubilant, we

walked through the carefully tended gardens of a village whose inhabitants looked at us as if we had dropped from the sky.

It was afternoon and men were gathering for the start of the regular Friday bullfight. An Omani bullfight is literally that - two bulls fighting. There are no men in sequins, no swords and no blood.

Two bulls of similar size and weight are led into the middle of an open piece of ground, the ropes are slipped from their necks, and they lock horns and push each other around a bit until the judge announces the winner. Sometimes the bulls choose not to fight at all; the first pair was led into the ring and one of them promptly turned its back and wandered off. Game over. Even when two bulls did engage in a bit of argy-bargy, it was all done in a rather demure way until the judge, whose criteria we never quite worked out, announced the winner.

There is no prize money or trophy. A bull’s value increases with each win, but more importantly it is a matter of honour for the bull’s owner.

Oman

The final round was between two heavyweights; both, we were told, at the top of their game and worth several thousand pounds apiece. Their owners nervously massaged their withers before they were led into the ring. A hush fell over the crowd. The bulls eyed each other up, lowered their heads and stood, forehead to forehead, the late evening sun glinting on their gleaming hides. The crowd held its breath, then let out a collective murmur of surprise. One of the champions was leaving the ring.

Its owner looked thunderous as the judge declared the remaining bull the winner. People started to melt away as the bulls were loaded back into their pickups, but the losing owner was not finished yet; his honour was at stake.

As we left he was duelling with the victor, their walking sticks flashing like sabres. GFI

More information; Oman Ministry of Tourism ,www.omantourism.gov.om

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13

BAETC

Nurturing the Engineers of Tomorrow

Are you an employer looking for an aircraft maintenance engineer or a mechanic? Then look no further – the graduating students of BAS Aircraft Engineering Training Centre (BAETC) are fully-qualified and eager to get out there and prove what they can do. In an interview with BAS Deputy CEO Mr Salman Al Mahmeed, we get a better understanding of the manpower available.

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Gulf Insider July 2011

T

here are a lack of qualified aircraft engineers in the region. Where can one look for capable staff?

BAETC is the first training centre of its kind in the region and is recognised by the most prestigious accreditation institutions in the world. If you are looking for qualified local and international aircraft engineers alike, you will find them here in the graduating classes. We are committed to training and nurturing these young professionals to an international standard ensuring that they acquire the skills needed for their future careers in any airline throughout the world.

What do they learn at BAETC? Throughout the four years that each student spends studying at BAETC including two years practical training, we promote the knowledge, skills, ethics, creativity and critical thinking necessary for professional competence. A person must pass each examination for every module in the programme, as well as complete the required apprenticeship in all relevant categories.

Basic training requires students to pass Aircraft Maintenance License PART66, Basic Knowledge, Category A AML, Category B1 AML, Category B2 AML, Type Training and Aviation English.

The Basic Part 66 modules encapsulate knowledge from all areas including mathematics, physics, electrical and electronics

BAETC fundamentals, digital techniques, materials and hardware, maintenance practices, basic aerodynamics, human factors, aviation legislation, turbine/piston aeroplane aerodynamics, structures and systems, propulsion, gas turbine engines, and propellers.

Who teaches the students?

We employ the most experienced and certified instructors from around the world. They comprise of industry experts who have vast aviation experience and relevant academic qualifications. The faculty provides each student not only with relevant academic teachings but also support-based services. Moreover we utilise the most technologically advanced training facilities and equipment - giving every student the jump start they need to embark upon their professional and fulfilling careers.

What accreditation institutions recognise BAETC? BAETC is an EASA 147 approved training centre. Our approval number is EASA.147.0002. Outside of Europe, Bahrain is only one of a handfull leading countries who have received accreditation as EASA certified training centre.

EASA is the centerpiece of the European Union’s strategy for aviation safety and its mission is to promote the highest common standards of safety and environmental protection in civil aviation.

You can therefore rest assured that our centre adheres stringently with all rules and regulations set forth by EASA. What facilities do you have at the centre?

BAS Engineering Complex is located within the surrounding Bahrain

Mr Salman Al-Mahmeed, Deputy CEO of BAS

International Airport area, just next to the main Bahrain Airport Services (BAS) building. Its facilities, while already modern, are constantly upgraded in order to meet international training centre standards.

There are spacious classrooms, each equipped with state-of-the-art training equipment and wireless Internet connections. We have various training aids such as full audio and video equipment, Smart Boards as well as a well-equipped library which provides a complete collection of instructional materials and various reference services.

Furthermore, students are also given privileged access to the Bahrain International Airport Engineering Complex and its workshop facility. Fully equipped with computers used for electrical and avionic simulations, electronic laboratory equipment and trainers, cockpit training modules, avionics trainer modules and an

ample supply of electronic consumables, the workshop provides students with valuable hands-on engineering experience in a safe operational environment.

Specific modules of the following training courses take place at the workshop laboratory facility; Basic Electricity, Basic Electronics, Digital Techniques, Aircraft Instruments, Soldering, PCB Fabrication, Wiring and Looming, as well as other computerised lab exercises.

Do you only teach Bahrainis?

No. We teach anyone who is interested in truly becoming an aircraft maintenance engineer or mechanic. We take on bright individuals who have proven themselves as hard workers and who are dedicated to the field of aviation. GFI

For more information visit www.baetc.org

Gulf Insider July 2011

15

Iran

Necklace ban for men as Tehran’s ‘moral police’ enforce dress code

By Saeed Kamali Dehghan Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader.

I

ranian men have been banned from wearing necklaces in the latest crackdown by the Islamic regime on ‘un-Islamic’ clothing and haircuts.

Thousands of special forces have been deployed in Tehran’s streets, participating in the regime’s ‘moral security plan’ in which loose-fitting headscarves, tight overcoats and shortened trousers that expose skin will not be tolerated for women, while men are warned against glamorous hairstyles and wearing a necklace.

The new plan comes shortly after the Iranian parliament proposed a bill to criminalise dog ownership, on the grounds that it ‘poses a cultural problem, a blind imitation of the vulgar culture of the West.’

The Iran state news agency said the trend was aimed at combating ‘the Western cultural invasion’ with help from more than 70,000 trained forces, known as ‘moral police’, who are sent out to the streets in the capital and other cities.

With the summer heat sweeping across the country, many people, especially the young, push the boundaries and run the risk of being fined, or even arrested, for

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wearing ‘bad hijab’ clothing.

Women in particular are under more pressure because of the restriction on them to cover themselves from head to toe. Men are allowed to wear shortsleeved shirts, but not shorts.

“The enforcement of the moral security plan was requested by the nation and it

It’s not only about clamping down on clothing, but they are spreading panic and fear by sending out this much of police. will be continued until people’s concerns are properly addressed,” said Ahmadreza Radan, the deputy commander of the Iranian police.

Iran’s moral police usually function under a body whose head is appointed directly by the supreme leader, Ayatollah

Ali Khamenei. In a live television programme last year, president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that he did not approve of the crackdown.

Speaking by phone, a Tehran resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “It’s not only about clamping down on clothing, but they are spreading panic and fear by sending out this much of police into the streets under the name of this plan, to control the society. It’s unbelievable to see a regime that is not only concerned about its own survival but it goes into your personal life and interferes in that.”

Under Islamic customs, dogs are deemed to be ‘unclean’. Iranians, in general, avoid keeping them at home, but still a minority, especially in north Tehran’s upper-class districts, enjoy keeping pets.

Last year Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi, a prominent hardline cleric, issued a fatwa against keeping dogs and said the trend must stop.

Last summer authorities in Tehran also released a list of approved hairstyles in an attempt to offer Islamic substitutes to ‘decadent’ Western cuts, such as the pony tail and the mullet. GFI

Iran

Iran’s fury as women’s football team is banned by Bahrain official from playing in Islamic dress

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ootball body Fifa has rejected a complaint from Iran after its women’s team was banned from a 2012 Olympic qualifier for wearing Islamic head scarves.

The hijab was banned in 2007 and the safety rule was extended to include neck warms. At the 2010 Youth Olympics, Iran’s girls protected their modesty by covering their hair with specially designed caps.

Iranian officials were ‘informed thoroughly’ before last month’s match against Jordan that the hijab scarf covering a woman’s neck is banned for safety reasons, Fifa said.

Football officials in Iran had said they would complain about the body’s delegate from Bahrain who ordered that the match should be abandoned.

Officials in Jordan accepted the rule and ‘decided not to select a number of players’, according to Fifa.

The hijab was banned in 2007 and the safety rule was extended to include neck warms. At the 2010Youth Olympics, Iran’s

Fifa rejected a complaint from Iran after its women’s team was banned from an Olympics qualifier girls protected their modesty by covering their hair with specially designed caps.

Jordan was awarded a 3-0 win in the second-round qualifying match after Iran was banned shortly before kick off in Amman last month.

‘We will file a compliaint to Fifa against the official in charge of the matches,’ Ali Kafashian, head of Iran’s football federation said.

The row over what Iran’s women players are allowed to wear has been brewing since the 2010 ban.

The Iranian federation made changes to the kit and believed it had reached an

acceptable compromise.

The team wore white tracksuits and head coverings that concealed their hair and ears.

‘Although it has been said in Fifa’s regulations that no country can play with Islamic dress, we had necessary negotiations with Fifa officials,’ Kafashian said.

‘Unfortunately, I do not know why the Bahraini official in charge of the matches refused to let our team play.’

News reports in Iran stressed the Bahraini nationality of the official. GFI

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dubai

Dubai Takes On Heathrow As summer approaches, Graham Boynton says that London’s crowded main airport, once the world’s most popular transfer hub, is being eclipsed by the rising aviation star of Dubai.

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t is 5.30 in the morning and I am standing in an airport terminal that is at the crossroads of the world. The departures board clicks off destinations like a Las Vegas slot machine - Madrid, Glasgow, Male, Jeddah, Damascus, Lagos, Accra, Colombo, Beirut, Cape Town - and a shifting tide of humanity moves through as it does here 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The terminal is heaving. Groups of Japanese are being led by flag-waving guides, European businessmen dressed in Armani are heading for the first-class lounges, and young couples are sleeping side-by-side on the floor beside palm trees while endless travelators move passengers from bars to shops to departure gates. At the shops travellers are buying bottles of Petrus wine, Rolex watches and De Beers diamonds while they wait for their flights to be called.

There are even airport staff wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the words “Can I Help You?” and combing the terminal’s corridors in search of distressed customers.

You’ve guessed it: this is not Heathrow, but the airport that in three years’ time will overtake Heathrow in terms of the number of passengers served – 66 million a year – and which, soon after, will be running at 90 million and be ranked

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alongside Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta airport in the United States as the world’s busiest.

This is Dubai International Airport.

Terminal 3, where I am standing, covers 370 acres and has 82 moving walkways, 97 escalators and 180 check-in counters.

It is the world’s largest air terminal.

Dubai International Airport. Terminal 3, covers 370 acres and has 82 moving walkways, 97 escalators and 180 check-in counters. It is the world’s largest air terminal.

As a passenger experience Dubai airport is slightly overwhelming, but at the same time quite thrilling. You really feel you are at the crossroads of the world.

Everything is bigger, better, faster, and woe betide you if you find yourself drifting around in the wrong part of the

terminal - the distance from one end to the other is getting on for a mile. In terms of Airport Council International (ACI) rankings, Dubai, along with Singapore’s Changi, Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok and Beijing International, is one of the best in the world.

Compare this with Heathrow.

Although it handles a lot more, Heathrow was designed to serve only 45 million passengers a year. When it is functioning at its best there is little more than a 45-second gap between aircraft taking off and landing, so even a small disruption to that timetable has dramatic repercussions, as we discovered last December when a snowstorm caused Heathrow, in the words of one American journalist, “to spread its failure like a raging virus throughout the international routes, crippling transatlantic flights, aborting connections throughout Europe and the Middle East and causing cancellations as far away as Sydney, Hong Kong and Singapore”.

I was one of the unfortunates caught up in that December debacle, spending nearly four hours sitting onboard a British Airways aircraft waiting in vain for a deicing machine to appear before finally being offloaded into the night.

While BA did its best, even managing to get me on a flight the following day,

dubai

Dubai International Airport, Terminal 3 Heathrow descended into chaos and quickly came to resemble a Third World refugee camp. On a good day I would rank Heathrow alongside the best airports in the world; on bad days it is among the worst.

Which is why the British Airports Authority and its principal customer, BA, have long argued that the only way for the airport to operate more efficiently is for it to expand. However a two-decadelong campaign to add a third runway has ended in rejection from the current Government and the issue now seems dead and buried.

For those who are running Dubai International - and who are planning the second Dubai airport, the five-runway Dubai World Central - the recent news that Heathrow is one of the least popular and worst-performing airports on the planet is no news at all. The world has moved on and, as Dubai International is proving, a tectonic shift in global aviation is taking place, away from Heathrow and its European rivals, and heading inexorably to the Middle East.

With both climate (no snowbound

winters) and geography (more than half the world’s population is within eight hours’ flying time of Dubai) on their side, the Emirates appear to be in the pound seats.

Dubai International is proving, a tectonic shift in global aviation is taking place, away from Heathrow and its European rivals, and heading inexorably to the Middle East.

The shift will have a profound effect on Britain’s aviation future. According to Richard Goodfellow, British Airways’ head of news, between 40 and 50 per cent of BA’s Terminal 5 passengers are what is known in the industry as transfer

traffic - people passing through London on their way to or from other cities.

So, if you’re flying on a British Airways 747 to New York, of the 340 seats occupied, more than 150 passengers are typically likely to be transfers to or from other destinations. If you are flying to the US’s west coast that ratio shifts and, according to Goodfellow, maybe 220 will be transfer passengers and only 120 direct.

The ratio changes even more significantly on flights to and from the Indian subcontinent, where the hypothetical 747 will now be carrying 250 transfer passengers and only 90 directs. As Goodfellow points out “some of these flights exist only because of the transfer services through Terminal 5”.

As I see it, standing here in the middle of bustling, organised and growing Dubai International, Heathrow in its current configuration is clearly no longer fit for purpose as Europe’s premier international aviation hub. Already it has fallen from first to fifth place in the number of destinations it serves, and travellers starting their journeys in

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dubai

London Heathrow Airport Britain’s regional airports are increasingly avoiding Heathrow, or “Hellrow” as it is now routinely referred to on message boards.

As it happens, the two principal players in the growth of Dubai’s commercial aviation industry - Paul Griffiths, the chief executive of Dubai Airports, and Tim Clark, the Emirates’ president - are British.

Griffiths ran Gatwick for three years and Clark was a British Caledonian executive in the Seventies. All of which makes them rather well qualified to assess Britain’s slow retreat in the shadows of their own spectacular ascendancy.

While both express a sympathy for the UK’s predicament - mainly that Britain is an old-world democracy with so many conflicting interests that growth and development are persistently constrained – they are critical of BAA, airline management and the UK Government for allowing aviation to flounder. They blame short-sighted management for not taking advantage of what they call “an aero-political network” that the British, French and Germans inherited from their empires.

Clark says that European airline chiefs failed to anticipate “an extraordinary, almost geometric, growth in demand in

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certain markets, linking Asia, Africa and South America.

“In the old days the number of people travelling between Shanghai and Côte d’Ivoire was probably five a week. Now it’s 5,000.”

Griffiths believes that Britain’s difficulty

Heathrow was designed to serve only 45 million passengers a year.

When it is functioning at its best there is little more than a 45-second gap between aircraft taking off and landing. “is there are so many conflicting interests, and the West’s obsession with democracy does have a downside - it means there is no visionary, longterm strategy in a society that changes government every four to five years.

“In Dubai the prosperity of the nation has grown around air travel, and the benefit of aviation – which represents 25 per cent of GDP – is revered.”

Thus the growth of the airport is planned alongside the carefully calibrated expansion of the national airline. Emirates has a superb fleet of 150 aircraft, which includes 15 superjumbo Airbus A380s, and has a further 200 on order, including 75 more super-jumbos, which Clark says isn’t enough.

Griffiths is very critical of the high levels of Airline Passenger Duty (APD) that burden travellers to and from Britain.

A family of four will pay £340 in tax for a long-haul flight out of Heathrow compared with £15 on a flight from France and zero on a flight from Dubai. “Travel is such a soft target,” says Griffiths, “and clearly none of that money is finding its way back to improve the infrastructure.”

Clark is even more critical, accusing European aviation executives of being short-sighted, protectionist and, only “paying lip service to the new order”.The new order is the exponentially expanding Chinese and Indian markets and the sudden spurts of internationalism now apparent in Africa, Latin America and Far Eastern countries such as Vietnam. GFI

SaUDI ARABIA

Saudi Arabian Lingerie Law Ends

By Richard Spencer

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ules against ‘mingling’ of the sexes at work in the kingdom, whose laws are based on a strict interpretation of Muslim Sharia, mean that most shops have male assistants only.

Until now that included lingerie shops, leading to complaints that assistants who tried to be helpful often tried to guess customers’ bra sizes by staring hard at their abayas, the long all-enveloping gowns worn by Saudi women in public. ... which would have eventually given rise to a Saudi bra brand, ‘Just Ain’t My Size’.

A group of professional women set up a Facebook campaign, ‘Enough Embarrassment’ two years ago demanding a change to the practice and winning international attention.

They pointed out that Labour Ministry guidelines had already demanded a shift to women-only lingerie stores in 2005, without result.

Fatwas by senior clerics against women serving on supermarket tills, a novelty attempted by one chain, did not help, despite campaigners pointing out

The new measures were part of an important drive to improve employment prospects for young Saudis. Many shop assistants are from abroad. that there was little difference between a man serving women customers and women serving male customers.

King Abdullah, who has pledged to broaden access to education and jobs for women in Saudi Arabia since coming to the throne in 2005, said from now on some jobs would be reserved for women only – including working in lingerie shops.

“From now, embarrassment will end,” one of the campaigners, Fatima Garub, said. “We thank the king. He felt our problem.”

Reem Asaad, a professor of finance in Jeddah who began the campaign for women assistants in 2008, said the new measures were part of an important drive to improve employment prospects for young Saudis. Many shop assistants are from abroad.

She added she had now officially ended her boycott of lingerie shops. “I have just bought my first bra for four years. And it was a woman who served me.” GFI

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UAE

No petrol in oil-rich UAE

By Annabel Kantaria

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ou’d think I was joking, wouldn’t you, if I told you that the UAE’s currently suffering a petrol shortage? That fights are breaking out at petrol stations as queues of 30 or 40 cars wait for the last precious teaspoons of fuel? That taxis are refusing to take fares because they’re worried they won’t be able to refuel?

Sadly, I’m not joking. While I know where to go to buy a gold bar from an ATM, I’m not sure where I can find a tank of petrol. The shortage started two weeks ago in the Emirate of Sharjah, but has now spread to Ajman, Ras Al Khaimah and Dubai as desperate motorists drive further afield to find pumps that haven’t yet run dry. And it’s not the first time that it’s happened: Less than two months ago, Dubai suffered a four-day shortage at Emarat stations.

So how can “oil-rich” Dubai run out of petrol? Doesn’t it come out of taps over here? Well, no. Dubai doesn’t refine petrol from its own crude oil; it buys it at market price on the international market, ships it in by tanker, and sells it at a subsidy in Dubai. And herein lies the problem: While Dubai’s retailers are forced to sell petrol at a pump price that reflects an international crude oil price of

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$55 a barrel, the actual price of a barrel of crude oil lies currently around $98.

Despite two recent increases in the pump price of petrol here, the subsidy is reportedly still causing the country’s oil retailers to lose Dhs 16.5 million a day.

But will the petrol suppliers admit that this is the cause of the shortages? That

Dubai doesn’t refine petrol from its own crude oil; it buys it at market price on the international market, ships it in by tanker, and sells it at a subsidy in Dubai. they can no longer afford to pay their bills?

No way, José. In April, Emarat blamed the shortage on a “supply problem”. Despite the company’s denials, it was widely believed at the time that the so-called supply problem occurred as a result of a more pressing “payment problem”.

This time, Dubai’s other two oil retailers, Ennoc and Eppco, are blaming shortages at their pumps on “technical upgrades”, while analysts say they’re a result of the rising demand for petrol in the region.

Motorists, however, remain sceptical as petrol station staff talk of receiving ‘reduced supplies”’ and “problems at Jebel Ali” [Port].

And, for the man on the ground, the outlook is bleak. Not only is the gasguzzler at risk of being laid up with an empty tank, but many parts of Dubai, including popular residential areas, aren’t served by any form of public transport whatsoever; the geography of Dubai means many have long commutes to school or work; and, for those who can, the climate puts paid to ideas of walking or cycling. The shortage is predicted to continue throughout the summer.

Call me a cycnic, but I can’t help but wonder if the government, which knows how unpopular another fuel price rise would be, is allowing the situation to escalate in order to pave the way for the end of the subsidy. If that’s the case, smart plan, guys. Give it another week and we’ll pay anything not to have to hitchhike with a jerry can when it’s 42˚ outside. GFI

Iran

Oil Production Problems Are Brewing In Iran By the Casey Research Energy Team

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ran - the second largest OPEC producer after Saudi Arabia - produces 3.7 million barrels of oil a day. After years of insufficient investment in infrastructure, however, that output is threatened. Iran’s deputy oil minister, Mohsen Khojasteh-Mehr, says the country has to invest at least $32 billion to maintain its production capacity. If it does not do so, output will fall to 2.7 million barrels per day by 2015.

The Iranian national oil company in fact plans to invest much more - its fifth development plan, which stretches until 2015, envisions investing $150 billion to increase oil production to 4.7 million barrels per day, while also increasing gas production from 600 million to 1,470 million cubic meters. Some $75 million would go towards developing new gas fields, while $34 billion would support development of new oil fields, and $32 billion would be spent to maintain production capacity.

The question is, where is Iran going to get all of this money? The official stance is that the national oil ministry will provide $50 billion and Iranian banks will invest $40 billion. The government expects to raise the other $60 billion through foreign investors. The problem there is that global powers have imposed tight economic and financial sanctions on Iran for its disputed nuclear program. Those sanctions have prompted most major Western companies to leave the country and made it difficult, if not impossible, for Western investors to participate in Iran.

Iran had 138 billion barrels in reserves at the end of 2009. The country also

boasts the second largest natural gas reserves in the world, after Russia. But its oil capacity is withering, and not just because of crumbling infrastructure - it also regularly puts itself at odds with its OPEC partners. The country’s Islamic hard-liner President Ahmadinejad sacked his oil minister in a cabinet re-shuffle on 14th May and temporarily took over the position himself. The move came shortly before a June 8 OPEC meeting, and Iran currently holds the rotating position of OPEC president.

As other analysts immediately inferred,

Iran has to invest at least $32 billion to maintain its production capacity. If it does not do so, output will fall to 2.7 million barrels per day by 2015. the move was simply intended to give the Iranian president an opportunity to project himself onto the world stage in open confrontation. Thankfully, these concerns eased a few days later when Ahmadinejad relented and said he would send a member of his cabinet to the meeting.

The OPEC partners are also at odds over current oil prices. Crude prices have increased almost 20 per cent since mid-February. The increase suits Iran’s strategy better than Saudi Arabia’s, as

the latter has a long history of fostering stability in the oil markets while Iran simply wants the cash.

The revelation from Iran that its infrastructure needs investment is hardly surprising - oil industry watchers are well aware that several key oil producers have been operating under overly draconian fiscal regimes for years. It goes without saying that, without investment, oil infrastructure starts to crumble and, soon after, oil production starts to decline.

Venezuela is another country where this situation comes to mind.

The Casey energy team just completed a major investigation into global oil supplies. Specifically, we investigated where exactly the world’s major oil importers - the United States, China, and Japan - get their oil. The results were stark. A full 44 per cent of America’s oil comes from sources that we classify as At Risk (either because the relationship is rocky or because the supplier nation is inherently unstable) or sources where production is declining in a serious way.

And the situations for China and Japan are even worse. The world’s major oil importers need to support exploration in new, more stable, and friendlier areas, because it is becoming more and more clear that supplies from the old sources are risky at best. Remember, risk can take the shape of political uprisings, insufficient investments in infrastructure, greedy production taxes, poor international relations, or any number of other challenges. And many oil suppliers - a list that includes Iran and Venezuela boast that entire list of qualities. GFI

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Germany

Diplomatic Incident in the Air Iran temporarily denied German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s plane overflight rights during her flight to India last month. The plane had to circle over Turkey for two hours before being given permission to enter Iranian airspace.

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or German Chancellor Angela Merkel, it should have been a routine trip abroad. But her flight to India was disturbed by a diplomatic incident that could further sour relations between Berlin and Tehran.

But Iran denied Merkel’s government aircraft overflight rights at short notice.

The chancellor’s plane, which had a large delegation of politicians and journalists on board, had to circle over Turkey for around two hours. It was finally allowed to pass through Iranian airspace following a lengthy negotiation with Tehran which was mediated by Turkey and involved the Foreign Ministry in Berlin.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle protested strongly against Iran’s action and said it showed “a lack of respect toward Germany that we cannot accept.” The Foreign Ministry in Berlin responded by summoning the Iranian ambassador to Germany and made clear to him that “such a breach of international protocol against Germany

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would absolutely not be accepted,” Westerwelle said.

“There has never been an incident like this,” said German government spokesman Steffen Seibert. He said that the plane had already entered Iran’s

The chancellor’s plane, which had a large delegation of politicians and journalists on board, had to circle over Turkey for around two hours. airspace when Iranian air traffic control asked the pilot to leave again, saying that the aircraft did not have permission to enter. The German pilots insisted they had the necessary authorisation. The

plane had been given permission to enter Iranian airspace before it left Berlin.

After a long discussion with the Iranian authorities, the pilot returned to Turkish airspace. At some point the Turkish air traffic control had to become involved, as the Iranians refused to talk to the German pilots any longer.

“I have never experienced anything like this in my career,” said one veteran government flight attendent, according to a SPIEGEL ONLINE reporter who was on board the flight. “They’re really hot under the collar up there,” she added, gesturing to the cockpit.

Merkel, however, was initially unaware of the problem. She was sleeping in a private cabin at the front of the plane at the time, and her staff did not want to disturb her.

The plane was unable to take an alternative route to India as it was not possible to get permission to fly through other countries’ airspace at such short notice. The pilots were concerned about

Germany

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, right, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during an official meeting in New Delhi, India. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was India for talks with the country’s prime minister on trade and defense. She was expected to push a multibillion dollar deal to supply 126 fighter jets to India. the plane’s fuel levels and were about to fly back and land in Ankara when Tehran suddenly granted permission to enter its airspace.

Merkel, who was traveling to India for an official visit, arrived in New Delhi more than two hours late as a result of the delay. An appointment with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had to be cancelled. It was the inaugural flight of the new government plane “Konrad Adenauer,” an Airbus A340-300.

A second aircraft carrying several members of Merkel’s cabinet, including Defence Minister Thomas de Maizière and Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich, was able to cross Iranian airspace without any problems. It had left Berlin before Merkel’s plane.

The reason for the denial of overflight rights was initially unclear. The German delegation said that “coordination problems” were to blame. Merkel herself was relaxed in her reaction, saying only that it had been an “interesting start to the trip.”

Relations between Berlin and Tehran have deteriorated in recent years due to German opposition to Iran’s nuclear

Merkel, who was traveling to India for an official visit, arrived in New Delhi more than two hours late as a result of the delay.

An appointment with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had to be cancelled.

to European Union sanctions against a Hamburg-based Iranian bank that was considered a financial lifeline for Tehran’s nuclear program. The EU agreed to impose sanctions on the bank at a foreign ministers’ meeting last month.

There was also tension between the countries when Iran detained two German reporters in October 2010. They were finally released in February after Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle made a personal visit to Tehran and met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Despite Iran’s pariah status, Germany is still the third-largest exporter to the country. Last year, German exports to the Islamic republic were worth USD5.5 billion. Nevertheless, a number of major German companies, such as Siemens and ThyssenKrupp, have decided to stop doing business with Iran. GFI

program, and there have been a number of points of conflict in recent months.

Germany recently dropped its opposition

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Afghanistan

Why Afghanistan is the worst country in the world for women Afghanistan is the world’s most dangerous country for women to live in due to violence, dismal healthcare and brutal poverty, a poll has found.

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he tribal Arab country was followed

by Congo where mass rapes have made life virtually unbearable for tens of thousands of women.

Pakistan, India and Somalia ranked third, fourth and fifth, respectively, in the global survey of perceptions of threats ranging from domestic abuse and economic discrimination to female foeticide, genital mutilation and acid attacks.

‘Ongoing conflict, NATO airstrikes and cultural practices combined make Afghanistan a very dangerous place for women,’ said Antonella Notari, head of Women Change Makers, a group that supports women social entrepreneurs around the world.

‘In addition, women who do attempt to speak out or take on public roles that challenge ingrained gender stereotypes of what’s acceptable for women to do or not, such as working as policewomen or news broadcasters, are often intimidated or killed.’

The poll by TrustLaw, a legal news service run by Thomson Reuters Foundation, marked the launch of its new TrustLaw Women section, a global hub of news and information on women’s legal rights.

TrustLaw asked 213 experts from five continents to rank countries by overall perceptions of danger as well as by six risks. The risks were health threats,

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sexual violence, non-sexual violence, cultural or religious factors, lack of access to resources and trafficking.

Some experts said the poll showed that subtle dangers such as discrimination that don’t grab headlines are sometimes just as significant risks for women as bombs, bullets, stonings and systematic rape in conflict zones.

Afghanistan emerged as the most dangerous country for women overall and worst in three of the six risk categories: health, nonsexual violence and lack of access to economic resources.

‘I think you have to look at all the dangers to women, all the risks women and girls face,’ said Elisabeth Roesch, who works on gender-based violence for the International Rescue Committee in Washington.

‘If a woman can’t access healthcare because her healthcare isn’t prioritised,

that can be a very dangerous situation as well.’

Afghanistan emerged as the most dangerous country for women overall and worst in three of the six risk categories: health, non-sexual violence and lack of access to economic resources.

Respondents cited sky-high maternal mortality rates, limited access to doctors and a near total lack of economic rights.

Afghan women have a one in eleven chance of dying in childbirth, according to UNICEF. Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), still reeling from a 1998-2003 war and accompanying humanitarian disaster that killed 5.4 million people, came second mainly due to staggering levels of sexual violence in the lawless east.

More than 400,000 women are raped in the country each year, according to a recent study by U.S. researchers. The United Nations has called Congo the rape capital of the world.

‘Statistics from DRC are very revealing on this: ongoing war, use of rape as a weapon, recruitment of females as soldiers who are also used as sex slaves,’ said Clementina Cantoni, a Pakistanbased aid worker with ECHO, the European Commission’s humanitarian aid department.

‘The fact that the government is corrupt and that female rights are very low on the agenda means that there is

Afghanistan

little or no recourse to justice.’

Rights activists say militia groups and soldiers target all ages, including girls as young as three and elderly women.

Pakistan ranked third largely on the basis of cultural, tribal and religious practices harmful to women. These include acid attacks, child and forced marriage and punishment or retribution by stoning or other physical abuse.

‘Pakistan has some of the highest rates of dowry murder, so-called honour killings and early marriage,’ said Divya Bajpai, reproductive health advisor at the International HIV/AIDS Alliance.

Some 1,000 women and girls die in honour killings annually, according to Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission.

India ranked fourth primarily due to female foeticide, infanticide and human trafficking.

In 2009, India’s then-Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta estimated that 100 million people, mostly women and girls, were involved in trafficking in India that year.

In addition to sex slavery, other forms of trafficking include forced labour and

forced marriage, according to a US State Department report on trafficking in 2010.

The report also found slow progress in criminal prosecutions of traffickers.

The most dangerous thing a woman in Somalia can do is to become pregnant.

When a woman becomes pregnant her life is 50-50 because there is no antenatal care at all.

Some experts said the world’s largest democracy was relatively forthcoming about describing its problems, possibly casting it in a darker light than if other countries were equally transparent about trafficking.

Somalia ranked fifth due to a catalogue of dangers including high maternal mortality, rape and female genital mutilation, along with limited access to education, healthcare and economic resources.

‘I’m completely surprised because I thought Somalia would be first on the list, not fifth,’ Somali women’s minister Maryan Qasim told TrustLaw. ‘The most dangerous thing a woman in Somalia can do is to become pregnant.

When a woman becomes pregnant her life is 50-50 because there is no antenatal care at all. There are no hospitals, no healthcare, no nothing.

‘Add to that the rape cases that happen on a daily basis, the female genital mutilation that is being done to every single girl in Somalia. Add to that the famine and the drought. Add to that the fighting (which means) you can die any minute, any day.’

Poll respondents included aid professionals, academics, health workers, policymakers, journalists and development specialists. GFI

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child marriage

Forced Marriage The secret world of the child bride: Heartbreaking pictures of girls as young as FIVE are married off to middle-aged men.

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ide-eyed and haunted, the heartbreaking expressions on these young girls’ faces hint at an innocence cruelly snatched away.

They should be playing, learning and enjoying their childhood. But instead these youngsters, some as young as five, are being married off in secret weddings. It is estimated that every year this happens to ten to twelve million girls in the developing world.

an appropriate way for a young woman to grow up when the alternative is the risk she loses her virginity to someone before she marries.

Wedding ceremonies are often held in the middle of the night, with the whole village keeping the secret for fear there might be a police raid.

In a project for National Geographic magazine, journalist Cynthia Gorney and photographer Stephanie Sinclair travelled to Yemen and Rajasthan in

India to investigate the extent of this shocking practice.

In India girls may not legally marry before the age of 18 - but ceremonies involving girls in their teens may be overlooked. The younger daughters, some aged five, tend to be added on discreetly, their names kept off the invitations.

In one case in Rajasthan where her teenage sisters were also being married, a five-year-old bride named

They should be playing, learning and enjoying their childhood.

But instead these youngsters, some as young as five, are being married off in secret weddings.

In India, the girls will typically be attached to boys four or five years older.

But in Yemen, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and other countries with even higher rates of marriage at an early age, the husbands may be young men, middleaged widowers or even abductors who rape first and claim their victims as wives afterwards.

Some of these marriages are business transactions or to resolve a family feud.

Forced early marriage thrives in many regions, often in defiance of national laws. Whole communities often prescribe to the notion that it is

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Well past bedtime: Child marriage might be illegal in India, but this doesn’t stop ceremonies taking place in the small hours of the morning - it becomes a secret the whole village keeps, explained one farmer. Here, five-year-old Rajani is roused from her sleep long after midnight and carried to her wedding by her uncle. Photography: Stephanie Sinclair, National Geographic magazine

child marriage

‘Whenever I saw him, I hid. I hated to see him’: Tahani (in pink) was just six years old when she married Majed, 25 (standing next to her). The young wife posed for this portrait with former classmate Ghada, also a child bride, outside their mountain home in Hajjah, Yemen. Photography: Stephanie Sinclair, National Geographic magazine Rajani fell asleep before her wedding ceremony began.

An uncle lifted her from her cot and carried her in the moonlight toward the Hindu priest and future husband - a tenyear-old boy. Although child brides tend to remain with their families until they are older, this is not always the case.

Three years ago, the case of Nujood Ali came to worldwide attention. The ten-year-old Yemeni girl managed to escape her home and made her way to a courthouse to request a divorce from the man in his 30s her father had forced her to marry and who beat her.

She became the poster girl for children in her position around the world and a recent book, translated into 30 languages – ‘I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced’.

She is now back with her family and has returned to school.

Not all girls have such a lucky escape.

Few who are married off as children have any chance of an education but there are far worse consequences.

Many are raped and have a low life

expectancy due to the number of children they carry at such a young age.

Girls suffer physical abuse and are too

Whole communities often prescribe to the notion that it is an appropriate way for a young woman to grow up when the alternative is the risk she loses her virginity to someone before she marries. frightened to escape because they are threatened with death.

In another case in Yemen, it was discovered that a ten-year-old girl,

Ayesha, had been married off to a 50year-old man.

The journalists were told by her sister Fatima that ‘little Ayesha screamed when she saw the man she was to marry’.

Someone alerted the police, but Ayesha’s father ordered her to put on high heels to look taller and a veil to hide her face.

He warned that if he was sent to jail, he would kill Ayesha when he got out.

The police left without troubling anyone and Ayesha now lives in a village two hours away with her husband.

‘She has a mobile phone,’ Fatima said.

‘Every day, she calls me and cries.’

The medical consequences are also extremely serious and in some cases fatal.

One doctor based in the Yemeni capital Sanaa listed some of the medical consequences of forcing girls into sex and childbirth before they are physically mature - ripped vaginal walls and internal ruptures called fistulas which can lead to life-long incontinence.

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child marriage

Wailing in protest: Surita, 16, cries as she leaves her family home, shielded by a traditional wedding umbrella and carried in a cart to her new husband’s village. Early marriage is the norm in her small village in Nepal. Photography: Stephanie Sinclair, National Geographic magazine Girls are often too young to understand the concept of reproduction. The doctor said: ‘The nurses start by asking, “Do you know what’s happening?” “Do you understand that this is a baby that has been growing inside of you?’’

Few are equipped with the information of how to care for themselves or their babies after childbirth leading to high infant mortality rates.

The people who work full-time trying to prevent these illegal marriages, and to improve women’s lives, know that it is a far from simple plan of rescuing girls.

Molly Melching, the founder of a Senegal-based organisation Tostan, told National Geographic: ‘If we separate a girl and isolate her from her community, what will her life be like?

‘You don’t want to encourage girls to run away. The way you change social norms is not by fighting them or humiliating people and saying they’re backward. We’ve seen that an entire community can choose very quickly to change. It’s inspiring.’ GFI

So young: Barely looking at each other, Rajani and her boy groom are married in front of the sacred fire. According to tradition, the young bride is expected to live at home until puberty, before she is transferred to her husband. Photography: Stephanie Sinclair, National Geographic magazine

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These pictures - and more - are in the June 2011 issue of National Geographic magazine, on sale now or visit www.ngm.nationalgeographic.com

dubai

Three jailed in dubai for having sex outside marriage A British former lapdancer, her banker lover and his jealous Brazilian model ex-girlfriend who caught them in bed have all been jailed in Dubai for having sex outside marriage.

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anielle Spencer, 31, was naked with Toby Carroll, 33, when furious Priscilla Gomez, 25, stormed into his flat, threatening them with a knife and smashing his possessions.

Police called to the scene decided that all three in the love triangle were in breach of the emirate’s strict morality laws and arrested them.

British former lapdancer Danielle Spencer, has been sent to prison for a month in Dubai along with her banker lover and his Brazilian ex-girlfriend who caught them in bed Toby Carroll was caught in bed with Danielle by his ex-girlfriend Priscilla Gomez who threatened them with a knife and smashed up his possessions.

Dubai’s Misdemeanours Court rejected claims that Spencer and New-Zealandborn Carroll were just kissing after a prosecutor produced damning DNA evidence.

Spencer was sentenced to 30 days in jail before deportation, while Carroll and Gomez received the same sentence.

A court source said it was another example of westerners ‘ignoring’ Islamic law, and that ‘bed-hopping’ would never be acceptable in Dubai.

Speaking about the case, Spencer, a former lapdancer, said: ‘As we had not actually had sex, I thought that they would just release Toby and me.

‘But at one point a policeman turned to me and said, “You are going to jail.” I broke down. I remember weeping, “But

Danielle Spencer

Toby Carroll

I’ve done nothing wrong.” It was the moment I realised my life in Dubai would be ruined.

‘I thought I was going to die in that prison cell, that once I was in I’d never get out. The worst thing was the not knowing what was happening, the sense I was being forgotten.’

The trio spent 30 days in Dubai police holding cells over Christmas and New Year last year as they awaited a court date and bail.

Incredibly, during their time there Spencer struck up an unlikely friendship with her love rival Gomez after they were forced to share a cell.

The pair often shared a bed and huddled together for warmth and security.

Spencer said: ‘We just had to become friends because it was such a terrible experience. All we had was each other for comfort and at night we would huddle together on our mattress, scared out of our lives.

Priscilla Gomez ‘We were in a stinking room with murderers. I got to know Priscilla well and like her. There are no hard feelings. I have forgiven her for what she did.

‘We have both laughed at the irony of it – I locked myself in the bathroom to get away from her when she went crazy with the knife and now I realise that she is the safest person to be with here in prison.’

Carroll moved to Dubai to forge a career as a banker for HSBC and was joined by his then girlfriend Gomez.

But the couple broke up the day before she caught him in bed with Spencer.

His mother Beverley Carroll said: ‘He hasn’t done anything that any guy in any other country wouldn’t do.

‘He has slept with a girl, it was sex outside of marriage and there is no other country where that is a crime. I’m extremely proud of my son – he hasn’t done anything wrong.’ GFI

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WEALTH

TIME FOR DISCIPLINE A recent report in the Barclays Wealth Insights series concludes that nearly half of all wealthy people want more financial discipline.

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espite their wealth, 41% of high net worth individuals (HNWIs) wish they had more self-control over their financial behaviour, says the latest report in the Barclays Wealth Insights series. Interestingly, the report indicates that a need for increased financial discipline is likely to be felt most by those at the wealthiest end of the scale (£10m+), where 45% of respondents wish they had more self-control. This is despite the report showing that those who want self-control are less likely to be satisfied with their financial situation.

The report, Risk and Rules: The Role of Control in Financial Decision Making, is based on a global survey of more than 2,000 HNWIs, and provides an indepth examination of wealthy investors from a behavioural finance perspective.

It considers the different financial personality traits that exist amongst wealthy investors and the different selfimposed rules and strategies that they put in place to deal with these traits. It shows that ‘emotional’ trading can cost investors up to 20% in returns over a tenyear period , and the report shows that those who employ high strategy usage have on average 12% more wealth than those who do not use rules.

Globally, respondents in Asia-Pacific have the greatest desire for more

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financial discipline, particularly in Taiwan and Hong Kong. In contrast, developed markets show less of a desire for selfcontrol over financial behaviour, as illustrated by respondents in Spain, Australia and the US. In the Middle East, HNWIs show complex behaviour towards investing and financial decision making. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, HNWIs revealed a tendency to purchase illiquid assets to

In the Middle East, HNWIs show complex behaviour towards investing and financial decision making. avoid the urge to sell investments when markets fall – 90% of respondents report this. Saudi HNWIs also prefer to use rules and guidelines to help them make better financial decisions, with 96% of respondents saying that they use rules in financial decision making.

On a regional level, Saudi HNWIs are inclined to set financial deadlines (96%) and have a high tendency to delegate

financial decisions to others (90%).

In the UAE, there is also a willingness to delegate financial decisions (82%).

Respondents in the UAE also favour setting financial deadlines for themselves (96%) and over three quarters (76%) think that buying and selling often will enable them to do well in the financial markets.

In Qatar, the report shows that respondents are by far the most likely to delegate financial decisions (98%). They also favour active portfolio management to achieve good results in the financial markets, and prefer to strategically time markets as opposed to adopting ‘buy and hold’ strategies. 42% of Qatari HNWIs also say that they prefer to deal swiftly with bad investments and protect themselves from the downside.

Greg Davies, Head of Behavioural Finance at Barclays Wealth says: “Many people will be surprised to see that wealthy individuals have a desire for greater financial discipline, however with increased wealth comes an increased complexity of investment decisions. The key thing that investors need to consider is how these decisions might fit in with their overall investment strategy, and importantly, how they fit in with their individual requirements, both financial and emotional.”

WEALTH Soha Nashaat, CEO of Barclays Wealth, Middle East and North Africa says: “This report provides an in-depth study into the financial personalities of wealthy investors in the Middle East and gives a fascinating insight into their behaviour.

When it comes to financial discipline, there is a desire for greater control when compared with other markets. These results present an interesting challenge for the wealth management industry in the Middle East. Clearly, more needs to be done to help clients understand their financial personality and the benefits of using financial self-control strategies.”

Emotional Trading and Lost Returns

In order to understand investment behaviour and the pitfalls that investors may be prone to, the report considers three personality dimensions; risk tolerance, composure and promotion vs prevention.

It reveals an interesting pitfall on the theme of ‘emotional trading’, which can tempt us to buy high and to sell low, which can cost investors nearly 20%

The use of rules and strategies in financial decision making are seen as hugely effective by wealthy respondents. in lost returns over a ten-year period .

Limitations of self-control lead to what the report identifies as the trading paradox. Globally, a third of those polled (32%) say that trading frequently is necessary to get a high return, however these respondents are over three times more likely to believe that they trade too much. In total, almost half (46%) of respondents who believe one has to trade often to do well think that emotions force them to do this.

This can potentially lead to investors becoming unable to control how often they trade. Of all the personality types, the most likely to fall into this category are those with low composure, high risk tolerance and a high loss prevention focus.

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WEALTH

Rules Rule

The use of rules and strategies in financial decision making are seen as hugely effective by wealthy respondents. They provide increased financial satisfaction and are associated with higher wealth levels for those who report wanting more financial discipline.

Comparing the group with the highest strategy usage to the one with the lowest strategy usage, the report reveals a 13% boost in financial satisfaction and a 12% boost in wealth for investors frequently using strategies.

The report shows that investors use many types of financial strategies to control their decision making processes, and use rules more in financial decision making (89%) than they do in everyday life (72%). The most popular include using cooling-off periods (91%) and setting deadlines (90%).

Delegating to others (72%) and limiting your options (64%) are less popular choices, although both those with inherited wealth and an increasing level of wealth are more likely to rely on others and delegate financial decisions.

The report shows that a combination of strategies is most often employed as people tend to take the multiple approaches of; involving others, being

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more structured temptation.

and/or

removing

The Zen of Ageing

The report also shows how a desire for greater financial discipline declines markedly with age, from over half (53%) of those aged 45 and under wanting more control over their financial behaviour, to just a quarter (26%) among investors over 65. This in turn results in less need

Rational behaviour fails us and emotions further confuse us, especially when applied to finance. for the use of strategies. This is also associated with a decrease in stress and an increase in financial satisfaction.

Younger respondents also show a habit of deliberately avoiding information about how the market or their portfolio is performing – 82% of those aged 45 and under do this, compared to just 68% of those aged 65 and above.

The Conclusion

The report concludes: “We have

seen in this study how even the best intentions to behave in a rational way are rarely enough. Rational behaviour fails us and emotions further confuse us, especially when applied to finance.

This irrationality can be seen in a range of scenarios, from our focus on the short term, through narrow frames of reference, to a tendency to take more action than needed.

“The most common strategies amongst the world’s wealthy are the involvement of other people, removing temptations, and becoming more structured with self-imposed rules and deadlines. For those who desire more discipline in their financial lives, the use of these strategies is linked to both emotional and financial gains.” GFI

Barclays Wealth is a leading global wealth manager, and the UK’s largest, with total client assets of £166bn, as at 31 March 2011. With offices in over 20 countries, Barclays Wealth focuses on private and intermediary clients worldwide, providing international and private banking, investment management, fiduciary services and brokerage. For further information visit www.barclayswealth.com

Business

Rising optimism is increasing business spend in the Middle East, finds Business Confidence Index

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positive outlook from Middle Eastern business is at last being matched by real results, says the latest edition of the Regus Business Confidence Index, which is based on the opinion of over 17,000 companies from around the world.

Business confidence has grown since 2010, but is now accompanied in the Middle East by reports that revenues and profits are increasing in line with expectations expressed in last year’s Index. The research also reveals that departmental spending is on the rise, specifically sales and marketing costs but not those related to premises and property.

• The index is up 31 points on its lowest trough in April 2010 and 25 since October 2009 when the survey began; • In the Middle East the index reveals an above average rating of 144; • Over half of Middlea Eastern companies report healthy profit growth (54%) as well as a rise in revenues (59%)

Regus spokesperson comments: “That Business Confidence is returning is great news as is the fact that so many companies are reporting rising revenues and profit.

Planned departmental spending increases for 2011 are further confirmation of returning confidence.

However it would seem that firms are only investing where there is a clear bottom line return, such as sales and marketing, whereas spending on property will continue to decline in 2011.

This is a remarkable change on just a few years ago, when the combination of economic upturn and increasing employment would have generated a boom in traditional commercial property spending.

However, having been left exposed in the recession businesses now prefer to minimize risk and opt for more flexible and scaleable arrangements”. GFI

Regus, Renewal and Recovery, October 2009; Regus, Taking the Pulse of the Global Recovery, April 2010; Regus, People Power, October 2010; IDC, Worldwide Mobile Worker Population 2009-2013 Forecast, June 2010; Knoll Inc, Future Work and Work Trends, April 2009, The Guardian, The rise of home working, 03 August 2010, Bank of America Merrill Lynch , CFOs More Optimistic About Hiring in Annual Bank of America Merrill Lynch Outlook, December 2010; Manpower, Employment Outlook Survey, March 2011; Euro London, European Hiring Trends, autumn/winter 2010

Business Confidence Index

Departmental spending is predicted to rise this year, with the exception of property where companies are maintaining a strict cost control policy.

Globally, 81% of companies expect to freeze or cut their property spending and in the Middle East even more companies (87%) expect to follow suit. This matches other research studies which reveal a general trend towards lower cost working practices.

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Internet

Global Internet Traffic Cisco visual networking index projects network-connected devices will outnumber people 2 to 1- a million minutes of internet video to be transmitted per second.

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xperts predict that the number of network-connected devices will be more than 15 billion, twice the world’s population, by 2015. In the fifth annual Cisco® Visual Networking Index (VNI) Forecast (2010-2015), the total amount of global Internet traffic is predicted to quadruple by 2015 and reach 966 exabytes per year.

The projected increase of Internet traffic between 2014 and 2015 alone is 200 exabytes, which is greater than the total amount of Internet Protocol traffic generated globally in 2010. On the verge of reaching 1 zettabyte, which is equal to a sextillion bytes, or a trillion gigabytes by 2015, global IP traffic growth is driven by four primary factors, according to Cisco. They are: 1. An increasing number of devices: The proliferation of tablets, mobile phones, connected appliances and other smart machines is driving up the demand for connectivity. By 2015, there will be nearly 15 billion network connections via devices -- including machine-to-machine -- and more than two connections for each person on earth.

2. More Internet users: By 2015, there will be nearly 3 billion Internet users --more than 40 percent of the world’s projected population.

3. Faster broadband speed: The average fixed broadband speed is expected to increase four-fold, from 7 megabits per second in 2010 to 28 Mbps in 2015. The average broadband speed has already doubled within the past year from 3.5 Mbps to 7 Mbps.

4. More video: By 2015, 1 million video minutes --the equivalent of 674 days --will traverse the Internet every second.

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Additional Study Highlights Total Global IP Traffic in “Bytes” • Global IP traffic is expected to reach 80.5 exabytes per month by 2015, up from approximately 20.2 exabytes per month in 2010.

• Average global IP traffic in 2015 will reach 245 terabytes per second, equivalent to 200 million people streaming an HD movie (1.2 Mbps) simultaneously every day.

Regional IP Traffic Trends • By 2015, the Asia Pacific region will generate the most IP traffic (24.1 exabytes per month), surpassing last year’s leader, North America (22.3 exabytes per month), for the top spot.

• The fastest-growing IP-traffic region for the forecast period (2010 – 2015) is Middle East and Africa (which had a 52-percent compound annual growth rate, for an eightfold growth), surpassing last year’s leader Latin America (48 percent CAGR, sevenfold growth).

Primary Growth Driver: Consumer Video • The global online video community will increase by approximately 500 million users by 2015, up from more than 1 billion Internet video users in 2010.

Global Device Growth • In 2010, PCs generated 97 percent of consumer Internet traffic. This will fall to 87 percent by 2015, demonstrating the impact that devices like tablets, smartphones and connected TVs are having on how consumers access and use the Internet.

• Accessing the Internet on Web-enabled TVs continues to grow and by 2015, 10 percent of global consumer Internet traffic and 18 percent of Internet video traffic will be consumed via TVs. 3DTV and HD (Advanced Video) • Global advanced video traffic, including three-dimensional (3-D) and high-definition TV (HDTV), is projected to increase 14 times between 2010 and 2015.

Mobile Broadband • Global mobile Internet data traffic will increase 26 times from 2010 to 2015, to 6.3 exabytes per month (or 75 exabytes annually).

Global File Sharing • By 2015, global peer-to-peer traffic will account for 16 percent of global consumer Internet traffic, down from 40 percent in 2010.

Global Business IP Traffic • Business IP video conferencing is projected to grow sixfold over the forecast period, growing more than two times as fast as overall business IP traffic, at a CAGR of 41 percent from 2010 to 2015. GFI

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LUXURY RESIDENCES

FIFTY-ONE DEGREES OF LUXURY 51° Spa Residences, commissioned by the Swiss Development Group (SDG), will offer international buyers the ultimate in Swiss luxury living.

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witzerland has always offered security in an uncertain world, and now a luxury development is soon to be built that will be open to wealthy international buyers, including those from the Gulf.

Nestled amidst the enchanting Valais mountain landscape of the Swiss Alps, stretching 150km along the narrow ribbon of the Rhône Valley between Lake Geneva and the Rhône Glacier, is one of Switzerland’s best kept secrets Leukerbad.

Set against a dramatic alpine backdrop, the location is most famous for its healing thermal waters of which the natural temperatures remain at 51° all year (hence the name of the development).

Records date back to Roman times when weary travellers undertook arduous journeys in order to relax and recuperate

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in the village’s natural thermal baths.

More recently the town has attracted the likes of Pablo Picasso, Mark Twain and Charlie Chaplin, and artists from all over the world exhibit their work at ‘Galerie St Laurent,’ one piece of art in each of the 22 thermal baths, every month.

Gulf Insider spoke with SDG’s CEO Nicolas Garnier about what will make this development so special, and why it should appeal to buyers from the Gulf.

“51° Spa Residences is going to offer a one-of-a-kind living environment in the Swiss Alps for each season of the year,” Garnier told us at the launch of the development last month, adding that “through leading visionaries in design and architecture, it will set a new standard for niche luxury living environments.”

Garnier revealed how this development will be of particular interest to ‘home

collectors’; ultra high net worth individuals and families who collect unique and special properties as they would collect and invest in pieces of art. He says that he is certainly not selling real estate by the square metre, but that his primary responsibility is to ensure the value of the SDG brand and the properties it develops, so owners are assured of both unique quality and excellent investment potential (expected prices will start in 2013 from USD2.5 million).

The development will break ground in Spring 2012 and be brought to life in phases; Building A will be completed by end of 2013 offering nine luxury apartments each averaging 230 sqm, followed by Building B which will offer 21 luxury serviced apartments from late 2014. Key features of the residences will be:

LUXURY RESIDENCES • Private in-home thermal spas • Wrap-around terraces • Grand stone fireplaces both inside and out

• Thermal water Moon Bath pools on the balconies

Additional amenities for the residences will include The Resident’s Club, wine bar, private wine cave, ski valet, children’s club and private Banya Spa Experience.

Owners will also have access to ‘Rockefeller Living’, an exclusive club offering its members a comprehensive array of luxury lifestyle services only available to owners of SDG properties.

The final phase will include a five-star hotel, developed in collaboration with The Ritz-Carlton, and owners will have the option, should they wish, to place their residence within the hotel renting pool system.

In addition to a private concierge, high-end restaurants and upscale retail outlets, the adjacent hotel will offer a 900sqm thermal spa and wellness centre in collaboration with Banya Experience Spa, with a full range of wellness experiences and recreational activities.

One of the most unique features will be the Banya Suite, a traditional Russian health therapy experience connected to an indoor/outdoor bathhouse which is set to be completed in 2015.

To introduce such luxury, SDG have been working with carefully selected international leaders in design and architecture.

Michael Graves & Associates, who have been at the forefront of design since 1964, will give the development “a new architectural meaning for mountain living”, or as Garnier put it; “nature and luxury will interact like no other place”, adding that “to celebrate the serenity of thermal water and the region’s special character, 51° Spa Residences will appear to be carved out of the rock of the mountains and rise against the backdrop of the landscape”.

On the interior front, design firm MarcMichaels Interior Design Inc. will take the helm. Globally recognised for creating highly differentiated artistic and beautiful interiors, they will offer a contemporary yet unexpected design vision to 51° Spa Residences encompassing materials like polished metals and smooth leather.

With water as the central theme,

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LUXURY RESIDENCES award-winning WET will create a spectacular crystalline fountain, symbolising fire and ice for the central plaza between the hotel and residences, to also be enjoyed by the entire village - a constant theme that Garnier keeps referring to, creating a sense of community between the development and the village.

Which brings us back to one of the core reasons such a development will be truly spectacular; Leukerbad. Aside from the natural healing powers of its thermal waters, this quaint town is an all-year round destination offering exceptional mountain adventures regardless of the season.

Skiing, swimming, hiking, mountain biking and abseiling are just a few of the options for sports enthusiasts, and the fresh mountain air is truly welcoming to anyone escaping the summer heat of the Gulf. GFI

For more information visit www.51degrees.ch

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TRAVEL

GREAT ESCAPES WITH TURKISH AIRLINES San Diego Skyline

Rub shoulders with the stars in the ‘City of Angels’ - Los Angeles.

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houghts of Los Angeles conjure up images of beautiful stretches of sandy beaches where beautiful people stroll day and night; immense theme parks and a plethora of unique attractions where every kid’s (and grown-up’s) dream comes true; and of course Hollywood, the home of the blockbuster and the world’s centre of

to Disneyland, finishing the day in an exquisite eatery or swanky nightclub it is a fact that you will never be bored in LA. It would be impossible to cover everything LA has to offer in this article but we can tell you that this is a part of the world that should be on everybody’s ‘visit before I die’ list.

And don’t forget, you’ll be in California!

If you’ve had enough of what LA has to offer (which we very much doubt will happen) then you can move on to San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Napa or Santa Cruz - to name just a few.

In San Francisco the IT boom contributed to a very high standard of living that all city dwellers enjoy there. They have a fantastic arts and

A parallel universe where the real world stands still and you are welcomed into the crux of glamorous and artistic living. creativity. It is a parallel universe where the real world stands still and you are welcomed into the crux of glamorous and artistic living.

From Universal Studios to the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Beverly Hills, from Venice to Malibu and on

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Santa Barbara

TRAVEL

Los Angeles fast paced living

What You Need To Know Ticket prices: Economy fares start from BD429; Comfort Class start from BD619; and Business Class start from BD929.

Flight timings: Turkish Airlines fly from Bahrain to Los Angeles four times a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Bahrain to Istanbul departs at 2.25am and arrives at 6.45am. Istanbul to Los Angeles departs at 11.10am and arrives at 15.25pm.

Flying time: Bahrain to Istanbul - 4 hours and 20 minutes , Istanbul to Los Angeles - 13 hours and 40 minutes.

theatre scene, numerous fascinating museums, a bustling nightlife and you will get to witness one of man’s greatest engineering feats - the Golden Gate Bridge.

San Diego is also a culturally charming county to visit with its many popular museums and entertaining performing arts centres. Head to Santa Barbara to witness any one of its countless annual festivals such as the Santa Barbara International Film Festival or the Summer Solstice parade. This county, too, has a number of museums, beautiful parks and is also home to a whopping 693 listed restaurants and cafes!

Napa on the other hand is known as ‘Wine Country’ and it is here you will visit the many vineyards that produce some of the world’s most fantastic wines. Santa Cruz is another place that artisans and culture vultures will love due to its residents’ bohemian ways of living and its many art galleries with constant exhibitions. GFI

Napa Valley

Optimum stay period: Two weeks Car hire: Around BD10 a day and cheaper if you book online beforehand, but you can easily take coach tours and take public buses and trains around the county.

Hotel prices: LA Hotel rates vary widely. Here is an idea: 5 star accomodation in July, Average BD72 per night and 4 star accomodation in July, Average BD60 per night.

For more information call Turkish Airlines on +973 1751 6100, visit www.thy.com or go to their office in the lobby of The Diplomat Radisson Blu Hotel.

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CARS

WARMING UP THE TRACK! Prior to Abu Dhabi’s F1 in October, the new Audi A6 took pole position in a bid to fuel VIPs and members of the press with adrenaline.

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he new Audi A6, the successor to the world’s most successful executive sedan, features groundbreaking solutions in every area of technology. The body is extremely light owing to a significant proportion of aluminium components. The range of assistance and multimedia systems is extensive, and operation is intuitive and user-friendly.

The new A6 is debuting in the Middle East with two gasoline powerplants: a 204 hp 2.8 FSI and a 300 hp 3.0 TFSI. Both feature the new S tronic transmission and latest generation of Quattro four-wheel drive. The Audi drive select dynamic handling system has been expanded to include an additional efficiency mode on the 3.0 TFSI. The design embodies athleticism and elegance. The sedan is 4.92 metres long and 1.87 metres wide, but just 1.46 metres high. The long engine hood, the low, sweeping roofline and the prominent lines on the flanks create a dynamic overall appearance. The Xenon plus headlights with LED daytime running lights or optional full LED headlights emphasise the striking expression at the front.

Gulf Insider’s editor and publisher Nick Cooksey had the chance to drive the car on the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi but was disappointed that he wasn’t able to test it to its full speed: “it got huge power reserves and you can tell it’s been developed in the Middle East as the brakes didn’t heat up as they have previously done when I’ve driven other cars”.

The roomy interior of the new Audi A6 echoes the sinewy style of the exterior. The salient element is the ‘wrap-around’

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CARS

– an inlay encircling the driver and the front-seat passenger.

Every detail of the interior, including an innovative layeredwood veneer, is a testament to the care that Audi invests in carmaking. “The car is in its class of its own like most Audis but you can see a lot of aesthetical resemblances with the A8. If not an Audi driver – and you like the Mercedes e-Class or BMW 5 series then you will love this car”.

Audi also offers a variety of high-tech options: a head-up display, Audi active lane assist, Audi park assist, the Bang and Olufsen Advanced Sound System and the MMI touch. The new adaptive cruise control regulates speed and distance to the vehicle ahead and if necessary breaks the vehicle to a full standstill. The Audi pre sense safety system is in many situations able to reduce accidents and their consequences, or even prevent them altogether.

The latest generation Quattro permanent all-wheel drive guarantees supreme traction, stability and dynamic response.

At the same time, the two powerful, highly efficient gasoline engines make use of important technologies from the brand’s modular efficiency platform – the energy recovery system and the start-stop function. Throughout the entire model line, fuel consumption in the A6 has decreased by up to 21 per cent compared to the previous model. GFI

For more information contact Audi Bahrain on Tel. +973 1745 9933.

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CARS

FORMULA ONE MUST RETURN Bahrain’s Porsche GT3 Cup champion, Sheikh Salman bin Rashid Al Khalifa, hopes for quick return of Formula One.

I

f there is one thing in motorsport that Bahrain’s newest champion would settle for ahead of another individual title it is an early return to the Kingdom of Formula One racing.

After his thrilling triumph in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East last season, Sheikh Salman bin Rashid Al Khalifa is determined to keep improving as a driver and that could mean trouble for anyone with ambitions to overtake him on the region’s top race tracks.

But when asked about his main wishes as he looks ahead to another GT3 Cup series starting alongside November’s 2011 Formula One Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Sheikh Salman unselfishly puts national interests ahead of personal gain.

“I just hope that F1 comes back to Bahrain soon,” he says “We’ve become used to having the F1 circus in town, with all its colour and excitement. It’s very important for Bahrain and we just need to have the conditions that make it possible for it to return.

“There’s a great passion for cars and for motorsport in Bahrain. We love racing

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Gulf Insider July 2011

at every level, particularly F1. Over the last few years youngsters have grown up here dreaming of being the next Alonso or Hamilton. Before F1 came here I’m not sure what they’d have said if you asked them what they wanted to do in life. Now everyone wants to be a racing driver.”

Over the last few years youngsters have grown up here dreaming of being the next Alonso or Hamilton.

Sheikh Salman was locked in a tense start-to-finish battle with defending champion, Prince Abdulaziz Al Faisal, in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East before making sure of the title in the last of 12 rounds at Dubai Autodrome in April.

As tough as it was to beat off the Saudi driver, the new champion knows it could be even more difficult next time, particularly as Prince Abdulaziz is spending the summer months polishing his skills and gaining more valuable experience in Europe.

“Of course I saw that he won an FIA GT race in Portugal and that he also competed in the Le Mans 24 hours,” said Sheikh Salman. “The win was a very special achievement for Abdulaziz who is an ambassador for this region. That’s very important for us all here and we thank him for the way he has represented the region.”

“Every time I look at the photographs from last season it reminds me of all the great battles we had, in Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Riyadh and Dubai. It was a tough championship and I’m just glad I wrapped it up at the end, especially as Abdulaziz was so close and Bandar (Alesayi) and Khaled (Al Qubaisi) had stepped up and were very strong. It showed that the championship is getting more and more competitive.”

“It was extremely important for me

CARS

to win the title. In fact, every title is important as it adds to your race pedigree and shows what you‘re capable of. In the GT3 Cup winning is very tough as all cars are identical and it really comes down to the driver to win. This is why I am especially proud of this title.”

“I hadn’t won a title since the Radicals in 2007 and so to win another championship was high on my priority list. When you’ve reached a certain level as a driver and you have certain skill levels a lot is expected of you and you expect a lot of yourself, so it was good to take the pressure off. ” “Of course you always have to look to improve,“ he added. “In the first year after the series was launched it was all a new experience for me and I was still finding out what I wanted to do in motor racing.”

“That first season helped me improve my focus and I decided this is definitely what I want to be doing because there’s a long line ahead in GT racing so you have a lot to aim for. ” “At the same time by racing in the region I wasn’t going to be away from my

family too much and so I was able to give it my best effort to win the championship and it all came together really well. It showed that if you’re prepared to put the effort in it can pay off. You can’t just rely

He hopes to see more young Arab drivers take advantage of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East as a series which has lifted regional motor racing to a new professional level. on talent and hope that things go your way. It’s a very close championship and I will have to continue to improve.”

Currently, Sheikh Salman is having

to contend with a few sleepless nights following the birth of his first child, named Rashid after his father. “I might be losing some sleep at nights but overall I’m very happy,” he said. “A lot of other drivers find a balance between racing and family life so that won‘t be a problem.”

Looking ahead to the 2011-12 season, he hopes to see more young Arab drivers take advantage of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East as a series which has lifted regional motor racing to a new professional level.

“Basically it has set a new standard here and there is nothing else like it,” he said. “We are very lucky that Porsche brought in an organisation like Lechner Racing and that they invested so much time and money in the series to help the development of motorsport here. We have to make use of that intitiative.

“We must take advantage of having Walter Lechner and his team here because they have been at the top level in Europe for so long and we can all learn so much from them. We have a very good crop of Arab drivers but there’s room for more.” GFI

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Fashion

Massimo Dutti Stay stylish and sophisticated with Massimo Dutti’s summer collection.

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Gulf Insider July 2011

FASHION

Saks Fifth Avenue

All products are available from Saks Fifth Avenue located at Bahrain City Centre

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Last word Personal observation and comment - This month by Nick Cooksey Bahrain’s Taxi Drivers!!!

The Expat Test

Further to the last story, I was once told that there were three broad experience levels of expat in Bahrain and visitors could judge their own level by how they dealt with Bahrain’s taxi drivers.

Proof: Bahrain’s back to normal - The Dip Brunch is back!

Newbies - they get in a taxi without asking the fare and upon reaching their destination pay what the driver demands (often feeling ripped off in the process).

Intermediates - always negotiate with the driver first.

Why is it that Bahrain’s taxi drivers seemingly believe it their right to con their passengers? Like many, I rarely - catch taxis in Bahrain as it is such a hassle dealing with driver’s attempts to take you for as much as they can on every trip.

Therefore I was reassured upon recently being obliged to take a taxi home from the airport that the cab had a meter as well as a window sticker stating that if the meter was not switched on the ride was free.

On arrival at my destination the driver solemnly informed me that the fare was BD10 despite the meter clearly showing it was BD5.3. On questioning the disparity I was told the remainder was his ‘airport waiting fee’. I questioned that if this was the case, what was the point of having a meter in the first place and paid him exactly what was stated on the meter; without the tip I was about to give him. He started to become aggressive but quickly realised I was not going to back down, so angrily drove off.

I wonder how many people these drivers intimidate into paying over the odds, and why, despite taxis in Bahrain having such a bad reputation the government allows their dishonesty to continue. For many visitors taxis are amongst their first and last impressions of the island and that impression is rarely good.

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Experienced - inform the driver where they wish to go without discussing fare and upon arriving pay what they consider correct (regardless of the driver’s demands).

Outside the Gulf they do things differently

Things in Bahrain must be getting back to normal - the Diplomat has resumed its famous (infamous) Friday Brunch.

Problem is due to ongoing renovations it can be hard to find the entrance. Taking the usual route to the carpark led me to a dead end and I (and every other car) was forced to reverse out and look for another entrance. I even saw one of the group I was joining driving aroung looking for the entrance.Clear signs might be a good idea. While renovations are going on the brunch is being held downstairs which lacks the atmosphere of the sky lounge, but the new resident band put everyone in the right mood – and drummer Ryan Advincula, is a brilliantly funny MC, so it was worth the ‘hassle’.

Warning! - Mobile Roaming ‘Rip Off’ Last month I went to a product launch in Europe, for which the star was the lovely ‘international queen of burlesque’ Dita Von Teese, who elegantly stripped off and proceeded to splash around naked in a giant champagne glass.

Nobady was shocked and there were no sleazy comments. The audience of men and women simply admired her ‘art’ while drinking champagne as a huge pig slowly turned on a spit roast. There was no mistaking – this was definitely NOT the Gulf.

On a recent overseas trip I made the mistake of not disabling my mobile roaming. I had realised roaming rates were high but it wasn’t until this trip that I began to understand just how truly extortionate they are. Example; for just a few hours stopover in Istanbul airport I received a bill of BD111 – and I didn’t even use my phone! When I contacted Zain - my service provider about this, they simply passed the blame onto the Turkish service provider. But as they take a cut of this ‘money for nothing’ they sure are not doing anything to warn their customers.

DRIVER MASSAGE SEAT

UP TO 6 AIRBAGS

AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT

3 PERFORMANCE ENGINES

TRI-ZONE CLIMATE CONTROL