Hey all,
I think most of you knew that I was heading to Dubai and Qatar for a couple weeks – the trip was mostly to help facilitate a leadership program for college students in Qatar, but I was able to tack on a few days of vacation both in Dubai and Qatar. Figured I'd send out a report on the trip for those interested – you all know that I am incapable of short trip reports, so there is a link to pics at the bottom if you just want to see those. No offense taken if you just want to hit your delete button… :)
Let me just say that this was just an unbelievable trip, one that I had extremely lofty expectations for, and those expectations were most certainly surpassed. I didn't know what to expect, but what I experienced was so much greater than anything I could have ever imagined them to be. On some many levels, most notably professionally and personally, I experienced so much that I am just so grateful and appreciative that I was given this opportunity. It clearly goes down as one of my top 3 life experiences.
Dubai:
I'd heard that Dubai was Vegas on crack, and that was true, except there is gambling, no drinking and none of the so-called "gentlemen's clubs." It is very similar to Vegas, however, in the sense that the buildings and architecture seem each intended to outdo the most-previously built structures. The amount of construction going on both in Dubai and Qatar is just unreal. Everywhere you look there are construction cranes and it's hard to go anywhere without hearing the sounds of hammers and trucks.
In the 3 days I had there, I was able to visit older part of Dubai on the first day and then the more modern part on the 2nd. The third was spent treating myself to a half-day at the spa, something I never do, but figured I'd throw myself a bone with a massage and yogurt-based exfoliation treatment. No, I can't believe I just said that either.
Anyhow, the highlight of the older town was visit the souqs, or markets. Dubai is known for its gold souq, and for those who love gold, this is a shopper's paradise. Just a ridiculous number of places to get gold, and over there, the usual is 18K not the 14K we typically see in the states, and it does look different even to my untrained eye.
Once you click on the pics, you'll see what the newer part of town is like – and there are several parts – Sheikh Zayed road is the street with a ton of high-rises, then there are the uber-nice beach resorts, including the famed Burj al Arab, the only 7-star hotel in the world (in the pics, it's the one that looks like a sail)– which I wasn't able to see b/c you have to make reservations to enter and it has a gatehouse at its front, so there is no sneaking in. There is also a huge tech industry in Dubai, with companies like Microsoft, Cisco, etc. all with a presence there. Then the Burj Dubai is under construction – to be the tallest building in the world at 800+ meters. Finally, there is the Mall of the Emirates, the largest mall in the world, featuring Ski Dubai, an indoor ski resort – and this ain't no small slope – it's a very impressively-size couple run and couple lifts. Oh yea, there's also the Palm and the World, which are basically man-made island built in the shape of a palm and in the shape of a flat map of the world. Unreal.
The one thing I felt walking around, particularly in the hotels and high-rises which I took self-guided tours of, is the sense that everyone there has money. Chris Rock used to say, "I'm not talking about rich, I'm talking about wealth." And that is what kept going thru my head as I walked around. It just feels like those who are there are in a different stratosphere of wealth. The odd contrast is that the workers/laborers, who are mostly from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, are extremely poor and paid horribly – on the order of $100-$200 per month, and often times they are not paid for months on end. It's a very weird situation.
Overall, Dubai is a pretty amazing place to visit, despite that much of it feels quite contrived and almost plasticky. But to see all these highrises and magnificent structures in the Middle East really does blow one's mind.
Qatar:
The real reason for my trip was the leadership program. As way of background, there is a part of Doha, Qatar, called Education City, where there are campuses of 5 U.S. universities – VCU, Texas A&M, Carnegie-Mellon, Georgetown and Weil Cornell Medical School. Through the Qatar Foundation, created and supported by Her Highness Sheikha Moza, the Qatar government has brought top-notch US programs to Qatar – each focused on a certain area – VCU on design and graphic arts, A&M on engineering, etc. And the government has not only paid all the building construction for these school, pays the faculty (which are primarily US-based professors), etc., but they have given each school a huge grant – the only public figure is that Cornell received $750MM.
What the Qatar Foundation and the government in general are doing is just extraordinary. Everything seems to be done in an extremely strategic and intelligent manner. They are throwing huge sums of money at these projects, but done in a smart way – they are also building a technology center, which I can only describe as beyond ginormous. One of the largest structures I've seen in person. And they are going to be building an $8 billion hospital complex. Yes, with a "b". Given that the countries oil reserves are expected to last another 40 years, they are planning now to provide long-term viability for the nation.
One point of interest is that the population of Qatar is ~800,000, which is comprised of 200K Qataris and 600K expats. It's a surprisingly small country, but one with an awesome amount of resources, both natural (oil and gas) and human.
The leadership program I went for/with is through an organization called LeaderShape which I have been affiliated with for a few years now. Both the Qatar Foundation and RasGas (one of the big companies out there) sponsored the session, and let me say that we were so well taken care of that I was so just floored. From being met at the gate and taken to a separate visa-processing area to staying in 5-star hotels, I'm not sure we really deserved this treatment, but you definitely did not hear me complaining. Plus, we got access that was just unparalleled – for example, we were able to visit the Al Jazeera Children's network, which *nobody* gets to see. We saw a traditional dance theater performance, toured the campuses, and got to see the Doha Debates, a program based on the Oxford Union debates – they have previously had such luminaries as Shimon Perez and Colin Powell visit. The topic of the debate we saw was whether Palestine should give up its fight to return to its lands. It airs on BBC World, and is really meant more for the students than anyone else. Very cool.
As for the session, I'll leave out most of the specifics, as they won't make sense to most of you, but suffice it to say that this group of 59 students amazed, inspired and humbled me. With backgrounds from 10-15 countries, it was unbelievably diverse, and while we had spent a great deal of time thinking and talking about the differences b/w there and the states and how we might have to adjust the curriculum, my quote of the week was when they first arrived at the session. It was simply, "They look like normal people." What I meant was that we had talked about the differences so much that I failed to recognize how similar they would be to college students anywhere. Sure, a bunch of the women wore hijab over their hair, and one woman was fully veiled (I'll get to her in a second – very different than what I, and possibly you, might have expected), but for the most part, they dressed like "typical" college students, behaved similarly and have the same hopes and dreams of most college students I've met.
From a curriculum standpoint, we didn't change anything – it was the same curriculum we always do, and other than some subtle vocabulary distinctions we had to explain, their level of comprehension was top-notch. In addition, there were certain things that they did which none of us had seen before, and I mean that mostly in a positive way. Their vision statements were impressive, as expected, ranging from wanting to find a cure for cancer, improving women's rights, giving the workers and laborers the respect and dignity they deserve, and wanting to make Qatar a world leader in innovation and technology. Big and bold visions. Awesome.
Back to the woman who was fully-veiled. Her name is Asma. Prior to my trip, I had perceived women who were fully-veiled (just their eyes showing) as being oppressed, submissive and reserved. Definitely not the case with Asma. She was probably one of the brighter students there, and that is saying something given the company; similarly, she was one of the most attentive participants and clearly has a very strong personality. While I never did see her entire face, in some ways, and I find this as surprising as many of you might, seeing her eyes was enough. It wasn't all I saw of her, as she revealed a great amount of her personality with her spoken word and actions, but it certainly wasn't that the veiled covered her personality and being. It was a stereotype I carried that I was glad to have broken.
Finally, on a personal note, this trip meant a great deal to me. It is the closest I've been to Iran in ages. Other than my trip with Moneypenny to Egypt in '97, I haven't been to the region in 30 years. It was very important for me to re-connect with that part of my past, and it was certainly a component of my connecting with the students. Interestingly, this was the first time I can recall where telling people I was Iranian served as such a strong positive and means of connection. Typically, the reaction I get is "Oh, neat," or "Cool, I used to work with an Iranian," or simply a negative reaction (rare, but still occurs). But in Dubai and Qatar, it was a huge positive. And that was very cool to experience.
The other thing I realized was that as much as I've traveled over the past 10 years, this is by far the most in-depth experience I've had. Travelling as a tourist, one rarely gets the kind of interaction that I had in Qatar. Those who have taken semesters abroad or have lived abroad know exactly what I'm talking about. Interestingly, I think it has changed how I think about travel – I'm not sure exactly what I can do about it yet, and believe me, I am very grateful for the travel I have been able to do thus far, but this trip made me realize how much more I can learn with such deeper interactions. Sometimes it's just the reality of being a tourist, but I also think that you can choose, to some extent, how much interaction you have.
Man, what a great trip. Again, I am so grateful for the opportunity I was given. Thinking it would be an amazing trip was one thing, then realizing I had no clue what that meant and having all my expectations surpassed was just extraordinary. A big thank you to the folks at LeaderShape and my fellow faculty who were out in Qatar as part of this session.
Take care,
-Babak
Link to pics (btw, i had an 8-hour layover in London, so i ran around the city for a few hours):
http://www.sharpcast.com
