Who is your UAE hero of 2009? Choose from the following:



Answer the survey and be in with a chance of winning some LG phones and stuff

Here is the survey. It will take 2 minutes to fill out. Good Luck.

There is always the question of the unknown - what are women like in Dubai. Here are two views of women in Dubai. On the one side there is the fashionista showing off here Manolo's - and on the other is a mother of 4, balancing her career. Are these atypical views. Probably not, but if you are looking to compare lifestyles of females in Dubai versus your home town, this probably sets aside some preconceptions. The BBC video is about a year old, but the Oprah How Women Live in Dubai is recent.



And here is the Oprah Video - How Women Live in Dubai

Just remember that women in Dubai can cover the multitudes of nationalities who follow different paths, and that while these videos represent Emiratis, that number only represents 10% of the population. Nevertheless, those that thought that Dubai Women were hidden away in the home - will be a tad surprised. That certainly isn't the case.

On talk of the empty quarter, one immediately thinks of the vast sand dunes, next to the emptiness of further sand dunes. The empty quarter is in reference to areas of the world where it would be pretty damn hard to exist for more than a couple of days. Yes, the middle of the desert is one of those places. But, the empty quarter is also the name of the only gallery in Dubai devoted exclusively to fine art photography and located in DIFC.



The current exhbition, Dubai, Transmutations, is an excellent example of old school techniques on new school photo opportunities. And so the balance od new and old becomes the balance on yin and yang. A fantastic exhibition worth checking out.

The Empty Quarter, Dubai Transmutations

Yasalam! It’s the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. And it's been a long time coming. And I aint talking about the grand prix. I'm talking about Abu Dhabi's grand entrance to the world stage. This is the biggest event to hit Abu Dhabi and the world is watching. It's not about oil, it's not about Manchester City - it's about Abu Dhabi cementing its place on the map. Hello World, yani.



Abu Dhabi is definitely reving up the wow or yasalam factor as the first Abu Dhabi Grand Prix takes place this weekend. The local and expat community in Abu Dhabi are excited and proud to finally have the honour of holding one of the most prestgious sporting events in history on their soil (or sand!) But many, far away from the desert are opposed to the idea that such a historical sporting event can be staged for a few million dollars in a country simply because they can afford it.



Since talks about the potential demise of Britain hosting the grand prix for 2010, fans of motorsport are becoming more and more critical of ‘new’ host cities and their ability to build glittering grand prix circuits on a smaller capacity but charge extortionate seat prices.



Abu Dhabi, the latest new track on the block, is built on an artificial island – Yas Island, dedicated to the Yas Marina Circuit. Its is planned that aside from hosting the Grand Prix every year till 2016, the island will be utilised as a full on entertainment hub, hosting concerts and visitors will choose to stay on Yas Island as an alternative to Abu Dhabi city with its many five star hotels including the flagship Yas Hotel. For leisure means, a Ferrari theme park will open in 2010 and a Warner Bros theme park to open thereafter. In true emirates style, a spectacular mall is in the making along with luxury residences.

This may all sound exciting but why is it that only 50,000 seats were built for the race track? In the past, races have pulled in crowds in the 6 figure mark, however the trend now seems to be flashy purpose built tracks with smaller availability of seats and high ticket prices. Many argue that this is the game plan of Formula One’s commercial rights holder – Bernie Ecclestone, who seems to only care on how much he can make charging promoters on running a race. Obviously, high ticket prices will deter many genuine race fans from attending. However the Abu Dhabi race was sold out weeks ago, but it raises a question as to what type of crowd it has pulled in, with tickets being sold from USD$400 to USD$750 and some tickets even charging USD$1000, its not exactly affordable. But having a seat is the place to be seen do business rather then keeping the eyes on the track. And, holding a ticket has the added advantage of allowing access to the exclusive Yasalam After- Race concert with performances over the weekend from Beyonce, Jamiroquai and Aerosmith. Mhmm, seem justifiable? Probably not, if you’re just interested in watching the Grand Prix, but the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is not just going to showcase a race, it’s the whole enchalada or everything and more.



The organisers want to keep people entertained and include the entire family. That is what Abu Dhabi is all about and probably also that this is a fantastic way of once again putting Abu Dhabi in the spotlight. Who cares that this image booster has cost a gazillion dollars. This is a beauty parade. The citizens get a new island to spend their leisure time on, holiday makers to Abu Dhabi have somewhere new to visit (and more hotel rooms!) And Abu Dhabi is on the modern sporting map – now that’s not a bad result?



Does it matter that the contest is over? No. Does it matter that next year Abu Dhabi won't be the last circuit of the contest? No. Does it really matter that this is the first day to night grand prix. Not really.

What matter is today is that Abu Dhabi has been borne again. Hello Abu Dhabi.

2009 FORMULA 1 ETIHAD AIRWAYS ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX
Yas Marina
Abu Dhabi F1 track - virtual tour news

Funnily enough, whilst this looks like the seat of Darth Vader, this building brings eco sustainability and the works with it - as Dubai looks to the reality of what the future requires of its buildings. Whilst not completely novel, and looking a little like the previous depictions of what could fit within Dubai as a death star type futuristic building, this is the feature building of Technopark - a quasi future techy type place to live and work for techy type people and companies. Here's the official spiel about technopark:



TechnoPark is an exceptional place to live and work. We not only attract direct investment in manufacturing and research and development, but also lead the way in the fields of applied science and technology. Key Features and offerings of TechnoPark are

* Covers 21 million square metres of land, about 30 percent of which is open space areas.
* Brings the most advanced organisations in the world together, fostering shared understanding through research into and development of new technologies.
* Aims to cultivate greater knowledge for the future, by promoting continuous innovation and progress.


James Law’s Technosphere is an Eco Deathstar for Dubai
Technopark, Dubai

Apparently Tarzan will be swinging from this one:

An urban and vertical garden has been the response to the massive hotel building, as an inverse piece, a friendly opposite that complements and allows the dark prism of the hotel to breathe. The force of the metaphorically plant-like structure cut-out from the constructive frame it supports is what provides meaning for the vertical garden. To walk among these structural elements covered in vegetation is like living among and within the trees.

Villamoda Galleries Dubai

Abu Dhabi is keeping it real - and who is central to this - twofour54.

It's always useful to look in context rather than remain in your own bubble. These global banks paint the picture, in this interesting infographic:



The Middle East Banks figure in a small way, and you can see them in a bit more detail:



The only bank to figure in a big(ish) way is National Bank of Abu Dhabi. There is more analysis of these brand value figures at Brand Finance who conducted the study.

Business Management ME
Brand Finance Report

Gitex is the largest tech exhibition in the Middle East. And as far back as I can remember, it takes over Dubai, the hotels, the traffic - and I'm never quite sure that it delivers. Consumers think it's for them. Trade thinks it's for them. And it becomes a mish mash. But this year was very important. If you missed Gitex - this is what you didn't experience:




Gitex
Hat tip to englishmanindubai

In a new life, if I'm bad, I may come back as a Camel Beauty Assessment Valuer. How do I know that such a job exists? Because Saudi Aramco were sued for SR1M (that's £160,000) when the beautiful camel fell into a hole in the desert.



Oil company sued for £160,000 over dead beauty pageant camel

Buying gold is almost a past time in Dubai. Dubai is sometimes even known as the city of gold, which, if you were to visit the gold souk, you would know why. There are many small gold companies dotted around Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but there is only one high end premium brand - Damas.

And today, Damas was hit hard. Was it due to the downturn? No. It was due to one of the founders pulling money out of the business in an authorised fashion. How much money? $165M, Yes, one hundred and sixty five million dollars. That's one expensive habit.



The chief executive of Damas, the largest jewellery retailer in the Middle East, resigned Monday after disclosing to the board of directors “unauthorised transactions” worth US$165 million (Dh605m), the company said in a statement to NASDAQ Dubai.

Amusingly, the company IPOed last year raising $270m. Who knows what's happened. And despite assurances that the money will be repaid, one can only think that Damas is now at the mercy of the shareholders and the market. I'm not sure that they'll take too kindly to running away with the money.

Damas chief resigns after telling of $165m deals