The startling announcement of a memorandum of understanding between Abu Dhabi and Birmingham, Britain's second city and the capital of the industrial West Midlands, formalises an intriguing partnership, but if Abu Dhabi can learn from Birmingham's many mistakes then it will be a worthwhile endeavour.
Let me tell you a little about Birmingham. When I was growing up, Birmingham was the nearest big city, the destination for shopping trips to Rackham's department store, and maybe a trip to McDonald's as a treat. It's where I got my first job, too, working on the cash desk at a multi-storey Goth emporium called Oasis.
Birmingham was derided across the country for its brutalist architecture, abandoned industrial wastelands and unworkable road system, and we were perversely proud of the fact that it had more miles of filthy canal than Venice, saw the birth of the Industrial Revolution and was home to the Cadbury's factory, the first spaghetti junction and the Balti Triangle. It is also reputed to have provided inspiration for Tolkien's sinister Lord of the Rings locations the Old Forest (Moseley Bog) and Two Towers (Perrott's Folly and the Edgbaston Waterworks Tower).
Though the Prince of Wales decried Birmingham Central Library as "looking more like a place for burning books, than keeping them", its 5,000 visitors a day do, at least, contradict the assumption that the Brummie accent denotes stupidity and criminality (a survey in 2008 concluded that Brummies would be considered more intelligent if they didn't speak at all).
And then there's the town planning. As if the destruction of much of the city by German bombers during the Second World War hadn't wreaked enough damage, the post-war fashion for utilitarian, modernist blocks saw the bulldozing of many of Birmingham's 19th-century buildings to make way for buildings such as the dank, concrete New Street Station, as well as the Inner Ring Road - now known as the "Concrete Collar": a mugger's paradise thanks to the dark, graffitied pedestrian underpasses.
But here's the thing: the past 20 years have seen an incredible change. It all kicked off with the opening of the Symphony Hall, an acoustically spectacular home for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, which was then under the direction of a young conductor called Simon Rattle (catch him on November 9 with the Berlin Phil at Emirates Palace).
It was a musical venue to match the splendid 1885 Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, with its world-class collection of Pre-Raphaelite art, and its success prompted 20 years of regeneration that have turned the former capital of industry into a cultural hub. Public art was commissioned (Antony Gormley's Iron: Man and Dhruva Mistry's River, otherwise known as the Floozie in the Jacuzzi).
Landmark buildings, such as the amorphous Selfridges Building, sprang up. Old areas, such as the jewellery quarter, were restored. Birmingham City Council (the largest council in Europe) learnt its lessons the hard way. That is a misery it can help Abu Dhabi to avoid.
Results:
Men’s wheelchair 200m T34: 1. Walid Ktila (TUN) 27.14; 2. Mohammed Al Hammadi (UAE) 27.81; 3. Rheed McCracken (AUS) 27.81.
Company Profile
Founders: Tamara Hachem and Yazid Erman
Based: Dubai
Launched: September 2019
Sector: health technology
Stage: seed
Investors: Oman Technology Fund, angel investor and grants from Sharjah's Sheraa and Ma'an Abu Dhabi
EMERGENCY PHONE NUMBERS
Estijaba – 8001717 – number to call to request coronavirus testing
Ministry of Health and Prevention – 80011111
Dubai Health Authority – 800342 – The number to book a free video or voice consultation with a doctor or connect to a local health centre
Emirates airline – 600555555
Etihad Airways – 600555666
Ambulance – 998
Knowledge and Human Development Authority – 8005432 ext. 4 for Covid-19 queries
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Match info
Uefa Nations League Group B:
England v Spain, Saturday, 11.45pm (UAE)
Have you been targeted?
Tuan Phan of SimplyFI.org lists five signs you have been mis-sold to:
1. Your pension fund has been placed inside an offshore insurance wrapper with a hefty upfront commission.
2. The money has been transferred into a structured note. These products have high upfront, recurring commission and should never be in a pension account.
3. You have also been sold investment funds with an upfront initial charge of around 5 per cent. ETFs, for example, have no upfront charges.
4. The adviser charges a 1 per cent charge for managing your assets. They are being paid for doing nothing. They have already claimed massive amounts in hidden upfront commission.
5. Total annual management cost for your pension account is 2 per cent or more, including platform, underlying fund and advice charges.
The Case For Trump
By Victor Davis Hanson
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Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
History's medical milestones
1799 - First small pox vaccine administered
1846 - First public demonstration of anaesthesia in surgery
1861 - Louis Pasteur published his germ theory which proved that bacteria caused diseases
1895 - Discovery of x-rays
1923 - Heart valve surgery performed successfully for first time
1928 - Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
1953 - Structure of DNA discovered
1952 - First organ transplant - a kidney - takes place
1954 - Clinical trials of birth control pill
1979 - MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, scanned used to diagnose illness and injury.
1998 - The first adult live-donor liver transplant is carried out