Everyone is talking about the refugee crisis overwhelming Europe. Everyone apart from the Arab League. To date it has had little to say on the topic and, as far as I can tell, has no plan to solve the problem.
Why is Dr Nabil Elarabi, the League’s secretary general, not holding crisis meetings with foreign ministers and jetting around the region to find ways of preventing Syrians and Iraqis from being treated so badly?
Surely he sees their plight. The lucky ones have tents or blankets. Most are sleeping on pavements, unable to wash for days or weeks. Women are giving birth in the street. Mothers run out of baby milk. Diabetics have nowhere to keep their insulin refrigerated. Many report that the little money they had was stolen.
The very least the Arab League should be doing is finding temporary refuge for these unfortunate people. It should also be pressing hard to solve the root causes of this exodus.
The majority of the refugees are Syrians fleeing war and terrorism. Scared and tired, they trudge on hoping there is a place where they can live in peace. Instead, thousands have been met in Europe with barbed wire fences and riot police wielding batons, tear gas and water cannon.
The images of a Syrian man holding his young son being deliberately tripped by a callous camerawoman or that of an anguished man seen carrying his child with blood streaming down his head do not belong to Europe in the 21st century.
Were we not given to believe that we would never again witness such examples of inhumanity on European soil?
That said there are European states – notably Germany, Austria and Sweden – that are doing what they can to handle this enormous influx of humanity even as others refuse to call terrorised people from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan “refugees”.
Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General, said he was shocked at the way refugees are being treated. Pope Francis has demanded that every Catholic parish or institution accept a refugee family but he is facing a rebellion from those who believe “today’s refugee could be tomorrow’s terrorist”.
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has shown exemplary leadership. Together with Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, she is calling for an EU-wide quota system that would oblige member states to absorb refugees according to their capacity in terms of GDP and unemployment statistics against strong objections from some member states.
Bashar Al Assad says the refugee crisis is all the fault of the West for arming opposition forces. Naturally, he will say anything to lift the blame from his own shoulders. If he had heeded his own people by stepping down in 2011 instead of slaughtering them, none of this mess would have happened.
No one emerges from this with a halo and certainly not Barack Obama whose lack of leadership has allowed the Syrian conflict to fester into a terrorist swamp.
European leaders have done nothing other than make speeches and attend summits.
And as for the Arab world … well, what can I say?
I am not sure what is going on behind the scenes, but on the surface it appears that Arab leaderships – except those of the GCC, Jordan and Lebanon – have a blind spot on Syria.
It has taken a flood of refugees into Europe and a Russian weapons build-up in Syria to galvanise the UN into sending its envoy to Damascus to discuss peace proposals.
Plus, US secretary of state John Kerry appears open to discussions with his Russian counterpart on military solutions.
How long will we continue relying on foreign powers to save us? We did the right thing by intervening in Yemen and now the Houthi rebels are on the back foot. It is about time the Arab coalition turned its attention to Syria.
The Arab world needs a union that is strong and resourceful with a mandate to take action whenever the peace and security of our region is threatened. Otherwise, what is the Arab League other than an expensive mega-majlis?
Tens of thousands of Syrians at the mercy of European states go without food and shelter, their future uncertain. Enough.
It is the time for the Arab League to resume its duties and try to salvage our Arab honour.
Khalaf Al Habtoor is chairman of the Al Habtoor Group
The biog
Simon Nadim has completed 7,000 dives.
The hardest dive in the UAE is the German U-boat 110m down off the Fujairah coast.
As a child, he loved the documentaries of Jacques Cousteau
He also led a team that discovered the long-lost portion of the Ines oil tanker.
If you are interested in diving, he runs the XR Hub Dive Centre in Fujairah
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
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Rating: 5/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Mane 24', Shaqiri 73', 80'
Manchester United 1
Lingard 33'
Man of the Match: Fabinho (Liverpool)
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
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