RAQQA, SYRIA // Walking through the dusty main souk in Raqqa city, searching for signs of its past, Mahmoud Nejris looked at the crudely functional concrete buildings lining the streets, and he cursed.
"Cement changed everything," he said. "It killed traditional construction and damaged the face of the community. Of course I'm against it. Our identity was enshrined in those old buildings and today we are losing that identity."
A dentist with a small clinic in Raqqa, Mr Nejris is more renowned as a local historian, an avid hoarder of artefacts and information.
The walls of his clinic's waiting room are covered with ceramic pots, tools, old weapons and copies of documents written during Arab rebellions against the Ottoman Empire, the British and the French.
In one of the souk's side streets, not far from his clinic, the dentist-historian found what he was looking for - a mud brick wall with three wooden doors set into it.
"This is what's left," he said sadly. "Not so long ago it was a place for local handicrafts, carpets, tools and things for the house. Now nothing is really made here."
Even the few collectables sold in the market are a testament to modernisation. The hand-stitched rugs tacked together from old clothes, woven-wheat bags and fire-scarred cooking pots are traded in by rural families who are slowly replacing them with factory made equivalents, usually imported from Turkey and China.
"Some people think that everything old is useless," Mr Nejris said.
"They are affected by a sort of western mindset. Then there are those at the opposite extreme. They want everything to be old. I'm not saying we should be stuck in the past, but we need the right mix that respects traditions and doesn't prevent modernisation."
It is a common dilemma, but in Raqqa memories of the old ways of life remain fresh. Modernising trends arrived suddenly and comparatively late. Electricity came to the city only in 1976 and the rush to develop meant that cement buildings replaced the mud variety with such speed that, for today's tourists, authorities have built a concrete replica because the original structures are gone.
Some 80 km outside of Raqqa city lives Abdul Aziz Gaishesw, a Bedouin sheikh from the E'nizar tribe. Like many of his peers, he holds Saudi citizenship despite being born in what is now Syria, and freely divides his time between the two countries, viewing them both as home.
It is a reminder that, in the recent past, the borders of the Middle East's modern nation states did not exist and the Bedouin tribes roamed throughout the Arabian peninsula and Levant.
"When I was very young, we still lived in a tent but my father was the first to build a stone house here, with a wooden roof, back in 1935," he said, sitting in the tribal reception room he keeps open 24 hours a day. He wants it available to any passing visitors who need somewhere to stay - a custom he insists must not be allowed to wither.
Sheikh Gaishesw had an unsentimental view of modern history, saying he experienced enough of the past to know its flaws first hand.
"There used to be one doctor in the area, now there are hundreds. In the old days the Bedouin were not educated, they couldn't read, there were no schools. Now our children can hope to grow up to be lawyers, judges, engineers," he said. "Today, people lead better lives, easier lives. Before, it was just struggle. We settled the land, it was modern cultivation methods that changed everything."
The tribes themselves, while still a key element of society, are less important than they once were. Tribal leaders remain highly respected and are the first arbitrator in disputes between families or over land. Yet, where once the sheikh's word was final, now, if either party is not happy with his decision, they can take the matter to court.
Change, while rapid, has been far from universal. It has also been largely unplanned and, aside from the physical appearance of crude cement block buildings, it has not always been successful.
Syria's agriculture boom in the 1980s - Raqqa governate is part of the nation's breadbasket - has been unsustainable, leading to abuse of scarce water resources that may have crippling long-term effects.
Rural poverty remains rife, exacerbated by a recent three-year drought, and many children are at best partially educated.
Unemployment is high, investment in industry low, and some traditions, such as so-called honour killings against women deemed to have sullied the family name, still take place.
But Raqqa also has something of a reputation for producing artists, poets and writers. One of them, Fawzia al Ma'ari, said that culturally there had been advances, particularly in terms of women's rights. However, significant problems remained.
"Compared to when I was a girl, there have been improvements, no doubt about it," she said. "Girls can have aspirations that were once impossible. But opportunities are very limited and a lot of women here are stuck in unhappy lives, as the property of men."
It is the pressing need to lift people's economic standing that concerns Adnan al Sokghnee most. The provincial governor, appointed directly by President Bashar al Assad, said he was "positive" about the future but under no illusions about the daunting scale of the task ahead.
"We need modern irrigation systems for agriculture. We need to focus on sustainable energy. We need to speed up reform of the economy and there needs to be administrative reforms," he said. "And we need a new mentality.
"We are still at the beginning of this project. We are working on it. But we will succeed, I'm sure of that."
psands@thenational.ae
The%20Specs
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Company%20Profile
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The specs: 2018 Dodge Durango SRT
Price, base / as tested: Dh259,000
Engine: 6.4-litre V8
Power: 475hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque: 640Nm @ 4,300rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.7L / 100km
The specs: 2018 Mercedes-Benz E 300 Cabriolet
Price, base / as tested: Dh275,250 / Dh328,465
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder
Power: 245hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 370Nm @ 1,300rpm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.0L / 100km
The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now
Naga
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Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
THE SIXTH SENSE
Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Rating: 5/5
Company%20Profile
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Company%20Profile
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Cinco in numbers
Dh3.7 million
The estimated cost of Victoria Swarovski’s gem-encrusted Michael Cinco wedding gown
46
The number, in kilograms, that Swarovski’s wedding gown weighed.
1,000
The hours it took to create Cinco’s vermillion petal gown, as seen in his atelier [note, is the one he’s playing with in the corner of a room]
50
How many looks Cinco has created in a new collection to celebrate Ballet Philippines’ 50th birthday
3,000
The hours needed to create the butterfly gown worn by Aishwarya Rai to the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.
1.1 million
The number of followers that Michael Cinco’s Instagram account has garnered.
Our Time Has Come
Alyssa Ayres, Oxford University Press
Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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Roger Federer's 2018 record
Australian Open Champion
Rotterdam Champion
Indian Wells Runner-up
Miami Second round
Stuttgart Champion
Halle Runner-up
Wimbledon Quarter-finals
Cincinnati Runner-up
US Open Fourth round
Shanghai Semi-finals
Basel Champion
Paris Masters Semi-finals
What is graphene?
Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.
It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.
It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.
Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.
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.”
How to get there
Emirates (www.emirates.com) flies directly to Hanoi, Vietnam, with fares starting from around Dh2,725 return, while Etihad (www.etihad.com) fares cost about Dh2,213 return with a stop. Chuong is 25 kilometres south of Hanoi.
Brief scores:
Toss: Northern Warriors, elected to field first
Bengal Tigers 130-1 (10 ov)
Roy 60 not out, Rutherford 47 not out
Northern Warriors 94-7 (10 ov)
Simmons 44; Yamin 4-4
Company%20profile
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