The following is the text of the HCT 20th Annual Conference Opening Address by His Highness Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, Chancellor of the Higher Colleges of Technology and Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, United Arab Emirates, in Dubai, August 30, 2007: Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen, and welcome to the new academic year of the Higher Colleges of Technology and the start of our 20th anniversary year. It is a great pleasure to greet the returning faculty and ...
In a recent posting on the prestigious G2000 List, Charles Naas raises some timely and fundamental questions regarding the "debate" over Iran. Before I address them, let me state my own position, having recently spent several months in the Gulf and in the Middle East (and having covered the region as a journalist since the mid 1970's): All the political posturing aside, the Bush Administration is not going to "attack" Iran by conventional means. And all the political posturing aside, the Iran...
The following is the text of a note I just received from Etihad Airways in response to my complaint about the theft of my US BlackBerry aboard Etihad's flight from Abu Dhabi to New York on September 5: Dear Mr Gupte Thank you for your e-mail dated 5th September, addressed to our CEO, Mr. James Hogan, who has asked that I investigate this matter on his behalf and respond directly to you. I am so sorry to hear that you have mislaid your Blackberry, I can only imagine how frustrating th...
The following is the text of an e-mail that I sent on Wednesday, September 5, to James Hogan, chief executive officer of Etihad Airways in Abu Dhabi. Mr. Hogan has yet to respond: Dear Mr. Hogan: I write this to alert you that my US BlackBerry was stolen aboard EY 101, which I took at 2 a.m. on September 5 from Abu Dhabi to New York. I was flying business class, and had packed the device in my computer case. As a veteran correspondent, I always pack my BlackBerry -- which had some 4,000...
The following is the text of the keynote address delivered by Dr. John Strassburger, President of Ursinus College, at the 20th Anniversary Conference of the Higher College of Technology in Dubai, August 30: I cannot fully describe how honored I am to be here. It is a privilege, Your Highness Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, to see this wonderful collection of colleges of Higher Technology. Thank you also to Vice Chancellor, Dr. Tayeb Kamali, for your gracious invitation and for your info...
Hmmmm, let’s see. Maybe Professor Fish should now also start predicting the monsoons in South Asia. This is August 2007; the elections are in November 2008. Those who, like Professor Fish, gaze so deeply into the crystal ball run the risk of needing sun glasses after a while. Blinded by Hillary, is it? Let’s see: What about those sleazeball Indian entrepreneurs around her who “raise” money? What about those many trips taken to India by her spouse where, shall we say, Bollywood beauties, ahem,...
A record number of Nobel laureates, and distinguished thought leaders and decision makers from all around the world are expected to participate in the Festival of Thinkers in October, the biennial event organized by the Higher Colleges of Technology in the United Arab Emirates. Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Festival 2007 will foster discussion of ways and means of fostering creativity at the scientific as well as social ...
A fundamental premise of modern-day nation building is this: a country’s wealth, especially accruing from its natural resources, must be put in service of economic growth. On the face of it, that premise seems to capture the obvious. What else would a country – in this case, the United Arab Emirates – do with its enormous revenues from pumping out 2.1 million barrels of crude oil a day, confident in the knowledge that its proven oil reserves of nearly 100 billion barrels should last, well,...
For the last several weeks, I have been traveling in the Middle East on journalistic assignments. I thought I should alert G2K members to one of the most remarkable people I've encountered in my very long journalistic career -- His Highness Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, the UAE's Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research. Almost single handedly he created he created the country's Higher Colleges of Technology 20 years ago, and it now has 16 campuses around the UAE, and some 20...
I think this is the loveliest piece Seth Lipsky has ever written. Its cadences, its depth of feeling, the elegance of its sentences -- I hope Conrad Black and Barbara Amiel have read this, and I hope they were moved by Seth's prose. I'm not so sure that I fully understand the legal case against Black, so I won't comment on Seth's handling of the jurisprudence involved. But as a tribute to a fallen hero -- warts and all -- this is likely to be enduring journalism. I hope young journalists will...
Professor William Beeman's postings on the prestigious Gulf 2000 Web site underscore something that, in the journalism business, is known as floating a trial balloon. Interested parties feed tantalizing morsels of seemingly credible factoids to correspondents, who then proceed to develop the "story" at will. Their editors at headquarters play up the story at will, too. G2K members must undoubtedly know that most newspapers have fraught with internecine comeptition: editors of various desks a...
I have the dubious distinction of having been a witness to both a stoning-to-death in Nigeria, and a public execution of a (presumably) adulterous couple in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The latter episode: Bill Stewart, then of Time Magazine, and I happened to be in Riyadh, he for his magazine, and I as a foreign correspondent for the New York Times. I don't recall the exact circumstances, but we found ourselves in a square where the couple was brought out of vans. They seemed to be ina daze; I'm...
India has wasted three years debating a modest proposal for diverting some of its foreign reserves to plugging the country's abysmal infrastructure deficit. It's only now that China is all set to carve out $200 billion from its reserves into a sovereign wealth fund that India is hastening to reach a decision on what to do with its own low-yielding cache. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said in a speech at the London Business School last week that, the government has "persuaded" the Reserve...
This is what I wrote to Dlip Sardesai wife, Nina, and his son Rajdeep and daughter Shonali, today: I just learned about Dilip, and it's hard to imagine that he'd be gone. I cannot even begin to appreciate what you must be going through, but you must surely know that Dilip made so many friends through his graciousness, generosity and good will -- and that he will continue to always bring a smile to people's faces on account of his enduring warmth and good cheer. I still remember the shee...
Sir Salman may well get a Nobel Prize for Literature. In fact, his supporters have long campaigned for it, and when Sir V. S. Naipaul -- a fellow writer of Indian origin -- got the prize in 2001, there were some Rushdie backers who felt that Naipaul's cohort had simply done a better job at mobilizing what it takes for the Nobel. What it takes is relentless lobbying. Just ask Jagdish Bhagwati, the University Professor at Columbia University, and arguably the world's greatest authority on tr...