While Qatar and Dubai are bywords for excess, vulgarity and human
rights abuses, the UAE's capital affects a higher calling. So,
alongside the Emirates Palace Hotel (1,022 crystal chandeliers), the
Grand Mosque (capacity: 40,000) and four million foreign workers,
there are galleries, museums, seats of learning – and the stated aim
of being a 'role model' for its neighbours. Has Abu Dhabi found a way
to blend petrodollars with principles
The Abu Dhabi Louvre looks like the top of a giant, primordial
eggshell pushing its way out of the sand. Its giant dome already
glisters under the sun, its construction workers moving like spiders
over five layers of cladding, steel and aluminium which will give this
extraordinary museum a combined weight of 7,000 tons, just a little
less than the Eiffel Tower. Already the concrete base of a man-made
lake spreads around the construction, for architect Jean Nouvel's
Louvre will be on a miniature island, its works of art transported to
its gallery through an underground tunnel, light sprinkled into its
interior as if through the fronds of palm trees.
Very romantic. Very French orientalist, I say to myself. Very Arab
too, perhaps. The idea is that art will move chronologically through
centuries inside the new Louvre, oriental and Western paintings next
to each other.
Abu Dhabi is so rich, and its ambitions so mystical, that people speak
in whispers.
But if all this is educational, what to make of the Sheikh Zayed Grand
Mosque? The truly gigantic carpet, the chandeliers, the fact that it
was constructed by men and materials from Morocco to China and can
hold more than 40,000 faithful – all give it the feel of cathedrals
built in the Middle Ages.
Abu Dhabi is the sensible, adult version of Dubai, the capital of the
United Arab Emirates, smaller than its neighbour, but probably the
wealthiest city in the world. It's still ruled by the al-Nahyan family
whose Bani Yas tribe migrated to the north Arabian peninsula Gulf
coast, opposite what is now Iran, in the late 18th century. So rich is
Abu Dhabi, with an oil producing capacity of 2.3 million barrels a
day, that even its total investments – statistics it prefers to keep
secret – must be calculated to the nearest £70bn. The total figure is
probably close to £650bn.
''I'm here as a servant of the country. I know if I don't want to be a
servant any more, I can get on a plane and go home."
Then he thought for a moment and captured the venality of it all.
"We're all here by invitation – or temptation."
Robert Fisk in Abu Dhabi: The acceptable face of the Emirates
