Abu Dhabi

Yesterday was our much anticipated trip to the capital of the UAE, Abu Dhabi, and the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies Research, one of only a few think tanks in the region.

Abu Dhabi is a three hour drive from Sharjah, and resembles the drive from Chicago to D.C. in that it’s pretty much flat with nothing to look at. Occasionally a mansion would pop up in the middle of nowhere, but the more we drive around this country the more you realize that it’s really just a giant sandbox with the occasional sandcastle, and a few populated cities. The only other thing we saw was a camel track, of which there are a few here in the Emirates. Camel racing is the national sport of the UAE, and the season is held from October-April, so unfortunately I won’t be able to watch any races. We also passed by a new mosque being built to commemorate Sheikh Zayd Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the late ruler of Abu Dhabi. When completed, the mosque will be one of the largest in the world and will hold roughly 32,000 worshipers. It’s white, majestic, and palatial; truly a beautiful work of art.

Here's the only article I could find on the mosque...

Finally we arrived at the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies Research, or ECSSR. The facility was established in 1994 as an “independent academic instiution to facilitate objective research on key political and socio-economic issues, topics, and developments affecting the UAE and the Gulf region.” The center's main building is all marble and wood paneling, with glass windows. The rooms are filled with rich fabrics, dazzling crystal chandeliers, and lush carpets. It’s as though every portion of the building was designed as candy for the eyes. It didn’t matter which way you turned, something would cause you to ‘oo’ and ‘ah.’ Even the elevators were beautiful! The flat panel televisions in the lobby welcomed us as the ‘Delegation from the American University of Sharjah,’ and we were immediately escorted into a presentation room to learn about the center. Inside the room we found close to thirty movie theater style seats, only larger and extra comfortable. In front of every seat was a lovely wooden table with a box of tissues and a packet of materials the center had supplied for each of us. Established by the ruling family, the center has limitless resources, and it showed in our surroundings and in the staff's generous hospitality.

Our subsequent tour of the facility brought us to meeting rooms, outdoor sanctuaries, and a state of the art media center. The media department has the job of tracking every news source; internet, print, and television. They even receive the New York Times via electronic means before New Yorkers do! They also provide the service of breaking news or alerting VIP’s (designated as the top two hundred individuals in the country) to any of the day's important events. VIP’s are alerted by a text messaging service, and can even request the center to tape specific programming for them. I just soaked up the opportunity to watch t.v. I even got to watch a few minutes of jeopardy, which was one of the programs they had on the 100+ television screens on the front wall.

My favorite part of the center is the library, which is unusal because in general that’s a building I try to avoid. Their library contains a number of rare Arabic texts and documents, along with the usual periodicals and research materials. But the best thing about the library is the services they provide. The researchers at the library will pull together material for you on any topic, literally going through and photocopying for you relevant passages, chapters, and articles in books or magazines. They do this free of charge. It’s like the ultimate academic tool. I’ve never heard of such a thing. And they practically beg you to use the service. While we were there the lady kept asking us, “Is there anything we can do for you? Any paper topics you need us to dig up research on? We’d love to help!” Dr. S kept any of us from answering with an emphatic 'yes!' (we all have 20+ page research papers to complete for his course) I guess if you’re a true academic, this type of thing is your calling. They have professors from as far away as Lebanon take advantage of their generous services. Everything about the facility, from the rooms to the staff are top-rate, proving money really can buy some wonderful things!

Click here to learn about the ECSSR

The rest of Abu Dhabi we saw by car. At one point we jumped out to take pictures of a palace built for GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) meetings. The sand in the UAE wasn’t good enough, so soft Moroccan sand was flown in for the palace beach, in yet another example of what you can do with too much money. I could describe how grand this palace was, but I feel like every building I see here is just magnificent, and really words can’t do justice to them, so I’ll stop trying and start focusing on obtaining pictures.

The drive home was an event. We got caught in the infamous UAE rush hour (all afternoon), and this meant being in bumper to bumper traffic with buses full of foreign labor workers, the ones that have a habit of staring at us. Eventually Dr. S, getting tired of observing the car jockeying and stares, exiled me to what has now been termed the quarantine seat, which sits by him, in the front of the bus, and can be protected from outside viewing by curtains. Then he told Kim, still in the back, to cover her hair. We stayed in this new arrangement until the car exited the highway. Dr. S had some good advice for me on masters programs in Middle East Studies. Apparently the U.K. is the place to be, so I'm going to start looking into specific schools in the near future. All in all, a long, driving filled day, but a good one :)

A portion of downtown Abu Dhabi.

Hanging out on th e Arabian Sea/ Persian Gulf.

The palace that houses the GCC meetings and delegates.