Sign of leadership

Literally, a sign about leadership. But at the same time, one that also shows leadership.

I spotted this at the mind-blowing Mall of Dubai Mall,

It’s a map of Dubai, but with a little description next to each landmark showing when and how it was founded by some member of the royal family that owns Dubai.

And this is probably my favorite bit, down at the lower right corner,

An inspirational message showing the leader (owner?) of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, looking stoically upward. Indeed, his profile on LinkedIn has this message: “We are building a new reality for our people, a new future for our children, and a new model of development.”

 

Dubai Dates

Dubai is just incredible!

For the people like me who visit in August, when the temperature is around 120 F or 48 C, a real treat is taking long walks outside, where date palms can be found just about anywhere. Many of them are quite short, so you can reach up and (if they are ripe) eat the dates right off the trees!

The high density mosques of Dubai

If you’ve ever been to Dubai, then you know almost everything about it is amazing.

Someone told me the government of Dubai has a policy that nobody in the city should ever be more than 25m from the nearest mosque, or about 80 feet. Now, if true, I have no idea why they adopted this policy.

The result of thie policy is that the inner city has a vast network of mini-mosques. They are numbered (below is Mosque 16) and they are spaced about 50 meters apart from each other:

I visited Dubai in the high summer, and I took this picture around noon – when it was just over 45 C = 110 F.  Aside from me and the Indian construction workers, nobody was out and about. I am eager to go back sometime during cooler weather to see whether people really do venture outside.