Sultan Al-Qassemi, the rising star of the Gulf!
I don't know why, but I find intelligent men with impressive vocabularies extremely sexy, sexier than the 6 feet tall muscular buffs at the gym (their 'sexiness' wears off after 5 minutes of conversation).But this guy over here is a bank of historical information, just read his blog! Not only does he possess eloquence and innovative ideas, with random historical factoids, he is also a generous philanthropist (double sexy points), a sponsor of the arts ( he owns meem gallery in dubai -triple sexy points), runs his own Brokerage firm, and speaks French (quadruple sexy points). When he's not busy attending to his own personal family business or writing his daring, opinionated articles for The National Newspaper in Abu Dhabi, he teaches Middle Eastern History and participates in socio-political panels and cultural museum events.
And word on the street -or around the emirate-is that despite this native royal's various accomplishments he is very nice, and very humble. I imagine he also loves going to the opera (totally an assumption).
Ladies in the U.A.E, if your men possessed half the characteristics of this eligible Emarati bachelor, I would say you're in good hands.
posted by Closet Diva @ 15.4.09
17 comments
17 Comments:
Impressive guy!
There's a rumour he is half kuwaiti?
I can confirm that all what you said about Sultan is true. I can confirm as well your assumptions: he is a very nice and humble character indeed and yes he does love Opera. In fact, the last one he attended was Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, last month, as a guest of honor.
Sultan is the perfect role model for the Emirati youth, one who shows the UAE at its best: a nation of smart, ambitious and good-hearted individuals.
I am starting an auction on your blog for revealing his personal cell phone number. It starts at 1,000 KD. Ladies, please place your bids ;)
confirming your comments on sultan!
walla, he is amazing.
And how many "sexy points" he gets for his fierce vindication of slave-holding, racist, dictatorial regiment of Dubai?
Fierce, yet not very intelligent I have to notice... I mean, "your teenage girls have sex" (and one in every 23 has abortion as a consequence), "you send women to prison" (if they commit a crime, that is), "you have given refuge to 400 Nazi war criminals after WWII" (sic!)... not the brightest arguments one can think of when defending slave-like treatment of Dubai construction workers, don't you think?
Lenka, let me guess:
a chronicly frustrated middle to low class, male or female (probably in-between), pure-breed british proudly carrying all what comes with the title: envy, jealousy and vicousness (among many other wonderful qualities)
All of you, please keep talking and spitting hatred while Dubai is on its to becoming one of the greatest cities in history. You're quite entertaining.
As for calling Sheikh Mohamed a slave-holding racist dictator, please, some respect. You know nothing about the man. You're probably confusing him with the Windsor's
Lenka, let me guess:
a chronically frustrated middle to low class, male or female (probably in-between), pure-breed british proudly carrying all what comes with the title: envy, jealousy and viciousness (among many other wonderful qualities)
All of you, please keep talking and spitting hatred while Dubai is on the way to becoming one of the greatest cities in history. You're quite entertaining.
As for calling Sheikh Mohamed a slave-holding racist dictator, please, some respect. You know nothing about the man. You're probably confusing him with the Windsor's.
Pure-bred British? LOL!!! Mai englessh soooo gooood? Relly sooo goood mai englessh yu tink ai britich?
p.s.
Cudos for your intuition and skilled psychological analysys! Watch my hands clapping - CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!
p.p.s.
answer key: a high-class prostitute from Eastern Europe currently residing in Singapore...
anony #2,
I am thrilled to know that my opera related character assessment was on point -thank you for ur confirmation :) I do feel proud of Sultan, even though I don't know him personally.
But while your cell phone bid offer is very attractive, unfortunately i will not be able to participate -I am a victim of the sub prime loan crisis lol.
Lenka,
I agree he is fierce and I also believe he is intelligent. I advise you not to limit your judgement to a single article.
& I won't respond to your uninteresting arguments since they are weak and not exactly bright either.
Thank you for visiting my blog.
I met Sultan at Meem Gallery. He is extremely humble and very polite, the kind of person that if you hang around long enough, you would want to become a better person to serve your country and project a good image to the rest of the world.
Allah ykather mn amthaalah.
Lenka, the words written above were actually written by a friend of mine who was sitting next to me and who mistakenly signed it off my name instead of his. And since my name has been included in this debate, here’s what I think:
I have visited labor camps in Dubai on several occasions. I figured out that this would the most appropriate way to separate facts from the fiction in the stories I have been reading. In short, the living conditions in the camps were adequate. All of them were equipped to allow a decent stay for laborers and they all were in a far better condition than the ones I visited in other countries. The main issue was the lack of space where for example a room for 6 had 10 workers or even more. This however was a temporary condition due to lack of availability and it was always a matter of weeks before you could see these laborers moving to new bigger camps. The issue of availability was common for all expats: When I first moved to Dubai, apartments were thin so I had to share a villa with others and wait 6 months till new apartments were ready for rent. That's the situation from my perspective. If you, however ask the workers about how they feel, their answer would be different: they consider their living conditions to be quite good as most of them come from the poorest parts in Asia where as you know, the most basic living requirements are not available due to the extreme poverty. In these camps, you will find proper sanitation and the laborers do get 3 meals a day and they are paid 10 times higher than what they get back home. You need to keep in mind however that unlike Sheikh Mohammed is portrayed in some articles, the man is not an emperor who owns Dubai. He is the ruler of Dubai and Dubai is a liberal city where many local and international companies operate, recruit and manage their own labor force. This means that there may be possible cases where the workers are abused by one of these companies without the government of the UAE being aware of it. In 2006, Sheikh Mohamed issued directives to penalize any company that exploits or abuses workers, yet, this will not exclude the possibility of such incidents taking place especially in camps owned by smaller companies. Earlier this year, Sheikh Mohamed issued new directives to accelerate the improvement of these camps and I have been hearing that the situation has in fact improved dramatically as strict regulations have been set.
On a separate note, I decided last year to volunteer with Dubai Cares, a very young organization conceived and launched by Sheikh Mohamed aiming at providing primary education to underprivileged children around the world and providing them with a sustainable and improved quality of life. I first took part of 3 successive events to renovate a school for orphans in the Emirates. Since the first event I attended, I realized how uncommonly serious this organization was in delivering results and inflicting change. For perspective, I have worked previously with some of the foremost philanthropic organizations around the world. Dubai Cares was different. Like the rest of institutions in the UAE, it reflected how this country operates: first set a bold vision then work relentlessly and assiduously to achieve it by assigning the work to the best and the brightest. The achievements of Dubai cares have been phenomenal: Launched in late 2007, Dubai Cares “has reached more than 4 million children in 20 countries. It is currently building and renovating 2,072 schools, training 22,370 teachers, helping establish 3,157 Parent Teacher Associations, creating 489 libraries and distributing 1.3 million books written in the local languages of the countries in which they are distributed”. Just a couple of months ago Sheikh Mohamed asked Dubai Cares to react to the massacres in Gazaa. In less than a week, an event was organized during which 200,000 hygiene and school kits were assembled by 8,000 volunteers and sent to the children of Gazaa.
Dubai Cares is just one example of Sheikh Mohamed local and international honorable contribution to humanity such as the 10Bn $ endowment he created for promoting higher education in the Arab world, his resolution on a green energy city, his unconditional support to organizations for disabled and autistic children, his work on improving the labor laws and cancelling the “ban” system and his truly exceptional role his in promoting the role of women in the Arab world. You will be amazed to see the very senior roles that women occupy in the UAE. Just recently, Rim Al Hashmi, a 29 year-old Harvard grad with an exceptional career track, was appointed as a minister of state in the UAE cabinet. Rim does not come from the royal family. She's a self-made woman who proved to be an exceptional talent and was then appointed a minister.
I can write many more pages about Sheikh Mohammed’s accomplishments. I only wrote about him because he’s the man some sleazy journalists have been bashing lately. I can also write tens of pages about the virtues and the profound characters of Sheikh Zayed or Sheikh Mohamed ben Zayed or Sheikh Khalifa ben Zayed. And these leaders are no exception because as you live in the UAE you will discover that these character traits belong to most Emirati men and women you meet: courageous, tolerant, good-hearted, generous and visionary. This is the heritage of the people of this nation.
As CD wrote, do not limit your judgment to a single article. Try to dig deeper next time before you voice your opinion about righteous men.
Fadi,
Thank you for posting information on Dubai Cares, I didn't even know such an organisation existed. I checked out their website and found a 1 week volunteer program in Cambodia!!
If I am not mistaken, Qatar also has the same program imposed on highschool students-1 week volunteer in an Asian country. I think that is very admirable.
I knew about Reem Al-Hashemi, and I definitely agree with your comment about Emarati men :).
Regarding the labor camps, there was an article in yesterday's financial times about the human rights convention in the UAE and the minister of labour, Saqr Ghobash's announcement that new regulations are set to improve conditions in those camps.
CD, i have taken part of the Dubai Cares volunteer trip to Cambodia, the one you mentioned. It was a life-changing experience. The amount of work it took the Dubai cares team to prepare this program and ensure the right security measures are in place was phenomenal.
They will be launching soon a new international program, i believe the destination will be Djibouti where Dubai Cares is working extensively to build new schools. I really encourage you to join one of the trips. I will be going again for sure.
Fadi,
I would be very interested to ask you some questions about your cambodia experience. Please email me at diva_of_fire@hotmail.com
cheers
Don't forget about the Noor Dubai initiative for preventing blindness globally to 1 million individuals.
Don't forget the Noor Dubai Initiative for preventing blindness globally to 1 million individuals.
is he the relative of ruler Of Sharjah Sultan bin Mohamed Al-Qassimi ? I wonder it a lot
-a foreigner
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now. Keep it up!
And according to this article, I totally agree with your opinion, but only this time! :)
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