by PERVEZ HOODBHOY
Petro-giant countries of the Arab world may not be terribly well known for perspicacious scholarship or prowess in scientific research but their one-upmanship knows no limits.
The United Arab Emirates is presently stealing the show: the Emirates Mars Mission’s successful July 2020 launch means it will rendezvous with the Red Planet in six months; UAE cities have spectacular skylines premiering the worlds’ tallest and most stunning buildings; and the world’s top airline is called Emirates. There’s every kind of futuristic gimmickry: the world’s first minister of artificial intelligence, 27-year-old Sultan Al Olama, was just appointed under UAE’s Centennial 2071 plan.
Close on UAE’s heels are other GCC countries with Saudi Arabia having started the construction of Neom, a futuristic megacity deep in the desert bordering the Red Sea. Costing $500 billion upward, it will feature artificial rain, a fake moon, robotic maids, flying taxis, and holographic teachers. Qatar plans to spend over $220bn while hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Twelve solar-cooled super-stadiums holding around 50,000 spectators each are nearing completion.
Private scorn accompanies these humongous public spectacles. What’s Arab about all this? Expats flown in from around the globe run the show. They range from domestic servants to truck drivers and from famous architects to top-of-the-line space-travel engineers. The relationship is purely transactional: petrodollars buy brains, brawn and gadgets.
But, knowing the oil will eventually dry out, some GCC Arab rulers are realising that theirs is a road to nowhere. Beating the drum of past glories and education of the usual religious kind will doom them to remain consumers and supplicants. And so, at least at first glance, they seem to be doing everything right and are throwing tons of money at it.
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