Dubai ruler: "$10bn to education"

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2007-05-19 11:53am

BBC wrote:The ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, says he is giving $10bn (£5bn) to set up an educational foundation in the Middle East.

The money is meant to improve the standard of education and research in the region, and aims to stimulate job creation, Sheikh Mohammed said.

It is thought to be one of the largest charitable donations in history.

The announcement was made to widespread applause at the World Economic Forum, which is being held in Jordan.

Sheikh Mohammed, known as a successful racehorse owner as well as ruler of Dubai, said his personal initiative was aimed at creating what he called "a knowledge-based society" in the Middle East.

At the moment, he explained, there was high illiteracy in the region - where more than 40% of Arab women cannot read or write.

The whole Arab world publishes fewer books than the country of Turkey.

And spending on scientific research is only a tiny fraction of that in developed countries.

"There is a wide knowledge gap between us and the developed world in the West and in Asia. Our only choice is to bridge this gap as quickly as possible, because our age is defined by knowledge," the sheikh said.

While there may be less learning in the region, there is high unemployment, and it is likely to get higher with a rapidly growing population.

"Our region needs at this moment 15 million job opportunities, and our Arab world will need in the next 20 years between 74 to 85 million job opportunities," the sheikh told the conference.

"We need to develop the infrastructure so we can create jobs."

Sheikh Mohammed hopes to increase education and research, and also to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship throughout the region.

"In order to realise these objectives, I have decided to establish the Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum Foundation to focus on human development, and have I decided to endow a fund of $10bn to finance its projects," he said.

As ruler of Dubai, he can share the success of his principality, which is known the world over as the economic success story of the Middle East.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2007-05-19 12:00pm

Good for him. Actually investing their cash is a smart move, as one can see many don't want in Syriana. Maybe they'll avert the lobbing eachother's heads off in a hundred years as they did in the past thing.

darthbob88 · Post by **darthbob88** » 2007-05-19 01:08pm

Provided those 10 billions go to teaching women as well as men, and attempting to teach science rather than Islam, I'm all for it. Otherwise, so far as I can see, this will be a $10 billion donation to recruiting for Islamofascism.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » 2007-05-19 01:18pm

darthbob88 wrote:Provided those 10 billions go to teaching women as well as men, and attempting to teach science rather than Islam, I'm all for it. Otherwise, so far as I can see, this will be a $10 billion donation to recruiting for Islamofascism.

IIRC Dubai is a pretty progressive country as far as they go in the Middle East. So hopefully your fears will be unfounded.

Cao Cao · Post by **Cao Cao** » 2007-05-19 01:30pm

darthbob88 wrote:Provided those 10 billions go to teaching women as well as men, and attempting to teach science rather than Islam, I'm all for it. Otherwise, so far as I can see, this will be a $10 billion donation to recruiting for Islamofascism.

Read the bolded parts. He mentions the amount of illiterate women and wants his funding to increase education, research and innovation.
None of which Islamic fundamentalism is known for.

darthbob88 · Post by **darthbob88** » 2007-05-19 02:10pm

Cao Cao wrote:
darthbob88 wrote:Provided those 10 billions go to teaching women as well as men, and attempting to teach science rather than Islam, I'm all for it. Otherwise, so far as I can see, this will be a $10 billion donation to recruiting for Islamofascism.
Read the bolded parts. He mentions the amount of illiterate women and wants his funding to increase education, research and innovation.
None of which Islamic fundamentalism is known for.

I did read the bolded parts; he says that too many people, and especially women, are illiterate, but I did not see anything actually saying that funding was going to women. Of course, I'm running on ~4hr sleep, so my brain's shot to hell.

Still, I'm pretty confident that I'm just being paranoid and this will actually serve to improve the UAE.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2007-05-19 03:40pm

Dubai, Bahrain and IIRC a few other of the smaller places out there see the end of oil coming and are investing heavily to prevent economic collapse when it comes.

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2007-05-19 04:29pm

No matter what Dubai does, they're still going to take peak oil hard. At least they're not being like the Saudis (or rather 1 Saudi), who spends his oil revenue on golden toilets.

dragon · Post by **dragon** » 2007-05-19 05:18pm

wolveraptor wrote:No matter what Dubai does, they're still going to take peak oil hard. At least they're not being like the Saudis (or rather 1 Saudi), who spends his oil revenue on golden toilets.

At least Dubai realizes that they will have problems when the oil runs out, and have been working on ways to improve them selves so oil is not their only source of income. Can you imagine the amount of hassle these countries are going to have once they realized the developed world used up their oil and left them behind.

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2007-05-19 05:46pm

Sweet! I guess this puts that Warren Buffett donation to shame...
Apparently, my dentist vacations in Dubai. He says it's a nice place.

Jadeite · Post by **Jadeite** » 2007-05-19 05:58pm

wolveraptor wrote:No matter what Dubai does, they're still going to take peak oil hard. At least they're not being like the Saudis (or rather 1 Saudi), who spends his oil revenue on golden toilets.

Actually, they never had much oil to begin with. It's a significant portion of their GDP still, but not the majority of it.

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2007-05-19 08:13pm

Jadeite wrote:
wolveraptor wrote:No matter what Dubai does, they're still going to take peak oil hard. At least they're not being like the Saudis (or rather 1 Saudi), who spends his oil revenue on golden toilets.
Actually, they never had much oil to begin with. It's a significant portion of their GDP still, but not the majority of it.

They produce less then 240,000 barrels of oil a day. I think oil exports are less then 10% of their economy.

Dubai is really noted for being extremely progressive in economic matters, they've been doing very in depth strategic planning over the last decade, reinvesting huge amounts of money to turn the country into a regional hub that will survive, even thrive post peak oil. They'll come to a gentle landing.

I think their fear is that places around them will go to all hell and huge numbers of people from non UAE states will try to migrate in search of work.

Sriad · Post by **Sriad** » 2007-05-19 08:50pm

Molyneux wrote:Sweet! I guess this puts that Warren Buffett donation to shame...
Apparently, my dentist vacations in Dubai. He says it's a nice place.

Not quite, Warren Buffet's donations to the Gates Foundation and his family's charities will eventually total $35-40 billion if Berkshire Hatheway shares hold steady or continue improving.

It's still a kingly sum though, and much more concentrated than the Gates/Buffet charities.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2007-05-19 08:59pm

Chris OFarrell wrote:Dubai is really noted for being extremely progressive in economic matters, they've been doing very in depth strategic planning over the last decade, reinvesting huge amounts of money to turn the country into a regional hub that will survive, even thrive post peak oil. They'll come to a gentle landing.

I've always wondered if that had something to do with their relative lack of oil - enough to make them a decent chunk of change, but not enough to make them sit back fat and happy.