What ventures will live forever in Dubai? Lessons from the lavish King of Egypt circa 1870.

Consider this bit of news from Dubai (last night): "Grand opening of the new
$1.5bn marine-themed facility built off the Gulf coast on an artificial
island in the shape of a palm tree. Organisers claimed that the
fireworks display for the $20m party could be seen from space." The
grand ceremony featured some of the biggest names in showbiz.

Hold that thought.

Why hasn't anyone drawn a parallel between present-day Dubai and
mid-to-late ninteenth-century Egypt under Khedive Ismail? There is
probably a book in this!

Khedive Ismail was King of Egypt 1863-1879. Whereas it was his uncle
Said (whom he succeeded) who signed off the order to construct the Suez
Canal (an artificial canal linking the Red Sea to the Mediterranean
Sea), it was Ismail who bankrolled the project relentlessly and took it
as his flagship, the centerpiece of his vision for Egypt. Approximately
30,000 Egyptian workers died during the Canal's construction and it
costed more than a billion dollars by today's standards.

Khedive Ismail announced at the opening ceremony of the Suez Canal:
"Egypt henceforth ceases to be part of Africa, it is now part of
Europe." Having mixed with French, English and Italian aristocracy, such
was his ambition for Egypt. But sadly for him, within a few of years of
the opening ceremony, Egypt had become bankrupt. He was exiled, his son
succeeded him, and the British arrived. Egypt had not become part of
Europe; instead, Europe had come to Egypt - and not in a nice way!

The British were in Egypt to "protect" the Suez Canal; they more or less
dominated the country until 1952. Strictly speaking, it was not the
canal that bankrupted the country; it was Ismail's insistence on
borrowing in order to continue pursuing his lavish vision that did.

Before Ismail was thrown out, he was busy spending. He is considered
the architect of modern Cairo. He hired the best French and Italian
engineers and architects of the time to plan Downtown Cairo (now an
older-looking part of Cairo). He also got them to design palaces,
bridges, gardens, and public buildings. Ismail put in place great
economic openness, and Egypt became a hotspot for foreigners of many
nationalities, especially Europeans.

In that atmosphere, they competed to construct the buildings and
infrastructure that Ismail saw fitting for Egypt. The climax was the
grand opening ceremony of the Suez Canal, which featured the opera Aida,
a special composition that Khedive Ismail had commissioned from the
Italian composer, Verdi. The ceremony was spectacular by those days'
standards; Ismail paid for almost all the royal families of Europe and
the Mediterranean to travel to Egypt for the grand opening.

Ismail dreamed big, and he failed big. He could not even die in Egypt;
it was only years later that the royal family fulfilled his request to
be buried at home. They shipped his tomb over from Istanbul, Turkey
where he had been buried alongside the Ottoman royals.

I have lost you. What has this got to do with Dubai? Well, I know there
not that many parallels between Egypt of 1869 and present-day Dubai. The
contexts are different too. But I am sure someone out there can make a
good case for the few parallels there are. What strikes me are the
parallels of lavish spending, the desire to imitate by importing from
abroad, and the buy-in from various nationalities.

Let's get this straight: in Egypt, Ismail is mourned for his naiveness,
for having aspired just a little too much, but he is appreciated for the
beauty he brought to the country. His vision set the country in a good
direction. Most importantly, the Suez Canal remains to this day one of
his great achievements: it brings in about $3 billion a year in revenues.

I am sure that great good will come to Dubai from some of the projects
they have undertaken (just like the Suez Canal brought great good to
Egypt). However, I think the razzmatazz will come to nothing.

The question is: what projects will remain standing as good business
propositions long after the speculative bubble is gone? I don't have the
answers, I invite you to speculate with me!

See also:

Khedive Ismail entry on wikipedia

The Dubai desert dream: it's not all fireworks and Kylie

Khedive Ismail and Downtown Cairo

24 November Dubai's Grim Reality