Dubai is unlike any other place on earth. Seven thousand years ago this land was covered by mangrove forests — today it stands as one of humanity’s most audacious reinventions. HH Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has declared that within two decades, 60 percent of Dubai’s land will be transformed into green space.
A golden desert oasis is becoming something far more ambitious. The city draws the most driven people from every corner of the world — Britain, Russia, India, across Asia. Its doors swing open for dreamers and doers alike.
Step into this energy and you feel it immediately: a current pulling you forward, demanding nothing less than your best. Dubai doesn’t accommodate mediocrity. It rewards those who find their footing in the flow.
There’s an old Arabian saying: the dust of labour is worth more than the saffron of idleness. Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan built a nation on a simpler truth — that the human being is the supreme value. Dubai carries both ideas in its DNA.
The Tower of Babel fell because its builders lost their common language. The 21st century offers us a different possibility. If we understand that our shared language is one of respect and genuine curiosity about each other, what we build together won’t be a challenge to the heavens — it will be a hand extended toward them.
This is the first issue of World Arabia. My team and I created it in difficult times, driven by the belief that hope and love are not naive ideas — they are the only real foundations worth building on. We invite you to join us on this blank canvas. In the new land of Dubai. — Lara Palmer, Founder and Editor-in-Chief