To travel is to live

”To travel is to live” wrote the storyteller Hans Christian Anderson, because – it is there on the road the grand tales are being told.

I come from an ancient realm, a small country at the edge of the world.  We – me and my fellow countrymen have lived in this country for so long that we are all, or so it is said, related to one another. We experience no revolutions, have no volcanoes, no exotic animals, no extreme weather, no high mountains. It is a safe and predictable life, the big events happens out in the great world.

Part of growing up was learning about that outside world.

The dinner table would be where my dad would entertain us with stories, anecdotes and political tales.  We would hear stories about great uncles, grandparents and aunts going to exotic and dangerous places like Australia, Asia and the Americas and we would listen to historical accounts of great battles and narrow escapes in far away countries. Personal and historical events intertwined into one big adventure.

At the same time, I would read books about the world, from the imaginative adventures of Von Munchausen to Thor Heyerdahls accounts of crossing the sea in strange vessels.  Africa – I learned about, from books by Goddall and Fossey, working with the great apes in the misty rain forests and through Karen Blixen describing her love for Kenya, or was it a man?  I watched ”A Cry for Freedom” about the Apartheid in South Africa – it also showed great panoramic scenes of the landscape.  ”We” tried to save the rain forests´ of South America, and I shall always carry the voice of David Attenborough with me, while he is explaining the wonders of nature, in, yet another, foreign country.

Then, when I entered my teens, the Cold War finally came to an end, and I watched the Wall in Berlin being torn down and the people of Eastern Europe pouring out of their countries, in pure joy, to see the world that had been forbidden to them.

Clearly adventure was out there.

So when I finally became of age, in me was planted  a strong urge to go and see that big, amazing world for myself. One day I arrived in Abu Dhabi. Now, it is my turn to tell stories and tales of the world, because I am in the middle of an adventure.

Malala´s Quest is Our Quest

My car broke down a few weeks ago, it was a Pakistani lorry driver who picked it up for me.  When encountering people in Abu Dhabi it is common to exchange informations´ about your respective countries, so this was what the lorry driver and I did. When talking about my birthplace, Denmark, we came around the subject of our big milk and butter production. When mentioning his country Pakistan,  his primary comment was on it´s state of security or the lack of it.

I was reminded of this conversation during the, heavily covered, final count down for The Nobel Peace Prize a few days ago. One of the most talked about candidates was Malala the Pakistani school girl who was shot by the Taliban one year ago, in a far away province of Pakistan. She was shot for raising her voice about the right to education for all children. Malala wrote a blog in an area where the Taliban stands strong and obviously is ready to use any mean possible to prevent , especially girls from going to school.

Not only did Malala survive the ordeal, her quest for education was repeated and broadcasted all over the world and today her voice as well as her mission stands much stronger than it did a year ago. It is a well know fact that empowering people and in especially women through education has proven to be one of the most important tools against poverty. Malala links the Taliban with ignorance and suppression as opposed to enlightenment and human rights. In essence if schooling was offered to everyone the developing countries would become more prosperous and the world more peaceful.

The message of education for all reaches much further than to the borders of Pakistan, but as this case shows it is a complicated affair. People like Malala can show the way and the courage and for that she was deservedly nominated for The Nobel Prize, but those of us who have already received education are part of the solution. It is our duty to spread the word and make things happen with the means we have at hand. Through the media we must never let the case rest or forget the courage shown.  Then one day news from Pakistan will be other than just the most recent safety update – I might even get to know about their big milk production.

Malala Fund

Related articles

• EU awards human rights award to Malala Yousafzai; is the Nobel next? (kansascity.com)
• I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai – review (theguardian.com)

Wondering about Abu Dhabi

“Reminds me of my safari in Africa. Somebody forgot the corkscrew and for several days we had to live on nothing but food and water.”

W. C. Fields

What is Abu Dhabi?

What is it like to be an expat in a foreign country?

What is a city like, when most of it´s citizens come from everywhere and are only here for a short while?

What is it like when a city and its nation is brand new?

 

These are the questions I ask in my blog, trying to catch the city´s vibe.

Abu Dhabi is a strange place – different from anything I have known before. It is different from Denmark, where I come from and different from Australia where I lived pre Abu Dhabi. This blog is about experiencing Abu Dhabi, through reflections, stories, news and facts.

The strangeness of Abu Dhabi is a consequence of its set up. It is the fast growing capital of The United Arab Emirates. Though in the middel of the desert with summers endless and hot, the Emirates is a prosperous place with the two big cities Dubai and Abu Dhabi standing side by side, growing and developing fast. Every day, people of all nationalities from all over the world are pouring in, in such great numbers that they, by far ,make up the majority of the population and make Abu Dhabi a very special place.

Residents and visitors will typically be looking for practical information on Abu Dhabi on the following three types of sites:

The official tourism sites, giving the very glossy version of Abu Dhabi;

The Expat forums offering practical information and useful tips;

and finally

The blogs, where personal insight of life experienced in Abu Dhabi can be found.

I link to the relevant, the hilarous and the updated sites.

In my blog I am looking for that VIBE of the city of Abu Dhabi. Through interviews with fellow Abu Dhabians, mixed with my own experiences, I try to catch the dynamics of the city. It is an investigation of the many nationalities of Abu Dhabi, they are the key to understanding the city because they add to it it´s colors and diversity.

By reading my blog you will find news and facts about the history, nature, politics and geography of the UAE, mixed with stories of the hopes and dreams of the people of Abu Dhabi.

This blog is for you who live here,  are going to live here, or just like reading about life abroad.

Welcome to the wonders of Abu Dhabi.

 

How to figure out Abu Dhabi

”To travel is to live” so the storyteller Hans Christian Anderson said, because – it is there on the road the grand tales are being told.

How tales help you become familiar with a strange place.

The first thing you do when you arrive at a new city is to try to decipher it, to understand it, to figure it out – because you need to make it your own to feel at home.

How do you figure out a city?

Usually this is quite simple, you take a look at its people, its customs, its buildings, its landscape. Sorting all the information into boxes. This is how people look like – boxed. This is how their customs are – boxed. This is how the buildings/ plazas/ spaces/ functions work – boxed.

Now how do you figure out Abu Dhabi?

Its chaotic mosaic does not fit the boxes.  Everybody come from somewhere else, everybody will eventually go back to that somewhere else. Those few who were here already lived a completely different life a little more than forty years ago. Everybody has their own particular customs and ways of living.  Then there are the buildings – forty years ago there was nothing here, now, what have been built in the meantime, is being torn down and new buildings are shooting up. Desert is turned from sand to roads, houses and green spaces. So when I first arrived in Abu Dhabi I felt like a mermaid, in the desert, in need of a bucket of water. This was indeed a strange place.

So how do you figure that out?

The answer is to be found not in my fellow Abu Dhabi’s differences but in our similarities. I need to know what has made my Japanese/ French-Canadian/ Trinidad-Toboggan/ Swedish/ Omani/ American/ Australian neighbours and friends come to this place together with the Lebanese doctor, the Sri Lankan housekeeper, the Nepalese super market assistant, the Bangladeshi tailor, the Pakistani worker and the Philippine nurse.

By now I think I have found the thing we have in common. We are all here to better our lives, be it for the adventure or the livelihood.

In this blog I will be investigating the hopes and dreams of the people of Abu Dhabi, this is how I will figure out my city Abu Dhabi – by getting to know its tales.  So the mermaid has found her bucket of water, figuring out Abu Dhabi is my tale.