Amazements

At times a bit of absurdity helps to keep things in perspective. Here is where you can have a roadsign generated! It's free.

Which brings me to the subject of things which are not free, but involve significant amounts of money.

The fact that Abu Dhabi will, from 2009, be hosting a Formula One Grand Prix event has already been mentioned. That is going to cost loadsa money, yes?

But in 2009 Abu Dhabi will also be launching a 'hybrid military and communications' satellite all of its very own. The communications aspect intrigues Sandlander mightily. Is this a sign that the Emirate will introduce a media free-zone for broadcasters in the near future, to rival Dubai Media City? Or, inter-Emirate friendly rivalries being what they are, will Big D also venture boldly into space? Questions abound.

But the satellite is a billion dollar project, that much is clear.

Perspective is a tricky thing. Liquidity is a financial term I have come to appreciate in new ways since coming here to the Gulf.

In the western world the flow of money is meticulously organized, intricately regulated, channeled sometimes in fat conduits, then diverted into networks of smaller pipes to distribute the largesse according to planned patterns, although sometimes dispensed in mere drips and drops.

Doing business successfully demands a controlled cycle of utilization and replenishment. It's a grimly serious matter; get it wrong and you're high and dry.

Her in the Gulf, however, although water may be scarce money is not.

It sloshes in unbelievable abundance. There is so much that any siphoned off goes largely ignored. Every billion that splashes around wildly inevitably throws off what we could call 'spray'. That incidental spray is, however, a cascade of sufficient magnitude to nourish myriad enterprises which, if scrutinized according to western criteria, would be seen as precarious, unsound, non-viable or merely bankrupt.

Why bother with fiscal prudence, business acumen or commercial probity? With the next random splatter of liquidity, who knows, maybe even the overdue salaries and wages will be paid!