DXB 2020

Dubai has won the contest to stage the Expo 2020. The only such event I have ever attended was the millennial edition in Hanover in 2000, which both Jessi and I found quite exciting. She was twelve at the time and found most impressive the pavilions of the Netherlands (where she later did her university studies) and of the United Arab Emirates (where three years later an exciting new chapter of my own life opened).

The UAE in 2000 prioritized heritage with a replica in re-cyclable fibreglass of Fort Jahli as it was in 1898! I suppose at the time none of us could imagine what Dubai would become in the first decade of the new century.

There was no Burj Khalifa even dreamed of in 2000. Now it is a world famous reality. And Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Executive Council, celebrated yesterday's news by triumphantly raising the UAE flag atop the tallest building in the world.

The adorable Roba Al Assi from Amman has a cute comment on all this here.