Spiegel interview with Sheikha Lubna
An excerpt of an interview with Sheikha Lubna al- Qasimi niece of the ruler of Sharjah and economics minister of the United Arab Emirates since 2004:
SPIEGEL: What has the boom in the Gulf meant for the Arab world so far?Read it all here.
Lubna: Women as economics ministers for example! I'm not here for decoration. I stand for something -- for growth, for a solid market economy, that things are done properly. That's what we've given the region: know-how.
SPIEGEL: And women benefit more from that than men?
Lubna: They will at least be judged according to their ability and not their gender. Our leadership has a very relaxed, very self-confident attitude toward women.
SPIEGEL: "Change yourself or you'll be changed," Sheikh Mohammed from Dubai warned the Arab world. What did he mean by that?
Lubna: He wanted to call for leadership in the age of globalization -- take risks, be an example, have an influence with the younger generation. Whoever doesn't do that will wash away progress like a tsunami. For example, I came to Sheikh Mohammed's attention because I managed our ports and an Internet platform well. When I was made minister he called me and said: "Congratulations, I have more work for you."
posted by John B. Chilton at 2/04/2008 05:40:00 PM
1 Comments:
I wondered where Sheikha Lubna had got to - she's been pretty quiet.
The report on her had links down the bottom - one to this article: A Queue in the Sand.
I've just finished reading "Rigged" which is a book on how the Dubai Stock Exchange was set up. Deals are being done all over the place through people being impressed with Dubai for the simplest reasons - mostly nothing to do with longterm financial sustainability!
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