Abu Dhabi Day 7: Skyline

Today we visited “Invest Abu Dhabi”- it was a great take on another side of an investment company in the UAE.  It was interesting to see their perspective.  We were very impressed by who showed up to the meeting- it wasn’t just a few of their employees from the company- it was the CEO and other top dogs.  The thing I liked a lot about this company was their committment to social responsibility.  They are supporters of kids with autism and work to bring autism awareness to their country.  They actually had beautiful art displayed throughout the building that was created by children with autism.  

After “Invest Abu Dhabi” we had lunch and then headed over to the Khalifa fund- this is a fund set up by the government about ten years ago to help fund small businesses.  The thing that stuck out to me the most was the number of women who benefitted from the fund.  Initially, the number of women was very small.  Now, however, 58% of their beneficiaries are women.  I have been hesitant to ask about the roles of women in the region, just because of the history of the area.  However, they were very liberal saying that the difference between the men and the women who go through the Khalifa fund is that the women are always prepared and always ready to learn.  They said that the men are different- that they are often times frustrated and “don’t know what to do with these men.”  I was surprised to hear him say that women will soon take over the world and even more surprised to see that he seemed delighted in that.  It is not a mentality I expected in this region of the world.  

I asked then if the reason that the number was higher for women using the Khalifa fund than for men was because they reached out to women.  The sentiments immediately turned and they staunchly stated that they do NOT recruit women for their program- that it just “happens” to be that way.  It was an interesting change of thought.  

We agreed at the beginning of the trip that we would skip one or two meals and treat ourselves to one awesome night of dinner.  So, that evening, we decided to treat ourselves and had dinner on a boat that cruised around all of Dubai.  The food was AMAZING- anythign you could possibly think of.  The views were incredible.  Afterwards, we finished off the night at a lounge called: Nautique but Nice ;)