The strange world of Euro golf
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While I’m waiting for the subway, I see a poster for an upscale gym chain. Locations? “City of London. High Street Kensington. Dubai.” What a shame to choose a place so corrupted by bad taste and clueless expats. Still, the City and Dubai branches must be top notch.
Shortly afterwards I am in Doha and again the connection between Europe and the Gulf is inescapable. The Emir of Qatar is back from a state visit to Britain, where the hosts were hoping for a trade deal. Switzerland-based FIFA has just awarded the hosting rights for the World Cup to Saudi Arabia. Even in skyscraper-free Muscat, where alleys that could have been streamlined elsewhere in the Gulf wind freely behind the Corniche, three restaurants at my hotel are outposts of the Mayfair brands.
What a shame that the word “Eurabia” is used. And from crazy people like that. (It’s a far-right term for an alleged conspiracy to Islamize Europe.) Because we’re going to need a word for this relationship. The Arabian Peninsula has what Europe lacks: space, natural wealth and the resulting budget surpluses to invest in things. For its part, Europe has “soft” assets that Gulf states must acquire, host or emulate to achieve a post-oil role in the world. This isn’t the Gulf’s deepest external connection. Not while 38 percent of people in the UAE and a quarter in Qatar are Indian. But it might be the most symbiotic, if I understand the word correctly.
It is true that the US has a defense presence in all six Gulf Cooperation Council states. This also includes the Saudi footprint, which Osama bin Laden wasn’t exactly thrilled about. But everyday contact? America is a 15 hour flight away. Its soft assets are either harder to buy or less desirable. Its citizens have little tax incentive to live in tax havens because Uncle Sam charges them at least part of the difference.
In the 1970s, as OPEC profits flowed through London, Anthony Burgess wrote a dystopia in which large hotels became al-Klaridges and al-Dorchesters. What a mental shock it was for even the most cosmopolitan Europeans to see – let’s not ignore this – that non-white people have more money than they do. Still, they could accept that the Gulf is not a place to live. Half a century later, her grandchildren would call this copy. In fact, their grandchildren could literally live there because of the economic opportunities. (Al-Dorado?) A banker friend explains it this way: Time zones allow you to sleep late, trade in European markets, and then eat late. So it’s the young people who are doing a stay in the golf and not the burnouts who are my age.
But for how long? It is the sheer improbability of this tryst between a culture of universal rights and monarchical absolutism, between a largely secular continent and the home peninsula of an ancient faith, that sets it apart from anything I can imagine. A relationship can be both necessary and unsustainable. It wouldn’t take much – say, some violence within the Gulf Cooperation Council, which seemed imminent in 2017 – for Europe’s exposure to the Gulf to age as much as its previous openness to Russia. If Abu Dhabi-owned Manchester City is found to have committed financial chicanery, part of the Premier League’s history will be tarnished. Because it’s “just” sport, I feel like people aren’t adequately prepared for the backlash.
And it is reasonable to assume that the relationship could only ever fail on one side. It is the golf side that has to make the most difficult cultural adjustments. Because Europeans associate 1979 with Iran and perhaps Margaret Thatcher, they sometimes ignore the occupation of the Grand Mosque in Mecca by zealots who thought the House of Saud had become soft to Western ways. The governments in the region certainly do not forget this.
How far a place can liberalize without triggering a cultural connection is a concern for every state or emirate (and is answered differently in each state). Everyone is very nice to “Mister Janan” in his hotel in Doha. But the metal scanners, which must be passed each time you re-enter the building, are a reminder of what is at stake here. I wonder if Europe and the Gulf are putting so much into their connection because they doubt it can last.
Send Janan an email at janan.ganesh@ft.com
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