MENA Mining Congress in Dubai, UAE (Oct. 10-17, 2008)

MENA stands for ‘Middle Eastern and North Africa’.  Mena Mining is a congress that focusses on exploration, investment and development for miners, financiers and investors.  It is an attempt to help develop mining industry opportunities for oil rich countries looking to diversify their economies away from oil (which will eventually run out).

Flying into the airport one realizes the magnitude of the construction and buildings that extend well into the sky. Modern mountains constructed by a society built on the extraction of oil from the desert. 40 years ago this city barely existed.  There was virtually nothing here but desert.  Today, it is considered the place to be. 

I arrive at the Raffles Hotel Dubai, driven in a luxury vehicle equipped to take on the desert.  The heat outside is 52 degrees celsius and there isn’t a single person walking on the streets.  Traffic is heavy and slow.  Along the highway I see the subway system being constructed – one more piece necessary to complete the city of the future.

As we pull into the hotel, the door man and bell boy greet me in designer uniforms reminescent of an era that only existed in Amerian movies while I was growing up. 

My suite is larger and more luxurious than a newly built downtown Toronto apartment and why wouldn’t it be at the  prices this hotel charges? There is a security guard at the bottom of the elevators and another one on my floor.  Outside my door is a waiting man servant.  After the bell boy gives  me the tour he introduces me to the servant who asks me if I’d like a snack or refreshment.

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This is only the beginning of an experience that ends with me sharing smoking pipes with members of one of the richest families in Saudi Arabia.  I’m feeling dizzy and I’m not sure whether its the grape flavoured tobacco or the excitement of discussing projects with some of the richest men in the world.