"And now our challenge is how to really persuade the UAE people to travel on this train. They will take time but this is there.Now, admittedly, he doesn't say he's going to commute to the Palace every day by Metro (I'm guessing he lives close to the office anyway), but he does say he will travel on it. And so will foreigners. It's the locals that need persuading. And he seems intent on persuading them. Good. I'm no monarchist, but if you're going to have a monarch, one who tries to actually lead and provide a role model seems the best you can ask for."Foreigners will travel on it, I will travel, but it will take time to make UAE citizens travel on the train."
It is also interesting to note how he made this known. Through his Facebook page. Now his Facebook page, if this is it, is invitation only, but you can watch the video of his inaugurating the Dubai Metro on his public website. Here's a photo of him dedicating the Metro:
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Then again, I'll bet he'll have no trouble finding a seat.
And it's worth noting that Sheikh Muhammad is an avid horse breeder and sportsman (there's even a "sporting events" category on his website), and he isn't always in full dishdasha:
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In any event, bravos to Sheikh Muhammad for at least saying he'll ride the subway. Dubai sometimes seems like the strangest place in the entire Middle East, but its Ruler seems to be pretty well attuned to political gestures, even if there's no real politics per se.
3 comments:
Take a virtual tour of Dubai's Metro.
http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/Traffic_and_Transport/10349920.html
No problem accessing the Gulf News story, but the link to the virtual tour doesn't seem to be working.
There's a typo in the Gulf News link. The proper link is http://virtualtransport.rta.ae/
Looks like a computer game to me. Not sure I want to put it in the blog.
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