The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast - 400. An Alternative to Western Nihilism | His Excellency Saeed Al Nazari

Episode Date: November 27, 2023

Dr. Jordan B Peterson sits down with the Secretary General of Great Arab Minds, His Excellency Saeed Al Nazari. They discuss the origins of the United Arab Emirates, how the Abraham Accords and a Tri-Faith system have taken effect and opened dialogue, the projects spearheaded by Saeed for the education, entrepreneurialism and empowerment of young Emiratees, and why the unique vision and strong values of the UAE have lifted the country to unimaginable heights in only half a century. ​​His Excellency Saeed Al Nazari is the Secretary General of Great Arab Minds. He is also spearheading Transformational Projects and Creative Affairs at the Executive Office of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, in addition to the Mohammed bin Rashid Leadership Development Center and the Arab Strategy Forum.  - Links - For His Excellency Saeed Al Nazari: On Instagram https://instagram.com/saeedalnazari?igshid=NzZlODBkYWE4Ng== On X https://x.com/SaeedAlnazari?s=20 On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/saeedalnazari?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app 

Hello everyone watching and listening. Today I'm speaking with the Secretary General of Great Arab Mines, his excellency, Said ElNathari. We discuss the origins of the United Arab Emirates, how the Abraham peace accords and the Tri-Faith initiative have taken effect and open dialogue between the peoples of the Abrahamic faiths. We discuss the projects spearheaded by Saeed for the education, entrepreneurial development, and empowerment of young Emirates. And how the unique vision and strong values of the United Arab Emirates have lifted the country to heights unimaginable only half a century ago. I've interviewed a fair number of people from the Arab world and from the Muslim world more broadly, and I've also delved to some degree into the Abraham Accords,

which I'm very excited about. And I'm very much interested in talking to you today about the United Arab Emirates. And so I thought we might as well start with some really basic questions, because lots of people who are listening won't know as much about your country as they might. And so the first obvious thing to talk about is tell us exactly where you're situated geographically, who your immediate neighbors are and the size of the country, just the basic details. Well, Jordan, thank you to have me on.

It's great to see you screen to screen and hopefully very soon we'll be meeting face to face in the UAE. The United Arab Emirates located in the Middle East. I'm not sure how accurate is Wikipedia, but it says you were born in 1962. Jordan, if you look at the United Arab Emirates in 1962, you would see an area of sand. It had almost every single reason for it not to be successful, for it not to exist. It had every single factor for it to be an impossible nation. in the Middle East, one of the world's most unstable region, ongoing conflicts in the

Middle East, tensions, failed states, and then, besides that, you have the environment, the harsh climate, heat waves. I just recently saw an article that there are some Western cities who may face an environment or whether that somehow close to what the Middle East is experiencing, what in 2,000 hundred. That risk comes 70 years to experience what we have been experiencing for 50 years. And then you also had the infrastructure, basic infrastructure. I grew up listening to stories about how hard it was to move from one place to another,

how small were the houses, families were, and very limited small houses where you barely have a place for a bed. You had all these factors, the unstable region, the environment, the infrastructure. Yet here I am living in one of the most secured, safe, cleanest, diverse cities on earth. And that's the UE. The UE we live in today, along with 200 different nationalities. It has one of the worst top competitive cities, Dubai, Bolabi, and many other cities.

It has been a bacon of hope. It has been a model that is homegrown in the Middle East and approved one thing that you have been discussing for so long, vision. What does it mean to actually visualize a vision, visualize a goal? I think that you is the ultimate case study to showcase the power and impact of a vision. And so tell me, let's go over some basics again and then we'll talk about the vision. What's the population of the UAE now? It's almost 9.5 million.

And do by itself how many people live there? Well the exact numbers, I don't have the exact numbers handy now, but they are militia and so on. And who are your immediate neighbors? Who are you surrounded by? Where's the one that's by Gulf States? I have Saudi Arabia, I'm on, and many other countries there in the Gulf States. All right. Now, you talked about the vision of the UAE and I presume since we started talking about 1962 that there was very little in the UAE in 1962 and you talked about the importance of a vision. So what was that vision and how did the UAE develop both economically

and socially? Jordan, if you look at the history of the United Arab Emirates, how it was formed, from basic infrastructure, some bit when families living in many different areas, small houses, small towns, divided areas, our founding father, the Leer Chich Zahid, have came with a vision, thought the power comes in unity. The power in futures also could be made by unity. He thought we should unite different emmerds, different tribes under one vision. That vision was to create hope out of this region. That vision was to actually build a nation that represent us in a way that should

be represented globally. Who are we as people of this region? What are our values? What are our culture through addition? How can we turn every single challenge into a solution, into an opportunity? Well, if you look at the location being in the Middle East is not something easy. It's filled with challenges. It's filled with instability. But then you could also turn that into a huge opportunity. You are a hub to the whole world. You are a hub to two billion people. You could reach East and West. That's how you turn a challenge into an opportunity. If you hear the messages that have been recorded by the founder,

Shiazayat, he was a very wise leader who believed that he would see this future coming. He could visualize the stuff. I can still hear some of his TV interviews in 1971 and 1975, as if he speaks about today's reality. He thought, yes, we will grow, yes, we will focus on education, yes, we will focus on trade, on economy, but then we will also stick to our identity, to our culture, to our values. We will send the message of hope out of this region because I think our neighbors, the 108 million young Arabs, would love to see a message of hope out of this region. We have seen for so long many challenges, many conflicts happening, and I think there is a huge hunger and need to see more messages of hope coming out of this region, from this region,

for this region, to show how modern that works. What were the Emirates? You made reference to tribal groups that were united. What were the Emirates exactly? And when did they unite? When was the country established? The country was established in 2 December 1971. At that day. So it's a very, very new country. Yes, it's a young country. And I think being young

made us all see how vision and hard work could actually turn them possible and too possible. Who thought that in 50 years time you could turn a place in the middle of the desert into the world's trade hub, into a place where it's among the top 10 most competitive cities in safety and security and trade and business. And you name it. I think it falls, speak about the rankings and I'll speak about the competitiveness of the cities. In the United Arab Emirates, I can speak for the next hour about how many

stuff that have been done in a way or in a quality that could compete with any city around the whole world. And what were the Emirates? If you look at it, well, I wasn't born in 1971, but what I heard from my family, my father, my grandfather, it was desert sandy area where you had tents in some areas, you had people who would work and farming in some areas, people who would go into fishing, and to pearl diving, and to trading. I think what was there back then, it was a trade hub. It have always been a trade hub because you trade with India, you trade with many other countries around.

But then the skills were different, the products were completely different, the products were completely different, the services were completely different. One thing was in comments, people wanted to actually invest in themself and their families, so they would even fly to get educated, they would also go and meet in many different universities or schools to actually get access to education. Education was very limited in the whole region. Most of the services were very limited, but I think our founding fathers,

the leadership, so a potential, so an opportunity, so a belief. And this goes back to the history of this region. So, a potential, so an opportunity, so a belief. And this goes back to the history of this region. If you look at the golden age of the Arab world, this region where behind many contributions were behind many sciences, you name it Al-Jabria Al-Hawar-Rizmi, and medicine, names of the exploration of different stars. There were many people in this region who contributed to the fundamentals of these sciences.

I think this has been building our confidence that we can do it. And that's the way today. So you said that, say back before 1971, the economy was rather rudimentary and the governmental structure was essentially tribal. And she, because I had united all those various tribes, now they had been fractious for a long time, what did he do that brought the unity about? You made reference to identity, culture, and value, but I'd like to know in more detail why did these tribal groups decide to band together and why has that maintained itself, given as you also pointed out, the tremendous instability that has characterized the Middle East for, well, forever, as far as all of us living today are concerned.

So how did he manage this vision? And what are the elements of identity, culture, and value you think that you knight you and allow you to be prosperous? I think Jordan, one thing that was clear enough for everyone, that the direct intention that the Leu Chircai had, he wanted good for everyone. He wanted to ensure that unity bring better good for everyone. It didn't happen in 1D or 1 month. He had been into that continuous conversation with every ruler of Dubai,

Sheikh Roshab bin Seed, with every ruler of different areas, at the United Arab Emirates, discussing how we can bring unity, how can we build something that's bigger than all of us? That's what we study in history, that's what our parents actually have experience and lived. So my dad was following that these discussions and everyone celebrated on the 2nd December 1971 when it happened actually happened because they heard about many trials of unity in the region, many of them fate and many of them didn't work, but what made it work, I think, that deep, bold, hard work

plan to stick to our vision and showcase a vision with good intentions, with purpose and with passion. If you hear the Leerci Chazid speaks about unity or human resources. He usually do it with passion. You can know how honest he is, you can know how he actually visualized that vision. And that's, look at the way today, went from a Sunday place to exploring Mars, right now we have an astronaut at the International Space Station. So one of the things that everybody who's watching and listening might do well to consider is that Sayyid just made reference to the honesty of

Shiks I had. And we have this idea often in our culture, especially among the people who are more cynical and nihilistic that, if you're manipulative and you take advantage and you win in your business dealings and you're a hard-ass sort of wolf of all-street kind of character, then you'll come up on top with your dominance and your willingness and ability to use force. And almost all that's nonsense. I mean, most of the criminally psychopathic oriented types who use dominance, they end up, well, they often meet a violent end, but they're very rarely successful. And the reason for that is that you can fool people once or twice, but you can't fool

them consistently. And this is actually why I was so interested in why, in how the unity of the UAE was brought about, because in order to make something work over, well, let's say generations, but even over the span of a lifetime, you better not be lying to the people that you're negotiating with, because if you do, they will, especially if you come, you know, like a wolf in sheep's clothing, they will not be happy about that and they will absolutely take their revenge. And so if you want to be successful, you said he did genuinely want the best for the people of the region.

So he was aiming up and he was honest. And you can get an awful long way aiming up and being honest. And so, all right, so he had a vision and he was a trustworthy person and he spoke with passion. Now how did the UAE develop economically? That was primarily oil, I presume. And people might think, well, the reason the UAE is doing so well is because it has oil and that's basically cheap riches.

And it doesn't take a lot of work to do well when you're receiving billions of dollars. But I would counter that by saying that there are plenty of countries on the planet that have no shortage of natural resources that are corrupt beyond belief and that are miserable beyond imagination. And all of whose wealth is devoted to a very small number of people who are, in fact, very crooked and everything is hell. And so money alone is not going to bring the kind of stability and vision that you're talking about relationship to the UAE.

So what, what, tell us how the, tell us how the economy of the area has grown and how you guys have determined to diversify and to like stabilize your economy across time. Well, you say that Jordan, oil is an enabler and you can't be over-dependent on oil. Actually, if you look at many different countries, oil could be occur sometimes, because over-dependence of on oil would let you make short-term decisions to actually increase your revenue and so on.

What have been made in the UAE is completely different. Actually, we started thinking of diversification of the economy right away. Let's say Dubai, for example, today, 95% of the GDP is not coming from the oil. Less than 5% depends on oil. That's Dubai, one of the most competitive economies in the whole region. I think what we did very well is turning of your problem into an opportunity. We used location very well to be a hub and a trade, but then to actually be a hub, you need a complete redesign of the environment, you will need to design logistics,

you need to design enablers, you need to design an environment where people feel safe to chase their dreams, feel safe to actually be part of what's being built. And I think that what made And I think that what made today's economy, the economy we see, because everyone felt that they want to be part of this thing happening in the UAE, part of bringing hope to life, part of bringing vision to reality, part of challenging every single obstacle, I think it became a sort of a movement that humanity felt we could see a civilization being built here right in the Middle East and the UAE. And then you see many companies have trusted the UAE and its stability. They moved their headquarters through the there are many homegrown companies like Emirald Sierlein, which is among the worst top airlines at the Hulla Dierlein, another great company. And then you have DP Ward,

handling many ports worldwide. You have many other companies, one after another, and then you have foreign investors coming. I think we also went into advancing our skills in many different industries. We have now many Emirates actually, in many different industries, in logistics, in transportation, and materials, and engineering, they have different companies, they have products, and we maintain to have credibility on the way we work. We maintain to have also consistency,

because if you look at the UAE in 1971 and then 1975 and then 1990s, 2005, 2020, every year makes the UAE stronger, brighter. It turns the story into a story of vision that came true and a vision that guides us for the next 50 years. Yeah, well, you know, my daughter has spent time in Dubai. And she's enjoyed a lot. She said that the entrepreneurial buzz there is remarkable. I suppose in elegus in some ways to Silicon Valley, or maybe in elegus at the moment

to also modern Israel, real hub of development. She also said that it's an extraordinarily safe and clean and well run city. And I have some questions about that. So we had, I had talked to her about potentially considering moving some of the operations that I'm involved in to Dubai. And let me ask you the questions that came to mind as a consequence of that.

You must obviously know the answers because you've attracted all sorts of companies. I know the tax situation in Dubai is favorable to people who are engaged in entrepreneurial enterprises. The concern, one of the concerns I had was, let's say, the sanctity of private property. I mean, a lot of people who've invested in China have had second thoughts in recent years because they've found that it isn't obvious what exactly what they own. You know, and one of the advantages to being located in summer like the United States, in particular, the United States, but you could say the same thing about Great Britain and most of the country's derived from English common law tradition is that if you own something, you can be pretty damn sure that it's yours.

And that's a really hard thing to establish, right? Because in the entire history of humankind, one of the most likely consequences of owning something was that someone was going to take it from you. And now you said, you know, the UAE has had a pretty good track record for nine or 50 years, and that's starting to become a reasonable amount of time. Why do you think it is that companies have trusted you to move their assets to the UAE? And why do you think it is that they can trust you? Jordan, well, I'm glad that your daughter experienced what Dubai is and I'm very excited for you to experience what Dubai and the UAE is. I think they don't, they

didn't just move their camp, their companies and businesses. I think they move their most valuable asset, their families. I hear hundreds and thousands of stories of people who have been moving to Dubai and Bolabi and the UAE with their families, growing their children here in this environment. I think what we did very well and I can't speak about the whole government or the UAE, but with my own personal view is we designed an environment government where we feel we own what we work hard for. Now currently the real estate market is booming in Dubai. There are thousands of people moving into Dubai. There are thousands of people buying in Dubai.

They do that because basically they trusted the system. They trusted the government. They trusted the environment. They do that because basically they trust it. The system, they trust it. The government, they trust it. The environment. And you can't buy trust. There is no way you can buy trust, but you can build it and you can earn it. And this earning and build comes in a result of

a long, credible, consistent, hard work, and a system that works. I live in this neighborhood in Dubai, in every single neighborhood. You would find a Marathi family. You would find families from Canada, from UK, from China, from Bangladesh. You named it from India. Many other people, 200 different nationalities have chosen Dubai to be a place for their business, for their families, for their growth.

They chose the UAE because they know that living in one neighborhood, walking a 3 a.m. at night, they wouldn't even face a 0.1% of a threat to their safety, to their security, to their assets, to their privacy. We have respect, but we also have order, and order that works to maintain a lifestyle that humanity deserves. I think what we managed very well is now they speak a lot about micro ecosystems and micro environments when you try to design a micro environment, a garden, shading system in your house where you design your own micro environment. I think what the UA have been doing, designed a whole micro-word in Dubai and in Mullah Biyon, the UAE, where you would see the whole world, the ideal part of the world, being

flourished here. And that's why people trust, because they trust the system, they trust the order, they trust the way it was designed. Okay, so let me ask you some questions about that. You know, I spent a fair amount of time 25 years ago looking at the difference between Japan and the United States on the education front and also the economic front. And this was at a time, I guess it was in the 1980s, so I guess that's more like 40 years ago. When there was concerns throughout the Western world or apprehension that Japan was going to

be a monolithic and dominating economic force because it had exploded onto the scene in an absolutely remarkable manner, produced a huge economy. And one of the things that struck me about Japan and was that it was in some ways a very, very conservative society. Now, there was some advantages to that. The Japanese education system before university is top rate.

Their universities aren't very good though, and that's relevant to the place that I'm going. Now, in the US, the grade school system isn't as good as the Japanese school, but the universities are a lot better. In the US, there's more crime, but there's also more creativity. If you look at the curves for criminality and the curves for creativity

across the age span, they actually match pretty closely. And that's because there's actually a fair bit of entrepreneurial drive in criminal activity. So, for example, among drug dealers in the United States, drug dealers are more likely than their peers to also be employed. And so now I'm not making a case for the benefit of criminal entrepreneurial activity. My point is this is that it's very difficult to get the balance between security and freedom right, right? And if you tilt towards too much towards security, you risk suppressing people to the point where you'll interfere with creative, free enterprise expression, not just on the business side, but on the

generally creative side. And so, I know that from all reports that Dubai is an incredibly safe environment. And you hear exactly the same thing, for example, with regards to Singapore. And Singapore also is doing extremely well economically. But the question arises in my mind is that, well, are you buying that security at the price of a necessary freedom? And what's the evidence that that's a reasonable medium to long-term trade? So, have that. I'd like to know your thoughts on that. Well, Jordan, if you look at the security, there are many parts of it. Yes, one part is

government's interference, regulations, laws, and stuff that we maintain, to maintain security and order. But then another part goes deep into who we are, our DNA, which character we build in our people. And that goes into the society, into the environment, into generations. I think what we managed to do is we managed to build people, or attract even people, who can know the difference between order and chaos, who can know the difference between having a secured environment, safe environment, and having a creative environment, which also could be alone with that environment. I think the issue is not with how security restricts creativity, but how actually have a room for creativity while you maintain security.

And there are many opportunities where you can see that happening in Dubai. If you're just Google Dubai or Google, do a search on the most beautiful buildings worldwide. Or when did humanity actually showcase their creativity in the way they build the stuff, on the way they design stuff? You would always here Dubai. you would always see Dubai. We have creative artists, designers from all over the world came to this place to actually showcase their creativity, to actually also showcase where humans can show different ideas. We have ideas on tolerance, ideas on connectivity, ideas on culture differences and similarities.

We hosted the word export 2020. We're almost every single country, participated, designed, something that represents that nation and showed the whole world on what are their values and beliefs and their culture. And it was like a beautiful competition where we compete on building better civilization, better future for generations. And that's happening right away. It was live in X-POT 2020 in Dubai. And yet, zero crimes at X4 2020, extremely safe environment. I guess the number of each 25 million visitors to that show, the X4 2020 show. And you see that happening every day. You have zones, you have clusters like the Dubai Internet City, Dubai Design District, Dubai Media City, where you have people from all over the world

coming in to work and build and design something. So I think if you design the right environment and then build the right or embed the right values and people's DNA, you can actually hit the formula right. Okay, okay, so let's let's talk about that for a minute. I mean, one of the major contributor contributors to criminality and general chaos in the West, and that's particularly true at the moment in the United States, is the rise of single parent families,

right? Fatherlessness kids, especially fatherless boys, because they're much more likely to grow up to engage in untoward behavior. And so that raises a question, which is if you're not going to rely on oppression and the police, for example, to maintain security, but you want to build a society that's predicated on values that are solid so that security and creativity can both flourish. What are the values that you have to instantiate? And so what do you think that you're doing right on the value side with regards to your culture that's providing this more optimized mix of security and creativity. I think a Jordan part of that comes from who we are.

If you look at the Arabic values, the Arabic culture, the values of this region for decades have been based on tolerance, based on accepting others based on generosity based on the golden rule that many different faith and religion speaks about that you wish for others what you wish for yourself. Hundreds of of courts and examples and stories about that that what our parents and families speaks about that our responsibilities towards the community, towards neighbors, you will find it in our faith, you would find it in Islam, you would find it in our culture, hospitality is a huge thing and there are a culture. You would see it in the traditions, you would see it in every

single part of our culture. And looking at all of these, I think we managed to build a character and character building is something that somehow turned to show its results today. Because when you build a character with the right set of values, you embed the right set of values, you actually also build immunity, immunity against different thoughts that may not work a line with who we are. And that's something very, very important for us to maintain as a legacy that, yes, we are a global city. Yes, we are part of the whole world. But then we also know exactly how to differentiate

between what represents our value and what doesn't represent our value. This doesn't mean that we will disrespect the other. This doesn't mean that we may always put a block in different thoughts. We learn, we grow, but then when you build that immunity system, I think it works like how our body works. It knows which vitamins or which part to take and which part to leave or actually defend against. And that's what we made, I think it's it happened.

I see it, I see it every day. I see it in families, I see it in parents, I see it in school, I see it in universities. Where even day. I see it in families, I see it in parents, I see it in school, I see it in universities. Where even before you see an action in government, I think you would see people mentioning that, oh, this idea actually represents who I am, and this doesn't represent who I am. I think we should maintain this for the next generation, because you see how the words getting is scary to see where the words heading in some areas. You scroll down on your phone, you may see Jordan Peterson speaks about vision and personality, but

then you swipe and see some horrible ideas on different acts or different beliefs that I don't, that aims to take us back 100 years ago or 200 years ago or take us into chaos. And here is, I think, where we build the immunity and the wisdom of picking the right decision. with them off picking the right decision. So, I'm particularly curious on the family front. How, to what degree are families in the UAE still traditionally intact rather than broken? What's your divorce rate like? I don't know if you have those stats at hand

and maybe you don't. And what's the birth rate? Because you know in the West, the birth rate in many countries is plummeted far below replacement. It's, and it's part of the fractionation of the family. And that seems like a very, very bad long-term strategy. So how are you guys doing on the birth rate in divorce front? And what's the typical structure of a family in, in the UAE? Well, I usually prefer to be accurate when it comes to numbers, but then I don't have the numbers handy yet. If you look at how the lifestyle of families here

in the United Arab Emirates, I could see my family itself. The bonding is always, the family is always a big thing here. The family always comes first. The family always is the first guiding campus for us. Where are we heading, who we are, what are our beliefs and values. And I think we have many rituals where we actually always allocate some time to spend days, spend different occasions with family. Just last week was the read holiday where you'd see families

gathering, it's a celebration for everyone. And then I know most of the families around, they meet every week and we used to have way bigger families before were almost every family, consists of five to six members, maybe with the current busy lifestyle, numbers sometimes gets decreased a bit, but I think the value of family estate is very, very strong. Well, I've got some stats here that are very interesting. So in 2018, in the UAE, the divorce rate stood at 12 percent and then it was 13% in 2019 and 20 but it dropped in 2021 to 9 and continued its downward trend in 2022 to 3% testifying to the development of

processes and interactive programs that have proven beneficial to the parties to the conflict. So it looks that's Abu Dhabi judicial outreach program succeeds in reducing divorce rate to 3%. So it looks like you're doing pretty good on the divorce rate front. The birth rate, let me just check that because that's also an issue of interest. Let's see what have we got here on the birth rate. 1.46 per woman. So it's low, but not as low as it is in many countries. So now, okay, so now you talked about the values that stabilize the country, that make it secure, and that also allow for creativity.

And maybe we've gone over this, but I'm gonna hit it one more time. Those values in the Middle East have been around for a long time, including the value of hospitality. But the region still has been extremely fratious. Now, you've quelled that to a large degree in the UAE. And so I'm still curious about that. You've obviously done something like universalize these values so that they can embrace a larger number of people. But, and you said you did that through passionate leadership and vision and trust and then

fortunate economic circumstances. And maybe that's a sufficient answer. Maybe we'll turn to something else. Yes, I, a couple of other things. What's the situation with women's rights in the UAE? And how is that similar or different to the state that obtains in the countries around you? Well, the case for women rights and gender balance in the UAE is very, very unique.

I think it's competitive worldwide. If you look at the workforce in our government, for example, more than 60% are women. I have worked in 12 different jobs. Six of them I had female managers in many cases. Woman rights is something we have been raising and growing and having it as a priority. It's part of who we are again. I have a daughter who I think every single member of this family have celebrated from the day she was born, when she is born, she got a letter from the UA president telling her that we want you to actually represent the values of the Leachers-Eyerzai.

We want you to carry that legacy forward. And then women get educated and I think we are on the top highest rates from moving to school to university, worldwide, in terms of how many graduates women we have. I think the rights women have in every aspect of the quality of life here in the United Arab Emirates, you could see the balance, you could see the support, you could see everyone enable her to flourish, enable her to be cushy, to build a family, to build a career, to build a success. Look at marriage, there are hundreds of policies

to actually support marriage. Look at being in the workforce. There are lots of policies now with Harvard, model of work, with flexibility in hours, and timings, and attendance, and all these stuff, I think it made it even not only easier but also made it even safe to be who you are. If you decided to focus on your family or you focus on your studies or focus on your office, working hours or focus on your career growth or your business, you can basically

get support and the government will handle its responsibility and families will handle its responsibility to celebrate you wherever you are. And so you may hear that many people actually call, let's say, my name is Saeed but some people call me Bhusham, which means the father of Shem. And we have that in our bi-taradition where they know that the most valuable thing for a man is his daughter, his son. So they name me after my daughter. That's how much we respect actually women or how much I respect my daughter. And actually, I feel proud every time I hear her name. And I want to be the best father I could or be the best employee I could for her and for many others. So now it seems to me, although Saudi Arabia has been liberalizing its attitude towards

women's rights in recent years. It seems to me that there's a marked difference between the UAE and Saudi Arabia on the women's rights front. And so why did those two societies develop in different directions? And what do you see happening in Saudi Arabia on the women's rights front? Well, I like how I think the region is diverse. If you spend time in Dubai and then go and spend time in Cairo, or spend time in Muscat, or spend time in Aman, it's different.

Yes, there are common values. There are always Arabic language. There is always Islamic traditions. But then the way the societies live for growth is completely different. There are different opinions, there are different point of views. And I think the region is somehow heading to a very bright positive side. I see something happening in the region. I see hope in the region when I meet young Arabs when I meet decision-makers in their report. Dubai just hosted a word export and now you, Saudi Arabia is applying to host word export, do a hair horse at the word cup. You have many

other cities are planning to build new cities, build a new islands, have new tourism experiences. And I think that goes back to an event that I attended in every other Saudi Arabia, where the crown prince had a talk there. And he said, in back in 90s, he saw a man or a leader that showed and proved to the whole region what could be possible. And how to design and build something global out of this region. And that person was his Highness Sheikh Mohammed, the UA Prime Minister.

It made me feel proud at that moment of who we are and what's our impact. But then I see it everywhere, Jordan. I don't see it only on GCC. I even see it across the globe. I see articles. I saw an article on BBC where it was about the next Dubai of Africa, where could be the next Dubai B and Africa, where could be where are the next growing cities in the Middle East or many different areas. I like how

the UAE, how Dubai, how Bolavi became a model that works and that shows you can actually achieve what your dreams or vision are. And a very short time and your age and my age, we can actually build a whole nation. So let's talk about, I'd like to talk about the international scene a little bit now. So how are your relationships with your immediate neighbors? And so I want to know that. And what direct influence you think the success of the UAE has had on their development strategies? Let's start with that.

How are your relationships with your immediate neighbors? Who are your strong allies? Who do you feel that you're collaborating with to build a more positive vision of the future on the Arab side? Okay, I'm not a diplomat. I won't speak on behalf of our embassies or our ambassadors. But what I see is you have maintained a positive relationship, a respecting relationship with almost every single country worldwide.

That's why we gained trust from many different countries. That's why we became the world a smaller world in this nation. You would see us participating in every single mission or act that helps humanity grow. Look at the numbers. Look at the numbers. You would see the UA among always among the top five when it comes to four and eight, when it comes to support human humanitarian activities. That goes back to 1971. You would see many hospitals, many schools, many universities, many clinics. Wordward are named after the Le Chichzaiet or named after the UAE. Just recently I was in Washington DC and I met a friend of mine there. He told me I actually go

for my clinic appointments to a hospital where the UA invested heavily in for its research, for its services in Washington DC. And the same you would hear it in many different countries where actually you would see the UAE's and leadership footprint. There, there is something good happening. There is that what again built credibility in this country, that again built why this country is special, this country is different. You would hear many heads of states speaks proudly about their partnership with the UAE. It's a small country, but it showed the whole world that you could actually have a huge impact.

What's your relationship? Let's talk a little bit about the Abraham Accords and your relationship with Israel. What's happening on that front and what are the challenges and advantages to those, to such initiatives? You, you have lived it. You have here it for 20, 30 years. Conflicts and tensions, we didn't see a result. I think there were no winner in conflicts and tensions. The UAE took a whole different directions. The UAE took the direction of actually looking at peace and tolerance, but then be brave and bold enough to act on peace and tolerance.

We all won, we all in campaigns, and tolerance, but then be brave and bold enough to act on peace and tolerance. We all want, we're all in campaigns in a strategy, say, that we want to be more tolerant, more accepting, more respecting, but then what proves all these campaigns or all these beautiful messages is what are your actions or what are your movements toward peace. And I think that something we have showed very clearly in the way where you would see everyone from any other nationality, any religion that would feel respected, to feel safe, and actually feel inspired, feel inspired to accept the other and feel inspired to see what brings us together. I can spend this hour, Jordan to speak about how close we

are when it comes to thoughts or I can also look at it from a very dark lens where we see how different we are. I think we chose the right lens. We chose to be also a bacon of hope, to send that message out to have an inspire others. If it works in the UAE and you see peace actually in action in the UAE, you see respecting different cultures and nations are happening are happening here right now. Why do you want to wait for for for you to actually be more tolerant? I think no one will win against tolerance. So you're you know, you mentioned earlier that you see in Dubai a competition between different modes of productivity and generosity, let's say, who can make the best offer?

And I've been thinking this through on the religious front, we have three major religions emerging from the Middle East, all part of the Abrahamic tradition, all monotheistic, all people of the book, embroiled internally in conflict over nominally religious matters for centuries in the West and in the Middle East, and then also engaged in conflict between the major religions. And it seems to me that, you know, we're at a point in our historical development where what we should be engaging in

is something like a competition of invitation. And you could say, well, you know, if you have faith in your tradition, then you could be an avatar of that tradition. And you could live in the most noble manner. You could possibly imagine. And if you turn out to be a shining beacon on the hill and other people are attracted, well, then you win. And that's a good competition.

And now, I know there have been multi-faith initiatives in UAE. It has a tradition of, I don't think religious tolerance is exactly the right word. It's more like something approximating a genuine appreciation for diversity. Do you want to talk a little bit about what's been happening in the UEA on the faith side? Because I think that strikes me as extremely important. And the UE, you would find mosques, you would find shirts, you would find synagogues, we have the Abrahamic house in Bulbabi. I think what we have been building here in the UAE is actually an environment where we respect every single religion and we respect our differences in a way that we accept others, we accept what's different and what,

and we focus on what brings us together. Like, I had a conversation with many from different face, and we were speaking about leadership building, and about character building. And then the name Profit Moses came, a profit who we do respect, and the counterparty spoke to me about a leadership program where they designed based on the journey of Prophet Moses, and how he actually became who he is and who he was. And that's something we really appreciate in the Islamic culture and Islamic tradition, because that story is in our Quran, you would see it in Bible, you would see it in many other books. And I think focusing on areas where we see how different faith brings different messages

or different stories or different values and see where are the common areas. I think that's where our strength comes from. And there are hundreds and thousands of areas where you could agree and I could agree and many other people from many different fields could agree that yes, this is part of who we are or this is part of who we are, or this is part of who we believe in, or this is the God we worship. And that's how we worship them, and that's how we actually serve our nation, our planet, our community. Well, one of the most remarkable initiatives that I've seen in recent years, along with the Abraham Accords, which established peace between Israel and a variety of Arab states is the

Abrahamic family house, which is a very impressive complex that has on the same site a mosque, a church, and a synagogue and you know, that seems to me to be symbolically emblematic of what's happening in the UAE. Now that just opened recently, I believe, right? That's what in the last is it the last six months that's certainly within the last year.

Yes, it's it's it's so. What is the concept? What has been the consequence of that enterprise and how is it set in motion? Why did it succeed? Today, I was spending some time on social media and a video of a student, I think almost seven years old student came out

that he actually went to a tour with his family to that Abrahamic house. And he was telling the whole word, I think, sorry, what's among 10, 12 years old, I'm not sure how old he was. But he was telling the whole word that, oh, look at this place where actually Muslims, Christians, Jews could worship in different buildings that represent their different worships or different faith, worshipping one God actually happened here right away in Nabobabi, this place is public. It built on an idea that's simple, yet bold and sharp. Just think about it. Many different religious religions, faiths, people from many different faith coming together in

one place, living with peace. It's actually possible. It's happening. You don't need a magic stick for it to happen. You will need to design the right environment for it to happen. The right conversations, the right dialogue, the right environment for it to happen, the right conversations, the right dialogue, the right inspiration for your next generation. And I don't see any challenge to bring it to life, to bring gas to all of us together and closer.

Yeah, well that would, wouldn't that be a wonderful thing? I mean, you know, I was ill for a couple of years and wasn't paying much attention to initiatives on the international front, but when I sort of sprang back to life in 2020, one of the first things I turned my attention to was the Abraham Accords and the fact that something genuinely new and positive seemed to be emerging in the Middle East. And like, it was a big deal. And I was quite stunned by, in some ways, by how little attention was paid to that in the West, because it struck me as one of the most vital developments on the international

front. Well, certainly in the last 50 to 70 years, but perhaps even beyond that, especially if it's allied as you're pointing out with an actual transformation of vision. If we could tilt things, the collective we, if we could tilt things so that we started to regard people of faith, let's say, as allies instead of as mortal enemies, then God only knows what we could produce. And I would also say that the people of the Abrahamic faiths,

let's say, have bigger fish to fry on the enmity front than each other. You know, there's, there's, uh, uh, and then this is particularly relevant in the West. If the traditional religious structures collapse, all sorts of bizarre systems of belief, um, make themselves manifest as a replacement. And as far as I can tell, those replacements aren't all that desirable. And so it seems to me to be only wise on the parts of part of Jews, Christians, and Muslims to look to what they have in common and to foster that. And it's very, very heartening to see a country like the UAE, which can punch above its weight,

and which is small enough to be governable, but large enough to be a model to actually take the initiative on this front. I'm very much looking forward. I'm going to go to the UAE. I think I'm going in October, in early October. I'm very much looking forward to going to Abu Dhabi and seeing this tri-faith establishment. That's for sure. And then, also, obviously, to see the other cities.

I'm very much looking forward to that, because I think it's a huge deal. This is something of historical significance, the establishment of the Abrahamic House. The fact that you were able to do it, that it's been successful. I know that it was in, let me see here, the Pope visited in 2019. It was the first by a Pope to the Arabian Peninsula. During that trip, he signed a joint declaration with the Grand E-Mam of El Azar that called for religious tolerance and dialogue.

It's like, well, you know, hey, a little more of that would be a very, very good thing. So that's all extraordinarily positive. And so, all right, so let's turn our attention a little bit more specifically to the sorts of projects that you've been involved with. You have spearheaded 50 projects, a lot of them concentrating on youth.

So why don't you delve into what you've been doing on that front? Because I'm very curious, we talked before this partly what brought this podcast about. We had a conversation previously about what might be done on the psychological front to end the demoralization of young people and to provide them with a certain amount of hope, and it's certainly the case that helping young people develop a vision for the future is a, is, well, an obvious necessity, but also an externally cost-effective and efficient way of guiding developing souls into a beneficial and productive and generous future. You've been doing such things for a very long time.

So why don't you walk us through some of your projects? So Jordan, I'm also very excited for you to visit and experience the UAE. And one part of the UAE being a young country, most of our population are actually young people. Almost 50% of the UAE's population are young under the age of 35. The UAE government have established a Ministry of State for Youth Affairs and have established, I think, it took the boldest and the biggest steps when it comes to youth empowerment. You would hear people speaking about youth empowerment in many different countries, in panel discussion, and round tables.

In many occasions, these are strategies that management consultant offered, 500 major strategies that end up in the desk or sometimes end up to be a recommendation or a discussion. And you don't see it often in reality or you don't see actual steps taken by the government to transform all these recommendations into actionable results or facts and figures. The case is completely different than the United Arab Emirates. I used to work as a director for the Federal Youth Authority.

What my main ultimate mandate was to actually ensure we design the right environment for young people to reach their full potential. And today, if you look at the young people, if they knighted their Emirates, you would see that spark in their eyes. They want to be part of something bigger. That's something that I always wanted to be part of back in 2009, when I was a high school student, like many other young people, I thought, what would I want to be part of?

Why do I wish where I'm heading, what's the work I have I want to accomplish or what are my achievements? One ultimate source of inspiration was the UA leadership. I saw the crime minister working on many different projects, working on delivering different clusters, different economic achievements, different staff when it comes to infrastructure and so on. So like many other young people, I went and asked the big question on where I'm heading,

where do I want to be 10 years from now? That was back in 2009. So I found the Prime Minister's whoop page, and back then Hotmail was something cool and everyone used to mail others. And I found a link to actually email the Prime Minister. And I ended up emailing the Prime Minister, telling him that I'm amazed with all these achievements.

I'm amazed with the way you transform Vegem in reality. And I want to be part of this. I want to be part of your team. I want to be part of this purpose. I want to actually part of this. I want to be part of your team. I want to be part of this purpose. I want to actually help others the way I saw you guys inspired me, inspired me to be part of something bigger. And I send that email in many countries. You would think there are 10,000, 20,000, 50,000 emails goes to the leadership and are sometimes ending up in with the assistance.

I didn't have big expectation. I thought maybe, maybe one day, among the hundred or 1000 emails that my email could reach to the prime minister. Surprisingly enough, Surprisingly enough, a few days later, I get an email, says, dear saint, ambitious is great, work hard, look at the role models around, believe in what we are building, and one day you will have the opportunity because every single young person here in this country would have an opportunity. It was signed personally by the prime minister himself. I kept that email printed and framed in my office. I remember 10 years from that email. I met the prime minister for one of their events. He was in my office. During that time, the smile I saw, the moment I lived, I felt every second.

And deep inside, I felt that the power of having the right role model, that's the power of actually having and visualizing a vision and then working hard for that vision to happen. having and visualizing a vision and then working hard for that vision to happen. And that's the moment where I thought I should be part of and be responsible to help others find their goal, find their path, find their own models. That's when I ended up being part of the youth empowerment, initiatives and policies. We have many policies and projects where it sets young people into their priority. They are the one who designed their strategy,

they are the one who designed their policies. We used to have circles where we actually have the top decision makersmakers, young people, students discussing certain problems or certain challenges, and then actually empower them to design the solution, stuff related to education, to mental health, to housing, and let me give you an example on housing. We had the public policy advisor, we had a decision maker participating in one of the circles and we were young people discussing, well, building a house is not that ask that

is as easy as we think because many of us are not designers or not engineers and sometimes you will need proper budgeting, you would need proper timeline processes and so on. And we discussed maybe part of the solution could be actually to have a 101 fundamental course or guideline to help young people take that step. And there were the government, a week later signed a policy by the prime minister where actually it took quits and trained people

to take that milestone forward, to actually be prepared to build their house. And we have the same for building a family. We have the same to actually joining a workforce or a university. We have a lot of fancielers and we have policies. Okay, the same meaning, okay, yeah, okay. So the same meaning, you talked about family,

you talked about career, you talked about education. These enabling processes, what exactly do you do? And how many people is that affecting? And how do you know what the effect is? So how do you enable the young people on all these fronts? Well, we design products, products and policies and services. So one example, we have a policy where in every single government authority or a department or agency, you allocate a seat for young people where a young person would be part of that board, would be part of that board

meeting, would be part of that discussion, to actually transfer young people's views into the ultimate decision-making layer at that authority. That's one. That policy is signed. You have seats allocated for young people. You wouldn't find that in any government worldwide,

where we allocate a seat for young person every single board. Another initiative of our policy was actually designing different youth councils across the country, across the institution, across cities. We have the Dubai Youth Council, the Abu Dhabi Youth Council, we have councils across companies like Emirates Youth Council, DPWords, Youth Council, we have in agencies and ministries where you have the Ministry of Economy, Youth Council. This Youth Council acts as representation of what young people aspire

from these different ministries or these different corporation and they sit high enough to have a direct engagement. So they actually have some influence. Exactly. They do have a pro forma. Yes, they do have influence. They have the toolkit.

They have the support. They have the enablers. And I think what's very, very special in the United Arab Emirates is that direct bonding between young people and the leadership. Go industries and the neighborhood during your visit. I random survey on how many young Emirates I are actually met the president himself. You would find numbers and answers that you couldn't find in any other country worldwide. Our president, Desirein and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, I think he designed an engagement model between leadership and young people that doesn't exist anywhere.

He opens his place every week, sometimes every Monday, sometimes every Tuesday, where anyone I could go and visit and discuss some of my aspirations or discuss some of the challenges I'm facing. He is part of where are we heading? When I got married, I got a letter from him on congratulations on your marriage and then he also I have met him almost five times. That's me, I think there are hundreds of others and thousands of people who met him maybe ten times or twenty times. But that built the trust. So if you look at the formula on why the UAE is successful in terms of youth and in terms

of economy, we have the vision. We have a leadership that we trust and we trust because they represent who we are and when it comes to values, but they also show performance, performance that is exceptional. I think if you look at the achievements and the deliverables and the policies signed during crisis, during hardest times, it shows that this leadership not only care about this country, but cares also about the generation would come 10, 20, 30 years from now. And part of it comes from the responsibility of representing the founding father's value. I remember one of the occasions where the U.A. president had to meet one of the state leaders in one of the buildings.

And I was there at that building, and I saw his agenda. I know he had a long program then. While he walked in in the building, he actually spent time to have a direct interaction. He came not only to say hi, but to also ask about any challenges we face or ask about our dreams, have that conversation. I think what this leadership show in the United Arab Emirates, it gives people the value, the value they deserve.

I have been living in the United Arab Emirates, I never, ever saw any part of the ruling family crossed the signal, the street. I saw them in our weddings, I saw them in our, with us in our hardest time, I saw them actually leading projects and going into the field to see their projects and vision coming to life. And I don't, and you would see that, and you would experience that during your visit because it's facts and figures, it's numbers,

it's achievements, it's not an emotional opinion, what's this a credible opinion? Do you feel like, I would say there's widespread demoralization among young people in the West, and I think that's particularly true of young men. And I think the reasons are basically three-fold. The first is that we do a very bad job of managing the play preference and the activity preference of boys in our early education system. And so our elementary schools are not well designed for what boys need.

And then on the ideological front, we insist at every possible turn that any manifestation of masculine ambition is part of the system of patriarchal oppression, that's what would you call, wreak havoc in a demonic way since the beginning of time. And so, the boys learn to identify their ambition with pathological power. And then if they manage to escape those two things, then the next thing they're told is that all human activity is nothing but destructive, that we're taking the planet into an environmental apocalypse and that everything's going to collapse. In any case, and it's the fault of human action. And the combination of those three things is, you could add pornography into the mix just

to mop up any boys that might have escaped from those three things. And we've done a pretty spectacular job of demoralizing young people in the West, and it's not pretty. And so would you say that in the UAE, that the young people that are part of your culture are looking to the future with hope? I mean, I know you're putting forward an optimistic vision, and it's a credible vision, and it's credible because there are markers of its success, right? It's not just talk, but you know, at least to some degree,

what's happening in the West on the ideological front and the demoralization front. Do you think that you guys have been successful at providing a positive vision and motivating while young men in particular? We talked about young women already. You've got the women's rights approach fully active, you said women are well integrated into your culture at every level.

Are your young people looking forward to the future with a certain degree of hope? So, Jordan, I have studied with young people, worked with young people, and also been offering public service to young people. Part of my mandate was to actually interact with young people on daily basis. And what I saw is not just hope, I actually saw a drive to build something big, to build the next big thing for this nation, to actually turn another impossible into possible. And we have many examples on stuff that happens in schools, in universities. 10 years ago, if you asked a young man, would you ever dream to go to the space or would you, what would be your dream? I don't think the answer about going or exploring the space

would exist back then in the airport. It was something almost impossible. It was something that's far away. You don't see young Arabs actually exploring space. For so, for decades, for 30, 40 years. Now, if you go to the schools and they knighted their exploring space for so for decades for 30, 40 years. Now if you go to the schools and they knighted our Abrameras and meet many young kids and young men, many of them would say we want to be the next astronaut who goes and explore

space because they have someone and they have a role model that exists today. We take that box, we made it possible. We turned something impossible into possible. We turned the whole dream into an actual visual story. And we have many of these stories in the UI where actually men could see others do it, and they feel that, oh, I can also do it. I can also design my own startup. I can also be part of this mission.

I can also be part of this program. Actually, if you look at the cabinet, many members of the cabinets are young ministers. They are under the age of 35. They are under the age of 30. They are ministers of economy, ministers of artificial intelligence, Mr. youth affairs, minister of community development. And in a way, show case again,

hope in many different formats. And that goes back to the whole region. There were a survey called the Arab U Survey. Now they did it almost 10 times. Every time they questioned almost 3,000 young Arabs, every time the UAE became the ideal location for them to actually follow their dreams. And every time they saw the UAE model as a model of hope and a model of optimistic future.

And not only when it comes to views or how we see the future, but actually how we design it and how we build it. You go and walk in the United Arab Emirates, you would find incubators everywhere for young entrepreneurs. You would find youth hubs where actually, either if you were an artist, a musician, a scholar, a writer, a researcher, where you can have a whole path.

One thing that we did very well, Jordan, is basically we thought people how to find their point B and then how to go and walk that way toward point B. Because not knowing the destination is scary and it creates that gap. And hopeless. Yes, exactly. If you look at most of the challenges I reviewed face, a big part of it because many of them are hopeless, or many of them didn't find hope in a way, almost 70% of PhD holders in the Arab world are living outside the Arab world. And there where we have an initiative called the Greater Abminds, an initiative that was launched last year. The ultimate idea and purpose and objective of this initiative is actually to build role

models in medicine, in physics, in chemistry, in economy, in technology and engineering, and in design. It's an award that's not only contributes with the financial rewards, but actually it's recognized, different contribution, it's recognized, the gems we have in the airport. For so long, many of our scientists and scholars

were heading gems in our society. And sadly, in our communities in that report, if you look at the numbers, many are leaving that report, and that's something I don't mind people chasing their future anywhere, but then we should also understand that the report needs them the most. It needs more role models for the 108 million young Arabs and science and economy and design. That's where the UA came up with this initiative which I'm currently busy with is actually not to explore who are our heading gyms and turn them into visible gyms

but also to recognize them, to empower them, to reward them. Sometimes all what they need is a path on the back. They want someone to tell them, well done. You have done it. You are a role model for our kids. And sometimes we do that late. You have many names in that report. Like look at Zahadid, she was a designer.

She built and designed buildings in many different places in the whole world. I think today we value her and we notice her value. But then who is our current Zahadid, who is our current Eben Khaldun of Psychology, who is our current al-Hawarizmi, and the whole our report. And that's what we are trying to find. And I think this is the ultimate message of hope and confidence, because part of what we do is we build confidence in people.

If the UAE made it, if someone made it to the space station, if someone built a city in 50 years, the most ideal and one of the worst best cities, you can also do it. So let's turn for a moment to tell me a little bit about what problems you see, be setting the UAE.

What are the major challenges that you guys are dealing with at the moment? Maybe we can conclude after that with a description of where you'd like to see things head over the next 10 years. But let's start with challenges. What are the major challenges that you face in the UAE? I think we face challenges that are similar challenges that many nations and generations are facing worldwide. One thing is the impact of social media and the impact of bringing everything closer.

Well that had a very positive impact on doing business, on work, on studying, and education, but also short some threats that wish some, I see in many different areas worldwide, people are losing their identity, they are losing their hope, or sometimes, I don't know how can I define what we see in many different parts of the whole world. So my ultimate goal always, that's I see it for myself and my family, how to ensure that we have that immunity and we have that guarding values to ensure that not only my generation can take the right decision, but my daughter's generation could take, again, the right decision and her next generation

could also take the right generation. Well, the problem with that information in flux, as you said, is very, very rich, but it's also sufficiently overwhelming to be a dissolveant and an agent of chaos, right? I mean, when you have access to everything, it's hard to be something. And we don't know what this extension of our nervous system, because that's definitely what the social media platforms are. We don't know what that extension exactly is going to do for us. And, you know, you made reference back to some of the earlier points you made in the discussion is that you guys are trying to identify your core values and to leave them in bedrock position in your culture. And you're hoping that that will enable your young people to turn to the benefits

of our interconnectedness without falling prey to the possibility of chaos being induced. You know, it's very hard to set up a complex information system that's optimally what interconnected. So the brain is set up so that it has areas that that only communicate locally and then those areas communicate distally. Like every neuron isn't connected to every other neuron. You get nothing but chaos in that situation. There has to be a balance between order and stability and connectivity.

We are all wrestling without around the world. These new technologies are absolutely amazing, but they definitely do have the possibility of spreading chaos at the same rate they spent, they distribute benevolent information. I think that, again, goes to the way we want this generation to raise and grow, part of it we take a full responsibility on. I think we should take full accountability and responsibility on what are the values we want to embed and the communities DNA and our families DNA and how do we do that often and different doses. We do it in school, we do it at all, we do it in university, we do it in workplaces.

I'll give you an example. I had a program called the National Values Program here at the United Arab Emirates and one of the main products of that program was to actually measure values in the society and in the community. So we used to do social experiments. And then one of the social experiments,

I said, okay, let's take a permission, where we have a car by the side of the street, where someone who needs help with his mechanics of his car, his car is not working, it's at 2 p.m. after a known end of the summer. It's a time where maybe most people would be busy having lunch with their families. And we say, let's record that and see how many actually young Emirates would come and provide help or provide support. Jordan in one hour, the number of people who actually stopped and paused their journey to wherever they were heading and paused by and parked

beside that car to actually offer help. It was more than 15 young people. They decided to actually, voluntarily, something in them felt that, oh, I should offer help. And that's something I see on daily basis. I don't think you will see a single incident where we think twice before providing support or before providing help to people around. And that's that value. That's part of that tradition of hospitality. Yes, that was part of our generation's hospitality and the way we have been raised.

But then my ultimate concern is always, I have to be as good as my father and my grandfather in building that in my daughter and building that in the next generation to ensure that I embed the same values that grows in her the way I saw it happening in me and in many other people. During one of my latest visits, I was waiting for a plane and watching the news on TV. And there were an incident in one of the cities in the Western world where someone was being killed in a subway and people were filming that and people were standing still and filming that. It's a scary. To me, at that moment, I felt, where are we heading as human beings? That's something I don't want to ever see, not in 50 years,

but in 100 years in our country. And I'm sure it won't happen because we are taking full responsibility and accountability on defining who we are. Because that have been happening since 1971, and to keep happening till 20s, 21, for the years ahead. But then also that reminds me to a story we all know, K. N. And Abel. I think, yes, K. N. was angry. He was jealous of his brother and he ended up killing him. But then if you look at the world today, I think Ken and that it will exist almost in every single community and sometimes maybe some

maybe some people would say they exist even new but then you decide on who wins and you decide that you never allow to collaborate and your community or your, your collaboration in yourself. And that's something very, very important to us. Because we know that sometimes and some communities and we saw what happening. People lose it. I think they lose the idea of being a human being, the being part gets lost. They don't define their values or they don't define what's right and what's wrong.

I think that's something we do very well and my ultimate passion is to continue to do that. I want to close this with an invitation to you. I've been working with a group of people centered in London, but with active participants all through Europe and Australia and Canada and the US. And then increasingly in other places in the world where we can manage the reach. We have a conference coming up in London at the end of October, October 31st, 30th, 31st, in November 1st, and it followed by a public event at the O2. to the group is the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship and what we're trying to do is to formulate a positive story for the future, a positive vision.

And I would like to extend an invitation to you and also what would you say, code a seal on that invitation, it would be delightful and helpful if you could also help us identify key people that we might invite in the UAE and in your broader network of contacts to bring people there because we want to get everybody on board to the degree that that's possible. And we are doing kind of what we discussed during this podcast, you know, we want to put together a vision of the future that isn't going to involve compulsion and force, but that offers an active

invitation to the kind of future that we might all want to have if we could pick the future We would actually want to have if we were being able and not caned, let's say and so you know It sounds like our interests in that regard are very much aligned So and I'm also looking very much forward to coming to the UAE and to meeting you in person and to seeing what's going on in there. And I would like to thank you for talking to me and to everybody else here today, to clue us in about the positive developments in the Middle East.

I mean, we've, in the West, you know, we've sat through decades of stories of misery and dread emanating from the Middle East. And that's kind of part for the historical course in some ways. And it's so bloody positive to see things switch around and to see peace break out and to see the possibility of real generous cooperation emerge. And so congratulations on that front. It's such a major accomplishment. And hopefully that ethos can spread throughout the Arab world and everywhere else. Wouldn't that be good?

Jordan, well, thank you for hosting me. Thank you for your invitation. You're a psychologist. And I think you know that feeling when you have a dinner with your wife, and you eat something that's tasty and delicious and you go and tell her, oh, I think you should try this. Or you watch the movie that somehow moved apart on you. And then you say, oh, I think you should watch this movie. Is that feeling where you want the other side or the other part, or the other community or friends or family, to enjoy what you have enjoyed, or to actually have something good,

or experience something good as you did it as a human being? And I think that feeling, you would see it in Mararaki's, in UAE nationals. We feel our leadership did and built something that works and something that shows the results, something that built hope, something that made me feel I'm unstoppable when it comes to serving, when it comes to building something better. And I wish I see that in more communities. I wish I see that in many different areas, because I have tasted it, I have lived it,

I have experienced it, and that that's my ultimate purpose in life to actually help others see the good we so on or experienced, because part of being who we are or part of defining your purpose is seeing the good than others and having a good impact on others as well. Well, amen to that, brother. So, well, I'll see you in the UAE and not so many months, and I'm looking forward to collaborating with you on that front and to having you in London. And for everyone watching and listening, I'm going to continue speaking with Said

on the Dailywear Plus platform. We're gonna delve a little bit more into his personal history and to discussion on the autobiographical front. And so give some consideration to joining us there if you're inclined. Otherwise I'll say say a Nora to you all and thank you very much for your time and attention to the film crew here in Northern Ontario. And also in the UAE, thanks for your participation and always to the Daily Wear Plus folks for making this possible. It's much appreciated. Very good to talk with you, sir. And we'll take

five. And for the rest of you watching and listening, you know, join me in the next podcast as well. Very good to talk to you today. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. I enjoyed the conversation. I think I see your clips more often in the feed of our young people. I see my nephew is watching some of your clips because actually your content when it comes to sitting goals, sitting vision, character building or exploring character.

And a lot of the values you are speaking about it's somehow the same language we understand and we see I'm not sure how much you dig deep into the culture of the Middle East, the report and the Islamic world but I could say the the areas where we could see alignment agreements are huge, and that represent who we are. I think it does the news you hear about this region and the conflicts and the people of this region. I think we, again, we didn't do enough when authoring our own story. Many people spoke about who we are, but I think we know better who we are. And we should send that narrative to the whole world.

Great. Well, you know, all of that shared foundation means that in principle, we have something to build, solid to build on in the future. And so, you know, herave for that. All right, good to talk to you, sir. Bye-bye, everybody.