Dubai's ruler downsizes ambitions amid crisis

Image via Wikipedia

There was a time when Dubai's annual property fair was a gilded stage for the ruling sheik to unveil his latest, anything-goes dreams: the world's tallest towers, canals in the desert and artificial islands in the sea. As this year's fair begins Monday, the global recession has sharply downsized those visions and taken much of the boomtown bravado from the city-state's CEO-style ruler.

The Cityscape expo is expected to be far more subdued than in years past. The shift reflects Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's passage from big-ticket visionary to more cautious steward of the Gulf emirate's sand-to-skyscraper transformation.

"Nobody is talking about grand projects or being No. 1 anymore," said Abdul-Khaleq Abdullah, a political science lecturer and Dubai native. "There's a sense from top to bottom that we need to tone it down."