Re: RC: RE: Re: $$$$$

[Tivers@aol.com]

In a message dated 8/28/00 10:19:46 AM Pacific Daylight Time, BMcCrary27 
writes:

<< 
 << Well, it's more complicated than that.
   >>
 
 Are you able to shed some light on this statement...can you elaborate?  It 
might help us to understand better.
 
 Barbara >>


The UAE represents a complex society that is radically different than most 
western cultures. I'm still trying to figure it out. But there are some 
things that are impossible in that society and other things that are not what 
they appear. For example, the "money is everything" attitude is more often 
manifested in the behavior of those without money, particularly in political 
ways. 

The UAE appears to want to be the best at everything, but the way they spend 
the money that they have works against them in that goal. They are 
stimulating competition and getting themselves beaten by those who suddenly 
see incentive in producing elite endurance athletes. My advice to them is to 
stop spending money that way--stop paying outrageous sums for "made" horses. 
Stop putting up large purses. And focus, instead, on the infrastructure of 
professionalism that will ensure the production of top athletes over the long 
term. 

But it seems that their desire is to promote the sport, because it fits their 
culture. Because horses and camels represent their culture. Horse sports are 
very important to them. As is competition. 

At the same time, "infrastructure" is a foreign concept. They are a young 
country entering the modern age. 35 years ago, everyone was a bedouin, 
struggling for survival in the desert. They are trying to catch up with the 
rest of the world with a single asset: oil money. The leaders of the UAE are 
trying to build an infrastructure, but it is a difficult proposition--by 
necessity, most of the "professionals" within the country are foreigners, 
brought in to lift the society by its bootstraps into the modern age. Slowly, 
universities are being built, businesses and industries are being built, and 
emiratis are learning the ways of the rest of the world--far more quickly 
than other oil-rich nations. 

But that takes time, it cannot be done overnight. And it requires huge 
expenditures to accomplish. And, of course, the rest of the world flock in to 
Dubai and Abu Dhabi to walk away with as much of that "loose money" as they 
can grab. It would not surprise me if, from that experience alone, the 
emiratis conclude that the western world is a huge pack of whores and all 
that is to be negotiated is the price. We reap what we sow.

And the Emiratis are planting some seed in endurance competition that can 
only result in their own defeat. This, it appears to me, for the love of the 
sport itself. Yes, they want to be victorious, yes they'll compete hard, yes, 
they'll try to assemble the best athletes they can for competition. And, 
hopefully, they'll realize soon enough that spreading their money around like 
they have been in recent years is not a good idea--that, instead, they should 
be investing it in their own infrastructure, their own research, their own 
conditioning protocols--and then, in a couple of years, go out and REALLY 
kick some butt. 

Give these guys a little slack. They want to be the best, in all aspects of 
the sport. They're learning. And, meanwhile, they're paying far more than 
their dues in hard currency that is benefitting the entire sport. 

If your political agenda is against money, against competition--then you're 
in a different sport. Go with the organization that is politically correct 
and non-competitive--I'm not talking about you, here, Barbara, just that kind 
of activist mind-set. That mind-set will be just as disruptive in a NICER 
organization as it is in the real world--mark my word.

ti