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actual impact of the crisis on Dubai economically and socially? In fact, the campaign has gone much further than that. An American writer, well known for his extreme views, was So keen to project Dubai’s alleged “failure” in the coexistence of cultures, that he went all the way stating that Dubai was a place where cultures break up and not where cultures meet. He reached that conclusion based on the fact that Dubai has jailed and deported a British couple caught having illegal sex on a public beach. With regard to the fact that the global crisis effect threatens Dubai’s growth and economy, I can guarantee you that those references constitute "wishful thinking" on the part of some people; they are illusions, not realities. The economic foundations and development are firm and stable; otherwise Dubai would not have been able to deal efficiently with the global financial crisis consequences. In addition to that, Dubai is not a city on its own. It isa member of the United Arab Emirates federation, which 1s strong, resilient and successful — a federation that is able to face the most difficult challenges. Al Hayat Newspaper - Shafiq Al Asadi Your Highness, the foreign media are reporting on the “bubble burst.” What would you tell the people who are endorsing this view? I keep hearing the expression of “the bubble” for the past couple of decades. In my opinion, this bubble is found only in the minds of those who often keep repeating it and do not know its meaning. The future will prove to them the truth. Let me assure you we are fine, we have overcome the crisis with the least amount of losses. In our culture, we say: be virtuous and you will gain. That is why we always look at the half full cup of water, and when we look at the empty part, we do not moan over the void, instead we think of better and faster ways to fill it. Al Hayat Newspaper - Shafiq Al Asadi Your Highness, if we were saying this is an unfair campaign against Dubai then, could you explain to us how to get out of the current crisis? The impact of the global financial crisis has been felt all over the world. It generated a state of panic in all developed economies. It was expected that our region would not be immune to the crisis, especially in view of the fact that it led to the credit freeze, write-downs at banks, deferral of mutual credits, and a freeze on lending in some of the wealthiest industrialized countries, such as the United States. The crisis hit the world in September 2008, but I think that the panic pha se is over now, especially after the intervention of governments in many major countries to regulate financial and banking sectors, and the allocation of large sums of money to revitalize their economies. This step has enabled the summit of the G20 that was held in London a few days ago, to agree on a package of decisions and actions aimed to revive the global economy and the organization of the international markets. For us in the United Arab Emirates, I can safely say that we have succeeded in containing the risks of the global financial crisis in record time. This is a result of the good policies of the Central Bank, and the government's action to ensure the liquidity of banks and the protection of deposits, and other actions at the local level, such as the additional liquidity that the Abu Dhabi government pumped it into the Emirate’s banks and the bond issuance of $20 billion bonds. The crisis management in addition to the decisions taken during the G20 summit have spread a high degree of HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_024933