Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

----- Original Message -----

From: Maryanne Gabbani

 

...The winner  was most likely a family member but not so closely related...simply because that is a tiny country where anyone whose going to be involved in endurance is going to be pretty much of the same social class and thus probably related...

Well, I've spent an interesting afternoon.

 

First--Wow!  If this is the same guy (and I think it is), Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem is a very

heavy hitter, indeed.  For example:

 

http://www.fdimagazine.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/329/Profile:_Sultan_Ahmed_Bin_Sulayem.html

 

More recently, remember that big blow up about some UAE company taking

over the Port of New York?  Well, the company was Dubai Ports World,

part of Dubai World, and its chairman is...Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem.  He's been

interviewed multiple times about it, see:

 

http://www.trendsmagazine.net/article_interview.php?cle=10

 

And a CNN interview (about 1/3 of the way down the page):

 

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0603/07/sitroom.03.html

 

It is harder to tell if he is related to one of the royal families.  I learned a great

deal visiting the UAE's public information site:

 

http://www.uaeinteract.com/

 

Yes, it is a managed media site, but very informative nonetheless.

The yearbooks are wonderful, with some great maps of the country:

 

http://uaeinteract.com/uaeint_misc/pdf_2006/English_2006/eyb3.pdf

 

And lots of great articles about endurance and pretty much

anything else you can think of about the UAE.

 

I've figured out the main branches of the three ruling family

trees involved in endurance in a big way (Makhtoum--Dubai;

al-Nahyan--Abu Dhabi; Qasimi--Sharjah) and who all are brothers

(there are a *lot* of al-Nahyan brothers!) and who all are the sons of

which brother.  (By the way, it's Abu Dhabi that has all the oil,

Dubai doesn't have much left and has gone in for international

banking and trade instead.)

 

But I've been unable to tell if Sultan bin Sulayem is related to the

royal family because he doesn't use a "nisba"--a "family name."

 

He is occasionally referred to has "HE," which I'm guessing is "His

Eminence," but I don't know what that really means.

 

Sheesh!

 

Linda Mirams