Masdar City may be the coolest place on Earth. It’s Disneyland for science geeks.
Not being a Science geek, some of it went over my head. But, riding in an electric, driver less car was awesome. I have never seen or experienced such advanced technology ever, so this was really new to me and it tickled my imagination. I may not be able to build electric cars, but I would have a world of fun designing the communication and personality behind that “drives” the car (yes, the car speaks to you!).
Now, Masdar City is not completely built yet. We only saw one piece of the planned city, which was the Masdar Institute. Fully functional, Emirates and expats (mostly Emirates) are invited to study at the Institure, where they are paid a ton of money (up to $10,000 a month) and given free housing. After graduating, these students will most likely have their pick of jobs.
My friends drooled over the state of the buildings, the labs and funding that the Masdar Institute enjoys. Without a doubt, if you can dream it, you can build it in Masdar City…
So, where’s the downside?
The sad takeaway from the Masdar Institute is that the facilities are no where near full capacity. The administration is hoping to attract 800 or more students to the Institute but, today, they only have half of that. They have significantly limited the amount of international students they will admit because they want to encourage Emirates to join the program.
But, the Emirate men aren’t driven enough to graduate high school, much less work really hard in a research facility. Emirate women are much more interested in education, but the Emirate men are intimidated by this and women are discouraged from pursuing a career. It’s a sad state of affairs, really, because this is the issue that will prevent the UAE from enjoying competitive, sustainable growth fueled by their own people. No matter how many opportunities the UAE makes available to the Emirates, none of it will matter in the end if there is no incentive to work. Unfortunately, that means that many amazing facilities, such as the Masdar Institute, will go empty despite the fact that scientists from all over the world would jump at the chance to work at such an inspiring place.