Maybe it was actually good for the weather to be negotiated in Dubai, of all places.
You may have noticed, but there's something wrong with today's column. Okay, I usually write for Thursday, not Friday. Climate change is to blame for castling. Or rather, the 28th Climate Conference in Dubai, which was called for this reason and which I was able to report on until Thursday.
Some reflections on the place: Dubai is absurd. Faced with the gigantic skyscrapers, the mania for consumption in the countless shopping centers and the excessive Christmas kitsch, against which the Viennese heart tree seems the style icon par excellence, we cannot help but notice: the Emirates are a bit megalomaniacs. They also love to act things out. For example, the conference venue was filled with the sound of birdsong (without ever seeing a bird in flight), and every night at sunset there was a magnificent light show.
But the crowning glory was the spectacle I witnessed one night in the center of Dubai: it was an armada of glowing drones that flew through the air and then – accompanied by John Williams-esque music – transformed into a variety of images in a transformed choreographed dance: from ships to skyscrapers and astronauts. The final image: a QR code that led to a homepage – that of the national oil company.
Returning to the atmosphere: as absurd as it may seem, it was probably a good thing that the negotiations were held in Dubai this time, if we look at the quite acceptable result. Because even the president of the conference, Sultan Al Jaber, cannot be denied an ego that shows a certain degree of megalomania. According to reports after the negotiations, this may have contributed significantly to appeasing even the petrostates, who initially vehemently blocked it.
In this regard, it didn't seem entirely irrational to me that Al Jaber celebrated his triumph not only with his Oscar-worthy acceptance speech, but also with his image in the drone sky. This did not happened. Was that modesty? In fact, this might be the only thing that doesn't exist in Dubai.