“DID YOU see the tallest building in the world being built in Dubai?” asked a colleague of mine recently.

As I indicated that I had not, he showed me a graph of the said building, which was a huge, tall structure. What was more interesting is the fact that it was designed to look like an Arab man wearing the traditional headdress and a “thobe”, with much attention paid to the little details in the long white robe that most men wear in the Gulf.

“Interesting,” was all I could come up with as a reply, but then I read in the news another item gloating about another tall building in Dubai that is going to challenge Chicago’s tallest building. Another brick and glass construction, is a description that could easily sum up the whole thing, but if we link this with another event that is happening at the same time, maybe we’ll find another way of looking at things.

The other interesting event is that the Louvre Museum has announced that it is going to open a branch in Abu Dhabi, with the French government confirming that the deal is worth around $1 billion.

There were many vocal critics in France of the deal, and according to the New York Times critics of the plan got some 2,400 people to sign a petition accusing France of “selling its soul.”

The question that then arises is: Are we Arabs trying to buy the “soul” of France? And if we are, where is our own “soul”? Is it in all of those tall funny looking buildings?

I am totally for cultural exchange if this is what this whole project is about, but it seems that the price paid could easily be used to make an Arab museum, borrowing the expertise of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, or the Moroccan and Algerian ones. Wouldn’t that be much closer to our “soul”, to preserve our own heritage rather than to import one?

The Arab world is so full of treasures, art works and antiquities that span centuries and reflect myriad civilizations. The Western world is very enthusiastic about obtaining pieces representing these civilizations and one look at world museums shows how many exhibitions are devoted to Arab and Islamic cultures. Why couldn’t one of our Arab countries host an event like “the Festival of Muslim Cultures” that took place all over England last year? Or for that matter why couldn’t any of those countries host the exhibition in Bangkok entitled “Living Under the Crescent Moon: Domestic Culture in the Arab World,” which explores the colorful domestic lifestyles of 10 Arab countries from tents to modern domestic architecture?

On the contrary, we seem to be on a mission to neglect our heritage and throw it to the wind, and since we happen to be in possession of wealth we have to find ways of spending this money. Unfortunately, this money often goes into projects that have no lasting value and minimum impact on the cultural well-being of our citizens.

Nevertheless, we have to draw a line here. If we can pay money and buy expertise and education, that is good as it helps develop our societies and creates a whole new generation of well-educated young men and women. But when it comes to culture, if we do not invest in our own culture and preserve the heritage that we have, then 100 years down the line all we will be able to see are a bunch of bizarre-looking buildings, 10 million shopping centers, and imported museums.

If you happened to stumble upon this scenario, I don’t know if you could tell the identity of this place and you might conclude that you had landed in a region with no “soul”.