Talk:Abu Dhabi

The Flag

The flag for Abu Dhabi is different from that of UAE. The flag given for Abu Dhabi (emirate) is the one for Abu Dhabi city as well. My father works for the AUH govt. and I got this fact from there and also the UAE social studies. I believe this will be enough to reach the consensus. I am in a hurry to change the flag because it is just not right, what is now. -tausif r (talk) 05:28, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Abu Dhabi/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: ColonelHenry (talk · contribs) 04:51, 29 December 2012 (UTC)

Having lived in the UAE, I look forward to reviewing this article. --ColonelHenry (talk) 04:51, 29 December 2012 (UTC)

GA review – see WP:WIAGA for criteria

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I assert that I do not think this article ready at this time to be promoted to good article status. I think a substantial amount of work needs to be done to improve it to meet or exceed the good article criteria sufficiently. I believe this article is on the verge of being a B-class article, or at least a higher-quality C-class article. I do not believe this work is possible during an "on hold" week or two and that such preparation will take a longer period of time. I therefore have chosen to fail this article and invite the contributors to take the time to improve and then renominate.

1. Is it reasonably well written?

   A. Prose quality:

   The prose quality would be good, but the content is not comprehensive or substantive. Some sections are badly written ("Origins of the Al-Nahyan family" left me disappointed in seeing sentences like "This family makes up the rulers of Abu Dhabi today" when there are better ways of saying this..and more precise verbs than the rather pedestrian "makes up".) There are many statements made without supporting explanation and leave a reader to ask "why" or "how" such a conclusion can be drawn without more explanation. Sections in History do not provide enough information--enough "meat" to explain or keep people interested. As someone who has lived in and has several years of business dealings in UAE, I knew more information about Abu Dhabi than was present in the article and I noticed significant aspects not discussed. Examples include insufficient coverage of city life, specific information about various expatriate communities (since they are about 70%-80% of the city), religious life, large swaths of history, and culture not present. Parks and gardens only has a one-sentence section. This is not adequate for a city with 2,000 such public spaces. I believe the article suffers from an inefficient organization. Too many sections that could be combined (suggested organization below).

   B. MoS compliance for lead, layout, words to watch, fiction, and lists:

   I believe the lede is sufficient. I think there are issues regarding lists (esp. "Neighborhoods" that can be addressed in a prose summary and a "see also" hatnote for the section directing a reader to a list at another location (e.g. "List of neighborhoods in Abu Dhabi") I think layout can be improved as suggested below. Some of the "See also" hatnotes are placed on the bottom of sections, not the top.

2. Is it factually accurate and verifiable?

   A. Has an appropriate reference section:

   The article does have a reference section in compliance with MOS, however I assert there is a need for better citation of facts throughout the article and can be improved by sourcing more of the statements made in the article. I am not comfortable with entire multi-sentence paragraphs with only one inline citation at the end of the paragraph. This habit does not assist (and often hinders) readers looking to source specific information.

   B. Citation to reliable sources where necessary:

   see discussion for 2a regarding employing inline citations.

   C. No original research:

   I do not see any obvious Original Research problems.

3. Is it broad in its coverage?

   A. Major aspects:

   While the article does cover major aspects and has the structure for it, the article needs more content to discuss comprehensively these major aspects.

   B. Focused:

   some more meat and substantive focus to several sections would improve this. Though, it is a good start.

4. Is it neutral?

   Fair representation without bias:

   I do not see anything that would constitute biased writing. I believe the article is rather fair.

5. Is it stable?

   No edit wars, etc:

   I do not see any substantial edit wars or other content disputes. There is an infrequent reverting between contributors regarding the nationalistic issue of Persian Gulf vs. Arabian Gulf that may be of concern, but does not rise (IMHO) to a level that would warrant a "no" on criteria 5. Only a handful of such edits in the last 6 months. There is very minor vandalism history by anon IP users.

6. Does it contain images to illustrate the topic?

   A. Images are tagged with their copyright status, and valid fair use rationales are provided for non-free content:

   I do not see any current copyvio issues regarding images. I believe there are a sufficient number of images to adequately depict the subject discussed. There have been copyvio issues with images of the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in the last 6 months. I do not have the previous images to compare.

   B. Images are provided if possible and are relevant to the topic, and have suitable captions:

   as above in 6a

7. Overall:

   Pass or Fail:

   Failed for reasons discussed in comments above. A week or two on hold will not be sufficient to address these concerns adequately.

Suggested Article Reorganization

• 1.0 History

• 1.1 Etymology of "Abu Dhabi"
• 1.2 Prehistoric and early civilizations
• 1.3 Origin of the Al Nahyan family
• 1.4 Pearl trade
• 1.5 Trucial Coast and piracy
• 1.6 Discovery of Oil

• 2.0 Geography and Climate

• 2.1 Geology
• 2.2 Geographical features
• 2.3 Climate and weather

• 3.0 Politics and Governance

• 3.1 Branches of government
• 3.2 Political parties
• 3.3 Democratic and electoral reforms
• 3.4 Military
• 3.5 Crime and law enforcement

• 4.0 Demographics
• 5.0 Cityscape

• 5.1 Neighborhoods of Abu Dhabi (a summary, not a list...make a separate list article)
• 5.2 Architecture

• 5.2.1 Discussion of notable buildings
• 5.2.2 Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

• 5.3 Parks and gardens (a summary, not just a one sentence blurb)
• 5.4 City planning and development

• 6.0 Economy

• 6.1 Oil industry
• 6.2 Financial industry
• 6.3 Expatriate community and global businesses
• 6.4 Utility services

• 7.0 Transportation
• 8.0 Culture and Education

• 8.1 Cultural institutions (arts, museums, community groups, etc.)
• 8.2 Religion
• 8.3 Education
• 8.4 Tourism
• 8.5 Recreation

• 8.5.1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

• 8.6 Media

• 9.0 International relations

• 9.1 Twin towns and cities

• 10.0 See also
• 11.0 References
• 12.0 External links

First sentence inaccurate

it says "Abu Dhabi is the capital and second largest city of the United Arab Emirates.." so far so good, but then ".. the largest of the seven member emirates .." Surely this is inaccurate because as it says at the top this article's about the city, not the emirate? 82.40.157.221 (talk) 08:37, 12 April 2013 (UTC)

Yeah, there's some other issues, too. Like the area given is clearly not of a city, but of the entire emirate of Abu Dhabi. The population density seems right, but I'm no expert there. I'm assuming some of the errors come from googling information, as it seems impossible to get the city's size from a Google search, it just keeps giving the emirate size. It's proving difficult to find the size of the actual city, as every site I visit seems to have the same issue as the Google search did.. --Taoistextremist (talk) 20:24, 5 May 2013 (UTC)

It isn't easy to separate the two because Abu Dhabi's rise as a city can only be explained by developments in the emirate, for example the discovery of oil. There is also the context of the city as capital of the UAE, which cannot be disregarded. I don't think there's a major problem with the article, perhaps just some fine tuning is required in one or two places.Dromoyne (talk) 11:27, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

But if they're two separate political entities, the emirate and the city, then they should not contain the same data when referring to land area. Also, now that I've investigated a little into the listed sources, I am unclear where the population data came from. The source listed for the information in the sidebar only has the city's population for 2009, yet the page claims it's for 2013, and the population density is not listed there. I may make a separate topic concerning this. In any case, I'm going to stand by the idea that as the city and emirate are separate political entities, data referring to one should not necessarily be used to refer to another. Ties of success between the city and the emirate it is within does not mean they need be confused factually. --Taoistextremist (talk) 02:45, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

Cultural References

No mention of the fact that early-to-mid 20th century culture contained numerous references to Abu Dhabi as a generic "place far away from which you can't easily get back", or more generally as "the middle of nowhere"? This was long before the Arab region became as financially or culturally prominent on the world stage as it is today; I'm quite certain Bugs Bunny and similar American icons frequently used "mailed to Abu Dhabi" as a cliche for getting rid of somebody more-or-less permanently. 65.128.248.40 (talk) 00:10, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

That's from the Western perspective, of course, and you could say the same about most places in Arabia at that time - also America would have seemed impossibly remote to most Abu Dhabians. Perhaps the bedouin talked about "mailing to America" as a euphemism for getting rid of a troublesome camel :) ArabianLeopard (talk) 06:15, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

Garfield frequently tried to mail Nermal the kitten there. It's a funny place name, like "Timbuktu". --The_Iconoclast (talk) 09:25, 24 September 2013 (UTC)

Please, add this link to article

• Current time, sunrise and sunset today+Abu Dhabi map (in English)

Blacklisted Links Found on the Main Page

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• http://www.airport-technology.com/projects/abu_dhabi/

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Orphaned references in Abu Dhabi

I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of Abu Dhabi's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "amnesty.org":

• From Amnesty International: Amnesty International "Colombia: Amnesty International response to Andrés Ballesteros et al.", AMR 23/006/2007, 21 February 2007. Retrieved on 20 January 2012.
• From Stoning: Amnesty International (2008), Iran - End executions by Stoning
• From Egypt: "Egypt: More than 500 sentenced to death in 'grotesque' ruling - Amnesty International". amnesty.org. 24 March 2014.
• From Afghanistan: Amnesty International. "Document – Afghanistan: further information on fear for safety and new concern: Deliberate and arbitrary killings: Civilians in Kabul." 16 November 1995 Accessed at: Amnesty.org Archived July 26, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
• From Kabul: Amnesty International. "DOCUMENT – AFGHANISTAN: FURTHER INFORMATION ON FEAR FOR SAFETY AND NEW CONCERN: DELIBERATE AND ARBITRARY KILLINGS: CIVILIANS IN KABUL." 16 November 1995 Accessed at: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA11/015/1995/en/6d874caa-eb2a-11dd-92ac-295bdf97101f/asa110151995en.html
• From Human rights in the United Arab Emirates: "United Arab Emirates: "There is no freedom here": Silencing dissent in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)". Amnesty International.
• From United Arab Emirates: "United Arab Emirates: Silencing dissent in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)". Amnesty International.

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT⚡ 23:34, 30 April 2015 (UTC)

Problems, problems, problems.

I have a cousin who recently moved to Abu Dhabi. I came here to get a feeling for the city, but was disappointed by this article when I found the following problems.

1. PHOTOGRAPHS POSING POSSIBLE COPYRIGHT VIOLATION.

If the following photos were deleted because of: "Freedom of panorama (i.e taking pictures of buildings or anything which is protected by copyright) is not allowed in U.A.E.":

• https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/File:ADIA_Tower_at_night.jpg
• https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/File:Sheikh_Zayed_Mosque_courtyard.jpg
• https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/File:EtisalatAbuDhabi.jpg

...then why are these following photos allowed? Doesn't the same criteria apply?:

• https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Royal_International_Hotel_in_Abu_Dhabi,_UAE.JPG
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Dhabi#/media/File:ADIA_Tower_and_The_Landmark_in_Abu_Dhabi.jpg
• The mosque was constructed from 1996 to 2007 - is it still within the copyright laws of the UAE? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Dhabi#/media/File:Front_of_Sheikh_Zayed_Mosque.jpg
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Dhabi#/media/File:Hotel_Sofitel_Abu_Dhabi_Corniche_in_Abu_Dhabi,_UAE.JPG
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Dhabi#/media/File:At_the_ADIPEC_2013.JPG
• Although the word "historic" is used in the title of this file, the data entered doesn't reflect an historic background. Neither the date of the photo nor the name of photo-taker are included. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Dhabi#/media/File:Abudabi1.jpg
• Elements of this montage - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Montage_fotografico_de_Abu_Dhabi_%28EAU%29.jpg

* https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Emirates_Palace-Abu_Dhabi3779.JPG

* https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Montage_fotografico_de_Abu_Dhabi_%28EAU%29.jpg#/media/File:Ferrari_World_Abu_Dhabi.jpg

* and the blue high-rise building in the upper right. I cannot find a separate WP file for it.

• The photos from the Heritage Park / Heritage Village (the same place or two different places?) - what's the build date? Are the building designs still within the UAE's copyright period? If so, then include these photos in my question.
• There are more building photos attached to other Abu Dhabi-related articles and in the Commons that seem to fall under this same copyright violation.

2. HELPFUL PHOTOS STILL NEEDED.

• A. The article states: "Abu Dhabi is full of archeological evidence that points to civilizations. . ." So, where is the photographic evidence of this? Surely photos of antiquities would not longer fall under copyright protection and are free to take and upload here.
• B. Do people actually live in this city? If so, where are the shots of the various residential neighborhoods? They can be wide shots in order to avoid the copyright problem. Where are the shots of street scenes with happy crowds strolling the sidewalks or attending events? Is it a religious or cultural violation to photograph people? Links to the Al Nahyan family sport some photos for the more recent members, so it seems no to be a taboo.

3. IN THE MEDIA SECTION.

Regarding - "In the Garfield comic series by Jim Davis, Garfield repeatedly tries to get rid of the annoying kitten Nermal by sending him to "Anyone, Abu Dhabi." The latest movie of the Fast & Furious franchise, Furious 7 (2015), had some scenes taken and or based in Abu Dhabi. In Sex and the City 2 (2010), most of the plot takes place in Abu Dhabi, although the movie is not filmed there.[100] The planet Jakku from Star Wars: The Force Awakens was filmed near Abu Dhabi."

At least the films bring money to the country's economy or at least serious recognition. The Garfield bit is just silly trivia. It does neither of those things and the Abu Dhabi mention could be any random far away place for all of the notability the reference imparts. Nothing about the country's reality or economy are contributed to in that reference. It's best put it onto the Garfield article if it needs to be anywhere at all.

4. EXTERNAL LINKS MASH-UP.

This article seems to be a travel brochure and the external links contribute mightily to that impression. Many of them violate WP's external links rules. See links to avoid and look specifically at:

• 5. Individual web pages[6] that primarily exist to sell products or services, or to web pages with objectionable amounts of advertising. For example, the mobile phone article does not link to web pages that mostly promote or advertise cell-phone products or services.
• 10. Social networking sites (such as Myspace, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram), chat or discussion forums/groups (such as Yahoo! Groups), Twitter feeds, Usenet newsgroups or e-mail lists.
• 11. Blogs, personal web pages and most fansites, except those written by a recognized authority. (This exception for blogs, etc., controlled by recognized authorities is meant to be very limited; as a minimum standard, recognized authorities who are individuals always meet Wikipedia's notability criteria for people.)
• Also review the sections on advertising and conflicts of interest and non-English-language content.

Authors, please repair these problems. Thank you, Wordreader (talk) 01:46, 20 June 2015 (UTC)

Grazie Nancyn.ricc (talk) 15:27, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

Useless Map

As there are no labels on the map in the inset (other than the name of the city itself), it conveys no useful information, whatsoever. The body of water pictured could be anything from Lake Geneva to the Indian Ocean, and the surrounding land shapes fail to even establish what continent the city is located on. Surely a better map can be found? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.95.43.249 (talk) 21:49, 31 October 2016 (UTC)

Economic Data Sourcing

There are a bunch of GDP stats and the like in the economy section that are unsourced and I couldn't find any sources that agreed. In particular I'm not sure where the "9th in the world GDP per capita" ranking comes from...seems almost like somebody pulled a GDP statistic from someplace and then looked at a list of countries (almost surely based on different GDP sources) and decided "well if this single emirate was a country, it would be 9th" which is...dubious methodology. If there's something accurate to be said on that subject, it should be sourced and made more precise...saying things like whether it's PPP or nominal, how we're comparing sub-national units, etc. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2604:2D80:4022:86AE:2594:C643:7675:6039 (talk) 00:27, 13 May 2018 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for speedy deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for speedy deletion:

• Abu Dhabi Ferrari World.jpg

You can see the reason for deletion at the file description page linked above. Community Tech bot (talk) 23:06, 30 June 2018 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion:

• Abu Dhabi Night Skyline Panorama.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 10:37, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

Commons files used on this page or its Wikidata item have been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons files used on this page or its Wikidata item have been nominated for deletion:

• AbuDhabiLouvre2.jpg (discussion)
• Louvre Abu Dhabi, plaza (from balcony).jpg (discussion)

Participate in the deletion discussions at the nomination pages linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 03:22, 4 May 2020 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

• Night city 18-01-2013 - panoramio.jpg

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A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

• Founders Memorial.jpg

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A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

• Qasr Al Watan.jpg

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A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

• 18 degrees.jpg

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Commons files used on this page or its Wikidata item have been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons files used on this page or its Wikidata item have been nominated for deletion:

• Shiek Zayed Mosque.jpg (discussion)
• White Mosque Abu Dhabi (25656781).jpeg (discussion)

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Etymology

Abu Dhabi means Father of Gazelle in Arabic Bompanigcc (talk) 19:16, 2 March 2023 (UTC)

Population size

The population numbers in the article are wrong. The info box states a population of 3,789,860 but that's the population of the entire Abu Dhabi emirate (the article is about the city). The second paragraph then states "Abu Dhabi's urban area had an estimated population of 2.5 million,[6] out of 3.8 million in the emirate of Abu Dhabi." But that's not quite the correct number either because the 2.5 million refer to the region Abu Dhabi city lies in. There are three such regions in the Abu Dhabi emirate.

I found a source that only talks about the city which has it at an estimated 1,593,284 people. [1]. Not sure how accurate this number is, but it seems more appropriate than the 2.5 and 3.8 million used in the article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 14.201.112.251 (talk) 05:23, 3 September 2024 (UTC)