Best wishes to all and, next to world peace among people, we should hope for the same among world markets.

I have let some time pass before commenting on a recent example of how fragile a world we live in. This past year through a time of greater economic danger, fear and volatility than most of us has experienced in a life time, many people cannot fathom how close we came to the edge of Hades.

As someone who could never visit Dubai (due to my background), I've always admired this jewel of a city in the midst of the desert. Unlike the other Arab Emirates, Dubai's revenues from oil are relatively small, forcing it to look for other sources of income. One such source is tourism and Dubai has always attracted the world's attention with its ambitious real estate projects such as its artificial resort islands.

Lately, it was the venture undertaken by South Korea's Samsung to build the world's tallest building, the Dubai Tower or "Burj Dubai."

Every two weeks, two more stories are being added to the tower, which already stands at 79 stories, rising to 200 meters or 656 feet. The final height of the tower is being kept as a secret. The only information being released is that it will have more than 160 stories and rise over 700 meters (2,296 feet). There are speculations the tower will actually be around 800 meters tall. Construction is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2008 at the cost of $1 billion, but we would probably get an indication of the final height much before that, given the shape it would take and the pictures.

The tower will be the centerpiece of a $20 billion new downtown district, "Downtown Burj Dubai," housing 30,000 apartments and the world's largest shopping mall.