It's all systems go for the grandiose opening of the Burj Dubai.

As Dubai gears up for this historic event, security plans are already in place for the official opening ceremony of Burj Dubai on Monday.

The inauguration will be open to the public. Around 6,000 visitors are expected to attend and parking space for more than 7,300 vehicles will be available as confirmed by Mohammad Eid Al Mansouri, Director of the Organisation Protective Security and Emergency Department at Dubai Police. More than 1,000 security personnel have also been deployed to secure the area.

Ras Al Khaimah In January 1820 on the shores of the bustling port of Ras Al Khaimah, Arab tribal chiefs and British naval officers inked a new maritime peace accord to keep goods flowing on the trade routes of the Gulf, ushering a new era of high-seas prosperity in the Middle East.

In August 1851 at England’s Isle of Wight, US racing schooner America beat 14 yachts in the All Nation’s Race to clinch the 100 Guinea Cup – a shining silver mug that would evolve into the world’s oldest international sporting trophy known as the famed America’s Cup.

No one will mistake this for Newport.

To reach the site picked for the next America’s Cup, swing past the camel racetrack near the airport.

Then pass by South Asian groceries and dusty rows of villas under construction. Finally, turn toward a stretch of the Persian Gulf where the ruling sheiks are building an island shaped a bit like a plant inspired by Dr. Seuss.

In a region where sports is routinely pushed to anything-is-possible heights — biggest, richest, most lavish — snagging the venerable America’s Cup is something apart even for the Emirates’ outsized visions.

Dubai’s foremost iconic project, the world’s tallest building expected to position Dubai again as a world leisure and tourist destination is the Burj Dubai. It is the tallest tower in the world planned to be completed this December.

Previous reports had linked the mega structure with a soft opening in September to coincide with the start of operations on Dubai Metro. The UAE’s daily The National said a spokesman from the developers confirmed, however, that the giant tower would not open until December 2009 as with other projects that have been delayed in the city due to the recession.

Dubai has created a committee to examine the feasibility of making a formal bid to host the 2020 Olympic and Paralympics Games - and the bid is all part of a greater initiative called ‘Dubai 2020,' which is a master plan for pushing the emirate onto the world stage...

The plans hinge on an enormous sports complex, Dubai Sports City, which will cover 50 million square metres and will be the most talked about new development in the emirate.

Scheduled for completion in 2011, the £2.4 billion project is aiming to make Dubai a contender to host the 2020 Olympics, as well as the 2022 FIFA World Cup finals.

Dubai has created a committee to examine the feasibility of making a formal bid to host the 2020 Olympic and Paralympics Games.

The potential Olympic bid is part of a greater developmental initiative called ‘Dubai 2020’ – a master plan for propelling the wealthy city into the international arena. 

The exploratory committee will be spearheaded by Sheik Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, and it will also look into the possibility of hosting the World Expo in 2020. 

From now through July 2, the public will get a peek at some of the art that will fill the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the 260,000-square-foot museum designed by French architect Jean Nouvel and expected to open in the capital city of the United Arab Emirates by 2013.

At a ceremony last week to commemorate the beginning of construction, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheik Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, officially opened an exhibition at the Emirates Palace hotel that includes 19 works of art bought over the past 18 months for the Louvre Abu Dhabi, as well as loans from the French national museums.

Acquired for what is being billed as the first universal museum in the Middle East, the works range from a Greek ceramic figure from about 520 B.C. to two 1862 canvases by Edouard Manet.

WHY do foreign journalists love to hate Dubai? While it’s certainly true that like the rest of the planet Dubai is experiencing a downturn through no fault of its own, if you read some of the shrill headlines, the emirate is on the point of becoming a deserted wasteland. “Dubai is in danger of becoming a ruin-in-waiting” writes the Toronto Star, which describes the city as “some sheikh’s mad idea of what a metropolis should be”.

“Dubai-bashing is in fashion right now,” an official from the Standard Chartered Bank in Dubai told Time magazine. He’s right except that gleeful attacks on Dubai have been prevalent ever since the 1990s when its charms were no longer a best-kept secret.

Just look at the envy or inverted snobbery oozing out of these pre-downturn descriptions.