Lunch with the FT: Royal subjects
When would Prince Alwaleed like to have lunch? At 6.30pm. Where? At his hotel, the George V. Does he always stay there when he’s in Paris? Actually, he owns it.
ADVERTISEMENT
The world’s fifth richest man, worth an estimated $21.5bn, tends to own things. There are his chunks of Citigroup and News Corp, not to mention EuroDisney, Canary Wharf, Hewlett-Packard, Time Warner and so on. Though one of his grandfathers founded Saudi Arabia and the other was independent Lebanon’s first prime minister, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is considered practically a self-made man. He has even been called the Saudi Warren Buffett, chiefly for having turned an $800m purchase of Citicorp stock into a stake worth $10bn. Not content with being rich, the prince also believes he has a divinely ordained role to bring together “east and west”.
I wait in the George V’s lobby while the prince hangs with his buddies, Richard Parsons, chairman and chief executive of Time Warner, and Sandy Weill, chairman of Citigroup. Then he goes to pray.
When I am eventually led to his regular nook in the lobby, I discover that lunching with him is not exactly a tete-a-tete. It takes a while to identify him - moustachioed, bushy-haired and extremely thin - amid his entourage of aides. A cameraman slaps a microphone on my lapel: our “lunch” is to be filmed. To complete the multimedia experience, a television is playing a tape of BBC World on fast-forward.
Noticing my surprise at the crowd, the prince’s private banker, Mike Jensen, jokes: “Don’t worry, you’re not paying for this!”
“Only for three people,” corrects the prince. I had said the FT would buy him lunch, and the prince has decided to slap an aide on to our bill. “I’ll have my salad,” he tells the waiter. It’s a rucola salad with tomatoes that is not on the menu.
The prince, 50, is observing the optional six-day fast after Ramadan, a doddle for him as he rarely eats in daytime anyway. Speaking in double-pace English, which he more or less mastered during a stint at Menlo College in California, he explains: “I was very fat before. My peak weight was - do you want pounds or kilos? - 89 kilos. Then we went down to 60. No spaghetti, no bread, no butter, no meat. Complete moratorium. I eat only one meal a day.”
He has stuck to this regime for 15 years, although “one meal a day” doesn’t mean he never otherwise eats: he says he broke his fast “just an hour ago” and his printed schedule for today lists dinner at 2am.
Prince Alwaleed doesn’t just want you to think he is thin, however. He wants you to think he is a statesman. When his salad arrives, he ignores it as he explains his mission to unite people around the world. “God blessed me with a lot of wealth. After 9/11 a major division took place between Saudi Arabia and United States, west and east, and Christianity and Islam. And I believe my role, because of what God blessed me, is to try to bridge the gap.”
The next day he will be signing deals with Harvard and Georgetown universities to finance some of their Islamic studies. It’s all part of bridging the gap. “That’s why we focus on the east coast of America. Because that’s where the decision-making process is, with all respect to west coast, north coast, or south coast.”
The prince’s most famous attempt at bridging failed. He donated $10m to New York City after the September 11 attacks. But he also called on the US government to “adopt a more balanced stance towards the Palestinian cause”. Rudolph Giuliani, New York’s then mayor, returned the cheque, and accused him of trying to justify the attacks. A Saudi newspaper later quoted the prince blaming “Jewish pressures” for Giuliani’s rejection.
Does His Highness regret his Palestinian statement? “A friend of a nation has to say the truth any time. Although, if you ask me a question, ‘If the Palestinian situation was resolved a day before 9/11, would 9/11 take place or not?’ Most likely it would have taken place, yes. I have no problem. All my friends sitting here: Mr Parsons, Christian man, Sandy Weill, a Jewish man, from Israel - from, from, from US. Muslim, Christian, Jewish - I don’t care about that.”
Indeed, by Saudi standards the prince is a liberal. Does he expect his uncle, King Abdullah, to move towards democracy? “You use the word ‘democracy’. I’ll say, ‘people’s participation in the political process’. Because there are many forms of it. I believe, for example, in people’s participation. I believe the fact that the municipal elections took place, there’s an indication that at the end of the day King Abdullah has in mind the introduction of elections at the Shoura level, our version of parliament.”
I venture that there seems to be some dissent within Saudi Arabia. “From what?” demands the prince. Well, from the monarchy. “Where do you get that from?” The newspapers. “Frankly speaking, I don’t see that at all. Most people in Saudi Arabia are really for the government. And, frankly speaking, if you look at so-called dissent outside Saudi Arabia, it’s only Saad al-Fagih [a dissident in London]. That’s superb. Population of 16 million indigenous and six million expatriates, you have one guy going publicly.” It seems tactless to mention another prominent Saudi dissident, Osama bin Laden.
Yet as the prince knows, not everyone has a gleaming image of Saudi Arabia. Americans got particularly angry when 15 of the 19 hijackers on September 11 turned out to be Saudis. Did the prince take stakes in western media companies partly so that he could help clear up east-west misunderstandings?
He begins with the standard denial: “My investment in the United States is not really to influence public policy.” But then he adds: “When I meet Mr Murdoch of News Corp, that owns Fox News, and BSkyB, or when I meet Mr Parsons, who controls CNN, Fortune magazine, People, Time, America Online, I don’t intrude into the management of these companies. However, I do convey to them the message about where I believe they went wrong. It’s their discretion to decide what to do. My job is to open their eyes to things they may not have seen.”
Could His Highness give an example? “One time CNN, they brought the Palestinians’ so-called terrorist act against Israelis. I communicated to them, ‘Look, you have to give the other side of the equation. Look what the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians.’ And they did that. And they were censured and reprimanded by the Israelis. I do not claim it’s my right to intrude. But I have to do my best to try to influence events.”
At News Corp, the prince is currently helping Murdoch rebuff an attack from the investor John Malone. No doubt it is for literary reasons alone that Murdoch’s HarperCollins has just published the hagiography Alwaleed: Businessman, Billionaire, Prince by the former CNN anchor Riz Khan. The prince has a copy by his side. “Foreworded by President Carter,” he remarks. Then he says: “Yeah, it’s being foreworded by President Carter. President Carter. By President Carter.”
“Wow,” I finally reply.
“President Carter,” he says.
Khan writes of the prince: “He’s fast-paced, incredibly organised, and a unique mix of Middle East and West... arguably, the hardest-working billionaire on the planet.” In the book, the great man’s mother and Khan watch a video of the toddler prince chasing a goat until he catches it. She tells Khan: “It showed me even then how determined my son would be.” What does the prince think of the book? “I think it reflects... reality.” When President Chirac appears on the TV set, the prince murmurs, “Ouf, Chirac!” and turns up the volume. We listen to Chirac intone about “respect”, “justice” and “equality”. The prince knows Chirac. “I can meet any president, any king, any sultan, any president of a company. It’s a very unique position.”
Does having lots of money make you happy? Only when you give it away, the prince reveals. “When the tsunami happened, I was the biggest single contributor in the world. When the Pakistan catastrophe happened, I am the... single biggest contributor on the globe. I went to Pakistan personally. The prime minister told me: ‘Prince, your visit is more important than what you can pay us.’”
We order coffee. When his arrives first, he insists on giving it to me, even though I have ordered a double and he a single. He resumes: “Something else gives me a kick: when I get involved in something that’s not successful, and all of a sudden it becomes good.” He says Citigroup, for example, was “on its knees” when he first invested in it. “And guess what: now it’s the first global bank in the world and number one company. George V - piece of rubbish. When I bought it, you order spaghetti, they say, ‘We have no spaghetti, give you rice.’ Look what: you buy it, you shut it down, you fix it up. Guess what: number one hotel in the world, for five years.” In short, unusually for a famed investor, Alwaleed appears to invest for motives other than profit.
Still, he doesn’t miss a trick. When I rise and thank him for his time, he replies: “We have to pay the bill now.” Then he offers to pay after all. I refuse. Luckily the bill is within reason - another benefit of dieting. I depart for the bottom bunk of a second-class compartment of a night train, leaving Alwaleed to unite east and west until his scheduled bedtime of dawn.
George V Hotel, Paris
1 x rucola and tomato salad
1 x ceviche de crabe
1 x chicken linguine
1 x Pepsi One
1 x grapefruit juice
1 x mineral water
2 x coffee
Total: �136
与沙特富豪王子共进午餐
阿尔瓦利德(Alwaleed)王子想何时用午餐?下午6点半。在哪儿用餐呢？在他的乔治五世(George V.)酒店。他在巴黎时总住那儿吗？其实，那家酒店就是他的。
这位全球排名第五的富豪，身价估计为215亿美元，拥有各种资产。他持有花旗集团(Citigroup)和新闻集团(News Corp)大量股份，欧洲迪斯尼(EuroDisney)、金丝雀码头(Canary Wharf)、惠普(HP)、时代华纳(Time Warner)等就更别提了。尽管他有一位祖父缔造了沙特阿拉伯，另一位则是黎巴嫩独立后的第一位总理，但阿尔瓦利德?本?塔拉尔(Alwaleed bin Talal)王子实际上还是被看作白手起家的人。他甚至曾被称为沙特的沃伦?巴菲特(Warren Buffett)，主要原因是，他将从花旗集团收购的8亿美元股票，变成了价值100亿美元的股权。但这位王子不满足于拥有财富，他还深信，自己肩负着让“东西方”融合的神圣使命。
我在乔治五世的大堂里等候时，王子正和他的好友――时代华纳董事长兼首席执行官理查德?帕森斯(Richard Parsons)和花旗集团董事长桑迪?威尔(Sandy Weill)呆在一块。然后他就去做祷告了。
当最终被带到他在大堂常去的一隅时，我才发现，与他共进午餐并非真正的两人私谈。我颇花了点时间才把他从一群助手中认出来，他留着八字胡，长着浓密的头发，身材极瘦。一个摄影师在我的领子上别了麦克风，我们的“午餐”将被录像。为了使这次多媒体经历完美，还有台电视在快速播放BBC世界新闻的录像带。
见我对人群感到吃惊的样子，王子的私人银行家麦克?詹森(Mike Jensen)开玩笑说：“别担心，不用你买单！”
“只帮三个人买单，”王子纠正道。我说过《金融时报》要请王子一顿午餐，而王子准备将他的一位助手也算上。“给我来我的沙拉，”他告诉服务生。那是一种菜单上没有的芝麻菜加番茄沙拉。
王子今年50岁，他正在进行斋月后自愿斋戒，为期6天。这对他来说轻而易举，因为他白天基本上很少进食。他曾在加州曼隆学院(Menlo College)呆过一段时间，因此他用多少掌握了一点的、语速很快的英语解释道：“过去我很胖，体重最高时，你想听磅还是公斤？有89公斤，后来减到了60公斤。不吃意大利面条，不吃面包，也没有黄油，没有肉，完全戒掉这些东西。我每天只吃一顿。”
这一饮食方式他已坚持15年，但“一天一餐”并不意味着，除了这一餐他就不吃了，他说，“就在一小时前”，他还破了斋戒，而今天的晚餐则安排在凌晨2点。
财富与使命
但阿尔瓦利德王子不仅想让你觉得他很瘦，他还想让你觉得他是个政治家。在向我解释自己联合全世界人民的使命时，他完全没有理会端上桌的沙拉。“上帝保佑，让我拥有那么多财富。‘9/11’以后，沙特阿拉伯和美国，西方和东方，基督教和伊斯兰教之间产生了巨大的分歧。我相信，是上帝保佑我拥有财富，因此我的使命就是努力弥合这些分歧。”
第二天，他将与哈佛大学和乔治敦大学签署协议，资助他们的某些伊斯兰研究。这是弥合分歧之努力的一部分。“这就是我们关注美国东海岸的原因，因为无论是西海岸、北海岸和南海岸，只有东海岸才是产生决策的地方。”
王子为弥合分歧的最著名的尝试并没有成功。“9/11”后，他向纽约市捐赠1000万美元，但同时要求美国政府在巴勒斯坦事务上采取更平衡的立场。当时的纽约市长鲁道夫?朱利安尼(Rudolph Giuliani)退回了支票，并指责他试图为恐怖袭击辩护。一份沙特报纸后来引述王子的话，王子谴责朱利安尼是迫于“犹太人的压力”而拒绝捐赠。
王子殿下是否为自己的巴勒斯坦声明感到后悔呢？“作为一个民族的朋友，任何时候都必须说真话。尽管如此，如果你问我‘如果巴勒斯坦问题在‘9/11’前得到了解决，‘9/11’是否还会发生？’很可能还会发生，是的，我毫不怀疑。当着在座朋友的面：帕森斯先生，一位基督徒；桑迪?威尔，犹太人，来自以色列，来――来――来自美国。不管是穆斯林，基督徒，还是犹太教徒，我都不在乎。”
事实上，用沙特的标准看，王子是个自由主义者。他希望他的叔叔――阿卜杜拉国王(King Abdullah)走向民主吗？“你用‘民主’这个词，我会说是‘人民参与政治程序’，因为民主有多种形式。例如，我相信人民参政。我相信地方自治选举已经举行。有迹象表明，总有一天，阿卜杜拉国王会想到在沙里亚(Shoura)，也就是我们的议会中引入选举制。”
我斗胆说了句，沙特阿拉伯内部似乎存在不同政见。“对什么？”王子追问。我说，对君主政体。“你从哪里知道的？”报纸上。“坦率地说，我完全没发现有这样的事。事实上，沙特阿拉伯人民多数都支持政府。坦白说，要是看看沙特阿拉伯之外所谓的异议人士，则只有萨阿德?阿勒-法吉(Saad al-Fagih，在伦敦的不同政见者)。这好极了。沙特有1600万本地居民，还有600万人移居海外，却只有一个人公开反对。”如果要提沙特另一个不同政见者似乎不明智，这就是著名的奥萨马?本?拉登(Osama bin Laden)。
在美国投资
然而，王子也知道，并非每个人都对沙特阿拉伯有好印象。“9/11”事件中的19名劫机犯，有15名是沙特人，美国因此特别气愤。王子购入西方媒体公司的股权，部分原因是他可以借此帮助消除东西方的误解吧？
他以一个标准的否定句开始回答：“我在美国的投资，其实不是为了影响公共政策。”但他接着补充说：“当我会见新闻集团的默多克(Murdoch)先生，或者会见帕森斯先生时，我不会介入这些公司的管理。新闻集团旗下有福克斯新闻频道(Fox News)和英国天空广播公司(BSkyB)，而帕森斯先生控制着美国有线新闻网(CNN)、《财富》(Fortune)、《人物》(People)、《时代》(Time)和美国在线(America Online)。但我的确会告诉他们，我认为他们哪里做错了。他们会做出判断，并决定该做什么。我的任务是，让他们看到可能没看到的事情。”
殿下能否举个例子？“有一次，CNN报道了巴勒斯坦人对以色列人的所谓恐怖行动。我对他们说，‘你们必须报道另一边的情况，看看以色列人对巴勒斯坦人做了些什么。’他们这样做了，却遭到了以色列人的批评和指责。我并不要求有权介入，但我必须尽量影响一些事件。”
工作最努力的亿万富翁
在新闻集团，王子正帮助默多克先生抵制投资者约翰?马龙(John Malone)的攻击。默多克的哈珀?柯林斯(HarperCollins)出版社，刚刚出版了前CNN主持人康锐思(Riz Khan)撰写的圣徒传――《阿尔瓦利德：商人、亿万富翁和王子》(Alwaleed: Businessman, Billionaire, Prince)，这无疑仅仅出于文学原因。王子手边有这本书。“卡特(Carter)总统写的序，”他说。接着他又说：“是的，是卡特总统写的序，卡特总统，卡特总统写的。”
“哇，”我终于回答道。
“卡特总统，”他说。
康锐思如是描述王子：“他不仅雷厉风行，而且有条不紊，是中东和西方的独特混合体……可以说，他是地球上工作最努力的亿万富翁。”书中写道，王子的母亲和康锐思一同观看一段录像：蹒跚学步的王子追赶一只山羊，直到抓住为止。她告诉康锐思：“甚至在那个时候，我就看出我儿子的意志有多坚定。”王子对该书看法如何？“我认为，这反映了……事实。”这时，希拉克(Chirac)总统出现在了电视上，王子一边嘟哝着“哦，希拉克！”，一边调高了音量。我们倾听了希拉克对“尊重”、“正义”和“平等”的歌颂。王子认识希拉克。“我可以会见任何总统、任何国王、任何苏丹、任何公司总裁。这是个十分独特的位置。”
拥有大量财富是否使您感到快乐？只在当你将财富赠与别人时才是这样，王子表示。“当海啸发生时，我是全世界捐赠最多的个人。当巴基斯坦发生灾难时，我是……全球捐赠最多的个人。我亲自去了巴基斯坦。巴基斯坦总理对我说：‘王子，您的来访比您给我们的捐赠更为重要。’”
我们点了咖啡。他的先上了，但他坚持先给我，尽管我点了双倍份量，而他要的是单份。他继续说道：“还有些其它事鼓励了我：当我涉足一些不成功的企业时，突然之间它们就会变好了。”他说，例如当他首次投资花旗集团时，它正处于“危急关头”。“猜猜现在怎么样了，它目前是头号全球性银行，是企业头牌。乔治五世酒店当初几乎就是垃圾。我收购的时候，如果你点意大利面，他们会说，‘我们没有意大利面，给您米饭吧。’看看发生了什么：收购、关闭，然后整顿。猜猜怎么样了：连续5年全球最佳酒店。”简而言之，阿尔瓦利德似乎是为利润以外的动机而投资，著名的投资者很少会这样做。
尽管如此，他对一切还是了然于心。当我起身感谢他抽空与我共进午餐时，他回答说：“我们现在该买单了。”然后他无论如何要买单。我拒绝了。幸好账单没有贵得离谱，这是节食的另一个好处。我动身去赶夜班火车，是二等车厢下铺。而阿尔瓦利德仍将继续联合东西方的努力，一直工作到黎明时分――他计划中的就寝时间。
地点：巴黎乔治五世酒店
一份芝
