It seems an odd detail now but the first person to find oil in Abu Dhabi was the deep sea explorer Jacques Cousteau, who was employed by a British-run expedition to look for telltale signs in the ocean floor. Modern-day oil prospecting involves satellite imaging and infrared. Back in the 1950s the state of the art was a broodingly handsome celebrity diver in a pair of Speedos.
It worked, though. In those days the Persian gulf was a coral paradise, home to a booming pearl diving trade. You wonder if, down in the glitter and the deep blue shadows, drawing back his hand from the telltale rock formations, Cousteau saw a gleam of something else too, a reflection in his mask of sky blue figures moving on a field of green, vision of some perfect footballing future waiting to be hoisted out of the ocean floor.
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2r45uxK
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