Ali Alhashemi Trading Est.

[Review of an interview as published in ME-Printer Magazine in May 2005]
There are none in the graphic arts industry in this part of the world who haven’t heard of Ali Alhashemi, the man who helped create the market for graphic arts in the gulf region.

Like a true son of the soil, Ali Alhashemi rose from an unlettered childhood to a notable existence as a self made man. Left to fend for themselves, Ali and his four brothers worked hard to make ends meet. “My father died when I was three years old and ever since then, we had to earn our living. I used to sell dates with my brothers and that was hard work but I am used to it right from the beginning,” he informs.

Young Ali was compelled to leave the UAE for Bahrain. It was in Bahrain that the rendezvous with graphic arts would take place. It was also in Bahrain that Ali Alhashemi would learn to read and write, a step out of the darkness into which destiny had thrown him at the age of eighteen. He describes his eight years in Bahrain thus: “It was in 1950 that I started working in the Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Printing Press, where there was no electricity also, as a printer and binder for a salary of 5 dinars. We used to work on wooden types, wherein paper had to be manually placed one by one to be printed. And then worked with Al Muyyed Printing Press.

I used to spend the days working and the nights studying having joined a night school to pursue my dream of learning. I used to wash my clothes at night to wear them the next day and walk a distance of nearly 20-15 km from my accommodation till my place of work.

Looking for greener pastures, Ali also tried out brief stints as a telegraph and wireless operator, compounder and lab technician and found a fulfilling situation in working for a newspaper as a Morse code operator for a newspaper in Bahrain. “I used to receive news from news agencies around the world in Morse and I would transcript the codes in both English and Arabic for the managing editor. I remember some interesting happenings such as when I received an SOS from a ship which was sinking off the Algerian coast that led to our newspaper covering the news before anybody else. I worked in that position for two years, following which I was sent to Kuwait as a reporter. It was the same year in which Jordan’s King Hossein visited Kuwait and I managed to cover the event against all odds and in the face of a good beating from the Kuwaiti police.”

Continuing in the same vein Ali Alhashemi adds: “We received information on the whereabouts of the deposed president of Egypt, Mohammed Najib who had been in Gamal Abdul Nasser’s custody and published the same in our newspaper, which resulted in our press being burnt down the next day. Luckily the press was insured and we started anew. However, after a period the newspaper closed down.

When Ali Alhashemi left Bahrain after an eight-year stay and came back to Dubai in 1960, he did so with a hope in his heart of starting a business. “Once I had asked my mother about my late father’s profession and she had replied that he was a businessman. Probably, unconsciously I wanted to retrace his footsteps. While working for Dubai Customs, I was simultaneously running a small business of printing stationery by the name of Famous Commission Agent with the help of a loan given by the very generous Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum (Be peace be upon him). I had the distributorship of some medicines as well in those days,” says Al Hashemi.

Closing down the stationery business, Ali Alhashemi set up a printing press in partnership which soon ended in a debacle. “Following the dissolution of the partnership, I had to go to great lengths to get my money back by involving the British embassy since we were still a British protectorate in the 60s. One night my wife saw a dream wherein I was sitting in a big round garden that turned out to be a good omen and I got my money back.”