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A week in Dubai
By David | April 16, 2007
My wife and I decided to join, along with our two children, very dear friends who just moved in Dubai for Easter, or rather, Passover for us.
I tried to rest as much as I could from usual business and to stay away from the Internet, my sacred daily stats and of course my new hobby, my blog. Flying back to Europe, I felt like sharing the unique experience of a week in one of the most fascinating place on Earth today.
First, bedazzlement, no one can steer safe from being marveled by the city that literally comes out of what used to be a desert. The Burj Dubai that will culminate somewhere close to 1,000 m, the highest tower in the world. The two palms that are being excavated from the sea to create two towns of their own with hotels, residences and country clubs. The ski slopes of the mall of the Emirates and last but not least, the World, a project that recreates the Earth, split by countries, each of them a small island sold as exclusive private properties. I used to be a frequent traveler to Beijing and Shanghai, and believe me, even what’s cooking in the Middle Kingdom on the verge of the Olympics doesn’t come close to what’s in the works in Dubai right now. Cranes everywhere, people living in an open-sky gigantic real estate project.
Second comes the evident comfort, prompting my seven year old daughter to ask me, as candidly as we all once were: “Daddy, if we ever move somewhere, can we move here?”, and me to ask why, only to get a straightforward answer: “I like it here, it’s very organized, people have servants, chauffeurs,…”. Now I need to work on that and bring things back to normal!
Then, the bitter part that shatters the Hollywood set. We’re sitting in an open air “disco” restaurant, overlooking the sea, celebrating my birthday with family and friends that have turned into family themselves. Just to set the scene, bottles of vodka, champaign and all kind of alcoholic beverages are all over the place, the density of escort girls reaches the one of sturgeon eggs in a caviar box. One of my friends chastely kisses his girlfriend, and here comes a security guard telling him he cannot kiss a woman in public. Finally, I try calling friends in Israel from my cell, but can’t do it. Calls to Israel are blocked.
That night, I felt like all the hope I built up during our first four days was gone. Hope that a modern, open-to-the-world and liberated trend in Arab countries will soon change the outlook of the region and create a lasting Peace with Israel we all long for. I felt that the incoherence and the gap between what was on display and the reality of the fundamentals was too far apart to bridge. And more importantly that what I cherish more than anything, freedom, was only an illusion. That no tower, no palm or world built on the sea, no PR, could be worth freedom. Freedom of kissing or hugging loved ones in public, or calling the only truly democratic country of the region at the time of your choosing.
A few days later and after sharing my thoughts and feelings with expatriates and locals alike, I changed my mind. I still believe that freedom has no price, but you have to put the country’s history and underlying tradition into perspective. One tends to forget the reality of neighboring countries when amidst so much modernity, momentum and US-like environment. Then you realize that what has been done here took a lot of money of course, but more importantly, guts and vision. Belated Sheikh Zayed of Abu Dhabi and Al Maktoum of Dubai were visionaries and put the immense resources of oil to work to radically change the face of their region. In that process they gradually opened up the country to western civilization.
There is still a lot to be done, but make no mistake about it, although it’s going to sound controversial, democracy is not applicable to all countries. It works in controlled opened environments but almost never in regions with tribal values and dissensions, where a strong ruler is needed to control the country and steer it away from chaos. For instance I am truly curious to see what happens in Irak in thirty years, will democracy prevail?
Dubai’s media coverage and its resulting massive influx of tourism and expatriates are already creating a ripple effect in the region. Abu Dhabi now has its own set of gigantic projects, so does Saudi Arabia and most countries in the region. Qatar now has diplomatic relations with Israel and for the first time ever, an Israeli journalist, a woman on top of it, was invited to the Riyadh Arab Summit a few weeks ago.
Leveraging current high prices of black gold to create openness to the world, modernity and more freedom in all the Gulf countries is the right thing to do to reduce their oil dependency in the long term. These are true conditions to a stable and long lasting Peace in the whole region provided that Islamists can be reined down for long enough.
Sphere: Related ContentTopics: Israel, Middle East, Dubai, UAE |
