342 responses so far »

• James K. : Feb 15, 2009 at 8:06 pm

  I called this insanity when I first heard about it and I’m fairly glad to see that I was right about it.

• Dubai Dreams : Feb 16, 2009 at 8:24 am

  Strong arguments there. Love the bit about Dickens.

• Ashley Johnston : Feb 16, 2009 at 12:23 pm

  DIdn’t you hear her? It will all come back in 9 months. How many more market triumphs will have to happen before we learn financial elites are awesome.

• admin : Feb 16, 2009 at 1:57 pm

  @Ashley. I know, she is a perfect encapsulation of philistine realtor despicableness. There is an specific circe of hell populated entirely by people like this showing you condos.

• Jeremy Foster | Good-bye, Dubai : Feb 16, 2009 at 7:44 pm

  [...] I read this article and couldn’t agree more. [...]

• david : Feb 16, 2009 at 8:50 pm

  Unrestrained, culture-free development is unsustainable?

  No way!

  What an amazing insight!

• should i hesitate before i say i’m from dubai? « stuff : Feb 16, 2009 at 9:52 pm

  [...] in Uncategorized cause now i’ll be hearing “oh i heard dubai is dying!” with a smug look on all those people’s faces who call Dubai crazy. I guess it is. but [...]

• Burt : Feb 16, 2009 at 10:39 pm

  Hmmm. Debtor’s prison in a multibillion dollar high-rise.

  Sign me up.

• Susan : Feb 16, 2009 at 11:17 pm

  I’ve watched the Maktoum Royal Family and growth of Dubai for 25 years. it’s correct that the emirate’s bubble economy reached ridiculous and unsustainable expressions of fantasy and wealth. Still, the point of the piece might have greater impact if your writing style was not as ostentatiously overwrought as the Dubai you are criticizing.

• bleep : Feb 16, 2009 at 11:54 pm

  I disagree with Susan: I thought this was great writing. I recently applied for an ad-copywriting job with a firm that does promotional work for Dubai and Abu Dhabi real estate. Your description of the marketing and the exterior architecture vs. interior design is totally dead accurate. Nice one.

• Mike Martin : Feb 16, 2009 at 11:58 pm

  So let me get this straight. If I can smuggle a car out of Dubai, there are like Maseratis, Bughattis, Ferraris, Porches, and who knows what else just sitting in the Dubai airport parking garage with the keys still in the ignition, just waiting for a shop to rework the vehicle, swapping paperwork and serial numbers.

  Hmmmm…

• tom s : Feb 17, 2009 at 2:30 am

  Nice rant – but way off the mark. Here’s the point: Dubai is not a “business idea” – it;s a real place full of real people. The reason it is as it is is precisely BECAUSE there is no oil. If Dubai had unlimited oil it could sit back and be Saudi Arabia. Instead, it has successfully diversified away from oil in a daring and existentially vital bid to get to a point where they don;t rely on oil revenues at all. As a result, it has developed a western-style economy which is totally screwed now in the same way as credit-card economies like the US/UK etc.

  There’s plenty of vice in Dubai, even if it is rather charmless (as I imagine it is in Vegas). Every hotel has a bar full of Chinese/Djiboutian/Ukranian hookers, while the Moroccans, Syrians and Iranians are preferred by the rich Arabs and so have a higher status. There is also plenty of booze (although not much harder drugs). The key to understanding the place is to read between the lines rather than taking the letter of the law. The code of conduct is basically “do what you want – anything at all – but just don’t shout about it”. There are rules about what you do in public, but what you do in the privacy of your own home is between you and your conscience.

  While westerners are pretty visible in Dubai and tend to be the main preoccupation of other westerners abroad (like the writer of this blog), Dubai is in fact vital for millions of other people in a region of pathetically badly-run countries. It offers jobs and opportunity to Arabs from economic basket cases like Egypt, Syria and the Occupied Palestinian Territories as well as loads of Indians and Pakistanis and an investment environment which, while incredibly opaque, is far less risky than home – places like Iraq, Iran, Uzbekistan or Ukraine. The place is also a vital node on the global transport map between Europe and Asia. Westerners may well leave, especially if the place introduces tax, but that doesn’t mean Dubai is dead. Far from it.

  Dubai may not boast Parisian sophistication, and its own hubris has set it up as a target for opprobrium now things aren’t going so well, but I am still getting quite sick of all this nasty schadenfreude by western journalists who show up in Dubai, do an open-top bus tour for a couple of hours, and sneer that the place is a shithole and a “bad business idea”. It is not charming, but it has broken the pervasive Arab taboo of not achieving anything at all and for that it deserves recognition. And I can’t help feeling that it is exactly that that makes some foreign commentators uncomfortable.

• Jexy : Feb 17, 2009 at 2:47 am

  Great reply Tom S.

  Spot on.

• Catalin : Feb 17, 2009 at 3:01 am

  Tom S, I sooo agree with the points you are making! There is so much more to Dubai than the glitz and the fake. There are plenty of people who enjoy Dubai as a base to explore the region and discover the Arab culture.

  Let’s face it… people love a bad story and everybody seemed to have jumped all over the “3000 cars left at the airport” and the “1500 visas cancelled every day” articles. However, have any of these writers thought that Dubai is a place where people come and go all the time and that even in normal times there are a huge number of visas being cancelled simply because expats move on.

• Anwar Barayil : Feb 17, 2009 at 3:13 am

  While a lot of what you said may be true, but yet I believe Dubai will bounce back. didnt Florida go through such situation in the early 1900?
  Yes prices are dropping and rents are falling and projects are being shelved. This is good as a lot of fly by night operators who descended from UK, Germany, Russia, Iran, etc. will get weeded out. They came, saw the opportunity, hyper inflated the economy and real estate, made quick profit and made life miserable for a lot of people who have been living here for a long time doing honest jobs, businesses. And now are crying foul. Pure envy one reason behind your article. The rulers had great vision and without any experience or long history has brought this place to what it is within such a short span of time is definitely envious. We will learn and evolve. The Lehman brothers brought this wrath on the world economy. Dubai is suffering from the after effect of that. We will bounce back, Insha Allah (that is God willing in Arabic)

• Stelios : Feb 17, 2009 at 3:23 am

  I feel a bit weird about your blog post because you could say exactly the same, say about London (or add the metro area near you) during the same period and until the crash. Why is the western crass more sophisticated anyway? It sounds to me like the fanatic muslim rant on the vices of the western world, backwards.

• pete : Feb 17, 2009 at 4:07 am

  Tom S has it right. having left dubai in December, after six years, i’d say it’s biggest long term problem is encouraging expats to feel they have a long term future. if things turn bad and you have a decent passport (i’m english), you can leave and go to loads of places. the top jobs and Govt perks are all for locals, there is absolutely no prospect of ever gaining citizenship or your Dubai-born children playing for the UAE football team. fine. they make it clear you’re here to work (and make your money), and when that’s done, leave.

  i was told when i arrived, working in the Middle East is like having a bucket of shit in one hand, and a bucket of gold in the other. when either one gets too heavy, it’s time to go. the shit buckets are hitting the floor

• dbod : Feb 17, 2009 at 4:24 am

  Dubai is built on the back of exploiting people from other countries. The “real people” mentioned above are only there because they can earn money being the slaves of the rich. As soon as the rich go, the slaves will be surplus and they will go too (and they are) Pleasure Domes are unsustainable and that is all it is.

• admin : Feb 17, 2009 at 4:26 am

  @Tom This is the coherent rebuttal I was hoping for so it allows me to justify why I used such strong language.

  “Dubai is not a business idea.”

  No town is ‘a business idea’ its a metaphor, but I would argue that the way in which Dubai has been created from nothing on the back of injected capital and developers schemes makes the entire place look closer to a ‘business idea’ than anywhere on earth.

  There are four major models for successful cities: cultural/tourist destinations (Rome); industrial production (19th C Manchester and many places in China that nobody has heard of); control over natural resources (Riyadh); trade/banking (Antwerp).

  Most of the world’s most successful cities score on several of these measures: London, New York, Shanghai. Dubai has little or no industrial production (other than building itself), control over natural reources (no oil), or trade (again the goods flowing in tend to be for local consumption). It has some nascent banking but it is opaque and possibly corrupt.

  That leaves Dubai as a cultural/tourist destination. It had a book festival recently, but one entry was banned because it dealt with gay subject matter, the future of a tennis tournament is in disarray after an argument about a visa denied to an Israeli player. More importantly these are manufactured cultural events rather than the showcasing of homegrown talent. What books movies, plays or fine art can you name that have come from Dubai?

  You might say that I left architecture off this list and that Dubai has many examples of world class architecture. Well, I am an architect, I used to work for the firms that have lauded buildings here, and I know that many of them were not designed by the people whose names are attached to them. These were buildings done in a hurry, for profit, and to cash in on a boom. If they were Picassos, the term would be fake.

  “it has broken the pervasive Arab taboo of not achieving anything at all and for that it deserves recognition.”

  For centuries Arabs, and more generally Muslims dominated global culture with achievements in both arts and sciences. My own area of Arab interest is architecture. I used to live in Saudi Arabia, my university thesis was on Islamic architecture, I can think of no greater works of cultural significance from Granada to Cordoba to traditional Baghdad courtyard houses to Qairouan and Shahjahanabad Delhi from Arab to Persian to Mughal. The architecture of Dubai represents something very different, transient and soulless.

  “There’s plenty of vice in Dubai…The key to understanding the place is to read between the lines rather than taking the letter of the law.”

  This above all, stemming from a culture where historically the letter of the law is everything (you do not read between the lines of the Quran), sounds like a recipe for disaster. If a prized Moroccan beauty is flown in on a private jet to be quietly sodomized (this is a real account I am referring to) in a five star hotel by someone who would be jailed for the offense if it were indiscrete, then eventually indiscretion will get the better of him. In Vegas this would be legal, wrong but legal. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, what happens in Dubai never happened.

  A culture of hypocrisy is fragile. If the Sauds were ever to cede to the Wahabists in a popular uprising in Arabia, Dubai would more likely be held as an example of failed Western decadence than Middle Eastern refusal to fully adopt liberal culture. Gay literature wouldn’t suddenly become acceptable and liquor selling would be stopped.

  Dubai is a halfway experiment, its failure will mean retrenchment rather than completion.

  “it has developed a western-style economy which is totally screwed now in the same way as credit-card economies like the US/UK etc”

  There are companies that were bad companies that are able to blame layoffs on the recession. Similarly just because the recession was the catalyst for Dubai’s imminent problems does not mean to say that it wasn’t a bubble waiting to burst. I would say the same things about London.

  On one point I agree, “I am still getting quite sick of all this nasty schadenfreude by western journalists”.

  My schadenfreude about Dubai is equally premised on Dubai being an example of decadent consumption of the type associated with the West.

  I can equally imagine the schadenfreude of conservative Islamic clerics if Dubai fails. People who hate the Middle East and people who hate the West are idiots, but there is plenty of grist for their mill in Dubai.

• admin : Feb 17, 2009 at 4:33 am

  “you could say exactly the same, say about London (or add the metro area near you) during the same period and until the crash. Why is the western crass more sophisticated anyway? It sounds to me like the fanatic muslim rant on the vices of the western world, backwards”

  @Stelios. It is like London or New York, and I have written about the horrid decadence there.

  My beef has nothing to do with Dubai being being muslim or London secular, but a cultural flameout that was largely to do with excess, greed and stupidity, globally.

• And Far Away » Plastic Fantastic : Feb 17, 2009 at 4:53 am

  [...] Here’s one of the wittiest articles I’ve read on Dubai, financial crisis or not.  [...]

• Dubai, the beginning of the end? : Feb 17, 2009 at 5:28 am

  [...] the real estate crash in Dubai, but more worryingly for Dubai, this has been coupled with a lot of bad [...]

• tom s : Feb 17, 2009 at 6:27 am

  @admin Just a couple of things. Dubai is actually all about trade and its people are merchant types. Pre-oil, it was a minor trading port. Its trade links with and exposure to people from Iran, India and east Africa are what has made locals broadly more chilled out and accepting of differences between cultures than the Wahhabis of Saudi. This is crucial. What you call a “culture of hyprocrisy” is seen by Emiratis as being “Tassameh”, loosely translated as tolerance. I was interviewing a local Sheikha and she explained it thus:

  “Tassameh means forgiving and taking your relationship with anyone else like you do with your family. If you have a dispute you overcome it based on the idea that the relationship matters more than any differences between you. Tassameh means overcoming and respecting differences.

  “Why would we do that? The UAE is a small society, very rich and has a small population. We need the contribution of people who live here and we are grateful for it. The UAE has become a global player thanks to the contribution of all of us together. People who come from abroad don;t do so because they are doing some kind of spiritual and charity work for us.”

  Tradewise, you will note that Dubai Ports (DP World) is the biggest ports operator in the world (it would run US ports if Americans weren;t so skittish about Arabs running anything American) and Emirates and Etihad are among the world’s top airlines. These are big and successful companies based on trade and transport. A huge amount of goods passes through the UAE and the place is full of import/export companies.

  Inexplicably, Dubai has done well out of tourism (Brits just want sun). Culturewise, it wants to put itself on the map with big events and it has indeed run up against a nasty hurdle with the Israeli tennis player. The UAE doesn;t do politics (unlike Qatar, which has balls). I think it is terrified of politics precisely because it has a delicate balance to maintain among all the constituencies making up its population – which includes a few bin Laden-supporting nutters. But in essence it doesn;t have a big problem with Israel and as soon as the Arab world recognises Israel it will too. Until then it has a problem because its laws state quite clearly that Israelis cannot travel there. Israelis can go there on non-Israeli passports, but a person actually representing israel presents a knotty problem. I think this must be true because if it were not so, then the Israeli diamond magnate and West Bank settlement supporter and builder Lev Leviev would not be allowed to sell his diamonds in Dubai. However, other cultural and particularly sporting events are going well (until Israel starts producing decent golfers, jockeys, rugby players and racing drivers, anyway…)

  Dubai architecture – I don;t really like it, to be honest, although I think the Emirates Towers on Sheikh Zayed Road are terrific.

  I don;t say that the Arabs have never contributed anything to the world, I just mean that in modern times, some aspects of the Arab world appear to have been in decline. Dubai has really provided an alternative to that and its aims to become a global sporting and cultural hub are in part an attempt not just to put itself on the map, but to put the Arab world back on the map too.

  “What books movies, plays or fine art can you name that have come from Dubai?” – give the place a chance, man! It has only been a country for 40 years and already you;re wondering where the Emirati Shakespeare is? But things are changing and there are the seeds of an independent art/design/film/music scene here. See http://www.blueprintmagazine.co.uk/?p=720 for a different perspective.

  You say: “This above all, stemming from a culture where historically the letter of the law is everything (you do not read between the lines of the Quran), sounds like a recipe for disaster” – it sounds like you think Dubai is Saudi Arabia. It is not. No. See above – the UAE is all about balancing disparate needs. Its legal system is what it is to appease sharia-loving traditionalists.

  “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, what happens in Dubai never happened.” So what? Dubai is not Vegas, either.

  Look – I have no great love for Dubai and the UAE, but I think Dubai in particular deserves to be recognised for what it has achieved, which is much. If it was like Saudi I wouldn;t be here.

• admin : Feb 17, 2009 at 6:44 am

  @tom I’m not sure what to say, that is the best argued attack I have ever read on this site, and I’ll have to concede that most of what you say is correct.

  As you say, Dubai has to straddle a fine line, it is about balance and like everything in life the truth about Dubai’s long term viability probably lies somewhere in the middle.

  But I would still argue that much of what is currently happening in the world is a correction due to imbalance and nowhere represented this more than Dubai. If it can achieve a more measured development then I think it will survive but it will represent something different from indoor ski slopes on Arabian sand and hotels with extra stars like the volume control that goes up to 11 in Spinal Tap.

• Stephan : Feb 17, 2009 at 8:19 am

  As far as I can tell, Dubai has decadence, but the wrong kind of decadence. They have the expensive let’s-buy-a-gold-plated-loo kind, but none of the cheap sex-drugs-rock’n'roll kind.

• durkin : Feb 17, 2009 at 8:27 am

  I find the whole operation to monumentally tacky, hillbillies draped in gold-painted crap, and underlaid with absurd fundamentalist hypocrisy, and I enjoyed a great snicker at the prospect of the whole thing falling flat on its face.

• Dollar and Gold are Soaring as World Flees Risk | Red Hot Energy and Gold : Feb 17, 2009 at 9:09 am

  [...] Goodbye, Dubai [...]

• Tina : Feb 17, 2009 at 9:17 am

  Hey, we have a seven star hotel in Australia….no one ever called that pretentious!
  Well done Tom….great argument!

• improbable : Feb 17, 2009 at 10:20 am

  Thanks to Tom S and Admin for one of the most civilised discussions I’ve seen on a blog in years.

  I’d like to add that there’s a bit more to Dubai than the skyline and gold-plated shopping malls which dominate its image in the west. For most of the people living there (as opposed to westerners visiting it instead of Vegas) these things don’t matter much. There are lots of more ordinary districts, with strip-malls full of restaurants run by people from Lebanon next to Kerala next to Kabul, which seem to be lively places in which people can often live much more normal lives than they could at home. Sure you won’t find the purest version of any culture there, but that’s a rather particular interest. Maybe you should think of it as being a bit like the midwestern US cities, which are boring places for tourists (chasing history/food/art/music) who prefer the places the people emigrated from.

  As for the economy of Dubai, I’m no expert but there is some industry. Much of this seems to be related to construction, but it’s too strong to say they only existed to build Dubai. Big buildings are increasingly international undertakings, in which the steel might come pre-fabricated on one ship and the glass on another. And the companies which do this sort of thing in the Emirates are now big enough to be serious competitors. If you want something built in Mauritius or in Saudi, there’s a good chance some of it will come from there.

  I do very much hope Dubai does not fall over in the crisis, because it seems a promising thing for the region. The middle east could use an example of economic success. If they lose the glitter that’s fine by me.

• PB : Feb 17, 2009 at 10:29 am

  Hey, just wondering if you’ve been to China (not sure, new to your site having been linked in through to this Dubai story). Much of what has happened in Beijing, Shanghai in recent years approximates the ‘megalopolis out of nowhere’ approach that Dubai has been fond of- they key difference being that in China it was done on top of many, many more people. A tabula rasa approach to urbanization is one thing in a desert- it’s a whole other thing on top of densely populated areas. Dubai might get a bad rap because it’s so flashy, but this sort of crap has been going on in a LOT of places like you point out. I mean Pudong in Shanghai is a Dubai all onto itself, a “business idea” that is one of the strangest places I have ever set foot in.

• admin : Feb 17, 2009 at 10:38 am

  @PB I’ve only been to Hong Kong, so cannot really speak from direct experience. I’ve been to Walmart, however, and an awful lot more in there comes from China than Dubai.

  I am sure there are many anonymous towns in China that are like 19th Century Manchester, i.e. they grew out of nowhere by making things, unlike Dubai. Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing are all old cities, unlike Dubai so their tabula rasa approach seems more like Haussmann’s Paris.

• admin : Feb 17, 2009 at 10:39 am

  @Tina “we have a seven star hotel in Australia….no one ever called that pretentious!”

  You must be hanging out with different Australians than the ones I know.

• The Planned Metropolis of Dubai is Collapsing | Daily Debrief : Feb 17, 2009 at 10:47 am

  [...] Source Share This: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]

• The Gold Standard » On Dubai - blogging and debating as it should be : Feb 17, 2009 at 11:29 am

  [...] post (via here) on Dubai, the comments and the replies are fascinating, informative, well-argued, [...]

• ambrose : Feb 17, 2009 at 12:20 pm

  “Wolf” = Tom Wolfe, I guess?

• admin : Feb 17, 2009 at 12:21 pm

  @ambrose oops

• goodbye dubai — award tour : Feb 17, 2009 at 12:22 pm

  [...] Goodbye Dubai. about the dubai real estate crash. crazy stuff. via ram. [...]

• donna : Feb 17, 2009 at 12:39 pm

  At least all those towers will make wonderful debtor’s prisons!

• Terry : Feb 17, 2009 at 12:40 pm

  Great debate between the author and commentator Tom.

  Ultimately my feeling is that the problem is simply that Dubai is immature. Up until it was going through its boisterous ‘teenage’ years of believing itself to be invincible. The architecture, the projects, the vision – these all needed to be tempered with a degree of sophistication and maturity that can only come through experience. We could all see that. But it was not something that could be taught to the rulers directly. They had to learn humility for themselves. Now that they are eating their humble pie, perhaps going forward after this ’seismic event’ we will see a new dubai emerge over the next few decades – which will progess at a more thoughtful and considered pace.

• Padraig : Feb 17, 2009 at 1:03 pm

  While I agree with many of your assertions, you overlook why Dubai was chosen in the first place. They didn’t willy nilly choose a site in the desert. It is the financial hub of the Middle East. A place with lax banking laws and maximum privacy possible. Yes it has no oil, but all the oil money flows through it as the rich seek to move cash out of their oil rich countries. It is as much a London, New York, Toronto, as it is a Switzerland.

  I think it is as stupid an idea as Las Vegas to try and sustain a large population in a desert. Not that I care about people losing money, but wasteful spending has its own impacts on the natural environment.

  That marina building is fricken cool in terms of the construction. They had a 2 hour feature on it. (Frontiers of Construction on the Learning Channel)

  I don’t think that the city will remain in its current status, but for entirely different reason. It is a waste of resources to maintain large populations in desert lands. Eventually, and like the USA, it becomes to expensive to defend your standard of living. (Rome fell, not of military inferiority, but it became to big to defend its borders. It was the world police back then.)

  Time will tell.

• PB : Feb 17, 2009 at 1:03 pm

  I’ll tell you one thing that comes from Dubai.

  Water.

  A few years ago I was working in a remote provincial capital of northern Mozambique, and a big percentage of anything that ended up in town arrived on a ship from South Africa or the Middle East. So I’m at a conference in the one hotel in town, and what do I see sitting on the the table awaiting each participant?

  Bottled water…from Dubai.

  A desert city, exporting water?

  That’s when I knew that our global economy had well and truly lost it.

• The Death of Dubai : Confessions of a Political Junkie : Feb 17, 2009 at 1:05 pm

  [...] warning here, but I think it does sum up the death of Dubai given the economic circumstances of the day. As people scramble for the exits in [...]

• JassimAli : Feb 17, 2009 at 1:26 pm

  Brilliant arguments..as far as I can see as a dubai resident the dubai story has got a few bloody knocks but it wud still be up for a few more rounds…overall the idea of dubai to promote freetrade is still relevant enough for the region and the ‘mistakes’ of garrish buildings and ‘blking’ islands are there it still doesn’t mean successes such as dubai media city and emirates could be over looked
  Dubai wud be back soon with a vengeance !

• Goodbye, Dubai - PmNet Aggregator : Feb 17, 2009 at 1:38 pm

  [...] This article is almost gleeful in describing the region’s arrogant rise and rapid collapse. But if there is one problem with the shallow and the fickle, its that they are shallow and fickle, they won’t put down deep roots and they won’t remain loyal to Dubai. The people who appear in People magazine need to be told what is cool by Wallpaper magazine who in turn will discover something after the hipsters have moved on. The problem is that Dubai was never hipster-cool and is no longer Wallpaper-cool. This realization will have the same impact as suburbanite bachelorette party in a Wallpaper-cool nightclub. It will spread like the sighting of a floating turd in a public pool, flushing people to the exits with silent panic, unacknowledged for fear of embarrassment. [...]

• bunnymud : Feb 17, 2009 at 1:46 pm

  Dubai is the Six Flags of the middle east

• MickeyHickey : Feb 17, 2009 at 1:54 pm

  The Maktoums have been doing business in Ireland for more than half a century. They are hard headed business men who will survive this 2 or 3 years of financial turmoil brought to us by the British, Americans and others. I see a bright future for Dubai as a safe financial haven now that the old standbys Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg are forced to open their banking records to all and sundry. As a warm, sun and sand destination with casinos it is better than Vegas or Macao. It is a de facto banking and commercial hub in the middle east where one is badly needed. Dubai uber alles!

• peter : Feb 17, 2009 at 1:54 pm

  I hope my brother doesn’t mind, or the admin, but I am pasting in here his email about his trip to Dubai in June 07. I think it will add something to this discussion.

  ——— snip ———–

  Dubai

  Went with Euang to Dubai to help her at her booth at Automechanica Middle East. I haven’t been on a plane for almost two years, so it was exciting for me. It felt a bit strange to be in an airport.

  Thailand’s brand new Suvanapumbi airport is like a clone of Hong Kong’s airport except deliberately constructed to be instantly shabby, with cracked floors and dirty windows. You can tell that the bathroom fixtures are bottom rung in terms of quality. Maybe the specs indicated that they should source all fixtures from the manufacturers rejects pile.

  I love airplane food (on airplanes). I just about never go to restaurants so it’s a treat to be served. What ever is on the menu is fine by me, Euang orders one and I order the other and we get to compare and rate them.

  Oh, about Dubai! Well… actually as I was only there for five days and most of that time was spent in a) The hotel, b) The bus, c)The Trade Center building. What ever impressions I have are cursory at best and most likely wrong… but that hasn’t stopped be from BS-ing before.

  Dubai is “Hot”. I haven’t been to any place hotter than Thailand, and compared to Dubai in Spring time Thailand’s summers can’t compete. On the way to the hotel, the two three Thai tour guides gave us some info about Dubai. Summer starts in June and things start to really cook in August. Supposedly it can hit 49 Celsius on some days.

  Dubai must use a tremendous amount of energy to regulate temperature. Every where I went it was very well air conditioned indoors. About 2pm in the afternoon the heat buildup from the concrete roads combined with the unfettered rays pounding down form above, makes it uncomfortable to be outside. Inside the convention center it was cold. Cold enough that I had to wear an extra layer to keep warm. Every few hours I would go outside for a few minutes to quickly (very quickly) warm up. Water comes from “huge” desalination plants (hotel brochure). The roads don’t have run-off drainage. It rains one day or two days a year here. The tour guides warned us to be careful when taking showers because the water can get very hot even from the “cold” faucet.

  Dubai is going nuts with construction. I read somewhere that 20% of the operating construction cranes in the world are in Dubai. Interesting how in the middle of nowhere hot as heck people are scrambling to build edifices that require oodles of energy to maintain. In addition to the most expensive hotel in the world the “Burj Al Arab” they also have an indoor ski slope, what is going to be the tallest building in the world, and shopping mall after shopping mall. Actually the tour guide took as to a beach from which we could take pictures of the hotel. We ran out of the bus stood squirming and squinting in the sun for our pictures and then ran back into the bus. Out there on the beach there were insane white people sun bathing.

  In addition to being hotter than Bangkok Dubai also has more congested traffic. It took us about an hour to get to dinner each night and we were traveling at most 4 or 5 km each way. Possibly there are more Porsche Cayenne here per capita than anywhere else in the world. Bangkok at least has motor cycle taxi’s as well as and under and over ground. Dubai just has cars and taxi’s. Actually they had buses, but it looked like if you waited at the bus stop you’d be waiting a long time. I did try to catch a cab one day. The trip was very tiring. Up before 7am, at the convention center by 9am. Standing at the booth all day till 7pm, then dinner then some shops where the tour guides could make commission. Finally back to bed at almost midnight. So I got up late and tried to get a cab. I could have taken a cab from the hotel, but I’m too cheap (stupid) for that. So I went out and tried to hail a cab. Except it’s just too hot to stand in the sun with you arm out. So I hid in the shade and dashed out every time my poor eyes detected a blurry shape that looked taxi like approaching in the shimmering distance. I hailed a lot of vehicles, most of them were taxi’s too, but none of them stopped. So finally hot and tired and very very thirsty I trudged back to the hotel and got the hotel to call me a cab. The cabbie was from India. He had worked in Saudi Arabia for 17 years before coming to Dubai. He liked Dubai much better. They don’t have check points everywhere, and there is a night life too. We took a round about way to the Trade center to avoid the congestion.

  On the first day there, we had some time after setting up our booths, so we went on a “Desert Safari”. This consisted of driving around in circles on some sand dunes in a bunch of Toyota Land Cruisers, followed by a very cliche camel ride plus dinner with a belly dancing routine to keep us amused. The “Desert Safari” starts in the later afternoon and your feet don’t touch sand until around 6pm. Any earlier and it would just be too hot. There were six of us in the Land Cruiser. After about 40 minutes we stopped at the commission point where several shops with overpriced water catered to us. Next we went off road where the drivers (there were about 8 other Land Cruisers) let air out of the tires to allow them to flatten a bit and then provide more surface are for running on soft sand. Then off we went on a roller coaster ride. We all enjoyed being tossed about.

  The sand felt wonderfully soft as I traipsed around in it bare foot. We tried a little bit of sand boarding, which is almost perfect of a forty two year fart like me. Too much friction to pick up real speed, and a relatively soft landing if you fall off. However, no ski lifts, so going back up the dune in the heat qualifies as cardiac arrest inducing activity.

  I found Dubai to be expensive-ish. The local currency is the Dihram and it’s fixed at 3.67 Dihrams to the dollar. Water went for 1 Dihram per bottle at the local grocery store to 15 dihrams per bottle out in the desert.

  One of the more interesting parts of the trip for me was hanging out with a bunch of Thai business owners promoting their products. Thais are friendly so we spent as much time visiting their booths to chat as we did in ours. The tour guides set up a bunch a sort of coffee counter in one guy’s booth and it became the central hangout place. The Chinese were of course there in force. However I didn’t see Malaysia represented. Singapore was there, but they were mostly traders and in this show they were getting there butts kicked because buyers were going straight to the manufacturers. Indonesia, Philipines, Vietnam? didn’t see them. However Egypt had a nice sign up so I guess they make stuff for cars there too. China was of course was on everyones lips. They are willing to work harder and take smaller margins that other people so you either compete on quality or you go out of business. Actually even that might not work. The booth across from bee was an American company selling piston rings. He said that the Chinese just take their boxes copy the whole thing including the product and sell it for less. The Japanese manufacturers association had a whole booth set up to display real vs counterfeit products.

  Dubai duty free! I’ve seen the adds for this amazing place for eons it seems. The reality is that its a bunch of shops and restaurants in an airport. The prices aren’t competitive unless your coming from another middle easter country maybe. Yes you can win a car, but it’s global warming awareness week, so why would you want one of those gas guzzlers?

  My impression of Dubai are that it’s interesting to visit. It doesn’t feel stifling. Sort of like Singapore in that it is a trade center with (except for oil) no natural resources. Kind of like Manhattan in that everyone working in hotels and grocery stores and taxis etc, is from another country. A place to stay for a while but not your whole life. Bring lots of sun block.

  —snip —–

• micah : Feb 17, 2009 at 2:02 pm

  I am sure there are many anonymous towns in China that are like 19th Century Manchester, i.e. they grew out of nowhere by making things, unlike Dubai. Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing are all old cities, unlike Dubai so their tabula rasa approach seems more like Haussmann’s Paris.

  Beijing is indeed old, but Hong Kong and Shanghai are not. They’re older than Dubai, for sure, but both were inconsequential fishing villages before foreigners built them into centers of finance and trade in the 19th century. Meanwhile, Pudong, which is the district of Shanghai most often compared to Dubai, wasn’t on the map until 1990. And there are indeed massive manufacturing cities in China that most folks have never heard of. Shenzhen (just over the border from Hong Kong) is probably the best known. It wasn’t founded until 1979, but today is home to about 8 million people.

• ollysk2 : Feb 17, 2009 at 2:04 pm

  Wow, I just have to say (and I mean this without at all trying to sound offensive here) that this argument to me looks like a couple of toddler siblings arguing over who spilled the milk when confronted by their mother. It’s he said/she said.

  A few points, pulled randomly from some of the comments above:

  @dbod “Dubai is built on the back of exploiting people from other countries” This has been the history of Western expansion, whether it be the Dutch East India Company, the Honourable East India Company, American westward expansion at the expense of Native lands (and lives) and cheap “disposable” Chinese rail labor, or any other of the numerous colonial and imperial endeavors of the Western Industrial Revolution. To call out Dubai for this seems rather like saying “we in the west were once the ignorant savages you are, but we’ve come to see the error of our ways”. Does it justify the neo-slave labor of the Dubai industrial complex? Of course not, but let’s not paint the West as the benevolent natural growth engine that you seem to be aiming at, and Dubai as some aberration in the way ti’s growing. Unfortunately, the dark side of playing catch up with Western “progress” is to do things EXACTLY THE SAME THAT THE WEST DID, and to push people towards Western value and political systems (as everyone seems so keen on doing), but then tell them “you can’t get here the same way we did” seems disingenuous to the extreme.

  @admin “It looks like Manhattan except that it isn’t the place that made Mingus or Van Allen or Kerouac or Wolfe or Warhol or Reed or Bernstein or any one of the 1001 other cultural icons from Bob Dylan to Dylan Thomas that form the core spirit of what is needed, in the absence of extreme toleration of vice, to infuse such edifices with purpose and create a self-sustaining culture that will prevent them crumbling into the empty desert that surrounds them.”

  Too be quite honest, I find this to be a rather perplexing and narrow view of Manhattan. The whole reason that these icons of cultural revolution existed in places like Manhattan is because Manhattan had time to get past it’s artificial growth phase of Rockefeller and his ilk, past the capitalist robber barons who built Manhattan up for much the same reasons that the robber barons of the 21st century built Dubai — and once Manhattan had settled into a comfortably shitty state of being, with it’s segregated neighborhoods (does no one in Manhattan see anything other than the Village and the Upper East Side?), the natural process of “gutter production” (call it underground, call it Indy, call it whatever buzzword you’d like to choose) began to take hold. This “gutter production” is what has happened to every great city — once the rich have established themselves in their posh homes and cars, on the backs of the poor that drive those cars and clean those homes, the poor begin to define their own culture. So while Park Avenue threw it’s balls and galas, Harlem began to vibrate with life, as people spend their few dollars at speakeasy’s, Lindy Hopping and “lighting up” on cheap reefer. So while you bash Dubai for what it is now, understand that in 25 years it could easily become the center of a cultural revolution, the same as Harlem in the 30’s and 40’s, the Village in the 60’s, the Haight in San Francisco, or any other ‘underground’ outgrowth of capital decadence.

  In short, calling Dubai soulless, while perhaps literally true, ignores the fact that being “soulless” for a while is perhaps the precursor to every great movement in any modern city you can name.

  @tom_s All of that being said, you ought to take something into account as well: Dubai’s culture is not a revolution, it’s an underlying gasp from an otherwise restricted culture. I don’t mean this to sound offensive towards Muslim culture (but perhaps it will, so be it), but the decadence that the original author mentions here is NOT what should be celebrated in Dubai. Frankly, Dubai has very little to celebrate, and culturally it’s not significant… YET. The decadence and “western economy” are what come first — the true cultural and social contributions that Dubai will make are yet to come, and will grow in a completely organic way, again like every other great cultural anomaly does. Celebrating the ‘read between the lines’ mentality of Dubai really does make it the same as Las Vegas in the end — and if there is anywhere that fails to produce anything of cultural significance (besides perhaps parody kitsch), Vegas is it. Dubai may feel like Vegas, but that’s NOT a good thing.

  In the end, Dubai is too young of metropolis to have produced anything of significant cultural value, and the hardship that precedes that kind of growth is just now taking place — but to write Dubai off as a ‘failed experiment’ ignores the history of western civilization through the industrial era to today.

  -ollysk2

• Dubai is Dead : Feb 17, 2009 at 2:05 pm

  [...] is a link to a really harsh (but probably very true) article entitled “Goodbye Dubai”. [Link]  Print  Email Feb 17, [...]

• Lawrence : Feb 17, 2009 at 2:13 pm

  My My My,

  Most of you individuals who are slaying Dubai are having a ball at the moment. You are having a ball because you are finally able to lash out at an injured city.

  Shame on you to attack when it is weak.

  Shame of you to not encourage the city to get back on its feet as quickly as possible.

  Shame on you for not providing advice. Shame on you for being so short sighted and ignorant.

  I was raised here from before the skyscrapers, when streets were still desert and I tell of you that Dubai was great then, it is great now and will be great for a long time to come.

  How would you feel if a far more experienced population and cities would attack yours when your were just starting out hundreds of years ago?

  How would you feel if we jumped to the opportunity to lash out at you because you were ill?

  Dubai, like any city has its flaws, and our community looks to work towards fixing our mistakes. We are a united community from all over the world. We may not be emirati but we feel emirati. We are lebanese, french, belgians, indians, pakistanis, jordanians, palestinians, syrians, british ect ect that have called Dubai home for 3 generations.

  My father believed in Sheikh Rashid. I believe in Sheikh Mohammed. My sons will believe in Hamdan.

  For those of you who feel so courageous to bad mouth our city:

  Post your details on this blog so we may ensure that as soon as we have recovered from our setbacks that we invite you to Dubai and welcome you with our hospitality and show you how wrong you were.

  Lawrence

• Charles Frith : Feb 17, 2009 at 2:35 pm

  Great conversation. I found my self recontextualising my own views on everything I felt about Dubai which is the highest order of blogging. Bravo.

• Dana : Feb 17, 2009 at 2:39 pm

  At night the Nosferatu fill the empty streets with nightmare parties that vanish just befor dawn, leaving more empty apartments and abandoned luxury cars, keys still in the ignition. Robot cleaning machines scrub the blood from the faux leather couches, leaving no trace of the former residents of high-rise Babylons…

• Me : Feb 17, 2009 at 2:44 pm

  I have a property in Dubai. I have been ther only once and I totally agree with the bolgs point of view. It’s a mix of disney and vegas without the fun. Just a bunch of new rich europeans and rich arabs pretending to be cool and having fun in terrible beaches and bad bikinis.The new Miami without the nice shaped girls.

• Hairball : Feb 17, 2009 at 2:44 pm

  This sounds like the cultural analysis of someone who gets a monthly allowance from their parents.

• kuwait : Feb 17, 2009 at 2:51 pm

  what’s so strange, Dubai has the worse ideology building their economy, I said it all along and a few supported me. Mohammed ben rashid now asks people for money, he should’ve seen it coming, you reached the sky but with a weak base, and that base just collapsed, that’s not the way to build a country’s economy. You destroyed your own city

• Goodbye Dubai « Paco Bell is Listening : Feb 17, 2009 at 2:53 pm

  [...] [smashing telly] [...]

• eric : Feb 17, 2009 at 3:02 pm

  Sure, Dubai could survive. But I think the author has it right — once Dubai starts losing it’s “cool” status – there’s just nothing left. Yes, it’ll still be a travel pitstop en route to/from Southeast Asia and Australia. And yes, it may even maintain ‘buzz’ about having the best duty-free shopping in the the world. But, methinks the party’s over.

• johnny lewis : Feb 17, 2009 at 3:03 pm

  “Most of you individuals who are slaying Dubai are having a ball at the moment. You are having a ball because you are finally able to lash out at an injured city.”

  No, dude, just talking.

  “Shame on you to attack when it is weak.”

  Uh, no, but what better time?

  “Shame of you to not encourage the city to get back on its feet as quickly as possible.”

  Go, man, go. Consider yourself encouraged. Seriously. I speak for the entire West when I say, “You can do it”.

  Shame on you for not providing advice. Shame on you for being so short sighted and ignorant.

  Did I not mention that perseverance is the key to success, and also that I am mildly retarded (vaccines).

  “I was raised here from before the skyscrapers, when streets were still desert and I tell of you that Dubai was great then, it is great now and will be great for a long time to come.”

  Sounds like me and Texas.

  “How would you feel if a far more experienced population and cities would attack yours when your were just starting out hundreds of years ago?”

  Uh, do you remember the Alamo?

  “Lawrence”

  Lawrence, is that you? Really?

  p.s. We love you

• Gort : Feb 17, 2009 at 3:06 pm

  All that wealth was fake. Nothing but an illusion. Digital ones and zeros. It’s not coming back. It will never be like it was. Goodbye Dubai, maybe not. Hello different Dubai? Probably.

  What is interesting is the psychology of the effect. The people whose paycheck depends on it rebounding cannot see anything else happening.

• Paul Souders : Feb 17, 2009 at 3:06 pm

  “Short of opening a Radio Shack in an Amish town, Dubai is the world’s worst business idea…”

  Um, the Amish have a pretty surprising tradition of electro-hackery that might profitably be served by a Radio Shack.

  http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2009/02/amish_hackers_a.php

  Which I guess makes Dubai THE “world’s worst business idea.”

• Z-lot : Feb 17, 2009 at 3:13 pm

  As the author and Tom pointed out above (lovely debate if I may add), every step can be viewed as a step in the wrong direction, either Western or Arab decadence, turned into Dubaiqatsi, the fourth installment of Qatsi trilogy… which I wouldn’t mind watching.

  A disclaimer: I haven’t been anywhere close to Dubai – but from what I see in (predominantly) western footage is a display of vast emptiness, sterility, lack of people and therefore implicitly showing how devoid of life the city is. Is this portrayal intentional or actually a reflection of reality?

• c&h : Feb 17, 2009 at 3:23 pm

  Someone absolutely needed to say this, and I am glad!!!!! I thought these people were more than mad before and I don’t feel any bit sorry that it is collapsing, especially considering the environment disaster they produced with their wild ideas. My ex-girlfriend is a real estate journalist who wrote about how Dubai was booming at the same time I was arguing with her at how stupid this whole thing is, especially if you look behind the row of high-rises and there is absolutely nothing there – no civilisation, no life. Ghost town, bye bye.

• sally : Feb 17, 2009 at 3:29 pm

  These jerks treat women like second class citizens, and just barred an Israeli athlete from entering the country to play in their tennis tournament.

  I hope all the foreigners get out. As for the locals, let them eat sand.

• TPJ-in-Arg : Feb 17, 2009 at 3:49 pm

  one thing most of us agree upon: this is an excellent and eye-opening discussion and the absolute best a blog can be .. thanks to you all!

• Nikki : Feb 17, 2009 at 3:58 pm

  Thanks all, I’ve really enjoyed and learned from the discussion. I’m currently living in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, home of the Oil Sands. The wild west without guns. Void, dirty, ugly, environmentally unconscionable, but yet, fascinating in its own right. Where else would you find someone living in a pop up camper in the Walmart parking lot in -40 temps.

• Barbara : Feb 17, 2009 at 4:05 pm

  I think tom raises some great points, but there is one thing I would love to hear him expand on, and that is the phenomenon of guest workers. The potential for exploitation is just the short term problem — the longer term is the lack of investment in the people who actually make society prosperous, and the creation of a permanent underclass that is, at best transient and able to flee to other countries when necessary (like now) and at worst? We haven’t seen the worst.

• SM : Feb 17, 2009 at 4:15 pm

  I will not be surprised, in the next five or so years, if Dubai gets destroyed by Wahabis or talibans simlar to Budha statue got bombed in Afganistan. I hope not but it more likely. when no one is left to turn off the light and air conditioner who do you think will take over? Extremists are waiting for such moment and they will get readymade city to puplate however they are more used to living in a bombed places and would prefer it so.

• Vitaly : Feb 17, 2009 at 4:21 pm

  I disagree. I don’t think Dubai is going to disappear as a nice winter holiday destinaton any time soon. Where would you fly from Europe to catch some sun in december? Your only choice is Egypt, UAE and Oman unless you don’t fancy a much longer flight and more expensive (decent) accomodation in Goa. Egypt? Nah – most of it is disgusting. Oman and UAE/Dubai is the only choice that time of the year.

• admin : Feb 17, 2009 at 4:35 pm

  @Vitaly If all Dubai amounts to is “a nice winter holiday destination” for people who think Egypt is “disgusting”, then both it and those people have problems.

• joe : Feb 17, 2009 at 4:48 pm

  @ improbable

  Dubai is no midwestern city. If you’d venture out to Chicago sometime you’d realize this city has as much culture as new york and more than just about every city west of it. Midwestern cities tend to be a bit more humble about their successes than those on the coasts, primarily due to the lack of a media glut. The media presence in LA and New York make it seem like the whole of America exists in those two cities, which is just sad.

  @everyone else
  Great discussion. This may be one of the first blogs I’ve seen where the comments were better than any story I’ve read on the subject.

• Doc Searls Weblog · Bye ‘Bai : Feb 17, 2009 at 4:54 pm

  [...] been wondering, What happens to Dubai in a worldwide depresion? Smashing Telly says goodbye. Fun writing. A [...]

• Howie : Feb 17, 2009 at 4:57 pm

  I just returned from a 2-week trip to Dubai to visit a friend. We flew Lufthansa and both planes to and from were jam packed with mostly gray-haired Germans. When we arrived, the beaches were all filled with gray-haired Europeans (mostly Brits, Germans, Russians, and some Aussies). Unlike the U.S., where we can jet off to Hawaii, the Caribbean, and Mexico in the dead of winter, Europe is much more limited in warm-weather winter vacation destination options. Dubai serves that purpose, and there’s no reason to think that will stop. The real estate bust is certainly a fact, and for sure they’ve gone nuts with overdevelopment, but this city is going to be a major tourist destination for a long time. Aside from the frequent calls to prayer, you can vacation in Dubai while hardly ever noticing there’s an oppressive Islamic culture outside your doorstep. Sure, it’s tacky. Just because we may aesthetically loathe a place doesn’t mean it won’t be successful as a city. Look at Vegas. I met a lot of educated ex-pats during my stay, including a number of gay men, and in general most have grown to enjoy the place.

• links for 2009-02-17 | hxf148 : Feb 17, 2009 at 5:03 pm

  [...] Goodbye Dubai | Smashing Telly – A hand picked TV channel [...]

• CEClarke : Feb 17, 2009 at 5:13 pm

  After reading this piece I emailed a friend who lives there to ask about the abandoned cars at the airport and the debtors prison, and his reponse was that there are like 400 abandoned cars at the airport (not the reported 3,000), much like Silicon Valley at the time of the dot com bust. As far as debtors prison: Most mortgage companies require the property owner to write a year or more worth of post dated payment checks in advance. Should one bounce, yes, it is possible to go to prison just like in the United States, but it not automatic.

• Carmen Archambault : Feb 17, 2009 at 5:13 pm

  How much of the situation is Ponzi-ish? Like the real estate boom here in the US, eventually (and pretty quickly) you run out of people who actually have the resources to buy properties at 4x what they sold for 10 years ago or new properties with multi-million dollar price tags. As an economy, what kind of model is it to rely on very wealthy people owning a property that they visit for perhaps one or 2 weeks of the year? Wouldn’t it tend to be a ghost town as those few-days-a-year-in-residence property owners don’t support restaurants and shopping and other services?

• Leslie : Feb 17, 2009 at 5:14 pm

  My sister is considering taking a teaching job in Dubai, a 2 year contract. Would love anyone’s thoughts on this. Bad idea, good? The money being offered is amazing.

• Chad : Feb 17, 2009 at 5:45 pm

  For the diatribe of rants about Dubai and its near Death I leave you two words. NO TAXES. The reason Dubai can survive and continue is that simple.

  Dubai is essentially the Switzerland of the new era, a banking hub that will allow all to come and trade without the discretions of a more watchful and taxing eye. A place where the new wars and worlds will bank.

  If there were a decree, to repeal all taxes in America or the UK for that matter, for a period of two years, How long do you think the recession would last, despite this mess of a real-estate bubble?

• improbable : Feb 17, 2009 at 5:57 pm

  joe (re the midwest):

  Perhaps what I meant to say was that tourists don’t flock to (say) Cleveland, because there’s perceived to be nothing of cultural interest there. I don’t know for sure that this is true, but it’s the impression outsiders have.

  And my point was that one shouldn’t write these places off as cities which shouldn’t exist just because they don’t loom large on the tourist map. I think the part of Dubai which is left after you’ve subtracted the Vegas bit is a bit like that.

• Dubai : Feb 17, 2009 at 6:04 pm

  For the “world’s worst business idea”, Dubai has done pretty well so far. Yes there was a property bubble in the past couple of years, driven by rampant speculation, and that has come to a grinding halt. Good. All bubbles burst at some point. But that doesn’t mean Dubai is out for the count, it was doing business long before the recent property bubble. Still, everyone loves to hear about the 3000 abandoned cars at the airport, even if it was The Times that started the myth by misrepresenting statistics that said there were 3000 abandoned cars picked up in all of Dubai in 2008).

• jd : Feb 17, 2009 at 6:11 pm

  you’re wrong about the vice. Easiest place in the world to find a hooker. The place is full of strapping Ukrainian blonds on 60 day rotations. All the arab men go for the sin, the women for the shopping.

  Oh and it ain’t that hard to get cocaine or heroin. Marijuana is apparently a little tougher

• Jonathan : Feb 17, 2009 at 6:32 pm

  Shanghai is the oldest modern Asian city, about as old as Chicago. It’s definitely not “young.”

• UAE Denies Israeli Tennis Player Visa | lukekohler.com : Feb 17, 2009 at 6:41 pm

  [...] course, knowing that in all likelihood Dubai won’t really exist as we know it in a few years, these sports are better off just moving on now, rather than take the money for events that hurt [...]

• SteveDenver : Feb 17, 2009 at 6:43 pm

  What fun is it living in a luxury high rise when EVERYONE lives in oen?

  Pretty soon Michael Jackson will be all alone and all the jet-setters will have found another hot spot.

• Patty : Feb 17, 2009 at 6:45 pm

  I wonder if the person who wrote this article has ever even been to Dubai. While some of it is true, it is a shallow summary of some of the things going on in Dubai. Dubai like most major cities is pretty complicated and exists for a variety of reasons. I don’t think Dubai is dead. It is just maturing. Also, FYI new cities have been being created for thousands of years.

• Quid Quintessa : Feb 17, 2009 at 6:47 pm

  Slightly hysterical piece, however correct it may be on certain points. Dubai is still part of a union that boasts a very high per capita GDP and no end in sight to sizable oil reserves, even if it must cede some of its storied independence in order to persuade the Nahyan family to lend a hand (and a few gazillion dollars).

  And anyway, so if we have to speak of Dubai in the past tense as this article does, we can say it was a heck of a party! What’s is happening to them is what will eventually happen to our equally vacuous and unrooted development, just in slower-motion.

  Your comments about tolerance of vice are way off, and make me wonder if the writer has been there for anything longer than a layover. So now that the Dubai party is “over”, get out there in your Land Rover and visit some of the other, less kitschy Emirates. A great place …

• Gordon Goetzmann : Feb 17, 2009 at 6:56 pm

  Dear Author:

  I don’t believe you are as informed or experienced as you ought to be to offer the range of viewpoints you do, particularly, with the unflappable certainty reminiscent of our recently departed ex-President. And also with his baseless-ness.

  For example, you write Dubai is a bad business idea. I have been doing business in Dubai for the last several years. I have never before encountered such an assortment of instinct, ambition, and balls that are essential ingredient for an entrepreneurial society to flourish; more so even than my beloved home of New York, which has I’m afraid been overtaken with self-styled, would-be gatekeepers of culture who render judgment on all matters, anywhere, without even causing their high-brows to perspire. Instead of a hub for ingenuity, pundits and posers and pushers of an inherited, studied and trite culturalism and intellectualism. I suppose they can be entertaining, in the same school that your post is, but let us not suggest for a moment that either is anything other than emotional drivel projected onto something you don’t know or took the time to understand – kind of like loving or hating a celebrity you’ve read about in People. For if not the case, on what specific Dubai-based experience do you draw upon for your analysis?

  I find Dubai has more than its share of phoniness, crap ideas, hideous design, and arrogance. But what I also have found and experienced is that it is one of the single-most extraordinary environments I’ve been in. People I work with think boldly, take risk, work very hard, and have despite much commentary to the contrary, manifested their vision. I don’t drink the kool-aid. There are issues here, particularly with regards to labor abuse. But if you think building a playground in a place with 1 billion sober, horny, and pent-up people are within a 3 hour radius, a logistics hub which already takes much of Middle East’s/Indian sub-continent and growing share of Asia’s shipping vessels (and contrary to your analysis, has a real tradition of trade), a transport hub that commands a huge revenue engine in airport layover/transit business, a growing financial centre with free capital mobility in between petro-rich yet more capital-restrictive Iran and the GCC, the only thing close to political stability in the region, and positions itself as the younger more playful sibling to it’s more traditional neigbor who incidentally has the world’s largest soverign wealth fund (Abu Dhabi), I must disagree.

  But I must also ask you on what specific, vast experience predicting good vs. bad business ideas you draw upon for your diagnosis? And why should anyone honestly take your logic with anything but a smirk?

  As for your fear-mongering related to Dubai having a debtor’s prison, you exhibit an alarming lack of global context. What protection do city-states such as Dubai have against bad debtors? Have you ever been to the city state of Singapore and tried to leave with debt? Even on vacation? Good luck. The point is there is little legal recourse besides such symbolism. To entertain your point, though, if Dubai were such a savage place for bad debtors, then how on earth could you explain that the 3,000+ people who vanished within such a short period without any trace? Wasn’t this a key premise of your article? Circular logic?

  Your words are entertaining and witty. But they are not relevant. Neither, I’m afraid, is any of your experience to your words, nor your words to your reader.

  Sincerely,

  GG

• Infovore » links for February 17th : Feb 17, 2009 at 7:00 pm

  [...] Goodbye Dubai | Smashing Telly – A hand picked TV channel "Dubai threatens to become an instant ruin, an emblematic hybrid of the worst of both the West and the Middle-East and a dangerous totem for those who would mistakenly interpret this as the de facto product of a secular driven culture." Which puts it nicely, but god, this is depressing. (tags: culture recession cities business economics building dubai collapse ) [...]

• Shannon Larratt is Zentastic › Twisted Knee Day : Feb 17, 2009 at 7:27 pm

  [...] interested in reading about how — as I had said, “best ghost town ever” — Dubai is collapsing and real estate sales have dropped to zero and people are fleeing the country, abandoning their [...]

• Darth Odie : Feb 17, 2009 at 7:35 pm

  But the Ahmish love Radio Shack. Seriously.

• DubaiHatr : Feb 17, 2009 at 7:45 pm

  While I agree with you that Dubai, in general, sucks, I disagree with your comparison of it to “Manhattan”. Your Manhattan is defined in terms of a set of cultural figures who existed and exist on the margins of the financial and economic engine that created and sustained Manhattan. They are the detritus, the pointless crud floating on the surface of Manhattan’s centuries-old whirlpool of capital and property development. That doesn’t make them any less awesome cultural figures, but to echo a neo-Marxist argument, culture here is based on an economic substructure, not vica versa. And if the signature buildings of Manhattan are not also branded by their originally uncouth, hardscrabble corporate sponsors, then give me other names for the “Empire State”, the “Chrysler”, or the “Woolworth”.

• Anon : Feb 17, 2009 at 7:50 pm

  Halliburton moved to Dubai. Nyuck, nyuck.

• Kansachusetts : Feb 17, 2009 at 8:12 pm

  Excellent post, and the best comments thread I’ve ever read.

• Laid-Off Foreigners Flee as Dubai Spirals Down - Page 2 - TeakDoor.com - The Thailand Forum : Feb 17, 2009 at 8:19 pm

  [...] no more posts about the wonder that is Swizzleland, here is another interesting piece about Dubai: Goodbye Dubai | Smashing Telly – A hand picked TV channel Dubai is a place for the shallow and fickle. Tabloid celebrities and worn out sports stars are [...]

• JSG : Feb 17, 2009 at 8:24 pm

  Dubai was simply where the Conservatives laundered their money.

  Now that their “last hurrah” president, GWB, has left office… and more importantly, without pardonning anyone… people are leaving as fast as they can. Without conservatives drop-shipping billions of USD into Iraq, and Exxon unable to charge $5 for a gallon of gas, there’s simply no reason for Dubai to exist.

  Best relic of a destroyed civilization EVAR. Maybe in 20 years we can film post-apocalyptic sci-fi films in the ruins of Dubai.

• veikko : Feb 17, 2009 at 8:24 pm

  well, she is not worried about long term, just the next few months. 9 months, was it.. How about this – in 12 months most traffic lights are out in Dubai.
  I read the comments and wonder.. clearly everybody in Dubai is there for one reason, to make money. Nobody loves it. So it is kinda workplace but with slightly longer commute, instead of subway you take a plane. montly, yearly perhaps.

  one thing. what do you tell your friends? You just tell them you LIVED in Dubai? No embarrasment, just shout it out? I could never. There is something about that place

• Harry M : Feb 17, 2009 at 8:43 pm

  Admin- I generally agree with Tom s and having spent 4 years there, 2 as an architect and 2 as a design manager procuring talent for major projects and I have to disagree that ’signature’ architects did not use their best talent. This may be the case for some but over the years I dealt with Hadid, Pelli, Foster as well as some of the best Australian commercial firms such as Cox, PTW (The Watercube), Fender Katsilidas and Wood Bagot and they certainly did not provide diluted design talent. All the senior partners took a very active roll such Phil Cox and Carl Fender. None were under the illusion that Dubai was a Utopia and would make many mistakes but the best way to help was from the inside.

  Only one architect walked away from a project he had won after visiting Dubai feeling disillusioned

  Unfortunately some of the best and most sensitive schemes employing ESD may never see the light of day. Most of these projects had to reach either gold or platignum LEED rating to get approvals- unheard of in most of the world. The UAE were slow to ESD (Environmentally Sustainable Design) but once realised they fully embraced it setting up a GREEN Council of some of the Worlds best ESD architects. Dubai was maturing fast. It takes 100’s of years for most cities to get it right- and even then most fail. Dubai has been going less than 20 in it’s current form

• Goodbye, Dubai | Flickrls.com - top babes from the net : Feb 17, 2009 at 8:54 pm

  [...] Goodbye, Dubai: [...]

• Dave : Feb 17, 2009 at 9:07 pm

  There comes a part in every interesting blog where people no longer read the article or the comments and comment anyway.

  It’s funny how a Techdirt article on Amazon doing a shifty credit card thing where you get billed monthly is filled with comments from people threatening to sue Techdirt unless they refund the 80 bucks Amazon took from them.

• garymar : Feb 17, 2009 at 9:38 pm

  Tangential note on the “Amish and Radio Shack” metaphor.
  Real Amish can’t use Radio Shack, but their adolescent children can. That is, children who have finished their education (8th grade) but have yet to formally join the community. These very young adults are in an unsupervised state called “Rumspringe” in which they are not bound by community rules, and can enjoy mobile phones, cars, and yes, wild sex and even drugs. A lot of them work and have some money to spend. Clearly some of them are going to Radio Shack. That’s why you sometimes find motorized vehicles parked by Amish barns.

  Eventually about 90% rejoin their communities and follow all the old-fashioned rules.

• evo : Feb 17, 2009 at 9:47 pm

  I live in Saudi and I have to say, anywhere in the Middle East is better than the KSA (and Gaza)! So while you slap around Dubai with hyperbolic, overextended metaphors….remember, it could be worse.

  Every time, I stop in Dubai or Abu Dhabi on flights, I hear the expats complaining. I quietly laugh and squirm at their petty complaints. There is no booze, bacon, women drivers and everything else that makes up a modern society in KSA.

  I guess it all just relative. But when you open up your aperture a bit more, you tend to see better.

• Paul : Feb 17, 2009 at 10:27 pm

  Just a note to say you summed up the architecture and McMansion vibe of this disaster beautifully, and with more humanity than I could’ve mustered for the mess.

• Life of Alan » links for 2009-02-17 : Feb 17, 2009 at 11:01 pm

  [...] "Goodbye Dubai" [Smashing Telly] Short of opening a Radio Shack in an Amish town, Dubai is the world’s worst business idea, and there isn’t even any oil. Imagine proposing to build Vegas in a place where sex and drugs and rock and roll are an anathema. This is effectively the proposition that created Dubai – it was a stupid idea before the crash, and now it is dangerous. Dubai threatens to become an instant ruin, an emblematic hybrid of the worst of both the West and the Middle-East and a dangerous totem for those who would mistakenly interpret this as the de facto product of a secular driven culture. (tags: Dubai) [...]

• sunil : Feb 17, 2009 at 11:40 pm

  it is interesting to read these comments against dubai and very few positives. truth is that there is a lot beyond what meets the idea in dubai. realities are quite different than what is portrayed by the media (bec it is influenced by the single person ruled government referred to as the “sheikdom”). that said dubai has many positives. if it was truly as brutal as most these posts suggest, half the world wont be rushing to go work in dubai. to be fair, we need to discuss the pros and cons both. whether or not dubai is a “good” place is very relative to each of our preferences.

• T : Feb 18, 2009 at 12:04 am

  You are truely a retard.

• Evan : Feb 18, 2009 at 12:29 am

  Dubai has become a secure Middle Eastern regional office park primarily for Euro, Asian and U.S. multinationals as well as a giant gated community recreational destination for the truly wealthy and their wannabe followers. Dick Cheney had Haliburton relocate its HQ there and several other Bush administration people may also use it as a bolt hole if prosecution for their war crimes ever gets serious asthere is no extradition treaty to worry the misfits.

• Understanding the business you are in « Empirical Insights : Feb 18, 2009 at 12:44 am

  [...] the business you are in This story on the collapse in Dubai is doing the [...]

• haha : Feb 18, 2009 at 12:45 am

  @T:

  the irony in your post is beyond words. spell ‘truly’ correctly, jackass.

• The Decliner» Blog Archive » The inevitable: Dubai starts to buckle : Feb 18, 2009 at 1:13 am

  [...] is a good clip from DW-TV currently posted on smashing telly! (below) — and a scathing article to go along — documenting the deteriorating financial situation in Dubai. Recently, we have [...]

• mmp : Feb 18, 2009 at 1:49 am

  didn’t like the post, far away too black and white to reflect reality (any realities) but liked the discussion it gathered so thanks

• AJ : Feb 18, 2009 at 2:42 am

  1st: great blog, Admin, harsh words at the beginning but good on you for recognising Tom’s very educated response.
  Some comments from a colleague I would like to share:

  ‘ I do not understand why the newspapers (and people) of the world are so focused on Dubai?!

  Was there a doubt in anyone’s mind that Dubai was long overdue for a correction after 20 years of continuous growth?

  Or have these journalists forgotten what comparable size cities like Hong Kong and Singapore went through just a decade ago, after their own sustainable period of growth.

  Today, Dubai is not only going through a correction, but struggling through the worst financial crisis of our time. A double whammy!

  I also wonder why they focus so much on Dubai, when their own local economies are going through hell. Are they trying to divert attention from their own misery by making people feel better, when others are going through tough times too?

  With its 1.3mm population, Dubai is the size of a village in any of the real economies of the world.
  Yet, there is at least 1 page every day in every newspaper and magazine I have read lately,…. simply bashing dubai

  It reminds me of March 2003 when SARS broke out in Hong Kong when I moved there.
  The medias of the World made of it a monster epidemia, when in reality -at it’s peak- it killed less people than generic influenza in any developped country.

  This is exactly what we are going through here… The medias of the world focussing on this little emerging economy of Dubai.
  …And when the press quotes people like ‘…oh… the little poor French. Sofia (advertising executive) who innocently and accidentaly bought a $300,000 flat (!!) leveraged 10 times (!!!) on a 15yr mortgage (!!!!!)’

  I’m very sorry for her situation, but I think people like Sofia should start by blaming themselves…

  I will finish by saying to the FT, NY Times, and others… Fill your precious pages in order of priority, and magnitude of problems…. There are many more people in much worse situations, in cities and countries going through bigger trouble.

  …But I guess Dubai has been covered with way too much glitters and gold in the good times, and continues to be an amusing and entertaining show in the worst times!’

• KC : Feb 18, 2009 at 2:44 am

  @Admin. Thank you for this fantastic piece on Dubai. It is the first time that I have read a proper commentary on Dubai. Everything else has simply been superlative infused jumped up marketing pieces aimed at luring naive foreigners to the circus.

  I went there, I lived there, I saw the truth, and I left.

  thank god I left, thank god I left, thank god I left.

• Welcome to California, Sucker « Just Above Sunset : Feb 18, 2009 at 2:46 am

  [...] As insights go, it held up for a bit – it sure beat talking about Marshall McLuhan and how the medium was the message or whatever, and having Woody Allen make fun of you. But the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union folded up its tent and went away, and someone said it was the end of history (somehow Los Angeles won), and then it wasn’t the end of history after all and we all became experts in the political geography of the Middle East and the major branches of Islam, and then, of all things, people were buying Cadillac Escalades and big Mercedes sedans in Shanghai. Making major pronouncements about how things are trending, and what will surely happen next, is a tricky business. And who can explain Dubai? [...]

• Believer : Feb 18, 2009 at 2:50 am

  There are believers and there are non.
  The believers stay, the non will go.
  The the story will continue, Dubai will grow, people will prosper.
  The story began in 1914 and continues today.

• imagiNATIVEamerica » Daily Links : Feb 18, 2009 at 3:05 am

  [...] Goodbye Dubai | Smashing Telly – A hand picked TV channel Dubai threatens to become an instant ruin, an emblematic hybrid of the worst of both the West and the Middle-East and a dangerous totem for those who would mistakenly interpret this as the de facto product of a secular driven culture. (tags: imagi economy video) [...]

• Jasonhouse, Co-Founder of Skyscrapercity.com : Feb 18, 2009 at 4:32 am

  One thing Tom missed in his debate with the writer of this commentary…

  To quote, “I am still getting quite sick of all this nasty schadenfreude by western journalists who show up in Dubai, do an open-top bus tour for a couple of hours, and sneer that the place is a shithole and a “bad business idea””

  Problem there is, the U.A.E’s Federal National Council recently altered its laws to make it literally against the law for the nation’s journalists to criticize Dubai or the U.A.E in general, question its economy or question its leadership.
  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123257117439403499.html?mod=todays_us_page_one

  So, it is a point of fact that unless Western journalists report on this, you simply aren’t going to hear the truth.

• TM : Feb 18, 2009 at 4:57 am

  I’ve been living in Dubai for 4 years. It’s not the best place in the world, but I have met some of the most amazing, caring and hard-working people. Sure there is not a lot of culture – but there are cool beaches one can go to to unwind from a busy work week, there are great restaurants, shops, hotels, clubs. There are aspring musicians and artists popping up from everywhere. There are great spots to go camping and dune bashing in the desert.. It’s not London, or Manhattan, but for an Arab country, if you have a good group of friends, it can be fun.

  Referring to a comment by sally above – please get your facts right, they do not treat women like second class citizens, whether they are European or Emarati. Women are free to do what they want, wear what they want and live with whoever and however they want. This is not Saudi Arabia – and the local male population are extremely courteous and respectful to foreign women, and the local female population are very proud to be Emarati.

  So they stopped an Israeli athlete from coming in – are we surprised there is some animosity towards Isreal in an Arab country? Is a country not allowed to take a political stand anymore against what they consider to be a brutal occupation?

  Yes people are leaving here, but it’s all the better for the ones who are staying. Prices are going down, rent is decreasing, the roads and beaches aren’t as full…

  They also do a lot of good with charity foundations in many countries, and free medical care for a lot of refugees and children who have been injured in places like Israel.

  It’s also a great place to start off your career, as many top companies and agencies do hire straight out of university – and it’s easy to build up your CV if you work hard.

  it’s not a place for everyone… I probably will not live here forever. But it’s been good to a lot of people, and many call it home. Those who do will not be escaping any time soon, I don’t think.

• CBUAE : Feb 18, 2009 at 5:20 am

  I live and work in Abu Dhabi, and I don’t see any sign of a slow down here. Workers who are being let go in Dubai are moving to this Emirate.

  Perhaps if there were not so many greedy building and land owners in Dubai the cost of living would not be so high for Expats.

  As an Expat my rent for a modest 2 bedroom apartment in Abu Dhabi is $45K for my UAE National next door fneighbour $15K. You get the picture!

  The Nationals are paid much higher salaries for doing the same work and enjoyu greater benefits so they still keep shopping, buying and traveling!

• nerdoff : Feb 18, 2009 at 5:31 am

  “an underwater, revolving, white leather fuck pad…”

  It can’t be all bad…

• Mark : Feb 18, 2009 at 5:50 am

  Well, what an odd article, in the first point of Dubai being a bad business idea…..write the figures down that justify this ludicrous uninvestigated assertion. That tag could however sit better with say America!! did you check their national debt?

  I have been to both Dubai and New York and whilst I love them both, In five days in New York the pay off for what might described as authentic or character or whatever way you wish to describe a City that is not “manufactered”, cultural, sophisticated or whatever, in those five days in New York there were 4 tourists shot dead in hotel rooms, how many shot and survived who knows, countless muggings, hundreds of thefts, countless rapes, I was sworn at several times, plagued by intimidating beggars, told by police and taxi drivers not to go here there or somewhere else (due to safety concerns) and despite this still found places where I suddenly felt very unsafe. I had numerous people attempt to con me in the street and in crowds gripped my pockets tight as advised by a police officer that evening.

  Its a good thing Dubai offers something different. New York and many many City’s like it are truly worth a visit and not all bad of course but lets be honest, if you were in a shopping centre and became seperated from your child, where in the world would you most want to experience that moment of absolute horror of losing sight of your child? It happened to me in Dubai and I was quickly re united (within minutes) with my son who was in the care of a Dubai woman from the government who also left us with a big bag full of expensive gifts.

  The author sounds jealous to me, and how trivial to focus on Dubai to write a negative piece!! I think there are many more challenging places on this planet to write negative news. And does this author care one jot about someone failing in a business? probably not, but does he realise how many business fail elswhere in the world? Because of the riches in Dubai many people, chancers, will fail simply becasue they are taking an absolute flyer and good luck to them but to blame the nation for a few misguided people who pushed their chances to far is a little silly. I wonder if the author realises that the mortgage default laws in Dubai that can potentially leave you in prison are not dissimilar to the laws in Germany!!! Such laws are there to reduce the risks of dealing with crooks and helps to ensure ligitimate business’s get paid when they provide goods and services..that so bad! Many western countries will prescribe a prison sentence over money.

  Dubai will survive long after it has helped bail out the banks of the west!

• AJ : Feb 18, 2009 at 6:12 am

  Very good comment Mark. Thanks.
  People do tend to forget the security issue in most big cities, whereas in Dubai, we still don’t lock our cars or houses, and when I lots a few weeks ago my wallet, it was returned to me by the police, with no cash missing.
  People also tend to forget that Dubai, through His Highness Sheikh Mohammed, created Dubai Cares, one of the biggest philantropic organisations ever, which has recently reached its target of providing education to one million children in need on this planet. The Dubai population participated massively in this venture, with some locally based business men supporting the foundation with millions of dollars.
  So it’s all good to hit on the city now, but don’t forget that when it was flying high, it was also doing a lot of good to this plannet.
  This city may have not been adequate to some, but for many ,remains all in all a good combination of safe, good quality life, good jobs, good money, and good weather. I love the europe where i’m from, but don’t really see why, in this current harsh environment, I would ever want to go ‘home’….

• admin : Feb 18, 2009 at 6:16 am

  @mark

  “if you were in a shopping centre and became seperated from your child, where in the world would you most want to experience that moment of absolute horror of losing sight of your child?”

  That’s a very good acid test and I take your point, Dubai would probably be preferable to most places on the planet by that measure.

  From your description of New York, however it does sound like that was a while ago. New York these days is much safer than, say, London. That being said, the US has no real welfare state and New York will inevitably become more dangerous in this recession.

  Not all unpleasantness in the world is visible local to its root cause, however, and just as every hanging basket in Geneva is paid for, in part, by turning a blind eye to where that money came from, Dubai also has its hidden costs.

• AJ : Feb 18, 2009 at 6:24 am

  admin, you correct. And I think we’re all coming to a comon conclusion. Dubai is not that bad a place, and is acutally quite good. Like everywhere else, it has its pros and cons; it has its hidden skeletons; it’s has its lovers and haters; and it’s been hit by the financial termoil, like every other city or country in the world.
  But end of the day, it’s still doing business, we expats and locals, are still very busy, we have a ruler who’s doing his best, like all other heads of states, to avoid a collapse, and many of us think things will be ok on the long run……only time will tell…

• Sri : Feb 18, 2009 at 7:14 am

  My two bits on the matter!! I went across to the Dubai museum today and spent around two hours there. when I got out I kept wondering whatever happened to the wonderful culture that they had. The real life setting of men with camel, cosy ’spartan’ homes or pearl and spice traders just left me wondering. I agree that it was or in some parts is still a land of real people. In fact every country has its history and culture, some preserve and live it more than the others. And unfortunately Dubai seems to have lost it the most. As traders the Arabs are bound to think of profits but when greed replaces profits there is no end to it and that has what has happened in the boom that Dubai went through in the last 5-6 years. Greed that subjugates people, takes away most of the free expression and makes life difficult is bound to hit back. Like yesterday I cursed that let the city never bounce back. Because for me then it would be the start of another cycle of greed and oppression. But yes if the rulers can learn from this recession and plan a sustainable growth with more emphasis on welfare and culture I am sure this place would be as beautiful as any other.
  Look at Abu Dhabi and their investments in sustainable energy, environment and education. They are doing it along with real estate and tourism.
  The idea is not to lose the humaneness in anything that we do. Unfortunately Dubai has lost it!!

• Metroledo » Blog Archive » Goodbye, Dubai : Feb 18, 2009 at 8:07 am

  [...] [Link] [...]

• Joe Blow from the Alamo : Feb 18, 2009 at 8:14 am

  My god I’ve never suffered through a more clustered, schlocky diatribe. I’ve seen some rhetorical poseurs in my day, but nothing like this. I mean, get a load of this skyscraper to nowhere sentence: “It looks like Manhattan except that it isn’t the place that made Mingus or Van Allen or Kerouac or Wolfe or Warhol or Reed or Bernstein or any one of the 1001 other cultural icons from Bob Dylan to Dylan Thomas that form the core spirit of what is needed, in the absence of extreme toleration of vice, to infuse such edifices with purpose and create a self-sustaining culture that will prevent them crumbling into the empty desert that surrounds them.”

  Whoa! Down boy. And I kept reading more and more thinking he would get to the point. The point being, *why* is it again Dubai is faltering? Why are we saying goodbye to Dubai??? It’s faltering into goodbyeness because there’s no Chivas and cool people there???

  Christ, if you’re gonna be a “blog guy”, grow the fuck up and tell us WHY Dubai is collapsing; not your 10th grader, “hey mom, look at the new word I learned” cool breeze-fail-schlock..

• AJ : Feb 18, 2009 at 9:09 am

  Joe Blow from the Alamo….sorry that you dissapprove of intelligent people writing intelligent things. To be very simplistic, Dubai is NOT collapsing, the world is. Look around you. Actually, Dubai is probably doing slightly better than the rest…still…hope that’s clear enough?

• Chodor : Feb 18, 2009 at 10:48 am

  This has been a great example of what blogging can be–which I say, even though I ran out of steam in reading it about two-thirds of the way through. My own thoughts (and far from original) are that the amount of energy being consumed and the amount of pollution being generated need to be reduced drastically or Dubai will fail–whether it’s cool or not. That includes energy consumed in the desalination process (which makes the thought of bottled water from Dubai even more perverse), an in air-conditioning, and not just in construction. Other thing is: if world economies based on cheap and plentiful oil continue to slide downhill, it’s not going to help an economy highly reliant on foreign wealth and tourism–and on global finance. I realize there’s a lot of reality and cultural diversity brewing behind the glittering facade, which is great, but it’s hard to imagine that what Dubai is now can be sustained, much less expanded.

• JS : Feb 18, 2009 at 11:00 am

  Re: admin : Feb 18, 2009 at 6:02 am

  Ha, using the term “ideological” and “neoconservatism” in the same sentence is rich, especially given the current administration. If ever there were idealists in the world, they are the liberals! I’ll even go out on a limb here and say that to argue otherwise is ludicrous!

  As far as Dubai goes, the excesses there make America and any European countries excesses look like childs play! It’s like LA threw up on Dubai, minus the culture!!!

• Shatha : Feb 18, 2009 at 11:01 am

  The culture is there for those who seek it, but the majority of foreigners don’t bother to meet any Emiratis or befriend any Arabs. That’s their loss. We have our music, our holidays, our history, our religion, our food, and our customs, the question is are you too hateful and racist to see and respect that? Or are you waiting for any sign of shortcoming or fault so you can denounce us?

  It’s a city’s biggest pride here in the US when it can say that it is cosmopolitan. Universities brag about how diverse they are. But somehow our diversity and cosmopolitan cities are a sign of shallowness? At least in Dubai you can wear your hijab, your sari, or your bikini and no one will make uninformed judgments about you–we are not so shallow that we call every veiled woman oppressed or every woman in a miniskirt a slut.

  I find it rather silly that an Americans feel so free to judge us when your war veterans are homeless, when whole families in whole neighborhoods are forced to choose between paying the heat bill or eating in the coldest days of winter, when you might have to watch your son to commit a crime and go to jail because you can’t afford his mental-care expenses, when it is the greedy and arrogant on Wall Street who have led the entire world into this economic crisis.

• Richard Wilkinson » Blog Archive » Another ouch… : Feb 18, 2009 at 12:07 pm

  [...] Goodbye Dubai | Smashing Telly – A hand picked TV channel [...]

• eric : Feb 18, 2009 at 1:30 pm

  Mark:
  You’re full of sh*t. Your tale of danger in New York City is utter crap. Nice try.

• fadi : Feb 18, 2009 at 1:33 pm

  Clearly the writer of this article missed the point of what Dubai has achieved and is focusing on what it lost.
  Go 10 KM north to Sharjah and you can see what Dubai has achieved but I guess the writer went there for 2 days and failed to get free entry into the pubs.

• tom webber : Feb 18, 2009 at 1:44 pm

  i was traveling on airline employee pass in london two years ago with a pakistani. we didn’t get on the flight to budapest so were looking at the flightboard for some other place to go. he suggested dubai, saying it was an awesome place. i said i’d rather go someplace where they don’t have slavery and do have booze. we went to prague. why not give dubai to the palestinians?

• nabee : Feb 18, 2009 at 1:47 pm

  Hey “admin” -

  I’m relieved to see in your replies that you do actually speak English. For best effect consider dialing it down a few – perhaps to 8 from 11 to use your very apt reference. Yes, yes we know Dubai needs a Kerouac, but maybe not a Kerouac, Nabokov, Wolfe and Capote at the same time.
  Those opaque Dubai banks will be bailing out American banks by the end of the year so save the preaching for your next revival meeting, mmmkay?

  best,
  nabee

• Alex : Feb 18, 2009 at 3:03 pm

  This is the most amazingly cogent, articulate, hilarious and right on rant I’ve ever read.

• undercover dragon : Feb 18, 2009 at 3:47 pm

  What a great post and debate. I lke how so many of you are arguing at cross purposes though.

  Yes, Dubai needed something else than oil, but they didn’t need to choose this route. Fotumately it will perhaps be like Florida as long term the oil price will rescue Abu Dhabi and enable it to more than meet all of Dubai’s liabilities, … if they chose to.

• Peter K : Feb 18, 2009 at 4:08 pm

  @admin and Tom S.

  Good work. Both of you. It’s been a while since I’ve read anything so good on the net.

• eric blair : Feb 18, 2009 at 4:45 pm

  ok, i live in dubai also, and while i do recognize the errors you have pointed out in the authors argument, i still agree with its main ideas. firstly, this is a place for the rich and tasteless. i have never seen more poorly dressed rich people in my life, and i think that speaks volumes. the interior design everywhere makes the inside of a mcdonalds seem thoughtful by comparison. as other commenters noted, dubai’s main attraction is the rampant prostitution, and in that way it is like vegas. except that rape and women forced/coerced into prostitution supplement what the chinese brothel in the first floor of my building (and others like it) cannot provide.

  this hints at the underlying problem with dubai which is monarchy and theocracy. i have never lived in a place with such wealth and such a backwards religion and ideology. for example, this opinion piece was published in the gulf news, which is definitely the newspaper of record in this region:

  http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/09/01/05/10273495.html

  as such, not only are the rich tasteless, but intellectually they are scarcely children. this is not anywhere near anyone’s idea of discourse, and there is no excuse for a printed newspaper to allow this to be published.

  the pay-to-play legal system in dubai makes the american one seem reasonable by comparison, and that is because no one has even considered running this country in a just way. while some of the shekh’s have had their lucky strokes, luck is not a sustainable business model. rampant nepotism, shoddy education systems, poor work ethic, a wealth makes right mentality, all combined with the ‘inshallah’ attitude combine to make dubai’s businesses the most overexposed on earth. i’m not saying that they deserved to fail, i’m saying that it was pre-destined.

  emiratisation is what passes for a popular political movement, which asserts that emirati’s ought to run the country and its businesses. until they stop relying solely on government handouts, they will continue to be lazy, uneducated, intellectually backward cretins who couldn’t run a lemonade stand.

• Duncan Kinder : Feb 18, 2009 at 5:19 pm

  “Short of opening a Radio Shack in an Amish town, Dubai is the world’s worst business idea…”

  Hereis a Radio Shack in an Amish town:

  RadioShack
  20 E Jackson St
  Millersburg, OH 44654

• I FULLY AGREE WITH ANWAR BARAYIL'S ARTICLE : Feb 18, 2009 at 6:42 pm

  The Entire world is in chaos and the writer of this article is pouncing on Dubai!!! What a Pity…

• Walter Horsting : Feb 18, 2009 at 7:42 pm

  I have been to Dubai and I like the City. I felt very safe and enjoyed meeting a great cross section of the world. Dubai has been a logistics center for thousands of years and has close to 2 billion people within a short flight. Abu Dhabi will support Dubai and the UAE gives me some hope that there is a future of common sense in the Muslin world. Yes the housing bubble has been expected for several years.

  Long term if you are a wealthy Iranian or Pakistani, where do you want to own a get away home? Like India, westerners should not be romantic in public or drink on the beach. I expect a long term development of some great buildings and installations. Dubai is planning in ten year time frames and not short time frames that most of the US is always focused upon.

  Sounds like late next year is a buying opportunity there.

• ShaMao : Feb 18, 2009 at 8:41 pm

  I thought this exact same thing while living in Shanghai and Beijing for 5+ years but was never able to express it so well.

  ” It looks like Manhattan except that it isn’t the place that made Mingus or Van Allen or Kerouac or Wolfe or Warhol or Reed or Bernstein or any one of the 1001 other cultural icons from Bob Dylan to Dylan Thomas that form the core spirit of what is needed, in the absence of extreme toleration of vice, to infuse such edifices with purpose and create a self-sustaining culture that will prevent them crumbling into the empty desert that surrounds them.”

• Pasher : Feb 18, 2009 at 8:41 pm

  Dubai is still in its early stages of development. Give it at least another 30 to 50 years before passing judgment on its culture/economy/judicial system/etc… The New Yorks and Londons of the world have had centuries of development behind them, not to mention being the largest cities of the richest and strongest EMPIRES on earth. Dubai is emerging out of the desert with little backing or resources except its own wit and guile.

  Even if it collapses or declines, it will have inspired many of the old traditional cities of the middle east that do have cultures, traditions, and many more resources to aspire to better things. If you’ve ever been to Beirut, Damascus, Amman or even Baghdad, you’ll see this gleam in people’s eyes. With Dubai, they have at least the starting point for the idea/conception of what a modern, robust and more open economy/society in the middle east can achieve.

• jessej : Feb 18, 2009 at 8:58 pm

  walter – if you’re a wealthy iranian or pakistani, you’re more likely to live in london, switzerland or the states than dubai.

• Shiraz : Feb 19, 2009 at 12:07 am

  Tom and Admin,

  Your argument was insightful and informative. I am a resident of Dubai and even though I too feel very frustrated with Dubai being in dire straits and with the lack of uncertainity regarding our jobs, I would call the Admin’s analysis of Dubai very poorly researched. The general sentiment of the UAE population isn’t very pro-Israeli after the Gaza “massacre” and it would’ve actually created a havoc had the Israeli tennis player been allowed to the Open. Protests aren’t something we witness quite often (if any) in Dubai but anything Israeli CAN and would have sparked controversies. Sometimes tough decisions are not widely accepted but these unpopular decisions were absolutely required to save Dubai from the emotional retort that would’ve came.
  Dubai might not have the “prettiest” buildings but it has extremely beautiful architectural wonders which a globetrotter like me hasn’t seen elsewhere. Souk Bastakhiya, Souk Al Bahaar, Madinat Jumeirah are a beautiful mix of modern art and UAE culture. Palm Jumeirah, Jumeirah Islands and the Crescent might be artificial islands, but many like me love the “real” sea breeze while walking on the “real” sand there having a great time with our “real” friends having “real BBQ” and having a “really” good time. We love the malls here for their architecture and their bargains, we love the bars and clubs with the best DJs in the world performing every week. We love the concerts and music fests here. Who told you that worn-out stars perform here? Pink, Christina Aguilera, Nancy Ajram, Amr Diab, Iron Maiden, Beyonce, Kylie Minogue, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Shakira, Tiesto, Paul Van Dyke are “some” of the artists that have performed here in the last couple of months. I really want to know which concert did you actually get a flyer for? and oh did I mention I had a killer time at the Atlantis this weekend? Haven’t been to such an amazing waterpark (Aquaventure) before and I have been to MANY!
  Yes there are joblosses here but even Iceland is affected by the crises. Around 6 of my friends lost their jobs since December and 5 of them are employed elsewhere already. The 6th one went back to the UK and still searching for a job.

  Jessej,

  I have lived for London for 2 years and California for 6 years. Dubai has “MUCH” wealthier Indians and Pakistanis than London or the United States. I dont know which part of town you went to.

• Sid NotVicious : Feb 19, 2009 at 12:22 am

  Being from the working class, I’m not sure if I am allowed into this discussion of high-level tattletale about Emirati Shakespeares, West Asian politics, and life in the Dubai Marina. I can however offer a view from the trenches. All that I know is that I am one of the hundreds of thousands of people whose lives were made miserable by Dubai’s woeful economic planning, that among other things made it impossible for us to even lease an apartment independently. At first I was driven out of Dubai because I couldn’t afford the rents. I moved to a matchbox-sized apartment in the neighboring emirate of Sharjah, the rent taking away nearly 60% of my annual salary. However, driving 2.5 hours each way to office in chockablock traffic really started killing me, and so I had to move back to Dubai, forced to take a “bed space” with four other people in a tiny room. For one year I was forced to live in the trendy Karama district because the accommodation (in the strictest sense of the word) was near my office. The building where I lived was surrounded by consulates, federal ministries, schools, and upscale malls like the Burjuman Center. Congruous enough for vice city Dubai (and I doubt this trend would be seen elsewhere in the world), there lived a number of prostitutes from at least 4 different nationalities in my building. That building also housed a great number of families, and not rare was the scene of little innocent children riding their bikes or playing football alongside women dressed like Julia Roberts in “Pretty Woman” waiting for affluent clients to pick them up in their latest BMWs. The prostitutes, like us working class bachelors, lived in “bed spaces”, 5 or 6 entrepreneurial women crammed into small rooms, plying their trade right in the heart of the city, under the nose of the powers that be.

  Where the selfish and relentless and selfish construction is concerned, I am one of those lucky ones who saw the writing on the wall fairly early, and realized that the bubble would burst sooner rather than later. It didn’t take a genius to foresee that all this was too good, and too shallow, to last.

  The lifestyle was getting too much for me. I cannot describe the number of sacrifices- moral, personal, and professional-that one has to make just to survive in Dubai. To vast swathes of people Dubai provides ZERO quality of life. The stress, mental and physical, takes a tremendous toll on you, and even the state-censored local dailies were full of accounts about people who fell under that strain and had to seek medical attention.

  This was not a life to live. I deserved something better, much better. I practically fled Dubai in the summer of 2008 and took a job in another Gulf country that paid less but accorded an almost opulent lifestyle when compared to Dubai.

  Now that Dubai is in the doldrums, I sense that this is some form of poetic justice being done to punish the rulers of Dubai for making lives of thousands of people miserable. Let them suffer as we suffered. Let them spend sleepless nights and anxious days like we did scores of times. Such thoughts are no doubt selfish and mean, and my parents wouldn’t be proud to see me entertain such thoughts because that isn’t the way they raised me. I myself realize that I wasn’t ever vengeful and resentful, but the change I see in myself is veritable and unambiguous. And I can safely say that it is Dubai that has compromised me. Living in Dubai forces you to change your attitude and turns you into a self-centered and heartless demon with a broken spirit. And that is the first thing of all.

  Fortunately though, after getting out of Dubai, I am steadily getting the bad stuff out of my system, like a drug addict in rehab. I’m getting sane again.

  Tom_S could very call the above a rant. So be it. After all my suffering, I am entitled to one.

• Sincere Me : Feb 19, 2009 at 1:53 am

  Why is Dubai being highlighted so profoundly & unjustly???
  Find me any capital of the world where there arent lay-offs or foreclosures or suicides, etc…. Go on. Take your pick. Be a bit open-minded people, its called the Global Economic Crisis. Obama, Clintons, the whole world is focusing on this as a recession, NOT as the Dubaian Economic Crisis. Everyone is affected, with no exceptions.

  Some are more than others, but that’s what we’ll just call destiny, eh?!

• Fatima : Feb 19, 2009 at 4:18 am

  from a “Local’s” point of view : to all of you foreigners who were welcomed and accepted here even with your intolerable behaviours, and to all of you who made your wealth here and enjoyed all the comforts and privileges Dubai has to offer (which many of you wouldn’t even dream of getting in your own miserable little towns), to all of you ungrateful expats (not the ones defending my city) , I have two words for you :
  ” TOFF ALEIKOM “!

• Haifa,an Emarati national from Dubai : Feb 19, 2009 at 6:38 am

  anThis is a reply to the ignorant kuwaiti person who wrote about ,our great leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoom,the building of high rise buildings and skyscrapers,did not start in Dubai,the art of high rise buildings goes back thousands of years ,all the way to the pharos in Egypt,and the moutain buildings built in yemen,to the skyscrapers of the US and the fareast,if you had any knoledge at all about Dubais rulers and our peoples vision years ago,you would have understood that the way dubai was built was not based on nothing as you say,Dubai has little or no oil at all ,unlike you kuwaities who have it and instead of developing ur country,are going backwards,ur government has yet to build a decent hospital for their citizens,you have the most beautiful beaches,yet only 2 or three hotels that are built near the beach,you have the worst beauracracy I have seen to date,and are mostly arrogant and ungreatful,it seems to me the kuwaities flock to dubai at any chance they get,I live in kuwait ,and I know that for a fact,since the flights I try to book to visit my Emarati family,are always booked,do you know why?because with ur so called democracy and wealth,and so called education,ur country has yet to achieve what the founders of Dubai did in the past 15 years or so,they aimed for tourisim,trade,taxfree zones,and many many countless great things,that you and ur country cannot comprehend,for,you depend on ur oil,and it seems to me as you were waiting for something bad to happen to Dubai,sour grapes as they say,where we the people of the UAE stood by you during the invasion,and one memerobale qoute our late great leader said during the invasion of kuwait was “we have never forgotten how kuwait helped the uae befor the oil was discovered”and that sir were the words of Shiekh Zayed God rest his soul,so shame on you and anyone who thinks like you,my kids are Kuwaites,and I teach them to be loyal to their country,and loyal to all countries around the world who have done us no harm,this sir is not the fall of Dubai,it is the mistake of other countries including yours that has the world market in this bad financial crisis,if anything smart people are smart because they learn from their mistakes and others,But I guess your not one of them,and lets not forget,Gulf bank,Ur stockmarket present and past,like souq al Manakh,Globel and so on,and when Dubai and it will rise again,you and the rest of ur fellow kuwaities who think like you ,are not welcome to my country,for I live in Kuwait and I will never wish any harm to come to it,let alone have grinn on my face saying what you have said.And why pick on Dubai,the whole world is in crisis,but i guess you wouldn’t know that since you are at ur tent in the desert. Haifa ,proud to be an Emarati and proud of Kuwait,but not with people like you in it

• An impartial resident : Feb 19, 2009 at 7:03 am

  Though a little disturbing in places, reading this blog has been an interesting journey.

  I’ve lived in Dubai for eleven years and seen the latest transformation of the city first hand. The reason for its success in the past, and the reason it will succeed in the future, is the ability of the city to reinvent itself. This has been driven by the bold leadership of the Maktoums who have been prepared to take risks in the past and have had the uncanny knack of spotting an opportunity to diversify the city’s GDP in light of dwindling oil reserves.

  We’re living in a phenomenon here – the best analogy I have for it is it’s a teenager whose voice has just broken. The hormones have been going crazy and suddenly, its time to grow up and work out what you want to be in life.

  That’s Dubai right now…

• siyal : Feb 19, 2009 at 7:27 am

  i am not emarati but been living in UAE for long time agree expatriate here are bit panic but no one
  leaving cars and no one running away not the people i know off its not money ant its not fun parts which make people to stay here and work its just so safe to stay here dubai has come out of crises many time and it will come out of this too but this time it will be longer with more pain and offcourse expatriate
  will be hit hard but for locals as there is ban to sack any emarati in private sector they will servive
  its there country with expatriate or without expatriate!

• Haifa,an Emarati national from Dubai : Feb 19, 2009 at 7:28 am

  Haifa,an Emarati national from Dubai : Feb 19, 2009 at 6:38 am

  This is a reply to the ignorant kuwaiti person who wrote about ,our great leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoom,the building of high rise buildings and skyscrapers,did not start in Dubai,the art of high rise buildings goes back thousands of years ,all the way to the pharos in Egypt,and the moutain buildings built in yemen,to the skyscrapers of the US and the fareast,if you had any knoledge at all about Dubais rulers and our peoples vision years ago,you would have understood that the way dubai was built was not based on nothing as you say,Dubai has little or no oil at all ,unlike you kuwaities who have it and instead of developing ur country,are going backwards,ur government has yet to build a decent hospital for their citizens,you have the most beautiful beaches,yet only 2 or three hotels that are built near the beach,you have the worst beauracracy I have seen to date,and are mostly arrogant and ungreatful,it seems to me the kuwaities flock to dubai at any chance they get,I live in kuwait ,and I know that for a fact,since the flights I try to book to visit my Emarati family,are always booked,do you know why?because with ur so called democracy and wealth,and so called education,ur country has yet to achieve what the founders of Dubai did in the past 15 years or so,they aimed for tourisim,trade,taxfree zones,and many many countless great things,that you and ur country cannot comprehend,for,you depend on ur oil,and it seems to me as you were waiting for something bad to happen to Dubai,sour grapes as they say,where we the people of the UAE stood by you during the invasion,and one memerobale qoute our late great leader said during the invasion of kuwait was “we have never forgotten how kuwait helped the uae befor the oil was discovered”and that sir were the words of Shiekh Zayed God rest his soul,so shame on you and anyone who thinks like you,my kids are Kuwaites,and I teach them to be loyal to their country,and loyal to all countries around the world who have done us no harm,this sir is not the fall of Dubai,it is the mistake of other countries including yours that has the world market in this bad financial crisis,if anything smart people are smart because they learn from their mistakes and others,But I guess your not one of them,and lets not forget,Gulf bank,Ur stockmarket present and past,like souq al Manakh,Globel and so on,and when Dubai and it will rise again,you and the rest of ur fellow kuwaities who think like you ,are not welcome to my country,for I live in Kuwait and I will never wish any harm to come to it,let alone have grinn on my face saying what you have said.And why pick on Dubai,the whole world is in crisis,but i guess you wouldn’t know that since you are at ur tent in the desert. Haifa ,proud to be an Emarati and proud of Kuwait,but not with people like you in it

• local resident of dubai : Feb 19, 2009 at 9:33 am

  do any of you know anything about the world? yes, Dubai was hit by the financial crisis and are struggling to stand straight, but so is just about every single other country in the world. the American government are in even more dept than Dubai. all of you came here expecting to make a fortune because you pathetic people couldn’t find jobs in your countries. we welcomed you to our city, and now you insult my city because you didn’t get the fortune you dreamed of.well then in that case, GO HOME! see what a difference it makes.

• Just leave! : Feb 19, 2009 at 1:32 pm

  For those that live in Dubai, if you dont like it just LEAVE!

  You came here, no one forced you to….

  For those that live here, like the lack of crime, nice weather, wealth of opportunites and multicultural environment etc etc etc then do not even post on this forum.

  The clearly simple and sheltered person that wrote the first post probably has not been here and probably has nothing good in his life other than slating places that are pushing forward and trying to generate 21st century living for civilised open minded people who like the good things in life.

  Everywhere is struggling at the moment, Dubai inclusive however this situation will filter out those who came here to make a quick buck to those that appreciate the place and want to help it grow and live in an environment that provides a lifestyle second to none.

• Dr. Dot : Feb 19, 2009 at 2:18 pm

  @ CEClarke: the United States effectively illegalized Debtor’s Prisons in the 1850s (+- 20 years). They are unconstitutional, and are specifically coded as illegal in more than one state (an added bonus, if you ask me). Yes, there were numerous cars left at the airport back in the 2000 bust. But the absolute worst that can happen if you default on a mortgage (and people are doing that in droves, which is a significant reason behind the current economic Charlie-Foxtrot) is that the bank takes the house back. The only time anyone can be put in jail for debts is when it involves child support, alimony, or court ordered payments, and that’s very difficult to enforce, especially if the owing party lives in a different state.

• Sand Jockey : Feb 19, 2009 at 2:56 pm

  The beginnings of this blog were both entertaining and educational, as they showed different viewpoints as to the Status / Reasons for Dubai. Viewpoints from the East, viewpoints from the West. Internal and External viewpoints. Expat and local viewpoints. Sadly it slowly was turning into a ‘hatefest’ but all in all a very good read (albeit quite often erroneous). And, after 11 years here, started and still running 4 companies, I have to say that the commentary was, at times, bang on and other times way off the mark.

  Let me start off by saying that it is oh so easy to slam Dubai from afar, and, as you can see, it is just as easy to slam it from within. However, reality is that it isn’t such a bad place to live. If it were why else would I, and many other expats, have lived and flourished here for so long?

  Dubai is going through tough times right now. Surprise Surprise…so is the rest of the world so why should this be such a big issue? Yes, Dubai sorely needed this correction. Yes, this will bring them down a peg or two, again sorely needed. But no, Dubai isn’t dead. It will come back in a much smaller form and it will start much sooner than many expect. In fact, I think we will start to see the turnaround early fall, sometime after Ramadan. Some projects will be stretched out, others will be cancelled altogether, but Dubai will come back…smaller, nimbler, better.

  Good news is that Dubai is losing residents. Best proof is how long it now takes to go from Internet City to World Trade Center at 5:00 PM. 6 Months ago this trip would take 1 to 1 1/2 hours, creeping along at walking speeds (in fact, I have had people walk past me while I was sitting on Sh. Zayed). Just last week I did it twice and neither time took me longer than 30 minutes, which is about 5 minutes longer than non-rush hour trip. I like being able to “move” now.

  Bad news is that Dubai has seen folks flee their debts. While I don’t condone it I also understand why some are fleeing and it has to do with the ability of a lien holder (whether on a house, a car, rent checks, etc) to put you in jail or put a travel ban on you until the debt is paid. (A travel ban is when your name is listed as not being allowed to travel and they will stop you at every border if you try). This has led to some of those who aren’t able to pay their bills to flee but, I believe, this is not the norm.

  UAE is a vibrant country and Dubai is a key part of that. Does it have the history or culture that other nations have? Not by a long shot, regardless of what they try to portray. Can one learn a lot from the Emiratis, who frequently welcome you into their homes with open arms? Indeed one can. In fact, if many of the posters would have made an attempt to get to know the Emiratis they would have realized that many of them (not all, mind you) were just as aghast at the growth, the glitter, the seemingly unstoppable price rises. Yet the image is of decadence and more…sadly incorrect but an image held by many.

  Are there problems? Indeed there are. The legal system here is also archaic but it is improving daily, yet not fast enough for everybody. Rules that are bent (heck, that disappear) depending on who you know or who you are. Yet the biggest issue I have with Dubai is that it has been, and continues to be built and run on the back of “slaves”. What else do you call folks who are being paid, for the most part, less than $300 a month (plus room and board but neither the room nor the board is anything to write home about). I know that for the laborers this is a lot of money, probably 10 times what they would make back home. I also know that this is why the come to Dubai. However, it is shameful the profits that the developers and landlords were (and some still are) making when they were so badly mistreating their staff. (And before people slam me about this being the way conquering countries have always built their cities, please note that Dubai didn’t conquer anybody, but they sure exploited them!)

  Is the housing market on its knees? Yes and that’s a good thing. I expect it to continue to fall and more “blood” to be spilled. Good opportunity for investors, don’t you think? To be clear about one thing…I did not and will not buy property here. I have never felt that the country / economy justified the prices nor did I feel there was a clear “land owner” rule. In fact, to date, you may own the house structure but the land below it and the air above it belong to the Ruler of the Emirate you live in and he, at any time, can take it back. Not my definition of fair play but it is their country and they make the rules…and nobody forced anybody to buy anything.

  All the above being said, and whilst I have loved my time here, I see myself leaving Dubai soon. Not because I don’t like it here, not because I am not making money, but because I see opportunities elsewhere, places that have the opportunity to become the next Dubai, places in which I can further extend my “global” empire. I will still have my companies here, I will still comeback regularly (1 month out of every 3, at least), but I will call somewhere else home, for home is where I rest my head the most. The UAE, and in particular Dubai, will always be part of me. I will always make the trips out here (I just wish the planes flew faster!) and I will always remember it fondly.

  Trust me, it ain’t as bad as y’all seem to think.

  SJ

• Hannah : Feb 19, 2009 at 4:16 pm

  A lot of interesting comments… Just wanted to point out that even when the commebts are accurate, this is a very narrow view of Dubai. Like anyplace else, there’s good and bad. There are only a few comments here from locals, so it should be understood that this analysis concerns a certain sector – i.e., Westerners, probably living and working in the new areas that didn’t even exist ten years ago. Even within Dubai, there are so many different worlds… and when you get outside into the rest of the UAE, it’s completely different. I have to laugh about the complaint that Dubai doesn’t have “culture” like… Los Angeles?

• I FULLY AGREE WITH ANWAR BARAYIL'S ARTICLE : Feb 19, 2009 at 5:36 pm

  Its time you self styled journalists stay away from our city and go somewhere else to write about. We dont need biased people to make comments on Dubai. I dont understand why she came here in the first palce if she didnt like it. Good luck to you and you style of journalism.

• kurt9 : Feb 19, 2009 at 6:51 pm

  Dubai built its economy on the ephemeral bubble activities like finance and real estate. The successful East Asian city-states of Hong Kong and Singapore have been built on manufacturing, trade, and technology manufacturing (both semiconductor and biotech). I saw an interview of the Emir of Dubai on the telly about a year ago. I think his ideas are good and his heart is in the right place. He simply needs to get the Dubai economy away from the fluff of finance and real estate and shift it towards the value added wealth creation in manufacturing and technology (real technology such as biotech, nanotech, semiconductors, not the fluff of IT). These kinds of industries would create more value added jobs and business opportunities for the local people of Dubai as well.

  I think Dubai has a lot of potential. I think the Emir is a good man with good ideas. I think he should spend more time studying the examples of and working with the people of Hong Kong and Singapore so as to put Dubai’s economy on to a more solid footing.

  I agree about the condo-sales lady. A useful use of nanotechnology would be a genetically engineered designer virus that specifically targets people like her.

• Why is Dubai in so much trouble? | Blogging | Business Blogging | Business News | : Feb 19, 2009 at 9:22 pm

  [...] Great rant from blogger David Galbraith via Boing Boing: Short of opening a Radio Shack in an Amish town, Dubai is the world’s worst business idea and there isn’t even any oil. Imagine proposing to build Vegas in a place where sex and drugs and rock and roll are an anathema. This is effectively the proposition that created Dubai – it was a stupid idea before the crash, and now it is dangerous. [...]

• John : Feb 19, 2009 at 11:00 pm

  I really enjoyed this discussion and clearly many people are making many valid points, most of which aren’t contradictory. I think those who defend Dubai as a trading center have to admit the fake islands, indoor ski resorts and outrageous highrises are, well, ridiculous and fundamentally unsustainable. And those who bash Dubai as a boring half-assed adult Disneyland will readily admit there’s *something* at the root of Dubai, but it doesn’t justify the insane building boom or the hyper inflated real estate pricing.

  For my part, I’ve always been stunned by the truly massive waste of energy and resources (mostly imported) to build and then maintain (cool) these buildings. Like Vegas or Phoenix or any other modern city in a desert, once energy becomes sufficiently expensive, these places are likely to become ghosts of their former selves. It makes no more sense for millions of people to live there than it does to live in Antarctica or at the bottom of the ocean. It simply requires too many resources all of which are finite.

• Dubai Fan : Feb 19, 2009 at 11:11 pm

  Dubai will still have a substantial role to play in relation to the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent. Living conditions are still superior in Dubai compared to the rest of the most of the region. It is safe environment for Western expats, rich Arabs from other countries, Indians, and Pakistanis to settle their families, and it is not far to Lebanon, India, Pakistan, or any other country in the region for those who have to shuttle back and forth to conduct their business. Rich people from 3rd world countries who choose to settle in Dubai are precisely looking for the clean and sterile environment that Westerners scorn. Even Western expats who live in Dubai are happy with Dubai’s efficiency and predictability.

  Tourism will still come in from the region. Dubai’s culture and norms are familiar to them and they prefer the conservative family oriented style of Dubai. Do you want to see whores all around you while walking the streets with your children?? They still have a good time with the cleaner infrastructure and great shopping. Visas are easy to procure so access is not an issue. The long term growth of Dubai will actually come from the mismanaged countries in the region.

• Vitaly : Feb 20, 2009 at 5:28 am

  “If all Dubai amounts to is “a nice winter holiday destination” for people who think Egypt is “disgusting”, then both it and those people have problems.”

  @admin you didn’t address my point though – what’s a better destination to fly to during winter from Europe and get some sun and warmth?

• George : Feb 20, 2009 at 6:55 am

  Also people are being fired like crazy and the sad part is that its the Asians like the Indians who face the brunt.
  Even though they are a very important part of the economy! Whereas the Europeans and the Americans get to keep their jobs.

• admin : Feb 20, 2009 at 10:18 am

  @Vitality Your point is irrelevant, in fact it wins the Marie Antoinette award since it is literally like telling starving people they should eat cake.

  In fact I’d go further, its like telling people they should eat cake when all the cake makers have shot themselves. Winter holidays are the last priority for many more people in places like Britain and an irrelevance compared to what Dubai needs to sustain itself economically.

• kurt9 : Feb 20, 2009 at 5:03 pm

  Another industry that Dubai could benefit from would be the development of biomedical technologies and therapies (anti-aging medicine) that may be suppressed for political reason in other parts of the world.

• matt9 : Feb 21, 2009 at 7:40 am

  Dubai Dubai Dubai, Why is everyone so obssed with the problems in Dubai,
  Well i lived there for 4 years and left in december. (good timing) and yes i enjoyed living in the sun and having lots of fun.
  Dubai is an amazing city that has been growing far to quickly and offering huge salarys to tempt the expats over. The city will not die and in a few years should start growing again.
  the problem with the real estate is due to gready locals and the goverment. They have been on a building boom over the last 5 years saying there are not enough flats in the city. But the reason they are empty is that they are too expensive. and the way you have to pay your rent 6 months in advance now that is a lot to pay at once. This trapped the expats in to the credit circle. having to take out a loan or use credit cards to pay the rent every six months. Its so easy to get in to debt in dubai the banks love to give credit cards and loans. I worked in a hotel and when guests would pay they would have at least 6 cards in the wallets.
  For these people its there own fault. If you can’t control your credit then you are to blame. yes Dubai is an expensive city. and people seem to spend too much. on going out every night and not cooking at home.
  Only the asian workers are suffering. the indian and filipino get bad pay while the white expats get a huge salary.
  These asians live in shared rooms of up to 10 bunk beds as this is all they can afford. The goverment is only intrested in building big and bold expensive apartments ensuring the locals get rich as they own the land. Then back in november the goverment decided to start to ban sharing villas and rooms as they knew that they had a problem with real estate. But these workers who are earning as little as 500 u$ a month can’t afford to stay in these. So what do the goverment do they start to throw people out of the shared villas.
  This country needs the cheap labour to run the country fill you car, pack your bag etc.
  Dubai is such a lazy persons place someone is there to do anything for you. And this has caused the western expats to become so Pretentious. Being rude to all the indians and filipinos treating them as second class people. Moaning about everything just read 7days.ae to have a laugh.
  I made some good friends in dubai none of them english as the english are rude and think that they rule the world. its about time the bubble burst for them to.
  i left paying all debt but have no plans to every go back. even on holiday its too hot, too dirty and too fake
  who wants skin cancer.
  And just in regard to sallys comment on not letting the israel tennis player in well done dubai.

• I tried Dubai : Feb 21, 2009 at 10:14 am

  I experienced Dubai fo 10 months it was the hardest and most rewarding experience of my 29 years! Reading this blog has certainly enriched my opinions both for and against. I don’t have the writing or grammer to comment on all of the above but I really feel the need to express!!!

  Generally, everything about Dubai concerns me the word used was ’schanenfreude’ if you don’t know what it means (I didn’t ) look it up (I did).

  I have met some of the most terrific people in my life in Dubai and that I will always be greatfull for. By no menas do I wish to see Dubai go ‘belly up’ but I feel it needs to get real. By ‘real’ I mean pay real money to everyone & treat all people as if they are real ’cause they are real!

  It is imporant to point our the history of the West and Arbia. I believe it is fair to say that the greatest cities on earth were buit on the misfortune of others (more often that not)…. but that is history it is 2009 after all.

  As a Westener I found the whole experience to be really difficult BECAUSE I am interested in culture, art and history but I have to say it is not so simple to tap into. Maybe it is me but all I wanted was to learn about Arabia and Dubai was not the place to do so!

  There are a great many Westeners in Dubai for salary, fast cars, villas and paychecks. Better said living the ”Dubai Dream”………………………. I don’t know how they sleep at night nor do I know how they will sleep when they leave the car at the airport and continue with thier respective lives.

  The thing I will ponder for many moon’s is… How have we progessed so little spiritually on mother earth? I am not talking reiligon I am talking as humans on Mother earth. Ok. This may be an exreme statement regading Dubai but really it is happy to boast all its glory but that fact is men have slaved to build it.. A country that is happy (until now) happy to boast its sucess in tourism and construction. But when you are lying on your sunbed recieving you cocktail do you think about the lovley Indian geting paid $1 an hour to serve it to you? After he has already worked 13 hours with no day off…. well who cares?? My point !………..no one cares.

  I have travelled to Asia, Thailand for example. But, it is their country it is theirs country to fight for. It is not a lie. Dubai is false and I sincerly hope that it gets better for all the poor buggers stuck there sending the Dihrum home to feed their loved ones.

  Thanks to all for such a compelling blog!!

• k.v : Feb 21, 2009 at 2:47 pm

  been living here since last 21 yrs. This is the 1st article i have read which is an absolute fact of the exact current situation of dubai. All i would like 2 add is dubai would atttract u 1st and then it will start trapping u in a way that u wont be able 2 go out or stay in.

• SoNotHollywood.com : Feb 22, 2009 at 5:02 am

  I moved here from a little city called Akron in Ohio on December 2001. Right now I own a property ( 3 bedroom town house) in the springs that is fully paid for, I purchased it for only 600,000 dirhams so naturally when my next door neighbor told me he paid 3.2 million for the same town house I was shocked, over $870,000 dollars for a townhouse wow! I kept thinking what kind of house this would buy me in Ohio….

  I am a stock broker here in Dubai, well not for long, the company i work for is closing down march the 15th, I decided to leave early on the 27th, I am not even going to try to look for work or sell my property, I am sure it will be a pointless waste of time

  I remember the good days when it was very common to make a few thousand dollars a day playing the market, everyone was a speculator, we knew it won’t last forever but no one could say when, when it did it was bad, I seen people losing millions , I seen the wealthy go broke, bentley has beens , I seen it all

  Then came the real-estate boom, they talked our talk , they reminded me of us back in the good days. I was calling brokers to find a 1 small 1 bedroom for myself and they all ignored me, my budget was only $200,000 dollars, I guess I was too poor to own a 1 bedroom in fancy Dubai. I would tell a broker I wanted a 1 bedroom they would say ” well buy x property at 1200 a foot and i’ll sell it for you at 1400 a foot before next payment”, when I told them I wanted to live in it and rent out my townhouse they assumed i was a liar.

  Greed and Arrogance and being surrounded by everything fake is what made me hate this place. The way things where going you had to have 5 million dollars in the bank just to leave a decent respectable life , a normal person with a average income had no chance to survive here.

  1 million dollars for a decent 3 bedroom! Why? This isn’t Bellaire or Manhatten, why does rent have to go up 400% in less than 3 years? Why do you have to pay $15,000 a year just to send your 13 year old kid to school?

  Too many Why’s, so I’m out for good the 27th, I will not miss this place, I will never come back.

• Engago Team : Feb 22, 2009 at 3:53 pm

  Greed kills all.
  Prices will adjust and values will return to normal.

• DK : Feb 23, 2009 at 2:16 am

  Wow, it’s great to see everybody takes such a mature and well-informed opinion of the place *rolls eyes*

• the_mystiq : Feb 23, 2009 at 3:23 am

  Read through all the posts – both for and against the thesis..

  Just wish to point out these are top down views …. None of it is from that of the guys who toil in the hard sun day in and day out , live their life out in 6 ppol to a barely 100 square feet bunkers or trailors, survive on kuboos and air sending all they can possibly do back home to family whom they might see if they are lucky for a month /year ..

  Is all that glitters really gold ? …. The matter of soul , in Dubai or for that matter any part of this planet, cannot be purchased with coins or gold, for it resides in the heart of men and his love of fellow beings…

  Don’t know how long the effects are going to stay , but I find these interesting times, when the collective unit of humanity which stands perplexed , deprived of the material moorings and enjoyments it enjoyed in abandonement … questioning , doing some soul searching and maybe even seeing for the first time with increased clarity of purpose and vision … the best things in life are really free and need to be valued and treasured

• Loyal resident of Dubai : Feb 23, 2009 at 3:27 am

  The fact you guys are having such a mind blowing discussion on DUBAI which is a mere spot in the whole globe says it all —-
  Like it or Loathe it ….You are discussing which in itself is fact that this city has something for everyone …………….
  Dubai is going to be one of the first cities to come out of this global crisis cause we have people who are loyal to this place and mind you I am not a emirati. I am an expat and all those of you saying, People make millions in a day Haven’t you got something out of it too????
  If you say peope have slaved to make Dubai what it is today ,well the labour was not bought in here at gunpoint they came of their own free will, cause they were being paid more than they would get in their respective countries.

• cbelldbx : Feb 23, 2009 at 3:48 am

  I have lived in Dubai (and the Arabian Gulf) off and on for going on 29 years (16 in Dubai since ‘86). I think these comments are great and some are well written. I think, however tha the discussion has taken an esoteric bent. What Dubai was and is is no miracle of modern man, nor is it the worst of the worst.

  Quite simply, much of what is Dubai today is due in large part to Sheikh Rashid (Sheikh Mo’s father). When he realized in the 80’s that Dubai oil revenues were going to decline and then disappear altogether he did what any rational businessman would do – he sought other sources of revenue, this being initially Jebel Ali Port and Free Zone. The story goes that he walked out to the present site of JAFZA and stuck his camel stick in the ground and said I want the world’s largest port to be built here.

  Trade was always a given for Dubai (historically it was the center of re-exports in the Gulf). Tourism was always in the cards as Dubai had what most of the other GCC countries didn’t have – booze and pork (the hookers came later). Although Bahrain and Oman (I won’t include Qatar) had booze Bahrain was always hampered by their association with Saudi, and Oman never had any money. So Dubai it was – the vacation spot of the Middle East – particularly for those poor sods trapped in Saudi and Kuwait (the story goes that Sh Rashid said “I built a mosque here and a bar here and you decide” – can’t imagine any other ruler past or present in the Gulf saying that). The last key to the puzzle was the American-style “marketing spin bullshit” as P Harradine is fond of saying. Sh Mo of all the Royal family knew this – after all he was on the front page of Sports Illustrated 25 years ago.

  The only -problem with this was they needed someone to execute- thereby introducing the expat. Emiratis are not particularly well schooled and, more importantly, consider themselves to be management material – not workers. Plus the Gulf Arabs have always had a tradition of using maids, baby sitters, servants, gardeners, drivers, et al (which is why the first language of many Emiratis is Hindi, not Arabic) as they themselves were not particularly interested in doing menial labor.. Call them slaves, servants, whatever, the expats came to the Gulf for a job. For us western expats we came because we were freed from our home country taxes. This had little to do with Dubai. But at the end of the day some came for adventure but most out of greed- and there was and is nothing wrong with that.

  Immigration to Dubai had an extra bonuses for the locals – what some call the redistribution of oil revenues. You had to have a place to live and a place to eat – thus the locals paid to have you work for them at whatever, and then took some of that back with rent, etc. As long as the flood gates of immigration stayed open the real estate sector in Dubai would flourish, or so we thought. The key to this, however, was you had to create enough jobs to lure the expats – thus Sh Mo’s initiatives into every sector to create jobs- Dubai Internet City, Health Care City, Sports City ad infinitum.

  But to cut a long story short, using western style land development techniques (see Emirates Hills) they began to develop projects that were increasing grandiose, and more expensive – thus increasing the price of the final product. This was also based on greed on the part of the locals and led to the ridiculous tripling of rents in 2 years (2006- present). This was greed, pure and simple. And those people buying this ridiculously priced real estate ? Greed again (ignoring any basic real estate fundamentals are there were none). The end game?– when you had projects under construction or planned for over 10 million people when you only had 1.5 million here today that was the end of the game and thus we find ourselves where we are today. Dubai occupies a unique place in the Gulf only from the standpoint that no other country offers (or ever has) what Dubai does IN THE GULF. That does not make Dubai unique (to me) on the world stage. The whole exercise was driven by greed (very similar to me to California at various times in its history).

  I do find it amusing tho when one criticizes the “bad” reporters who come, take a one day bus ride and then go write a critical story considering that it was these same reporters who came 3-4 years ago and did the same thing only they went back and wrote articles or books on Dubai the Future of the World, Dubai – The New Development Paradigm, Dubai, Inc., etc. all of which was bullshit then and is bullshit now.

• European : Feb 23, 2009 at 7:58 am

  Great discussion.

  Unfortunately, beauty is not in the eye of the beholder.

  The aesthetics of the place reflects the vulgarity of the new-rich and the “developers”, combined with what an outstanding architect said :
  “western architects found ignorant China and Dubai as the ground for architectural adventurism, i.e. to materialize crazy designs that in any other place would have been dismissed in laughter”.

  No offence dear friends, natives of the place: Dubai is, actually, full of shit
  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7663883.stm
  The show-off goes on but the infrastructure does not.

  Here lies a gigantic “I want too”.
  I want too a western way of living.
  Of course, as in the West itself during the last decades, it can be based only on speculative and parasitic activities.
  Dubai took the worst elements of economy from the West.
  It is the Americanization of the World to blame.
  The authenticity of the Arab tradition became caricature, the desert transformed playground for naive tourists.

  Above all, and I see a little concern, Dubai is an environmental time-bomb.

  No place has so much been dependent on oil and energy for sustaining life.
  Maybe Vegas, but look at its fate
  http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/americas-emptiest-cities.html

  The point is that no civilisation ever flourished, continually, in extreme climatic conditions.
  Not at the poles or at deserts.
  All great cities, epicentres of civilisation and culture, were founded on places with mild (or affordable) climate.
  Do you think we are wiser than our ancestors?

• Alan Kellogg : Feb 23, 2009 at 4:45 pm

  Months ago an article on an island of monkeys of the coast of West Africa appeared in the National Geographic. In the article the author mentioned that the human residents preferred monkey meat over the cheaper chicken. He was curious as to why.

  A few hours prior I had read a blog piece on bling, the ostentatious display of wealth, and it struck me, the preference for monkey meat among the inhabitants of the island is bling. Eating monkey is an ostentatious display of wealth. As the local economy improved people switched to monkey from chicken because now they could afford monkey. It a way for people to show that now they have real money.

  How is this relevant to Dubai?

  Dubai’s grand buildings et cetera are bling, architecture and landscaping as ostentatious displays of wealth. Dubai overbuilt, and overbuilt in just the wrong thing. Note the commenter who wrote of renting space in a room, in a town where apartments are empty. Dubai’s construction was poorly planned and poorly executed. Nobody at any level gave any thought to where foreign workers would live. It would appear that people assumed that somehow the plebes would magically go away when their workday was done, only to appear again with the new work day.

  It’s not just that Dubai collected bling, but that Dubai collected cheap, crappy bling. Costume jewelry bling. Remaindered, warehouse surplus, firesale, 99¢ store, cheap silver paint flaking off the cheap plastic costume jewelry bling. And they collected tons of it.

  Instead of focusing on a few quality impress the world projects, while installing the infrastructure needed to support it -the low cost worker housing and so forth, Dubai forgot the support staff to obsess over the money bags. And even then not entirely. For if there’s one thing the wealthy expect, it’s quality accommodations.

  That’s why the rich aren’t buying up those luxury apartments, because those apartments aint up to snuff. Already we are seeing Dubai turning some of their grand towers into instant slums. I would not be surprised to learn that no few of those towers have a serious gang problem. The atmosphere is just ripe of such things.

  In downtown San Diego CA USA -my home town- we have condominiums going unsold. We had a condo glut years before the crash because we built too many condos. What Dubai has done is produce a lukury housing glut, and poor quality luxury housing at that. Even without a crash Dubai was in trouble as the word got out about the bad work and low quality of accommodations and infrastructure. The city produced itself into trouble, forgetting that before you make a lot of anything you need first to determine if there is any demand for it.

  The excess in construction is also symptomatic of a deeply corrupt leadership. Leadership allowing substandard projects, and lots of them, in return of ‘considerations’. For such is the behavior of those who can not be held responsible for their actions. There is a small possibility I might be wrong, but even when the consequences for corruption are tough, immediate, and clear you will find people willing to chance punishment.

  Dubai will fail because it was made to fail. It will fail taking tens, perhaps even hundreds of millions of people around the world with it, because all those people have a financial interest in Dubai’s future, or in companies with an interest in Dubai’s future. And when Dubai fails it will make the financial crash look pleasant.

• European : Feb 24, 2009 at 5:05 am

  What are we talking about …
  “Dubai miracle” etc

  DUBAI (Reuters) – Forced to seek federal help to pay its debts, the former Gulf boomtown of Dubai has been chastened by a financial crisis that has reminded the world that its rich, oil-producing neighbor Abu Dhabi holds the purse strings…..

  http://www.reuters.com/article/ousivMolt/idUSLN55404720090223?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=10452

• RetiredKiwi : Feb 24, 2009 at 9:28 pm

  Thank you all for some wonderful posts. My partner and I visited Dubai and the UAE over Christmas 2007 and into 2008 and what has been said is so true on all fronts. We had a wonderful time there seeing both sides of the country in Dubai, Ajman, Fujairah and Sharjah. We missed out on the richest emirate of Abu Dhabi and the emirates of Ras al-Khaimah and Umm al-Quwain to give us something to visit next time.
  What fascinated us was the fact that if you walked one street off the beaten tourist pathway, (we walked a lot while we were there and got really strange looks from most people) there was a totally different city hiding in the ‘burbs. It was a fantastic opportunity to see the ‘real’ Dubai not the glitzy touristy Dubai. We both loved every minute of our trip of 18 days and are looking to return to do the rest soon. It was quite a culture shock when we accidentally ended up in the tourist side of Dubai in the Deira Shopping Mall, where we started seeing sloppily dressed tourists in beach shorts, flip flops, cut-offs etc. Quite embarrassing after days of seeing very well dressed neat and tidy people everywhere. Also their loud, uncouth behavior was also quite a shock to the system, even after days of being harassed to purchase “genuine fake watches and handbags”. The good thing was that if you said no they respected that and left you be. The area of fascination for us was the new area of Dubai, Knowledge City, The Marina and the likes. Huge amazing developments and when we asked the local emiratis “Where were the people going to come from to fill all these apartments and universities?” the answer was “We ask the same question”. Yes it is an economy that like so many economies around the world will stumble, but due to the very nature of the United Arab Emirates they will all pull together and survive. Sure the grandness of Dubai and what they are trying to achieve is way over the top but how else are you going to make some sort of mark on the world and say “Hey we are here, come and help us grow and expand and be the biggest and best”. It is interesting to note that so much of the investment in Dubai in the property market is by foreigners who have flocked to Dubai to get on the “gravy train”. We looked at investing in property there while we were visiting and realized that it was way too overpriced and the potential of sitting on empty apartments was not going to do the cash flow any good. I have to give Sheikh Rashid top marks for having the vision and drive to get this far in 30 years! It is also interesting to note that it is one of the few countries I have visited where people have huge pictures of their leaders plastered all over their vehicles. The leaders are loved and respected which says a lot for the country. We walked all over Dubai new and old and never once felt unsafe, until I was accosted in a hotel bar by a group of 7 Asian prostitutes (scary as most were taller than me!). Yes their laws are different and to us westerners very strange but hey when in Rome do as the Romans do. We had no troubles, ate some wonderful food and met some wonderful people. Would not like to live there but will certainly visit again!

  Frederick

• siyal : Feb 25, 2009 at 2:53 am

  nice point of view from all on Dubai well my one month leave ends today tommorrow going back lets see
  what wait for me there crises job loss? one thing has surely chnaged for low class room rents have decreses my collegues were able to find room 50% less rent we wrer paying sad story is they have seen
  peaople sharing food at resturents like one plate four people remember if you dont have money there is no charity or institute where one can go and eat for free beside month of ramadhan will keep you all posted
  once in dubai with facts

• Davos : Feb 25, 2009 at 2:59 pm

  Dubai will be the next Atlantis. Even a hotel with that name, how fitting!

  The wealth from oil will be our undoing. Thanks to all this insane speculative growth and ponzi capitalism, global climate change is accelerating toward a tipping point. Sea levels are now projected by the most credible scientists to rise several meters in this century, flooding the grandiose real estate developments along this coastline, just like any other. Goodbye Dubai, you have ensured your own destruction. Oh, I hear there’s a coal plant next, for power? Good thinking, we need more CO2.

  The polar icecaps are in a recession, where’s the big bailout for that?

• Brasukaexpat : Feb 27, 2009 at 2:03 am

  Is the Fall of DUBAI ( The Fantasy ) and the rise of ABU DHABI ( The money power Emirate)

• Cinnamon : Feb 28, 2009 at 8:41 pm

  I think everyone is missing the important factor here! We are all affected by the financial crisis therefore we should all be working on solutions instead of putting each other down! No matter if it’s Dubai, America, Europe or whatever destination in the world you are presently at we are all linked in some way. Business is international and when one country struggles another will begin to in consequence. This is a time to stick together and try to help each other out, not to be wishing any harm!

• Anton D'Souza : Feb 28, 2009 at 11:24 pm

  Having lived worked and visited Dubai for the best part of the last 30 years, i have seen the place grow from a few buildings by the creek and the clock tower as its main attraction to what it is today. I have made money out of the place and for that i shall remain eternally thankful. I was also lucky enough not to invest any of it back into the joint. Well i almost did, until a banker mate of mine told me about all the various “scams” that were going on and why he thought the bubble was gonna burst. And this was in 2005, well before any one had even thought of the global downturn. Whilst Dubai has been hit by the recession like everyone else, people who start making comparisons with other major cities in the world are quite frankly living in cloud cuckoo land. Yes things are bad in London, New York and Tokyo and yes all the world’s major economies are having to make painful readjustments, but Dubai is different. 90% of the people who live in Dubai are foreigners with no real commitment to the place except to make a fast buck. When things get tough, as they have and will undoubtedly get tougher, people will move on. It is simple economics. Dubai simply does not have the deep rooted communities to sustain it through the hard times. The local population is too small (and dare i say too spoilt?) to take over from the departing migrants. The vacuum that is being created right now is likely to get far worse and there is nothing to replace it. This is the biggest single reason why i refuse to accept some of the arguments about how quickly the place is gonna recover. It won’t and when it does eventually recover, it certainly won’t be going back to the glory days of the past 5 years.

• Steve Johnson : Mar 4, 2009 at 5:23 am

  From being the media’s fav son to now being the centre of all things evil, Dubai has come a long way. Unfortunately I think everything has been far too exagerated. Dubai has its probem as much as the rest of the world. most of these stem from the credit crunch which triggered off in Washigton.

  As an expat, I can see this city emerging even stronger. Note that the current problems are not unique to Dubai. Have a look at the real Dubai through my blog http://dubaiphotostory.blogspot.com for a view of Dubai from the commom man’s perspective.

• Online Marketing Solution: Creating Controversy? Be Civilized About it « Online Marketing in Dubai : Mar 5, 2009 at 1:08 am

  [...] regarding Dubai’s rise and ‘fall’ via The Caro-Van. The article on the original blog is one big rant on Dubai’s decadence and degrading lifestyle while the defender was a person entirely logical about Dubai’s merits and [...]

• Sameer : Mar 7, 2009 at 8:22 pm

  Quite simply put, the hype about the Dubai Dying is not true, yes like the rest of the world Dubai has been hit but in June Dubai is set to come back up. It is the most cosmopolitan country in the world, especially in the middle east. There would not be so much hype if there was not such a large expat western community. For those earning the right amount of money Dubai is still the place to be. It may be a virtual reality but its a damn rich one. The Abu Dhabi investmet company ADIA is currently worth 1.3 trillion Dollars and growing.
  Recesssion? What Rececssion. Give it 5 months and Dubai will be back on its feet. I have not been here for 14 years without knowing a thing or two. Get real Abu Dhabi the capital of UAE supplies a quarter of the worlds oil supply that is not a dying fact but a real one. Come to Dubai and see it for yourself before you start believing all the rumours!!

• Nicole : Mar 9, 2009 at 10:10 am

  In respect to Dubai growth was achieved at the cost of greater inequity, unemployment, intensive human rights violations and general oppression, lack of education & research, loss of cultural identity and the intense over-consumption of resources needed by future generations.

  It is certainly a place for the shallow and fickle combined withan overdose of ” zero ethics” and the absense of any humanitarian ideals.

  I just love this article – so true- but beware because this little criticism will instantly put you into prison in Dubai as well.

  PS: One of my colleagues made the mistake to take a vacation there and got convicted to a three months prison sentence for sharing a hotel room with her boyfriend. My advice to anyone – get out while you can – the place has a dysfunctional legal system and as a result of a rentier mentality, don’t expect any respect for the work you have done from the locals. Compassion is not en vogue in this country!

• Goodbye Du-Bye | mirage.studio.7 : Mar 10, 2009 at 12:25 am

  [...] According to the CEO of Dubai, the current global recession is not going to affect Dubai’s GDP. One of the many reason given by him is the continuous flow of money and projects guaranteed by the present government. I have not been to Dubai, and I’m not as informed or experienced enough to provide a wide range of viewpoints on the good and bad sides of Dubai, one thing for sure, it is a city without a soul. Short of opening a Radio Shack in an Amish town, Dubai is the world’s worst business idea, and there isn’t even any oil. Imagine proposing to build Vegas in a place where sex and drugs and rock and roll are an anathema. This is effectively the proposition that created Dubai – it was a stupid idea before the crash, and now it is dangerous. Source: smashing telly [...]

• A westerner : Mar 11, 2009 at 3:27 am

  Having lived in Dubai for over 2 years I would say its been an overall good decision to come here. I’ve got 2 years of great professional experience in my field, I get paid well (not excessive like some though) and have made many many contacts in my profession.

  Its seems there’s a lot of Dubai-bashing lately and its quite annoying, especially when most people who slag it off have either never been here or just visited for a week or so. No one here is saying Dubai is perfect, but tell me another place that is.. If you consider what Dubai has achieved in such a short time in a region which is particularly fucked up – I think they’ve done wonders! Plus, if you don’t like the fakeness of Dubai go to the other Emirates and work there, or spend 2 hours in traffic each day. Or maybe leave a stop complaining. Most people (outside of the UAE, basically westerners) don’t even seem to realise that Dubai has amazing natural views in Hatta only 1 hour away and near Oman (which is a great place to travel also).

  If there would be one major problem it would be the labourer conditions and the fact that they are losing jobs by the thousands at the moment with little help from anyone. I’d like to see these people helped! On the other hand, most labourers came to Dubai to make more money than in their home country. I just hope that they get the opportunity to work elsewhere (in Qatar) instead while the crisis takes its course.

  As for the property market it will bounce-back like any other property market in the world. Many people brought property here in order to flip quickly for huge profits so if they lost out then tough – show me your poker-face now! Its the people who brought property to live in that I feel sorry for.

  Please get your own city in order before you go condemning another city.. My favourite quote yet about Dubai and the crisis:

  “It’s going to be a lot better here than anywhere else. And if it’s not, well … then the world’s going to shit anyway.”

  - A westerner

• Jawhar Dawood : Mar 11, 2009 at 5:18 am

  These are interesting and insightful arguments that clearly demonstrate that Dubai is a fascinating topic to talk about and a fascinating phenomenon to observe.

  One thing I want to add. Unlike some other nations, Dubai has built its economy on its own soil. It did not invade, loot, destroy or wipe out any other nation from the face of the earth to build its own glory.

• Bye bye Dubai?! « The Thinker-Bell’z Diary : Mar 11, 2009 at 8:21 am

  [...] bye Dubai?! You can see such blogs around the net in great numbers, but this particular one has [...]

• Jawhar Dawood : Mar 11, 2009 at 10:44 am

  I would like to say a few words to those Westerners who are seeking to see a distinct cultural identity for Dubai. They usually try to find elements of their own culture in Dubai and use the Western culture as a frame of reference, a tendency common in the Western mind.

  To begin with, the whole region of the Arab-Islamic had a single cultural and almost a single political entity identity less 100 years ago. Thanks to the Westerners, who were toiling to discharge themselves of the “White Man’s Burden”, however, this region became dismantled and divided among different Western powers for varying periods of time. During the colonization period, the region lost its cultural identity, territorial integrity, and political unity. When eventually Westerners decided or forced to leave, they left behind small political entities that had to start the process of building a nation from a scratch.

  These small polities formed nation states with names, flags, national boundaries, ruling systems, constitutions, international relationships, etc. Looked at isolated in their new fragment forms today, no nation of these states has a deeply rooted cultural identity of their own. These states used to stand collectively as one Muslim nation. History did not know names such as Saudi Arabia, Emirates, Kuwait, Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, Syria, Qatar, and Jordan as independent states. Some of these names were invented in the 20th Century and some were simply names certain places, mountains, rivers, and so on.

  Dubai is part of this history. The history of Dubai is part of the history of this rich region that dominated the world militarily, culturally, and commercially for more than 1000 years. Standing alone, Dubai or the UAE does not have an independent history. The Arabs of the UAE share the history of the Islamic civilization. Therefore, it is futile to search for a distinct cultural richness that goes back to hundreds of years in Dubai. All you can find is simple social traditions, marriage and burial customs and oral folklores that are not even 100 years old.

  But Dubai is not building its economy on Islamic bases. Dubai is a mixture of everything to which you cannot attach one of the traditional identity labels: Western, Islamic, Chinese, or Indian. Westerners get perplexed in Dubai when they see some clear elements of their own societies, such as high rise buildings, excellent infrastructures, bars, beach resorts, luxury hotels, golf resorts, night clubs, but in a social system different from theirs. For instance, in Dubai certain items of behavior are permitted if tactfully undertaken but forbidden if done tactlessly. This is frustrating for a Westerner who cannot see any sense in this kind of hypocrisy. For Dubai this is an inevitable hypocrisy to strike a delicate balance between its historical traditions and its business requirements.

  In a nutshell, Dubai is a business city and should be judged by how well it performs on this front. And it has been performing extremely well in this aspect by all standards. Even Westerners get dazzled when they see what has been achieved in Dubai, in the middle of a desert. They see a level of material comfort that they do not dream of in their own countries that boast a development history of hundreds of years. Today Dubai is known to any Westerner who knows anything about the map of the world. It is as famous as New York, London or Paris and all this in a few years!

  If Dubai goes to great lengths to please its inhabitants or visitors by adding cultural elements to its commercial operations, it will be an additional luxury. In fact we should be grateful to any effort that Dubai makes to humanize the ugly face of business that is based on the pure calculation of profit and loss.

  JD

• Jawhar Dawood : Mar 11, 2009 at 11:46 am

  I am reposting because my first posting was not edited.

  I would like to say a few words to those Westerners who are seeking to see a distinct cultural identity for Dubai. They usually try to find elements of their own culture in Dubai and use the Western culture as a frame of reference, a tendency common in the Western mind.

  To begin with, the whole region of the Arab-Islamic world had a single cultural identity and almost a single political entity only less one hundred years ago. Thanks to the Westerners, who were toiling to discharge themselves of the “White Man’s Burden”, however, this region became dismantled and divided among different Western powers for varying periods of time. During the colonization period, the region lost its cultural identity, territorial integrity, and political unity. When eventually Westerners decided or forced to leave, they left behind small political entities that had to start the process of building a nation from a scratch.

  These small polities formed nation states with names, flags, national boundaries, ruling systems, constitutions, international relationships, etc. Looked at isolated in their new fragment forms today, no nation of these states has a deeply rooted cultural identity of its own. These states used to stand collectively as one Muslim nation. History did not know names such as Saudi Arabia, Emirates, Kuwait, Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, Syria, Qatar, and Jordan as independent states. Some of these names were invented in the 20th Century and some were simply names of certain places, mountains, rivers, and so on.

  Dubai is part of this history. The history of Dubai is part of the history of this rich region that dominated the world militarily, culturally, and commercially for more than one thousand years. Standing alone, Dubai or the UAE does not have an independent history. The Arabs of the UAE share the history of the Islamic civilization. Therefore, it is futile to search for a distinct cultural richness that goes back to hundreds of years in Dubai. All you can find is simple social traditions, marriage and burial customs and oral folklores that are not even one hundred years old.

  But Dubai is not building its economy on Islamic bases. Dubai is a mixture of everything to which you cannot attach one of the traditional identity labels: Western, Islamic, Chinese, or Indian. Westerners get perplexed in Dubai when they see some clear elements of their own societies, such as high rise buildings, excellent infrastructures, bars, beach resorts, luxury hotels, golf resorts, night clubs, but in a social system different from their own. For instance, in Dubai certain items of behavior are permitted if tactfully undertaken but forbidden if done tactlessly. This is frustrating for a Westerner who cannot see any sense in this kind of hypocrisy. For Dubai this is an inevitable hypocrisy to strike a delicate balance between its historical traditions and its business requirements.

  In a nutshell, Dubai is a business city and should be judged by how well it performs on this front. And it has been performing extremely well in this aspect by all standards. Even Westerners get dazzled when they see what has been achieved in Dubai, in the middle of a desert. They see a level of material comfort they do not dream of in their own countries that boast a development history of hundreds of years. Today Dubai is known to any Westerner who knows anything about the map of the world. It is as famous as New York, London or Paris and all this in a few years!

  If Dubai goes to great lengths to please its inhabitants or visitors by adding cultural elements to its commercial operations, it will be an additional luxury. In fact we should be grateful to any effort that Dubai makes to humanize the ugly face of business that is based on the pure calculation of profit and loss.

  JD

• F.Rought : Mar 14, 2009 at 7:34 am

  I have to laugh at Tom S. What’s your passport, Tommy boy? Try being a Palestinian. Or a Jordanian. Or anything else that is not white Britannia, American hilly billy, Aussie outbackdoor, Kiwi drivel or anything of the holier-than-thou WASP “on the good ship lollipop” bandwagon.

  If you are an Arab you are treated like garbage. You have no rights and you live in fear that you could be deported within seconds for doing nothng at all but arguing with your boss.

  That’s a town of real people? Maybe a town of westerners who are glorified and treated like gods.

  The Emiratis EXPLOIT people in vulnerable situations, particularly Iraqis, Palestinians, Jordanians etc. It is not a beacon of human civility and compassion as the “westerners” see it.

  Every Arab is on a leash and knows it. Every Arab is made to feel inferior to the boot of the almighty westerner. But you people would never have a clue. You’re not on the receiving end. Let’s see how long your praise lasts if you were treated like other “fellow Arabs”.

  While you are sipping on your Long Island iced Tea did you ever bother yourself with the over-reaching task of asking a migrant worker from Bangla or Delhi or Lanka how they are treated? Maybe ask them how they live.

  History. Read your history. You western lot should know better than anyone else that you do not become a member of the G8 by buying your way and bribing officials with cheap prostitutes and expensive cars.

  You cannot buy culture. You cannot import it. Dubai was nothing 50 years ago. And in 50 years it will be nothing unless it realises the fundamentals of human development. It came from the desert and will be swept away by the sand.

  It takes centuries for a culture to develop. Someone compared it to London, a city that is nearly 2000 years old and has developed since then. Melbourne, New York, Montreal, Stockholm, Rome, Madrid, Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, Casablanca, Athens, Istanbul, Kiev, Tokyo – all these cities took centuries to develop.

  In Dubai they don’t want that route. They want to buy everything, show off everything, package everything.

  A grain of dust is a grain of dust even if you package it in a Cartier shopping bag.

  Let’s talk about hypocrisy; for decades Arabs have pointed the finger of racism at the US and the UK blaming them for the slave trade. Well the slave trade is alive and well in Dubai and the rest of the GCC.

  Oh, and here is a shockr. The GCC is the world’s greatest polluter per capita. But you won’t find that in the papers. No, it is much too convenient to blame the US for everything, eh.

• Robeilard Hunney : Mar 15, 2009 at 2:44 pm

  Here is the deal, Dubia was designed form the outset to sell to the jet set, but this global economic nose dive is actually a massive shift of wealth towards the top. Since the elite have effectively impoverished what used to be the worlds middle class, they are now doing the same thing to the jet set. We are seeing an accelleration of the consolodation of wealth. Basically the market Dubia was built for, just got halfved or quartered.

• lily : Mar 15, 2009 at 9:02 pm

  How easy it is to diss a country when its down..

  Much of what has been said, positive and negative, about Dubai in the above posts are true. However I think to be fair one should manitain an element of objectivity and not be extreme in judgment when talking about any country. Every place has its positives and negatives, and Dubai is no exception.

  The ‘accusations’: Dubai is artificial? Yes it is, and so what if it is? It is a young country with dwindling oil supplies and limited natural resources to sustain long-term growth on. And they decide to turn to tourism as an alternative means of income. I feel the leaders showed a lot of foresight in anticipating this and taking steps in another direction in order to sustain the city. Why blame a country for trying to sustain itself, whether based on artificialness (eg Las Vegas and countless other places) or not? They relied on the bling factor especially in the last few years? Yes, coz they thought this would be a way to attract a section of tourists/ investors. Whats wrong with that?

  The plan worked. Dubai not only became known as a regional but an international business hub, a base for multinational companies to set up base. It succeeded in attracting investors. It succeeded in its plans for tourism. It succeeded in creating a place which would see people of all nationalities co-existing. It didnt get everyhting ‘right’ but who is judging, and by what standards? It is a growing developing country, a country in transition, and is bound to make mistakes along the way. It is no different from other countries who dont have it right 100%, for no country does. The point is theyre TRYING.

  For those who point fingers at the legal system, bear in mind that the laws of any country, whether we agree with them or approve of them or not, have to be obeyed. That goes for ANY country. I may not agree with a lot of laws in the US or UK for example, but I have to follow them and respect them. Also, one cannot judge the legal system of a country based on comparisons with the Western or any other systems. Every country is individual in its customs, moral code, traditions, religion, etc. and one cannot impose another country’s laws on another. There is no standard, and there shouldnt be – simply because it wont work. The same way it wouldnt work if the UAE was to impose its laws on another country.

  In terms of human rights, lets maintain a sense of perspective here and not point fingers when our own backyards need to be examined first. The human rights records in many countries, including ”the land of human rights” the US, is faulty. The UAE is not perfect in that respect and needs to be improved. But neither is the US or many other Western countries that preach human rights. The only difference is in the US it is violated in more subtle and sometimes not so subtle ways.

  People flocked to the UAE for years for the sole purpose of making a quick buck and leaving. It was known to be a transitory place for most. It provided opportunities not available in other homelands and gave people the chance to amass money in a short amount of time and take it back home to have a comfortable life. Not to mention those who had and still continue to have a comfy life over here in Dubai. Some stayed and made Dubai their long-term home. Some left. Now when the global crisis affects Dubai, as it is expected to, people are quick to slag the country and judge it. I think its ungrateful of people for whom it provided and still continues to provide a means of living, and has readily opened its doors to them. If it was half as bad as people make it out to be, there wouldnt be people living here, coming here to work, or as tourists.

  As for women’s rights. The UAE provides a level of personal freedom not seen in many places. There is no ”oppression” here. If the Emirati ladies wear the hijab and local dress, it is because their culture demands it. There are many Emirati women I know who dont wear the hijab, not because they are being rebellious, are not religious, or to make a point- but purely because they choose not to. In the same vein, the foreigners have enjoyed a freedom of wearing what they like as they like for years, and I personally think they have abused that freedom to some extent as they dont take the sensibilities of the local people into consideration and forget that it is an Arab Islamic country.

  Speaking of Arab Islamic country, the UAE is trying to maintain a delicate balance between maintaining a sense of laxity and freedom for foreigners at the same time remaining true to its essence and culture. That isnt easy and foreigners visiting or staying in the country should appreciate that. In fact I think many expect the Western lifestyle to be implemented and available here in its entirety- why should it? Why not keep in mind the fact that you are in an Arab Islamic country and try to respect that, and the freedom the country offers? I think there’s an element of selfishness here.

  To be continued later!

• lily : Mar 16, 2009 at 9:11 am

  And to those who think it doesnt have any culture: it doesnt have a long history yes, but culture doesnt necessarily equate to history. It has culture for those who want to see and experience it. And even if it didnt, is that a crime? Does the US have culture?

• Die Dubai Die! | One Good Thing : Mar 21, 2009 at 12:03 am

  [...] David Galbraith does a much better job of dissing on Dubai than I [...]

• jay : Mar 31, 2009 at 11:10 am

  after having lived in and around the region, and in dubai, i cannot imagine the collective wisdom of so many people who have spent countless minutes writing all the crap above. dubai is a shithole for reasons that are too numerous to even start on. it is not even a country, it is a hotel or a hospital where different nationalities come and stop for a while How can it even have a culture when there is no resident population worth counting. it is racist, and it uses slave labour in these modern days to build itself. it is sexist beyond compare. it has rules that can victimise anyone anytime. and on top of it all, they have a PR web spun around all media that is contained, so that the truth never comes out. it is ideal for rejects and failures from other countries to come and feel they have made it in the real world. and as if all this is not enough, they fund terrorism across the world.

• lily : Mar 31, 2009 at 12:10 pm

  wow, someone’s bitter! thats what i mean by ”objectivity” lol;)

• Master G : Apr 2, 2009 at 4:19 pm

  we all love Dubai … simply its home sweet home !!

• meljomur : Apr 4, 2009 at 1:27 am

  For those who keep defending Dubai, I have to ask would you invest your money in real estate there?

  I have a friend who just lost over a million USD on real estate in Dubai?

  I lived in Dubai for 3 years (2000-2003) and even at that time it was fairly easy to discern it was a disaster waiting to happen.

• meljomur : Apr 4, 2009 at 2:49 am

  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123859781423278423.html

• UAE : Apr 4, 2009 at 7:12 am

  Dubai and all Emirates well STAND above all fake bullshit.

• Adam : Apr 5, 2009 at 2:53 am

  Sameer, to start, Abu Dhabi is not Dubai and they do not enjoy bailing out their credit-dependent neighbors. Further, the value of ADIA has fallen from 700 billion to almost half of that amount. My source? I know their Treasurer. Dubai has been and always will be a net importer of goods, and their position of being a financial center is in serious trouble because the world of easy credit and lax loans are from a bygone era.

  Jawhar, I ask you, what history? Please tell me about the long history of Dubai or Abu Dhabi. 50 years ago life in Dubai or Abu Dhabi was identical to what it was like 3000 years ago. Whenever a camel bone is found the Emirati’s go nuts to proclaim their magnificent and rich cultural heritage…which today means importing conductor Zhubin Mehta and the Lord of the Rings music from the outside.

  You vastly overstate the argument that the Arab-Islamic region had a single cultural identity. Perhaps linguistically (barely…the Berbers of Tunis can hardly be understood by the Saudis) and religiously, but the cultural difference between Morocco and Iraq is extreme. It is not a monolith, contrary to what the West sees.

  Your paragraph hurts your argument. Islam never dominated the world militarily, culturally or commercially. It dominated the Middle East and has slowly expanded east, was several times brutally invaded and subjugated by Christians and Mongols and Persians and Turks. I agree with this statement:

  “it is futile to search for a distinct cultural richness that goes back to hundreds of years in Dubai. All you can find is simple social traditions, marriage and burial customs and oral folklores that are not even one hundred years old.”

  Precisely. There is no history here. As for culture, the culture of Dubai or the entire UAE is imported, simply because previous to 50 years ago the population was far too small to account for any cultural or historical significance. 1000 kilometers north, yes, there you will find culture and history, but here? Forget it.

  I live in Abu Dhabi, and compared to Dubai it is an oasis in the desert. Congestion, corruption, ridiculous amounts of prostitution are several reasons. Dubai is fun, don’t get me wrong, and there are insanely cool things to do there, but….it’s just too much. I understand that it has to be over the top in order to attract attention, but really it owes it’s success to the fall of Kuwait, which was the equivalent to Dubai previous to the first Gulf War. After Saddam invaded, everyone and all of the industry that was based in Kuwait relocated to Dubai, putting the American Fifth Fleet in-between them and Saddam.

  To finish, I repeat that Abu Dhabi is not Dubai, the Al Nayhans are not that keen on bailing out Sheikh Mohammed, as demonstrated by their recent purchase of 50% of Emirates Airlines (as opposed to a loan, which is what Sheikh Mo wanted) and are quite content to continue the construction on their own Emirate whilst Dubai crumbles. The future of the UAE is not Dubai, it never was.

• Norman : Apr 5, 2009 at 8:54 am

  When the price is right the buyers will return – and which bank can I contact to buy a 2008 Range Rover Sport at half price? Have the cash and willing to buy. If as I suspect there will be nothing available then it is just a news “story” in the true sense of the word!

• lily : Apr 5, 2009 at 12:14 pm

  meljomur, just coz u have one friend who lost money in real estate here doesnt make the whole thing a ‘disaster’. i know many people who made millions in the last few years out of real estate. and how come all the people who came here didnt think it was a ‘disaster’ up until just a few months ago when the GLOBAL crisis hit??

• jay : Apr 6, 2009 at 8:41 am

  read http://secretdubai.blogspot.com/ for a fairly good understanding of how Dubai is indeed the paragon of ancient culture, arts, science, virtue, democracy, free trade, media freedom, legal system and all such things. In fact all these were contributions of Dubai to the rest of the world, if we were to believe some of our bloggers above. And oh, incidentally, this site above is banned and blocked in Dubai. Now that starts me wondering why.

• tom : Apr 6, 2009 at 9:09 am

  Dubai: From riches to rags

  Ben Anderson
  BBC Panorama reporter

  Just say the word Dubai and the images appear: impossible glass structures glistening in the year-round sun, perfect man-made beaches, yachts, private helicopters, malls and spreads of food that would satisfy Roman emperors – all the things huge amounts of new money can buy.

  And yet for me these images are the opposite of what should come to mind.Having spent the last three months travelling there, I no longer think of the seven star Burj Al Arab hotel when I think of Dubai, but of emaciated, wretched men, lining up for buses before the sun has risen, resigned to the fact that their hard day’s work wouldn’t earn them enough to buy a round of coffee here. The branding of Dubai has to be one of the greatest PR triumphs of the past 20 years. ……

  ‘Like a prison sentence’

  We looked hard for a single example of good practice on two different developments, interviewing dozens of workers employed by many different companies – some British, some owned by the Dubai government.

  But I didn’t find a single exception, not one worker who hadn’t paid a visa fee, not one who was being well paid (the highest monthly salary I heard of was being paid to a skilled crane operator- approximately £220 ($327) a month), not one who could eat well or was free to go home if he chose to.

  They all said they were much worse off than they had been back at home.”We are doing slavery,” said one worker, “we feel we are in jail, it’s like a prison sentence. This is how I feel. I am helpless. What can I do?”

  Nick McGeehan, who runs Mafiswasta, one of the few NGOs working on behalf of the immigrant construction workers, is not surprised. I asked him what role we were playing in this, as property buyers, or as one of the million plus British tourists that visited Dubai last year.

  “You’re contributing, directly or indirectly, to the enslavement of a migrant workforce. That’s a difficult pill to swallow, but when you look at the evidence that’s a fact.”

  http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_7981000/7981320.stm

• jay : Apr 7, 2009 at 4:39 am

  The dark side of Dubai

  Dubai was meant to be a Middle-Eastern Shangri-La, a glittering monument to Arab enterprise and western capitalism. But as hard times arrive in the city state that rose from the desert sands, an uglier story is emerging. Johann Hari reports

  Tuesday, 7 April 2009

  The wide, smiling face of Sheikh Mohammed – the absolute ruler of Dubai – beams down on his creation. His image is displayed on every other building, sandwiched between the more familiar corporate rictuses of Ronald McDonald and Colonel Sanders. This man has sold Dubai to the world as the city of One Thousand and One Arabian Lights, a Shangri-La in the Middle East insulated from the dust-storms blasting across the region. He dominates the Manhattan-manqué skyline, beaming out from row after row of glass pyramids and hotels smelted into the shape of piles of golden coins. And there he stands on the tallest building in the world – a skinny spike, jabbing farther into the sky than any other human construction in history.

  But something has flickered in Sheikh Mohammed’s smile. The ubiquitous cranes have paused on the skyline, as if stuck in time. There are countless buildings half-finished, seemingly abandoned. In the swankiest new constructions – like the vast Atlantis hotel, a giant pink castle built in 1,000 days for $1.5bn on its own artificial island – where rainwater is leaking from the ceilings and the tiles are falling off the roof. This Neverland was built on the Never-Never – and now the cracks are beginning to show. Suddenly it looks less like Manhattan in the sun than Iceland in the desert.

  Once the manic burst of building has stopped and the whirlwind has slowed, the secrets of Dubai are slowly seeping out. This is a city built from nothing in just a few wild decades on credit and ecocide, suppression and slavery. Dubai is a living metal metaphor for the neo-liberal globalised world that may be crashing – at last – into history.

  I. An Adult Disneyland

  Karen Andrews can’t speak. Every time she starts to tell her story, she puts her head down and crumples. She is slim and angular and has the faded radiance of the once-rich, even though her clothes are as creased as her forehead. I find her in the car park of one of Dubai’s finest international hotels, where she is living, in her Range Rover. She has been sleeping here for months, thanks to the kindness of the Bangladeshi car park attendants who don’t have the heart to move her on. This is not where she thought her Dubai dream would end.

  Her story comes out in stutters, over four hours. At times, her old voice – witty and warm – breaks through. Karen came here from Canada when her husband was offered a job in the senior division of a famous multinational. “When he said Dubai, I said – if you want me to wear black and quit booze, baby, you’ve got the wrong girl. But he asked me to give it a chance. And I loved him.”

  All her worries melted when she touched down in Dubai in 2005. “It was an adult Disneyland, where Sheikh Mohammed is the mouse,” she says. “Life was fantastic. You had these amazing big apartments, you had a whole army of your own staff, you pay no taxes at all. It seemed like everyone was a CEO. We were partying the whole time.”

  Her husband, Daniel, bought two properties. “We were drunk on Dubai,” she says. But for the first time in his life, he was beginning to mismanage their finances. “We’re not talking huge sums, but he was getting confused. It was so unlike Daniel, I was surprised. We got into a little bit of debt.” After a year, she found out why: Daniel was diagnosed with a brain tumour.

  One doctor told him he had a year to live; another said it was benign and he’d be okay. But the debts were growing. “Before I came here, I didn’t know anything about Dubai law. I assumed if all these big companies come here, it must be pretty like Canada’s or any other liberal democracy’s,” she says. Nobody told her there is no concept of bankruptcy. If you get into debt and you can’t pay, you go to prison.

  “When we realised that, I sat Daniel down and told him: listen, we need to get out of here. He knew he was guaranteed a pay-off when he resigned, so we said – right, let’s take the pay-off, clear the debt, and go.” So Daniel resigned – but he was given a lower pay-off than his contract suggested. The debt remained. As soon as you quit your job in Dubai, your employer has to inform your bank. If you have any outstanding debts that aren’t covered by your savings, then all your accounts are frozen, and you are forbidden to leave the country.

  “Suddenly our cards stopped working. We had nothing. We were thrown out of our apartment.” Karen can’t speak about what happened next for a long time; she is shaking.

  Daniel was arrested and taken away on the day of their eviction. It was six days before she could talk to him. “He told me he was put in a cell with another debtor, a Sri Lankan guy who was only 27, who said he couldn’t face the shame to his family. Daniel woke up and the boy had swallowed razor-blades. He banged for help, but nobody came, and the boy died in front of him.”

  Karen managed to beg from her friends for a few weeks, “but it was so humiliating. I’ve never lived like this. I worked in the fashion industry. I had my own shops. I’ve never…” She peters out.

  Daniel was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment at a trial he couldn’t understand. It was in Arabic, and there was no translation. “Now I’m here illegally, too,” Karen says I’ve got no money, nothing. I have to last nine months until he’s out, somehow.” Looking away, almost paralysed with embarrassment, she asks if I could buy her a meal.

  She is not alone. All over the city, there are maxed-out expats sleeping secretly in the sand-dunes or the airport or in their cars.

  “The thing you have to understand about Dubai is – nothing is what it seems,” Karen says at last. “Nothing. This isn’t a city, it’s a con-job. They lure you in telling you it’s one thing – a modern kind of place – but beneath the surface it’s a medieval dictatorship.”

  read more at …
  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html

• jay : Apr 7, 2009 at 4:42 am

  how about some more of that objectivity juice, dear.

• lily : Apr 7, 2009 at 11:51 am

  jay, every country has their own stories of lives gone wrong, dreams being shattered, and disappointment – Dubai is not exceptional in that. The US, the ”land of opportunity” where all ur dreams of success are supposed to be realised doesnt always deliver either, and there are plenty of ppl whose lives didnt turn out to be what they hoped for when they got there, and are living hand-to-mouth. Its the same end-result, just a difference of ways of getting there.

• jay : Apr 8, 2009 at 7:37 am

  if you read the whole article, and also do a reality check in the real dubai, you will indeed find that dubai is exceptional in the way people get mistreated, and also exceptional in the high percentage of people who get mistreated ( as high as 50% of the expats who come in as labourers), as well as the absolute lack of rights or legal support they are forced to slave in. Now does that sound like US? C’mon.

  I have no intent to diss any country, each on his own. But a come down to earth, and acceptance of facts would be a good start. Instead of just wishing it away saying, everywhere it is the same, why don’t you leave if you don’t like it.

• lily : Apr 8, 2009 at 10:58 am

  not ALL labourers are mistreated and I dont believe Dubai is exceptional in that respect. Thats not to say that I’m denying mistreatment happens- just not to the extent you are going on about.

• jay : Apr 9, 2009 at 5:28 am

  i am not going on about anything, this is what is well documented. Just because some may be on the other side of the moon does not mean the dark side does not exist.

  If you want more links, could provide.

  Read below from http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html

  III. Hidden in plain view

  There are three different Dubais, all swirling around each other. There are the expats, like Karen; there are the Emiratis, headed by Sheikh Mohammed; and then there is the foreign underclass who built the city, and are trapped here. They are hidden in plain view. You see them everywhere, in dirt-caked blue uniforms, being shouted at by their superiors, like a chain gang – but you are trained not to look. It is like a mantra: the Sheikh built the city. The Sheikh built the city. Workers? What workers?

  Every evening, the hundreds of thousands of young men who build Dubai are bussed from their sites to a vast concrete wasteland an hour out of town, where they are quarantined away. Until a few years ago they were shuttled back and forth on cattle trucks, but the expats complained this was unsightly, so now they are shunted on small metal buses that function like greenhouses in the desert heat. They sweat like sponges being slowly wrung out.

  Sonapur is a rubble-strewn patchwork of miles and miles of identical concrete buildings. Some 300,000 men live piled up here, in a place whose name in Hindi means “City of Gold”. In the first camp I stop at – riven with the smell of sewage and sweat – the men huddle around, eager to tell someone, anyone, what is happening to them.

  Sahinal Monir, a slim 24-year-old from the deltas of Bangladesh. “To get you here, they tell you Dubai is heaven. Then you get here and realise it is hell,” he says. Four years ago, an employment agent arrived in Sahinal’s village in Southern Bangladesh. He told the men of the village that there was a place where they could earn 40,000 takka a month (£400) just for working nine-to-five on construction projects. It was a place where they would be given great accommodation, great food, and treated well. All they had to do was pay an up-front fee of 220,000 takka (£2,300) for the work visa – a fee they’d pay off in the first six months, easy. So Sahinal sold his family land, and took out a loan from the local lender, to head to this paradise.

  As soon as he arrived at Dubai airport, his passport was taken from him by his construction company. He has not seen it since. He was told brusquely that from now on he would be working 14-hour days in the desert heat – where western tourists are advised not to stay outside for even five minutes in summer, when it hits 55 degrees – for 500 dirhams a month (£90), less than a quarter of the wage he was promised. If you don’t like it, the company told him, go home. “But how can I go home? You have my passport, and I have no money for the ticket,” he said. “Well, then you’d better get to work,” they replied.

  Sahinal was in a panic. His family back home – his son, daughter, wife and parents – were waiting for money, excited that their boy had finally made it. But he was going to have to work for more than two years just to pay for the cost of getting here – and all to earn less than he did in Bangladesh.

  He shows me his room. It is a tiny, poky, concrete cell with triple-decker bunk-beds, where he lives with 11 other men. All his belongings are piled onto his bunk: three shirts, a spare pair of trousers, and a cellphone. The room stinks, because the lavatories in the corner of the camp – holes in the ground – are backed up with excrement and clouds of black flies. There is no air conditioning or fans, so the heat is “unbearable. You cannot sleep. All you do is sweat and scratch all night.” At the height of summer, people sleep on the floor, on the roof, anywhere where they can pray for a moment of breeze.

  The water delivered to the camp in huge white containers isn’t properly desalinated: it tastes of salt. “It makes us sick, but we have nothing else to drink,” he says.

  The work is “the worst in the world,” he says. “You have to carry 50kg bricks and blocks of cement in the worst heat imaginable … This heat – it is like nothing else. You sweat so much you can’t pee, not for days or weeks. It’s like all the liquid comes out through your skin and you stink. You become dizzy and sick but you aren’t allowed to stop, except for an hour in the afternoon. You know if you drop anything or slip, you could die. If you take time off sick, your wages are docked, and you are trapped here even longer.”

  He is currently working on the 67th floor of a shiny new tower, where he builds upwards, into the sky, into the heat. He doesn’t know its name. In his four years here, he has never seen the Dubai of tourist-fame, except as he constructs it floor-by-floor.

  Is he angry? He is quiet for a long time. “Here, nobody shows their anger. You can’t. You get put in jail for a long time, then deported.” Last year, some workers went on strike after they were not given their wages for four months. The Dubai police surrounded their camps with razor-wire and water-cannons and blasted them out and back to work.

  The “ringleaders” were imprisoned. I try a different question: does Sohinal regret coming? All the men look down, awkwardly. “How can we think about that? We are trapped. If we start to think about regrets…” He lets the sentence trail off. Eventually, another worker breaks the silence by adding: “I miss my country, my family and my land. We can grow food in Bangladesh. Here, nothing grows. Just oil and buildings.”

  Since the recession hit, they say, the electricity has been cut off in dozens of the camps, and the men have not been paid for months. Their companies have disappeared with their passports and their pay. “We have been robbed of everything. Even if somehow we get back to Bangladesh, the loan sharks will demand we repay our loans immediately, and when we can’t, we’ll be sent to prison.”

  This is all supposed to be illegal. Employers are meant to pay on time, never take your passport, give you breaks in the heat – but I met nobody who said it happens. Not one. These men are conned into coming and trapped into staying, with the complicity of the Dubai authorities.

  Sahinal could well die out here. A British man who used to work on construction projects told me: “There’s a huge number of suicides in the camps and on the construction sites, but they’re not reported. They’re described as ‘accidents’.” Even then, their families aren’t free: they simply inherit the debts. A Human Rights Watch study found there is a “cover-up of the true extent” of deaths from heat exhaustion, overwork and suicide, but the Indian consulate registered 971 deaths of their nationals in 2005 alone. After this figure was leaked, the consulates were told to stop counting.

  At night, in the dusk, I sit in the camp with Sohinal and his friends as they scrape together what they have left to buy a cheap bottle of spirits. They down it in one ferocious gulp. “It helps you to feel numb”, Sohinal says through a stinging throat. In the distance, the glistening Dubai skyline he built stands, oblivious

• abraham : Apr 10, 2009 at 1:21 pm

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• David Galbraith’s Blog » Blog Archive : Apr 11, 2009 at 8:27 pm

  [...] and Evolution | What Comes After Lofts and the Suburbs | The Joe Ades Myth Deconstructed | Goodbye Dubai (on [...]

• lily : Apr 12, 2009 at 11:41 am

  so jay..you’re NOT dissing the country, are objective, and arent going on and on? couldve fooled me!
  you’ve made your point. personally I dont want to go on and on so will say just one thing: human rights violations occur in every country, some more than others- and its not acceptable anywhere.

• sam : May 8, 2009 at 6:26 am

  So all it takes to build a thriving metropolis are some jews popularized by the jewish press – re: dylan et al – if anything is shallow and superficial it's the cretin that penned this garbage – Dubai rocks

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• John : Aug 18, 2009 at 7:32 pm

  sounds like your jealous of Dubai….
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• mark : Aug 24, 2009 at 1:26 am

  yah,inshallah,come on man get real,dubai is over and finished,check the reputation of doing business now in dubai,it is over and dead,rules can be changed in one day,before you blame the expats,please check who creat this problems,every body know because of companies like emaar,dubai properties,nakheel,who did not commit their payment to their contractors,so it all because of dubai it self,one more question to you my dear,who control who in dubai?the banks or the authoroties in dubai?think before writting please.

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• Hez Musafir : Oct 13, 2009 at 4:46 pm

  Are you as dumb as you write. Probably worse. Debtor's prison in Dubai locks you up with Arab and African homosexuals who would bust your sphincter.

• Jose : Nov 27, 2009 at 1:11 pm

  Round Two of the Fall of Dubai is upon us, gentlemen. Dubai's debt of 80 billion dollars is rocking the world economy.

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• Daniel : Nov 28, 2009 at 11:28 am

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• dev : Dec 7, 2009 at 10:41 am

  This is God's punishment…they ignored pure peopole….

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  That's right. Dubai is not going down easily. wait and see.

• Dubai Rent : Jan 4, 2010 at 7:44 am

  Your views on Dubai is one sided views by someone who is completely disconnected with the reality. Much more devastation has happened in america and it is protrayed as normal recession. Speaking of Dubai, Yes, real estate priced have come down from astronomical prices, yes, people have gone back A) because their contract is over and their talent is not required or B) their performance was very poor and have been asked to go by the company and C) Demand fluctuations in job market. Nothing big about it.

• Hamad : Feb 10, 2010 at 10:58 am

  this is not really it's bill shit UAE is still have a good economy they Finished building the tallest building

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• Tamos : Feb 17, 2010 at 4:06 pm

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• MAx Donzella : Feb 19, 2010 at 12:34 am

  Yes they did ask once again to delay their debt for 6 months . It's pretty much the end of decadence . We are receiving alot of demand for Business People and Managers with a High NEt Worth wanting to Immigrate to a Real Country.

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• Seabee : Mar 22, 2010 at 12:51 pm

  The "3,000 cars at the airport with keys in" story is untrue and long-since discredited. A few were at the airport but the majority were scattered across the entire city – and only some had the keys in. Put it in context too – in an average year 1,400 cars are abandoned across the city – some at the airport, some with the keys in.

  "…there is no ‘key mail’, like in America, where people can often mail back their house keys and walk away from a mortgage…"
  The US is almost unique in this. In most countries you're responsible to repay any loan, mortgage included. You can't just walk away from it.

  "…there is no ‘key mail’, like in America, where people can often mail back their house keys and walk away from a mortgage without the immediate threat of jail. People are literally fleeing this place, to date leaving 3000 cars stranded at the airport with keys still in the ignition."
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• Sokobanja : May 22, 2012 at 4:27 pm

  Dubai will never go down. When they run out of oil here is tourism

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• travel : May 22, 2012 at 4:27 pm

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