The New Promise Land

(Burj Al Arab. Hotel in Dubai)

Boarding the Boeing 777, I couldn’t help but notice that seventy percent of the plane’s passengers were male and a majority of them appeared to be of Indian heritage. A three and a half hour skip from Bombay across the Arabian Sea is a relatively new "oasis" in the desert. In an area of the world traditionally viewed as a political hotbed, this oasis attracts both tourists and foreign investments from around the world.

Dubai, or “do buy” as may be more accurate, with a population of 1.2 million is situated in one of seven emirates comprising the United Arab Emirates or UAE. With a liberal banking system (like the Swiss banks of yesteryear), no taxes and duty free zone, multi-national developers, designer clothiers, commercial coffee and restaurant chains and major auto makers are taking advantage of the latest global gold rush. With Beirut’s politics up for grabs, Dubai is the new playground of the Middle East.

Hopping into my taxi from the airport, a meter was running, the AC was on cool and a TV monitor, suspended from the ceiling, played commercials. This was everything India wasn’t. There were no visibly poor, no animals in sight and drivers stayed in their lanes. Large billboards lined the streets with mostly western looking models advertising the latest Rolex or the new luxury meditarranean looking villa development opening soon. I was back in the land of the Jones’ where krishna consciousness was substituted with image consciousness.

Where were all of the Indian men on my plane headed? To work, plain and simple. As I would learn from many Dubai visa holders, very few are actually native to the UAE. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, the U.K., Belgium and even the U.S. are just a few of the “feeder” countries, lending their citizens to the UAE for a few years or forever, often away from their families, where they find at least one thing they cannot find in their own country, a job.

Driving to visit a friend on the outskirts of the city, it seemed the entire skyline was filled with cranes as billboards boasted the construction of new mirrored towers for use as condos, apartments and/or office space. One resident explained that sixteen percent of the world’s cranes are in Dubai. To me it looked a lot like a crane convention as in some parts of town, every building was topped with a crane. Under construction as of this entry, and already reaching into the clouds, Dubai is set to be home to the world’s tallest building, "Burj Dubai", scheduled to be completed sometime in 2008.
(Skiiing in the desert? Indoor skiing at Mall of the Emirates, largest mall outside of the U.S.)

The burgeoning metropolis rises out of desert terrain much like Las Vegas. When I joked with one ex-pat living in Dubai, he told me that plans for construction of a ten kilometer Las Vegas style “strip” were already underway. Gambling is still not legal here, but one gets the sense that it won’t be that way for long.

With the bulk of oil deposits located in its emirate neighbor, Abu Dhabi (the capital of the UAE), Dubai is pulling out all stops to become an international city with a combination of the best known attributes of Vegas, Switzerland and Monaco. When the black gold spickets run dry, Dubai plans to remain a top destination in the world by becoming a power broker in the world of high finance.

Unfortunately, the rise to financial adulthood is coming at a human and environmental cost. Indians, Sri Lankans, Egyptians and others are working long hours, away from their families and with relatively low pay, but most are happy to have a job. And unlike the U.S. if you were born in the UAE, you do not receive the benefit of citizenship, rather you inherit the national citizenship of your father.

In some ways, Dubai reminds of me of Einstein, at least one of his more well known theories, relativity. Everything in the world is still relative. Not only are many of us relatives on some level, but each of our realities are relative. Why would an engineer leave his/her country to become a taxi driver in Dubai? Because being an engineer in Pakistan is not as lucrative as driving a taxi in Dubai. It is the most basic rule of economics, do what puts food on the table and a roof over your head.

Friends Unite

One of the most charing or recharging events on an extended trip can be meeting up with old friends, or rather young friends I have known for many years. Such would be the case with Dubai where ultimately I would meet up with three amigos. The first was my long time travel buddy (and former roommate), Jim Howard. Jim was in town to sell sand to the sheiks. Ok, maybe it wasn't sand, but if you know Jim, he could have sold them sand.

As it turns out, his timing in Dubai was quite fortuitous. He was attending the Arab Health Conference and I wasn't. On the day of my arrival, he had already been at work a few days and secured a hotel room in the center of old Dubai, known as Deira. Fortunately for me, he allowed me to crash in his room (paid for by his company). Unfortunately for me, there was only one queen bed and despite being one of eight kids, Jim was not into sharing.

I made do with a hide-a-bed that was hiding in a couch with exterior fabric screaming for replacement . . . about 20 years ago. Vivid flashes of "blue light" from episodes of CSI came to mind, only this time I recalled the actual "news magazine" programs where they walk into four and five star hotels, turn out the lights and then turn on the blue light. They never find any "good" fluids. The primarily red and gold couch was not as coy as the five star joints. It freely expressed many of its stains right on the surface. In a way it was ideal, I knew what I was getting myself into. The couch wasn't hiding much, if anything from me, and neither was the floor beneath the couch, where pieces of food remained undisturbed since California had an actor for governor. Wait a minute, I mean since California had its first actor governor.

Anyhow, off the couch and back to the first days in Dubai. After reconnecting with Jim, I reconnected with a traveling friend of mine who lived just outside the limits of central Dubai. She was working on a project in Dubai. Sofia is a British citizen of Pakistani origin working for a Beligan company selling air time and ad space in the U.S. while living in Dubai. She is quintessential Dubai.

Sofia invited Jim and I to attend a birthday party that night at the Park Hyatt where the attendees represented at least 20 nations. It was a like a birthday party for Kofi Annan, only the birthday girl was much younger, no one had ear pieces listening to translations and much more fun. Luckily for Jim and I, English was the common speaking ground. On that warm evening on the patio under the stars it was crystal clear that people around the world are far more similar than their differences.