Dubai (Not Abu Dhabi)

I have a tendency to visit places I don’t know much about, and Dubai was no exception. (Ignorance evidenced by my accidently booking a ticket to Abu Dhabi, another city in the United Arab Emirates that happens to share many of the same letters).


What I learned:

The UAE is (somewhat arbitrarily) comprised of seven city-states or emirates, each governed as an absolute monarchy by a ruler or shiek. The local government is determined by the respective shiek, which is why alcohol is allowed in Dubai while prohibited in several of the other emirates. Dubai has the largest population and the second-largest geography, behind the capital Abu Dhabi.

Arabic is the official language of Dubai while English is the lingua franca. However, Hindi, Urdu and other Asian languages are often spoken due to the largest immigrant population, with the largest groups from India and Pakistan. Likewise, there is a large non-Muslim population, although Islam is the state religion, explaining the rise of the burkini.


Life is good for the native Emirati, who make up less than 20% of the population in Dubai; the shiek provides them with a free apartment, healthcare, and education. Life is not so hot for the immigrants, who receive no such assistance and provide cheap labor for the multitude of construction projects in the city. It is unclear just how exploited the laborers are. On one hand, the “underclass” works in difficult conditions for little pay, and the media has reported indentured servant horror stories. On the other hand, Dubai provides jobs for immigrants that otherwise may be unemployed in their native countries, and entire villages in Indian and Pakistan are financed through remittances.


In both the private and public sphere, Dubai is filled with airbrushed images of the smiling shiek, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. (You just get an un-airbrushed image of a smiling me.) The blatant propaganda/reverence combined with the endless skyline gives Dubai a futuristic, shiny and slightly creepy vibe. In a city comprised mostly of immigrant laborers, I only felt the presence of an underclass when I was driving to the airport at 6 AM and the highway was jammed with school-buses carrying workers to their jobs. Many construction workers live in the building on which they are working because it is too inefficient and/or dangerous to leave when their shift is over.

Unlike Abu Dhabi, Dubai doesn’t have a natural resource (oil) to support the economy and instead relies entirely on tourism and commerce. Given the macro-economic environment, Dubai has occupancy rates of ~20% and many construction projects are in limbo. However, I cannot imagine the city “brimming” even in a good economic environment. There is literally too much infrastructure built or in the process of being built.


I agree with Amitabh: I would short Dubai.

More pics and stories to follow shortly.