In defense of Dubai

18 October 2011

The sorry state of the British media is simply summed up by the fact that Tanya Gold won Feature Writer of the Year at the British Press Awards in 2010.

For a newspaper that prides itself on responsible, articulate journalism her article “Why Dubai..?” in The Guardian on 14th October plumbed new depths. Sadly many of the comments that follow her article reflect the tone of the author.

The article adds nothing to our knowledge about Dubai; it is lazy; it is ill researched (Gold visited over two years ago) reporting masquerading as news.

Anyone who knows me or who has read my web site (www.rascott.com ) over the last five years will know that I have regularly been critical of Dubai on many levels. But Ms. Gold’s tub-thumping diatribe, based on a shopping visit two years ago manages to offend just about anyone who has chosen to try and make a decent and hard working living in this city.

Dubai is not perfect. This is a 40 year old nation. Dubai’s growth as a city has occurred in the last 25 years. Mistakes have been made and will be made. But for almost 2 million people it is home. And home, wherever it is, is where the heart is, if only temporarily.

Let us start with some of the abuse hurled at Dubai in her article which need to be addressed:

"Why did Liam Fox choose Dubai for his mysterious stopovers between London and Afghanistan?"

Dubai has provided a base for NATO forces serving in Afghanistan, including British, American and Canadian troops. It is geographically convenient and politically friendly. Fox is following a well trodden flightpath in arranging meeting and reviewing Afghanistani operations in the UAE. Further a number of defence contractors to the British government are based in Dubai.

"Bahrain, or maybe Oman, were the usual options."

In case Ms Gold had not noticed showing British support for the current Bahraini regime would be unfortunate.

"Of all the slave states in all the towns in all the world, he walks into mine."

I am sorry; but slave state? 85% of the UAE’s residents are foreigners employed through work visas. At any level most have chosen to come to Dubai because it offers them a livelihood, career, experience, opportunity that is not available in their home country. I am not a slave; my wife is not a slave. And we will leave tomorrow if we want to do so.

"In 2010, over 700,000 British tourists stayed in Dubai's hotels, according to the Dubai tourism website. The British are Dubai's best customers, which exposes how much people will collude with, or ignore, evil if their hotel rooms are cheap, sumptuous and have cable TV."

Statistically the number does not make much sense – many people are on stopovers between where they came from and where they are going to. Sure Dubai attracts its share of high profile visitors. In part because it hosts its share of high profile events; from sports events to film festivals. And why not? How does a new, small city get onto the world map. It makes itself important.

Describing Dubai as evil is just silly. It is not perfect. But it is self aware. It is changing. It will continue to do so. It looks after its own people; I have no problem with that. Isn’t that what every nation should aspire to?

"It is a truly fabulous destination where visitors can indulge in top-quality state censorship, great homophobia, fine misogyny, state-of-the-art police brutality and, of course, fantastic indentured servitude."

Nations have rules. Live within those rules. Be discrete, avoid creating offence and you will be surprised how liberal much of the Middle East actually is. So many accusations. So little evidence. Police brutality; honestly for the Brits to preach about police brutality is simply funny. State censorship: No. Self censorship: Yes. But nothing compared to China; or to Thailand; or even (how things change) to Hong Kong.

"Dubai does not impose income tax, so the tourists are joined by an international convention of laughing parasites – all refugees from tax. I used to hate them, until I realised that any British people who want to live in Dubai, we can probably afford to lose."

Governments choose how to raise revenue. Dubai does so through housing taxes, road taxes, residency and visa fees. Dubai operates at a surplus. Case closed.

"Dubai, like the rest of the UAE, is a repressive state, hiding behind religious piety and that dreadful word glitz. If Mickey Mouse is in residence here, he has some of the smartest kids locked up in Space Mountain. Do not dare to be gay, or adulterous, or a democrat in Dubai. Homosexuality will get you up to 10 years in prison – party on, gays"

Yes, adultery and homosexuality are illegal. As they are in many other countries by law and/or by custom. But no one is going to spy on you 24/7. Behave discreetly; do not attract attention. No one is looking to bang people up for what goes on behind closed doors. But if you want to grope in public then this is not the place to do it. And honestly it may be a better place because of that.

"It is an authoritarian oligarchy; the face of its ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, smiles from billboards and, sometimes, from our Queen's own carriage at Ascot. There is no press freedom in the UAE, just self-censorship. Insulting the royal family, or the flag, or possibly the architecture, will get you banged up. Everything gets you banged up in Dubai, except conformity and mindless shopping in the malls."

And just where is Miss Gold’s rant on self censorship in Russia or Singapore; on the penalties for insulting the royal family in Thailand; for burning the American flag; for being an artist in China. Easy target. Lazy writing.

"Who built this city in the desert? There are 250,000 foreign workers in Dubai, drawn mostly from India and Bangladesh. They are indentured servants, that is, slaves. The usual way to recruit them is to draw them a picture of joy – great wages, fabulous working conditions – and charge them an enormous recruitment fee. Then, when they arrive, the construction companies often steal their passports, deny them their wages, and say they must work endlessly to pay for their return home, while living 10 to a room and working in the terrible heat."

Construction workers are often brought to the UAE by recruitment agencies in their own countries. Most if not all of these workers are actually saving money and supporting an extended family in their home country. Has Ms Gold condemned the influx of Eastern European workers in the UK, or Turkish workers in Germany or Burmese in Thailand or rural Chinese migrating into the cities for the lowest paid work.

Do I hear Ms Gold condemning the Western firms that have outsourced their manufacturing to the lowest cost labour available? Who is exploiting who? We live in a global world. We might not like it but it is certainly not confined to Dubai.

Asian workers continue to flock to the UAE and other gulf states because they do find employment and are able to support their families back home. This does not excuse abusive treatment and bad practice towards them. But conditions have improved and lessons have been learned.

"African men carried my bag (my bag-carrier had a law degree), Bangladeshi men cleaned my room, and Thai women with false names – who can be bothered to pronounce a Thai name when there are so many of them? – served my dinner. These were human being beings acting as wallpaper."

Dear oh dear. Thai men and women are all given nicknames by their families. These are not false names or another Dubai prejudice.

You see – for many of us one of Dubai’s attractions it that it is so diverse. Go into Ikea in Dubai – how many languages you will hear in one place; all with the same purpose. That to me is something to celebrate not to denigrate.

Take the airline, Emirates. It has crew from some 110 different countries. For every one that leaves there are twenty people lined up to take that job. That is a success story. That is people taking the opportunity to fulfil their ambition.

"Dubai is a place of horror, the land where fundamentalism meets hyper-capitalism. Could anything be worse?"

Actually the only thing that is worse is journalists who get paid to cause offence. The only saving grace is that I assume Ms Gold will not be returning to Dubai.

Dubai is not perfect but then again what major city is? But it has given a home to many hard working and talented people seeking to make a difference to their lives and to the lives of the people around them. For many it is a first step on an international career; to others it is a safe haven in regional turmoil; to others it is a holiday destination with beaches and sunshine and enough that is exotic and different to enjoy for a few days.

The Emiratis have welcomed and embraced foreign investment and foreign residents; it must be a battle to preserve their own culture when they are a minority in there own nation. For the most part, and there are always exceptions, they are polite, decent, respectful. honest people; ill deserving or Ms Gold’s contempt.

As for the tired Arab antisemitism cliché? Exactly what else does Ms. Gold expect? The UAE remains an Arab country with an Arab, Muslim population. As such anyone carrying an Israeli passport is not permitted to enter the country. The majority of other Arab states as well as most non Arab Muslim nations enact similar laws. This is in solidarity with the Palestinians.

The majority of the people that work here are decent hard working folk who are pursuing careers, opportunity and experience. If there is a bling factor it is a small percentage. Most of us eat in food courts and not in smart restaurants. Most of us create homes for our families. We are all really rather dull. Sorry Ms Gold; that is not the Dubai that you are writing about. Indeed many people here are sensitive to the injustice that goes on; many do something about it.

Ms Gold conveniently omits Dubai initiatives such as Dubai Cares; my old company led the way by donating AED10million a year for ten years to that cause. Or the work of the Emirates Airline Foundation; staffed entirely by volunteers.

Dubai is and will change; it is a young nation; its wealth was born on oil. It quickly recognised the need to create a diversified economy; including tourism, fed by arguably the most successful airline in the world. If it has a role model it is probably Singapore; guess what; it’s role model is another ex British colony that has prospered while Britain flounders from one economic or political crisis to the next.