It sometimes occurs to me to wonder what so many people see in going to Dubai. I know it is now the new playground of the extremely rich and their sycophants but I have been there, a lot, albeit 35 years ago when it was not yet the playground for the rich and famous it is today. Those who have not been there cannot conceive of just how hot and humid it can get there most of the year. They literally have no idea because nowhere else on earth experiences that kind of heat and humidity.
Back when I was visiting there it was a soulless tyranny ruled over by men unchanged since the 8th century and if you think that has changed just because they are now extremely rich then you are willing to believe anything. The Emirates are utterly blind to the rule of law and yet they go out of their way everyday to conceal that from everyone. The emirs running the place are not subject to the law in any way shape or form.
The first visit I made there the Country Team from the US Embassy let us know in no uncertain terms that while drinking was legal in bars in the Emirate there was still an excellent chance that a taxi driver you hired to bring you back to the hotel or to the ship would take you instead to the nearest police station if he thought you were intoxicated and he didn't like that in you and he would get a reward from the police for taking a drunk off the streets.
What changed you may wonder? Well the Emirs cleaned up their act a bit and one of them just rocketed ahead of his peers in an effort to get richer. When I was there the old wealth was still concentrated in Abu Dhabi but Dubai was an up and comer with the port of Jebel Ali acting as a huge source of income to the emirate. The emir decided to start building luxury palaces and vacation resorts along the coast and when he started running out of coastline to develop he started building the great sand islands which were then packed with luxury villas for the extremely wealthy he could attract to his little blazing hot paradise. He got investors to build incredible malls and shopping experience and the most amazing airport you'll ever find.
The rest of the emirates just plug along and do what the Saudis have done for generations but with a twist. Saudis interested in a good time used to just go to Bahrain to relax and unwind in relative freedom from the madmen running the Kingdom and its religious police. Emiratees just drive over to Dubai for some frolicking and booze and then drive home. The Saudis cottoned on to the driving thing too and pushed through a causeway to Bahrain that allows them to drive to and from Saudi Arabia.
Still you must wonder why would anybody want to vacation, buy a house or live there. Well, this morning the answer became a little clearer to me.
Dubai is a country like no other. There is no urban predator underclass that preys on the middle class, the working class and especially the ultra-wealthy generational elites that used to like to have in town where they could get on with the frolicking, raping, and other business that brings them to town. Dubai is a predator free environment and will be for the foreseeable future. It's as safe an investment as a nice great home in Long Island without the nasty side effects of living in the Empire State.
The really clever people have been seeing this great tidal wave getting ready to swamp the earth and they looked for and found a place to perch while the waters race in and destroy everything and the tide sweeps what is left away.
On the other hand, they don't think that the barbarians will drop in anymore either. I wonder what they think will stop them.....They think they’ve found a place free from barbarians.
6 comments:
Dubai being a predator free environment is predicated on some semblance of rule of law still existing most places. When that changes, and that is a when, not an if, Dubai will become a very tempting target for the unsavory, like the Somalian pirates who aren't all that far away.
But it is too hot there and they have dust storms.
The Emirates are like the other Gulf States and still have slaves but they now call them TCNs or Third Country Nationals. They are willing workers imported from all over Asia and work very hard. The first thing that happens when they arrive is their passports are taken away and they are then locked into the country with no escape. Nobody ever talks about it except the XPATS who live there or worked there themselves.
They may commit crimes among themselves just as the arabs may do but nobody commits crimes against the xpats and gets away with it unless they are connected to the emirs and then TANJ applies. There are zero urban predator scum anywhere and oddly enough nobody misses them. It's like a burning hot hellish paradise and it is one, if somebody hadn't invented air-conditioning. When the lights go out, it's over. Can you say Carrington effect?
A lot of people have found it just bearable enough to step between air-conditioning to get back into comfort and it is kind of nice hours after the sun sets during some parts of the year.
Spent a year in the Sahara Desert in Egypt. Never been to Dubai
Had short term .mil assignments in Dubai. Befehl ist Befehl if I wanted to get paid. Happy to never go back; was always slightly nervous-in-the-service because if the grid went down and the desalinators stop working, everyone dies of thirst sooner than later, unless dies of gunfire from local armed water-collectors.
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