Saturday, July 28, 2007

Towering Achievement

Dubai is like a game of Sim City with cheat codes. It's estimated that 20% of the world's stationary cranes (the ones used for tall buildings) are in Dubai and it's easy to tell driving down Sheik Zayed Road where there are literally hundreds of skyscrapers under construction. Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world, clocks in at 141 stories and there are three stationary cranes on top working on another twenty. What makes everything so striking though is it's all been built in the past few decades so everything's ultramodern and flashy. Adding to the atmosphere is a very subtle hint of arabian influence in the architecture.

The iconic Burj al-Arab's design was inspired by traditional Arabian sailing ships called dhows, and with a desert backdrop as well as a coastline, the landscape is striking in a very futuristic, almost alien way. The reason is because of Middle Eastern oil money and prudent management by the Al-Maktoum family, which has produced a life of luxury for the allegedly anti-materialistic Muslim rulers. You can find Emirati women in full burqa sporting several thousand dollar watches here. These men came by to pick up the latest iPod, possibly on their way to the in-mall mosque for afternoon prayer.


The woman helping them is an asian migrant worker, and being both asian and a woman makes her almost as much a product for sale as the iPods. I met female migrant worker and she painted a pretty grim picture of the situation. It's apparently quite common for Arab men in flashy cars to pull up next to foreign girls and flat out proposition them. It's like sampling ethnic food; they just want a taste of Indonesian women, Malaysian women, Chinese women, etc. Furthermore, as non-citizens (even for those born here), they have few if any rights. Work visas can be revoked quite easily and there's a 100 durham a day fine for being here illegally. There are no worker's rights or unions and sometimes jobs are simply taken to be given to full blooded Emiratis---who do not seem to understand how to take direction and therefore are frequently incompetent.

On the one hand the place is super-westernized and modern and on the other it's still ultra-conservative and backward. You can get your kid a McArabia meal at the megamall while using a wifi hotspot without access to websites like Orkut (a popular asian social networking site like Myspace) because of censorship. It will be very interesting to see what it's like here in a few decades.


The general feeling seems to be that the Arabs do not want permanent dependence on foreign labor. If they did, maybe they'd give them citizenship. All expats are simply hired help, and eventually they will finish their jobs and go home. This is impractical, however, as there simply aren't enough Emiratis (who constitute less than 20% of the population) to fill all the lower level positions even if they were willing to, which they aren't.

5 comments:

DF said...

mad contradictions co-existing in that place ... Great photos ...

adrianne said...

1. how can you generalize and say emiratis can't take direction and are frequently incompetent? i know this is coming from uncle ethan because he was saying the same stuff at dinner when he was here. it reminds me of republicans bitching about affirmative action.
2. i don't understand your point about not being dependent on foreign labor. if they made them citizens, it wouldn't be foreign labor anymore, now would it? it seems to me like they're happy to capitalize on foreign labor for as long as there are countries poor enough to send desperate workers to be abused. now with the high level western talent, maybe there is an argument for citizenship there, although there are many things more enticing than citizenship to keep talented westerners working in your country. i wonder if they offer other incentives. like money. or sexy places to live. or a cushy job with opportunities for research that would be considered unethical in the united states.

JEFF said...

The emiratis are trying to establish an income stream that will survive the end of their oil. But people who grow up not having to work have a hard time learning how to work. So my prediction is that the whole enterprise will, in the end, come to naught.

adrianne said...

how much is a durham?

William said...

I'm not saying emiratis are incompetent. I've never talked to or interacted with one. The migrant worker I spoke to, who is obviously going to be biased, said that. Maybe I should've made that clearer. Anyway, Dad hit the nail on the head. They will forever be dependent on foreign labor, they just don't realize it yet. Oh, and the exchange rate is 3.6 AED to 1 USD.