Dubai

If you’ve ever read, or listened to, or watched a story of how Dubai has been so successful and so clever at developing and growing its economy, here’s something that should interest you: The dark side of Dubai by award-winning journalist Johann Hari.

The article’s pretty long, but have a go at it first before you even decide not to. It’s okay if you’ve decided not to though; here I provide you some of the most intriguing (to me) parts of the article:

1. Once the manic burst of building has stopped and the whirlwind has slowed, the secrets of Dubai are slowly seeping out. This is a city built from nothing in just a few wild decades on credit and ecocide, suppression and slavery. Dubai is a living metal metaphor for the neo-liberal globalised world that may be crashing – at last – into history.

2. "The thing you have to understand about Dubai is – nothing is what it seems," Karen says at last. "Nothing. This isn't a city, it's a con-job. They lure you in telling you it's one thing – a modern kind of place – but beneath the surface it's a medieval dictatorship."

3. "To get you here, they tell you Dubai is heaven. Then you get here and realise it is hell," Sahinal Monir says. As soon as he arrived at Dubai airport, his passport was taken from him by his construction company. He has not seen it since. He was told brusquely that from now on he would be working 14-hour days in the desert heat – where western tourists are advised not to stay outside for even five minutes in summer, when it hits 55 degrees – for 500 dirhams a month (£90), less than a quarter of the wage he was promised.”

4. They have been in Dubai for 20 years, and they are happy to explain how the city works. "You've got a hierarchy, haven't you?" Ann says. "It's the Emiratis at the top, then I'd say the British and other Westerners. Then I suppose it's the Filipinos, because they've got a bit more brains than the Indians. Then at the bottom you've got the Indians and all them lot."

5. It is an open secret that once you hire a maid, you have absolute power over her. You take her passport – everyone does; you decide when to pay her, and when – if ever – she can take a break; and you decide who she talks to. She speaks no Arabic. She cannot escape.

6. In a Burger King, a Filipino girl tells me it is "terrifying" for her to wander the malls in Dubai because Filipino maids or nannies always sneak away from the family they are with and beg her for help. "They say – 'Please, I am being held prisoner, they don't let me call home, they make me work every waking hour seven days a week.' At first I would say – my God, I will tell the consulate, where are you staying? But they never know their address, and the consulate isn't interested. I avoid them now. I keep thinking about a woman who told me she hadn't eaten any fruit in four years. They think I have power because I can walk around on my own, but I'm powerless."

7. My patience frayed by all this excess, I find myself snapping: doesn't the omnipresent slave class bother you? I hope they misunderstood me, because the woman replied: "That's what we come for! It's great, you can't do anything for yourself!" Her husband chimes in: "When you go to the toilet, they open the door, they turn on the tap – the only thing they don't do is take it out for you when you have a piss!" And they both fall about laughing.

8. Dubai is not just a city living beyond its financial means; it is living beyond its ecological means. You stand on a manicured Dubai lawn and watch the sprinklers spray water all around you. You see tourists flocking to swim with dolphins. You wander into a mountain-sized freezer where they have built a ski slope with real snow. And a voice at the back of your head squeaks: this is the desert. This is the most water-stressed place on the planet. How can this be happening? How is it possible?

9. Sheikh Maktoum built his showcase city in a place with no useable water. None. There is no surface water, very little acquifer, and among the lowest rainfall in the world. So Dubai drinks the sea. The Emirates' water is stripped of salt in vast desalination plants around the Gulf – making it the most expensive water on earth. It costs more than petrol to produce, and belches vast amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as it goes. It's the main reason why a resident of Dubai has the biggest average carbon footprint of any human being – more than double that of an American.

10. I ask the Filipino girl behind the counter if she likes it here. "It's OK," she says cautiously. Really? I say. I can't stand it. She sighs with relief and says: "This is the most terrible place! I hate it! I was here for months before I realised – everything in Dubai is fake. Everything you see. The trees are fake, the workers' contracts are fake, the islands are fake, the smiles are fake – even the water is fake!" But she is trapped, she says. She got into debt to come here, and she is stuck for three years: an old story now. "I think Dubai is like an oasis. It is an illusion, not real. You think you have seen water in the distance, but you get close and you only get a mouthful of sand."

If you have read (survived) up to this point, good for you, but I still recommend you to read the whole thing!

Before this, I’ve always been like, “Why can’t Brunei be like Dubai!?” I mean, think of all the similarities we have with Dubai: abundance of oil, Islam, a monarchy-based government, a small area (5,765 and 4,114 sq. km.), etc.

But that was perhaps until I learnt more, like how we have an absolute monarchy while Dubai has a constitutional monarchy, how oil and gas revenues account for nearly half of our GDP while less than 6% of Dubai’s, and how much more diversified Dubai’s economy is compared to ours: tourism, real estate, financial services, etc. are major contributors to their revenue.

After reading ‘The dark side of Dubai’, I actually felt glad that Brunei isn’t turning out like Dubai.

Perhaps the proverb, ‘Biar lambat asal selamat’ can be safely applied here, especially in terms of how Dubai has been relying too much on debt and credit. Sure, you get fast growth, but noone would want to end up like Iceland (also a very good read here), or perhaps a less clear example, the USA’s current financial crisis.

Speaking of debt, Dubai and Iceland: Dubai currently owes about 107% of its entire GDP while Iceland, if I’m not mistaken, owes 170% of its GDP. Hmm.

So much text. I hope you had fun reading. Hoho.

P.S. This might burst your bubbles if you’ve read about the dark secrets of Dubai. But perhaps the blogger (who objects to sloppy journalism and biased reporting) wasn’t aware of how Johann Hari was being obvious with naming his title, specifically, ‘The dark side of Dubai’. Peace.