Living in the Future: Dubai

People often ask me how it is to live in a place like Dubai. It is not really easy to say as life here can be as normal as anywhere else and at the same time things can be so different. The best way to describe could be: life in the future.

The landscape is very futuristic. Gleaming glass towers, super expressways, the desert, palm trees, the man dominating nature. Everything one could think of exists here. At the same time you walk a few blocks behind these glass towers and people live in small shacks, with roosters in the gardens, cats roaming the streets, old men playing cards with the neighbors outside, kids running around, no sidewalk, just a path in the sand. There is the desert, stretching from these towers all the way to Saudi Arabia. On the other side you see the blue waters of the Persian Gulf.

People’s way of life also depends on their religion or culture or even the job they do. There are Gulf Arabs (Emiratis, Kuwaitis, Bahraini), Mediterranean Arabs (Syrian, Lebanese, Moroccans, Egyptians), other Muslims (Pakistanis, Iranians, Turkish, Indonesian), English, Germans, Australians, South Africans, Filipino, the Indians, of course and the list is endless. During Ramadan everybody respects the fasting hours, there were celebrations for Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. Christmas is also celebrated, especially in the shopping malls. There are Chinese New Year banquets!

Most people communicate in English. It truly is the lingua franca of the place. Arabic is the official language and many speak it, however I would say that the most widely spoken languages here are Urdu-Hindi (the language from Pakistan and India) as the bulk of the population comes from those countries.

One common thing amongst all groups: mobile telephones! People are truly addicted to them over here. There is no respect when it comes to courtesy regarding mobile telephones. People talk on the phones in the cinema, while driving, while doing everything and even inside the airplane! I have lost count of how many times I had to tell people to switch off their phones in the middle of the flight. Once the plane starts approaching the runway you can hear the sounds of messages getting to mobile telephones. And we are still in the air!!! I was having a haircut, the hairdresser’s phone rang and of course he picked up, talked and resumed his job of cutting my hair. You can be having sex, the phone rings and they stop to pick up the call! I have also seen passengers fly for 5 to 10 hours holing on to their telephones (even when they were switched of).

But miscommunication is also one of the most common issues here. As not everybody speaks English to a certain level you often have to simplify it as much as possible to get things done. The guy who works in my building fixing the air conditioning, pipes, elevators, etc comes from southern India and his English is half Malayalam. I have to concentrate to understand the main points of his talk. So it is easier to say:
-Good morning Umesh, you good?
-I need you fix light please. My bedroom.
-Water problem in bathroom. Need look soon, please.

Another area where Dubai goes crazy is in traffic. Congestion on the roads here is a real problem! During rush hour it is best to stay at home or walk because the gridlocks come to a standstill for miles and miles on end. I live on the busiest road in the Middle East, Sheikh Zayed Road, which connects Sharjah and the north of Dubai to the South of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. As most people live in one side and have to work in another I often see how desperate people get inside their cars.

But the worst is not the gridlocks. People drive like maniacs here. The Arabs have absolutely no care as for speeding. If the crash and die it is because God (Allah) wanted. Seatbelts are a novelty. Locals don’t have to pay their speeding tickets. Than the ‘drivers in general’ (buses, trucks, vans, taxis) all come from countries where there are no proper roads and used to drive rickshaws or tuk tusk at home. Suddenly they are faced with powerful cars and a 4 lane expressway! And the scariest part is the Roundabouts. People come from the far left and cut in front of all others to exit on the right, regardless of anything. I often say that I face more danger on my way to work than flying! The sad part is that if the government does not act soon the traffic jams will start damaging Dubai’s competitiveness. It is already quicker to drive to Abu Dhabi’s airport (45 minutes) from the Burj al Arab area than to drive to Dubai’s airport.

Coming to this topic of airports, today the plans for a new airport in Dubai have been unveiled. It will be JXB or Jebel Ali International and will be ready in early 2007. It will be bigger than London Heathrow and will handle 120 million people by 2025. Putting together Dubai, Jebel Ali and Abu Dhabi and you have the world’s biggest air hub! Something out of this world, truly futuristic. By the way, let’s not forget Doha in Qatar, which is 45 minutes ‘down the road’ and is also developing its capacity!

And in the not so distant future, Emirates will launch and airline called Emirates Express, a long-haul low cost airline. It partly explains why the company has purchased 48 super jumbos from Airbus and just yesterday, at the Dubai Air Show, the Sheikh purchased another 42 Boeings! So very soon there will be cheap seats from London to Sydney via Dubai!

However Dubai wants to be put in the map as the world’s favorite holiday destination! There is a new mall where you can go skiing in real powder snow or just hide inside a Swiss style chalet to have some hot chocolate. There is a hotel (in Abu Dhabi, not far from here at all) called Emirates Palace. It is where the Brazilian Soccer Team stayed for the 8x0 match against the UAE. It is advertised as the most expensive hotel ever built! The Dubai Autodrome will host the biggest Ferrari museum and the A1 races (car races like F1 but instead of Renault, McLaren it will be countries competing). What about Dubailand? It will be 10 times bigger than Disney World… and the newest development was announced by Sir Richard Branson, from Virgin Atlantic, flights to space, from Dubai!!!!