... but in Dubai I discovered that the whole shebang has simply packed up and moved to United Arab Emirates. Yes, everything that is good in the human spirit has left us in the West and moved off into this happy little corner of the Islamic World.
At least that's what I said to Bernd yesterday but was argued down in a most convincing manner.
See, my point is that when oil was discovered in the mid 60s in this little horn in north Africa ...
... rather than rubbing his hands with glee and looking up catalogs to decide what to buy himself, Sheik Khalifa decided this sudden good fortune should benefit ALL his people, so all the seven Sheiks of seven states on the Arabian Sea - Abu Zaby, 'Ajman, Al Fujayrah, Ash Shariqah, Dubayy, Umm al Qaywayn and Ra's al Khaymah (had to look that up) - merged to form the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with the aim of spreading the wealth and creating a little paradise on earth.
Yes, that's what they set out to do in the 70s and from what I saw in Dubai they've done it: the seven sheiks from the seven states have indeed created an earthly Paradise in their little part of the world.
At least that's the case I was arguing with Bernd.
Because from all appearances they have indeed done it. Within three generations, thanks to this Commonwealth of Oil-Producers, no one is poor or sick or wanting anything because Emratis now live the most beautiful and elegant lives, with all their needs catered for, all with their own villas, and with access to the most extraordinary education, health, sporting and recreational facilities, and with the most exquisite infrastructure. Thus, we all have to give enormous and heartfelt kudos to these enlightened and visionary Sheiks for doing so much that is right and good and decent, honourable and honest.
At least, that was my side of this argument.
But before I tell you Bernd's side of the argument, let me show you a small example of mine:
At the museum, they have examples of how the Emratis lived B.O. (before oil) ...
Keith took these.
Love the last shot.
... and here's just a few shots of how they live today:
Keith took these ones too.
In fact, he took all these in this post
because I think he's lost mine. AGAIN.
And it isn't just in the cities they live like this. You'll be out in the desert driving through miles of this ...
... and around all the old oases, you encounter these:
OK, you'll have to double-click to enlarge that,
so you can see the luxury villas.
We were astonished and kept saying "These are villages." and making jokes about how these villas were the local bures (Fijian for hut), and naming these tiny oases towns after the various Fijian villages around Suva, our capital.
And we were also astonished at the quality of resources at the local schools. I mean these are for the kids to work on in Shop Class:
Could only find two shots of these planes
and helicopters they have for the
kids to work on, but, trust me,
they have a range.
(But just let me aside a boast here: Little Brother's kids were duxes at their little resource-poor school in Fiji - Fiji being a third world nation with barely any educational resources at all - and they are STILL duxes of their school in Dubai. Yup, they didn't miss a beat with their Fiji schooling despite our relative and comparative poverty. Go figure!)
The idea of education in UAE is that everyone Emrati becomes what they want to become, and are expected to pursue their dreams/bliss until the age of 45 when they are given the option of retiring while keeping their full final salary for the rest of their days. Not bad for a people who were once nations of pearl divers and camel traders.
Mind you, it hasn't entirely worked out for the best because young Emratis - although remarkably charming and engaging - are a little spoilt with an undeniably over-developed sense of entitlement, and these days are given to collecting cars and motorbikes ...
Someone rather clever managed
to fit an engine into a Christmas tree bauble.
A different red car.
And here it isn't enough
to have a Lambroghini,
you have to have
the LATEST Lamborghini.
... participating in and following violent sport, and have invented a new game of Highway Surfing where gangs of teenagers travel at speed down the highway in their Hummers with one or more of their number trying to stand on the roof. And yes, a great number get killed. And yes, I know it's in nature of teenagers to indulge in risky behaviour, but most teenagers don't have access to so many expensive toys to be used in these stupid and dangerous games.
However, they're not all like that. I was pleased at the proficiency young Emratis showed in a whole range of activities, like this lot taking turns at ice-dancing at the skating rink:
I think Keith may have filmed them,
but I'm not looking for that.
And just for a laugh, let me show you a shot of how a lot of them dress to skate:
You don't expect Arabs in robes
to be on ice-skates,
but that's how a lot of them do it.
And also, in addition to having the most beautiful roads, they are into civic horticulture and until you reach the desert, all the highways are lined with ...
... MARIGOLDS! Yup, miles and miles of marigolds. I think they'd have to count as the ugliest of all flowers but it seems they need less water and they kill the nematodes. I don't actually know what nematodes are but they sound awful.
And water too isn't really a problem. Lindy asked how Emratis managed to live in such luxury while in the desert, so I looked it up for her and discovered there are vast underground reserves of artesian water they pump up in 56 wells (they've recently added in another 19) and they have recently started desalination at a building locals call The Submarine:
Dubai's new desalination plant.
Lindy, who is always eco-minded and planet-friendly, was a little outraged when I passed this information on and went on for a while about how artesian water is even rarer than oil and that they shouldn't be living this way because when it's gone there isn't any more, and since she's always so well-equipped with facts I couldn't find the energy to argue, mainly because I knew she was right.
So this is what I was arguing with Bernd; that Dubai is an amazing place where they're doing everything right and decent, and with honour and honesty, for the greatest benefit for all, but Bernd, who was there for a while several years ago, simply said "Crap!"
"How is it crap? Thanks to seven enlightened and visionary sheiks, UAE is getting it sooo right they are turning their world into a paradise, so you can't call it crap." I said.
"They import workers from Pakistan and the Philippines, house them like animals, pay them hardly anything at all, and treat them with the most enormous contempt and scorn."
I couldn't argue with that because I'd seen many examples for myself, examples so sad I'd asked those sorts of questions myself. However I could argue "But the Sheiks have no remit to serve other nations. They only have a remit to serve their own people."
"Muslims have a remit to charity so they shouldn't be treating foreign workers as badly as they do."
And since I couldn't argue with that one either, I had to turn mean. "When did you Germans become so passionate about social justice? Isn't it only a few decades since you were all Nazis?" (Sorry, Bernd! It was a joke!)
But that was my parting shot because, to be honest, I'd lost the energy and will to argue.
However with only a nod towards Bernd's argument, I have to say that we all have to praise those wonderful seven sheiks for all they've done for their people and for creating what indeed looks like Paradise on Earth ... and it's just a shame about that evil snake up there hiding in that tree.
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