High:
Low:
Low:
34°C
27°C
27°C
Friday, 03 Sep 2010
Alerts
At least we are not Dubai
George Fulton is a freelance broadcast and print journalist.
We haven’t got a lot to be thankful for these days in Pakistan.
But at least we are not Dubai.
Fed up with loadshedding, bombs, and TV cynicism pervading Pakistan, I recently escaped to Dubai for a holiday. Big mistake. Huge. Ten days later I returned, gasping for Karachi’s polluted, but far sweeter, air. Dubai may have the world’s tallest building and the world’s largest shopping mall, but it also has the world’s tiniest soul. It’s a plastic city built in steel and glass.
It has imported all the worst aspects of western culture (excessive consumption, environmental defilement) without importing any of its benefits (democracy, art). This is a city designed for instant gratification a hedonistic paradise for gluttons to indulge in fast food, fast living and fast women. It’s Las Vegas in a dish dash. You want to eat a gold leaf date? Munch away.
You want to drink a Dhs 3,000 bottle of champagne? Bottoms up. You want a UN selection of hookers at your fingertips? Tres bien. Let’s start with the malls. These cathedrals of capitalism, these mosques of materialism are mausoleums of the living dead. Slack jawed zombies roam around consuming food, clothes and electronics in a desperate attempt to fill the emptiness of their existence.
Whilst at the Mall of the Emirates the azan goes off. Nobody appears to move to the prayer room; everyone’s too busy performing sajda before Stella McCartney, genuflecting before Gucci, and prostrating themselves at Prada. With Dubai, one recalls F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
The people are modern day Gatsbys, buying shirts that they will never wear and books they will never read. Like Fitzgerald’s roaring 20s America, Dubai is a moral failure a society obsessed with wealth and status. Everyone is trying to keep up with the Jones’ or the Javaids. You see the goras with their perma-tans, streaked highlights and their flabby cleavages.
The upwardly mobile South Asian man prances around wearing a silly shirt with a large picture of a polo player on a horse, whilst their women wear oversized sunglasses and carry oversized handbags. And the Arabs walk about with enough gold bling to blind you at ten paces. But not everything that glitters is gold. And Dubai is not only morally bankrupt it is also financially bankrupt.
Lately, Dubai, and its ruler, Sheikh Mohammed Al-Maktoum have been compared to another piece of literature — Percy Shelley’s famous poem Ozymandias, which illustrates the inevitable decline of all leaders and the empires they build. Shelley finishes it thus: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains.
Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away With $80b of debt and a stock and property market that has tanked, the comparisons with Ozymandias are apt. Abu Dhabi may have bailed them out but can Dubai survive as a regional hub in the long-term? Or will this city of hubris built on sand and folly sink back into the dunes a desert mirage that evaporates once the public relations people, the speculators and the tourists disappear?
So for all you naysayers that bemoan Pakistan and its numerous problems please temper your pessimism. Take time to celebrate our cultural, religious, linguistic plurality and richness. Stop the cynicism coursing through your corroded veins. For all its inadequacies, at least we have a democracy.
For all its irresponsibility, at least we have a robust media. For all the police corruption, at least we are not a police state. For all our littering, at least we have paper wallahs. Remind yourself that at least we have a heart. At least we have a soul. At least we are not Dubai.
Read Conor Purcel’s rebuttal, “At least we are Dubai”.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, redistributed or derived from.
Unless otherwise stated, all content is copyrighted © 2010 The Express Tribune News Network.
Technical feedback? webmaster@tribune.com.pk
Thumbs up! Our love affair with Dubai and the wider middle east is based on a mirage. The Middle East is where the glaring inequalities of South Asian societies is magnified and intensified. Its ironic that Dubai is second home to most of our political rulers who have no qualms encouraging migrant workers to set off to the “greener pastures” of construction sites and menial jobs across the region. The abhorred conditions that these people, our fellow citizens have to face is shameful. Instead, we idolize Dubai as an ideal state, pre-wedding shopping or post exam holiday making its where our mobile elites play petty fashionistas. The sorry state of migrant workers is well documented. The Dubai authorities do not allow journalists unfettered access to the labour camps. Their passports are seized, 400 workers share one toilet, over 15 human beings live in one room. Many are today stranded as the companies they worked for folded, there legal documents gone with them.
Rightly, Dubai has imported the worst of Western society and built it with the hands of exploited migrant workers.
haha nicely put, Mr Fulton, particularly good spot of the recent desi obsession with the ‘barra ghora’ polo-shirt (not to be confused with the chotay ghorri wali polo shirt). though i have to say, dubai reminds one most of grass’ tin drum :)
george:
generally well said but here i will take a minor exception:
> For all its irresponsibility, at least
> we have a robust media. **For all the
> police corruption, at least we are not
> a police state.** For all our littering,
> at least we have paper wallahs. Remind
> yourself that at least we have a
> heart. At least we have a soul. At
> least we are not Dubai.
in some instances we are worse…
Fantastic!
George, thanks for the uplift, but the lack of response indicates the level of corrosive cynicism blocking our arteries. We want money here. We want stuff now. And Dubai promises that in an instant gulp.
And the capitalist indoctrination one and a half generations have gone through for the last thirty years, spew the minimalist interest in democracy of our English speaking class in updated neo-conservatives like Imran Khan, Zaid Hamid and the entire Nation editorial line up.
You described Dubai very well. It’s very good article. However, I strongly believe that Dubai will recover from its financial crisis but it will take at least another 10 years.
I would suggest to write on current Pakistani Legal and Criminal justice systems.
Keep up with your good work
George, very well written analyses of Du-bai. I visited it the first time recently and felt that it was a soulless city. My favorite part of the piece was “South Asian man prances around wearing a silly shirt with a large picture of a polo player on a horse, whilst their women wear oversized sunglasses and carry oversized handbags”. Well said haha. .
Fantastic article I must say Mr. Fulton, though we have a security issues in Pakistan but still it is much much better than Dubai, where we are living a fast life. Its a Muslim city where all non muslim things / food are allowed. People do not have the respect of their cultural and moral responsibilities everyone is busy in their own lives.
Boohoo! Dubai celebrates capitalism/consumerism? What’s so wrong with that? Are you saying that you prefer Zainab Market tees over the ones available at some of the more upscale places in Karachi (or even abroad for that matter)? Please don’t be such a hypocrite. We need to get off our high horses and admit that we love money. And things. And other such things. Really, we’re not any better.
A Terrible reality which we have to accept
George,
As a journalist your job is to provide unbiased information, yet you provide your readers of a cheap view to satisfy your own short comings.
Anyway, i have lived here for 28 years and i can tell you that Dubai is a very new, trendy and vibrant city where one can explore life and concentrate on really becoming a good person, simply because his odds of seeing a new day are much higher than in karachi, where the odds of coming home in a body bag are far higher!
You talk about us being a police state. Well in our police state, when we lodge a complain, we get justice. THe very people who are supposed to protect us are not harassing us. We are safer, more secure because of this police state. Women are able to go out at any time of day alone without being harassed. There is law and order and a general sense of a safe environment. Our kids are not being kidnapped and our houses not looted in broad daylight!! You talk about police corruption being somehow better than a police state, boy you probably never got your ass whipped by the pakistan police for no reason yet!
You talk about Dubai lacking a soul. What does that even mean when you compare it to the people in pakistan. We do not have a soul you say, well people in your city dont have a conscience! People move around in your town like zombies each one trying to out to the other by means legal or illegal. It is a no holds barred environment where only the strong survive on the carcasses of the poor. Child labor, prostitution, drugs is everywhere! I do not know where to start my speech on how people in your town are machines set to engage and destroy, rather than share and compromise!
You talk about Dubai’s love for money and spending habits of its people. Bro, they earn it, its theirs to decide what to do with it! FYI, Dubai has both the worlds in one city. You wanna live like a rockstar, go ahead. You wanna live humbly, that too is available. I think you should have walked out of your prepaid five star hotel in Dubai Marina and taken a ride down to Deira, Hor al anz, Hamriya, , Qusais, etc, etc, and seen for yourself that is possible to live a modest and humble life in Dubai too! But you were probably too busy checking out “flabby cleavages” in the comfort of an air conditioned mall sipping your american coffee to be bothered to take a taxi and walk around those neighborhoods!
FYI, i am a pakistani too! Before you go about blasting my city that has given me and a million more everything that we have today, take a deep look at what you are comparing us tol! We do not write articles about your town so you back off our turf! Dubai does not need you or your money. Do us a favor and dont come here again, dont use our airlines, and please keep your articles to yourself!
Maryam, errr actually i do prefer Zainab Market T shirts when I can find some that fit!.
Please also understand that i am not dissing money or people making money. We all have to make a living. But as society that only worships status and money is not a healthy or truly rich society in my opinion. In this respect, I think Dubai is unhealthy compared with Pakistan.
Well written, but the brief comparative analysis falls somewhat flat when it comes to security related issues. Would i rather live in a city where the chances of me being robbed or killed are much higher compared to one that doesn’t appeal to my preference in aesthetics or intellect?
And another thing, we are all hedonists one way or the other. The medium of pleasure changes from person to person, some might get off on a great conversation while someone else would feed their narcissism by collecting all sorts of lipsticks… finger pointing works from every angle but looks the same throughout.
btw, i despise dxb :)
Excellent insight for those who escape to Dubai as a fad nowadays!
I thought its just me who felt dis abt da over hyped city!
Hats off George! but probably few would really care to know abt dis disney land..theyre too busy oogling at designer shops there!
Brilliant. Thank you for saying which some of us feel so strongly!
You makes some valid points – yes we are a consumer driven society, there is racism and everything looks OTT & audacious. But you’ve focused so much on the peripheral, and made SO many SWEEPING judgements, it’s hard to take your analysis of the city seriously. In particular, I was surprised by the following statements:
”Slack jawed zombies roam around consuming food, clothes and electronics in a desperate attempt to fill the emptiness of their existence.” – so people who are there to shop & eat & hang out with family are trying to fill their empty existence? Very easy to paint us all with one brush.
”Whilst at the Mall of the Emirates the azan goes off. Nobody appears to move to the prayer room” – judgemental much Mr Fulton?? Or does this sentence just tie in well with your idea that we lead an empty existence?
“The people are modern day Gatsbys, buying shirts & books they will never read” – And you know this how???
I’m sorry but your analysis of the city is as shallow as you claim Dubai to be. You may diss the city, the lack of culture, the hedonism but you must realise that the people of any city are not all the same. Now excuse me, while I get back to working hard so I can shop at mall of the emirates and buy clothes I will wear & books I will read.
Good piece Dear George Fulton.
Karachi too have such oasis for upper class .
The people from Bhains colony,machar colony or fakeer colony when visit other side of Clifton bridge feel same as you felt in Dubai .
@Zeeshan – is that a chip on your shoulder there? perhaps if years of dubai toil hadn’t drilled an fidgety inferiority complex into you, you’d see what the author was trying to say, rather that treating us to a tangential polemic..
I have a big smile on my face as I finish reading your article! I have read several pieces bemoaning Dubai’s artificial composition, but never quite one like your’s. I can completely relate to what you felt when you were here. Yes, this place is completely soul-less…and also completely detached from reality. One only hears of people winning lotteries and buying expensive cars. Human suffering is meticulously covered up under the seamless wraps of a tightly controlled media.
The other day I asked a friend here: Do you think there will come a time when they will grow out of the ‘bling’? Flashy cars and gold everything will be looked down upon as nouveu riche- and modest and minimilistic will be classy?. She gave it a moments thought and replied very correctly “No. This is all that they have”.
Well done on your piece! Keep writing!
True. I never like Dubai for its superficial progress. I always knew that it would collapse one day. A tent cannot stand without pillars and Dubai never had any.
Thank you George for opening our eyes which are always following gold. Money is a big reality but then Dubai is not doing well even in that. So why follow Dubai – a failed model – and why not devise our own model for success!
Dear George,
With all due respect, you just pointed out all the bad qualities about Dubai as a city, without mentioning the good parts. I think it is concensus that the city was and is a phenonomenon for right and the wrong reasons respectively. However, I feel Dubai only lacks regulations/ laws to safe guard its population, and law making I is believe evitable as the years pass by. This will surely result in a stable, Dubai/ UAE, and many more people from the South-East Asia region will flock into the city. You talk about prostitution ! In my view, it all depends on the individual himself/ herself to act in the manner they want to. Please, correct me if i am wrong but Prostitution is common in Pakistan as well. Les Vegas ? not really !
In my view this article is unhealthy for Pakistanis, as it is doing what we always do, we have always people down to our level and laughed at their misery. In short, we are not better then Dubai/ UAE. if we were it would be much obvious, that doesnt mean that I do not love Pakistan. I probe and critise because I care about my country.
Regards
Murtaza Mehboob
Nice One!! totally agree with the writer..
Love the line!:
“The upwardly mobile South Asian man prances around wearing a silly shirt with a large picture of a polo player on a horse, whilst their women wear oversized sunglasses and carry oversized handbags”.
So true!
Unfortunately, also we find them all over Pakistan too!
Hi Readers
I escaped to Dubai for a long time to get away from soul less Pakistan. Agreed with the reality of it being plastic and over pumped. But I came back after the bust to be greeted by heavy Paki cleavages who are just killing for the latest lawn…are we any different? It’s just that in Dubai even a laborer can buy a Loius Vuitton cause he save AED 500 to send home. Easy to get sucked into opulence. Few can afford it in Paki. And we have too much cocaine, vodka and Russian men and women around Khi too! It’s a beautifully written piece minus the comparison to an underdeveloped metropolis.
Dear George
Thanks for shedding light on High Dubai Life. Recently, I visited Dubai and I stayed in Rimal Rotana. After putting up in a room, I decided to take city tour. To my surprise, I found myself in a middle of valueless, clueless and artificial people around me. I literally pinched myself, when I saw couple of Pakistani girls speaking in urdu but wearing a dress (Which I am sure western gril would not like to wear). In my last 17 years, I have been living most of western parts of the world such as Australia, UK and Thailand but it was a reverse cultural shock to me. If we dont have electricity, financial crisis and political instability but I am happy we still have some moral values.
Regards
George thats unfair! Dubai has the best of both worlds and I love living here. Its child friendly, its safe, its got great beaches, parks, and yes malls too but best of all its less than 2 hours away from Pakistan!!!10 days is not enough to search for a soul in a city…you were obviously hanging out with the wrong crowd….come around next time you visit and I bet I can change your views! ;)
@George! You are absolutely right! “Society that only worships status and money is not a healthy or truly rich society” very well said.
George! Whatever you have written is very realistic. Dubai has imported a western culture. Their consumption is high, per capita GDP is high but it still cant be considered a rich society. They have money they can buy everything but not the education. What are they producing is all that attract people but the very basic necessity, education isn’t there. Some foreign chartered universities can’t set the pillars of a society.
Very well written and I completely agree with the “outside looking in” perspective. Interesting how such a perspective probably has existed for a long time and has been overshadowed by the stereotyped media informants that are shared more effortlessly.
Mate….just brilliant!! i spent 5soul sucking days in dubai, tis the worst place for a vacation, nauseating materialism and empty people doing empty things tryin to find meaning in gucci bags, bravo!!
And the ppl askin for nonbiased journalism-get a life! this is n opinion post, it serves georges urge to write as he pleases and gives us the chance of readin a heartfelt piece of awesomeness….we need more articles like these!
C’mon Zeeshan Arshad, you know everything George said is truth, although I will agree George’s tone was a little bit unkind and harsh.
Dear George,
Add me to your fan list!
You write like most Pakistanis should, and you are a gorra! Your analogies are spot on and the longer we debate on this the better it feels to be living here in Karachi, Pakistan!
Having been to Dubai several times in my life, I cannot imagine how life would be spent racing up and down Sh. Zayed Rd. everyday for work and party both!
I try not to argue on this topic much-
Next, compare Karachi to London! I was pleasantly surprised on a recent trip to see a muslim man praying on a pavement on a high street without any care in the world! It brought a smile to my face as the world passed him by without flinching.
Keep up the good work!
Mo
Dubai was a mirage and a bubble that was bound to burst. And she did. Please don’t tell me about their high credit rating. It was given by the same rating agencies (those hotbeds of conflict of interest) that rated the sub-prime mortgages that felled the global economy AAA+.
I fully agree George.
HELLO GEORGE,
YOU HAVE THOUGHT ME A ONE THING THAT ONLY MONEY NEVER MAKES A COUNTRY & CIVILIZATION RICH. BUT IF WE WANT TO BECOME RICH WE HAVE TO UNDERSTAND AND VALUE OUR TRADITION AND CULTURE. BY PRESERVING OUR CULTURE FOR FUTURE WILL MAKE OUR FUTURE GENERATION RICH .
Absolutely brilliant! Also, I love the way you use ‘we, us and our’ whilst referring to Pakistan and Pakistanis :-)
Pakistan ZINDABAD,George Fulton also ZINDABAD.
Hey George brilliant article. Quite a pleasure to read. I agree with you wholeheartedly. I have only been to Dubai a few times and that too briefly but I got the same feeling as you got. There is something really artificial and fake about it. Cant put my finger on what it was exactly but I was happy to get out of there as soon as I could.
I find some of the comments by our fellow Pakistanis hilarious. They are really defending Dubai with a lot of gusto. I agree Pakistan has a number of flaws but at least there is no official discrimination. A native of Dubai has far more rights than any other citizen. Then come the Goras. Pakistanis are wayyyyy down the pecking order there. They are treated like crap by the locals. I would like to hear their comments regarding the discrimination that they face.
Anyways keep up the good work
All the best!
cheers
lol i like zeeshan’s reply more !!!! both are TRUE tho !!!
I love you Jeorge…I want to see you again on AAJ tv or some other tv channels as host…
I completely and utterly agree with Mr. Zeeshan. Please who don’t have the luxury to spend money when they want to and live a comfortable life always bitch about people who can. Everything about pakistan is terrible right now so for you to even right this article is a big slap in your face.
Wow, you seem to have elicited some strong reactions..though to be fair i ve lived in both Dubai and Pakistan, & i agree with you, Pakistan in its package – the good, bad, and the ugly, is home and thats really where the heart is …
Frankly we have enough reasons to feel good about ourselves, if nothing else than for the sheer resilience of our spirit that drives us to work and prosper despite the toughest of conditions.. so i guess we really dont need to draw any comparisons.. to each their own .. and to us our load sheddings .. at least we get to see the clear night sky above , away from the glitz and dazzle that at times may blind the sight..
i agree partially.of course dubai is built upon consumerism.
but there’s a herd mentality in effect here. all of these people blasting dubai wouldn’t have hesitated before taking off for the city and showing it off back in pakistan. it’s not as bad as fulton puts it. it’s bad, but it does have a soul and spirit of its own.
you can only understand that when you live there. as pakistanis seeing pakistan getting blasted in the international media, haven’t you people realized that reports like this CAN’T be taken too seriously? this is exactly the kind of article that, say, the washington post might have published in 2004 in regards to karachi and its madrassas. both misrepresent the subject and both give people a convenient target.
only those people who have lived in a place are justified to make judgements about it. period.
Nicely said George!
Nicely put… This exactly is the case but i had never thought about it that way… Thank you.
Mr.Fulton, indeed you chose to see that view of Dubai which could help you write a nice, sensational article.
Perhaps, people like yourself who can afford to get away from the difficulties of life in Pakistan today, can afford to make such callous remarks. The average Pakistani i know, will give anything to have not just the bare essentials of “roti, kapra aur makaan” but also a sense of security and a future for their children. And that is what Dubai has been able to give people like me.
I am obviously not going to get into a city bashing tirade here, for Karachi is as much my city as is Dubai. But for the negativities you pointed out about Dubai, perhaps you should have walked further into the city and seen men from Karachi, and all over Pakistan toil under the harsh sun & work crazy number of hours just so their families are able to survive in & breathe the polluted Karachi air. Ask them how many times they’ve been to Mall of the Emirates or eaten at the fancy food joints. Ask them if they were able to provide for their families in their homeland. Ask them how difficult & lonely life can be for them here and yet they wake up every morning grateful that the old parents, the wife & children are able to get 3 square meals – and for that they are grateful to be here in Dubai. This is also a reality of life – in Dubai.
Our robust media, police corruption & littering are hardly matters to be proud of, let alone a guarantee of a life worth living. Food for thought!
Agree with george
Good Job George, Kudos to your article. Atleast we have passion for our country if not the money. Atleast we have each other if not others. Atleast we know that our affairs are wrong, and not deny living in a life of bliss. You rock!
I absolutely and totally agree with everything you have said My.Fullton. It is hard for anyone with a sane mind and an alive soul to stay in dubai for more than a couple of days at a stretch..and even those two days are enough to give one a psychological nausea over the positively vulgur display of wealth dripping from everyTHING and everyONE in that city.Its is nothing but a dwelling of illiterate, boorish,illmannerd,and uncouth nauvue riche nobodies,who have gone from donkey to Dodge and Camel to Cadillac in so little time that they failed to pick up civilisation inbetween!