Dreamland Dubai

Something amazing has just happened in Dubai. For the first time in as long as any one can remember, the business section of the Gulf News printed a story about 20 percent decline in property values in Jumeirah beach area and in the Palms of Dubai. Translation – if the government is admitting to 20% decline, then it probably is a 40% decline.

Usually, the business magazines, newspapers and channels in Dubai are known for endlessly promoting the rosy picture. The headlines in the business section of newspaper look like a bouquet of flowers - new mergers, acquisitions, record investments, hyper growth, shopping festivals, not to mention the full page mouthwatering ads of the new luxury housing that is now completed and ready for proud buyers. It all feels like a giant 'Pleasantville' (from the movie 'Truman's Story') where the branding of Dubai as the glamour city is carefully protected and negative news is suppressed. Even the official weather reports are slightly fudged. By law, construction firms are not supposed to put their labor to work at temperatures above 45C, so the official temperature hovers around 44C during the peak of summer. And so this rare instance of a negative news regarding decrease in property values in Jumeirah was treated with relief – relief that the residents and investors in Dubai have finally been fed a bit of salt, after years of serving sweets.

Construction, the industry that initially put Dubai on the world map, hasn’t shown any signs of abating. Sure, the scale of future projects is being reconsidered in light of the current global financial crisis, but the existing projects are steaming ahead full speed. If you come to your balcony on a high rise and scan the skyline in front of you, you are bound to see dozens and dozens of cranes across the landscape of Dubai. And if you happen to be near the upscale marina area, where the brunt of the newest construction is going on, you will hear the clinking and hammering of construction all day and all night long. Little men, mostly from southern India and Bangladesh, wearing blue overalls, are seen working around the clock building these tallest of the buildings. The endless beeline of supply trucks making their way in and out of construction sites is a daily sight across much of Dubai. The two most prominent construction projects of Dubai today are Burj Dubai and the lifted sky train track. Burj Dubai is the tallest building in the world. The simplest way to describe it is that it is VERY tall. You look at the surrounding skyscrapers and then you look at Burj Dubai – and it appears to be jutting out like an 8 foot tall man in a room full of midgets. The sky train path twists and winds its way the length of Shaikh Zaid road, in parallel to skyscrapers.

Nevertheless, Dubai is a party town. Its a playground where the rich gulf arabs (and non arabs) come to take a break and unwind from their stifling societies. This is where watering holes like Buddha Bar in Grosvner House and Cigar Bar in Fairmont Hotel provide refuge to an elite clientele looking for the exotic mix of alcohol and blonde girls, without having to travel to Europe. This is where a man is not only known by the company he keeps (the blonder the better), but also by the car he drives. This is the place where Ukrainian girls give Chinese massage parlors cum brothels a run for their money.

The vast and elaborately decorated lobbies of upscale hotels bustle with men and women in their finest dress, awaiting their ride from one happy place to another happy place in the town. The hotel staff, mostly from Philippines but with a couple of Russian girls thrown in for aesthetic and marketing reasons, runs around catering to every move of the well off clientele. For those north Americans who view hotel lobbies in Boston or NYC as a necessary nuisance to walk through to get to their rooms, the experience of a lobby in Dubai is a bit dazzling. The hotel lobby in Dubai is a place where you relax, socialize, have tea, maybe some snacks, or if you wish, ask the guy in traditional arab garb to serve you dates and hot kahva. This is also a place where businessmen in their sharp suits sit around tables discussing what seems like very important matters. By night this lobby turn into a bustling place full of young men and women in club attire, awaiting to get in hotel’s signature bar and dance clubs.

One overwhelming sense that you get as you walk around the malls, restaurants and other public places is that Dubai is a place that is desperately trying to pass itself off as European. This is apparent in the number of Europeans you meet in the streets, on the sidewalks, in the restaurants and in the malls. There are European singles, couples, families – all here in Dubai claiming their little stake in its vast fortunes. They are seen around malls carrying huge glossy shopping bags. With December around the corner, malls are full of Christmas decorations, complete with stuffed Santa in heavy winter clothes standing on fake snow – which is a bit weird in this desert city that never sees even a minor cold spell. Nevertheless, the Europeans crowd the beaches. They fill the vacancies, from teaching to high end corporate jobs. You see newspaper articles by “Dubai based� writers of European descent. There are radio stations of western music with European DJs belting out one hit after another. The “readers opinion� section of Gulf News is filled with opinions from western expats. Exhibition halls are full of paintings and other European art works. On Friday you see white boats, mostly owned by the European expats, crisscrossing the sea. It’s a life of luxury that these Europeans perhaps could never imagine in their own countries. Here they get to work at a corporate level and earn the kind of money they could never imagine making in their own countries. The irony of the last two sentences is not lost on me – these sentences could very well have been written by a third world immigrant regarding the America of 90s. Yes, its interesting that Europeans and Americans would look towards Gulf, not just for financial rescue but also for jobs. Its not a flood gate yet, and it may never be, but just the fact that it is even being considered as an option is a testament to how far Dubai and large parts of Asia have come and how far the Europe and America’s fortunes have shrunk.

As you hop scotch from posh hotels to exclusive restaurants to luxury flats to the shinning new malls, you get this feeling that the entire city is being transformed into a five star city. The cost of living has risen astronomically, squeezing the middle class out to neighboring Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. However, Dubai has managed to create its 5-star aura on the cheap, and unfortunately it shows sometimes. While a 5-star hotel in the west provides 5-star salaries to attract and retain highly qualified staff, Dubai hotels have managed to do the same with cheap and unqualified labor pool from India and the Philippines. (Pakistanis, while having a near total monopoly on taxi business, are mostly absent from the hospitality business) It is not too difficult to see behind this thin veneer of 5-star façade. You see it in the sometimes inept handling of customers at the high end restaurants. One German friend expressed his shock at seeing white wine being served in a red wine glass by the restaurant staff. You also see it in the frustratingly incompetent maintenance workers in the luxury residential towers. Since the labor is cheap and abundant, a typical response to solving any problem is to throw a lot of unqualified people at it.

While the party may be over in Wall Street and the Canary Wharf for at least some time to come, the memo hasn’t yet reached the Sheikh Zaid Road yet. This despite the declining property values. And this despite the fact that the retailers of this shopping capital of middle east are speculating a sharp reduction in tourism in 2009. 70% of luxury shopping in Dubai is done by tourists and many of these tourists are from UK - including that couple who were caught having sex on the beach the other day. Its anyone’s guess how long it took for the guy’s erection to die once the cops showed up. Regardless, there is a sense of optimism, perhaps government propagated, that Dubai will weather this storm better than any other part of the world. They have the cash cushion. And more importantly, they have the oil cushion that can be borrowed from its sleepy but rich brother Abu Dhabi.

One of my last acts in Dubai before departing for Boston was to visit Sitwah, a sort of Little Pakistan (but with a good number of Indian businesses as well) in the shadows of skyscrapers. There you find Pakistani watch repairmen and cobblers and tailors and traders. There, at Ravi Restaurant, frequented by everyone from cab drivers to Pakistani and other expats, I pulled up a chair and ordered a plate of haleem. As I awaited my dinner, I looked around at the very simple and austere ambiance of the place. In the middle of the gleaming Dubai, where very few structures are older than 10 years, it seemed like a place from another era, complete with a faded black and white picture of President Ayub Khan taped to a wall. In this city obsessed with futuristic aspirations, it was somewhat of comfort to be in this old dwelling. This older part of Sitwah, like many older dwellings in Dubai, would no doubt be demolished one day in the interest of high rises and high-end commercial property. And with that, yet another part of Dubai’s history will be wiped out. Yes, Dubai has fast developed into a shining city of material wealth, but it has done so without the slow nurturing care of a binding culture. And it is to experience this culture and history that the travelers from this region, and from the world, will continue to flock to Beirut, Damascus and Cairo.

The plate of haleem arrived. But for the life of me I could not find any reason for why Pakistani restaurants ruin a perfectly delicious plate of haleem by garnishing it with ginger.