Dubai: Export oil, import exploitation

Dubai is a city of the future and although taxis are cheap the best way to get around is by metro. An all-day ticket is about $5 and allows you to get on and off wherever you want. Stations are clean, easy to negotiate, there is only one line and trains are going in one direction or the other with a separate platform for each and its all blissfully air conditioned. Driverless trains run every 10 minutes.

There are clear announcements in English, of the approaching train, electronic signs that tell you how long until the next one and, once on board, announcements and signage regarding the next station. the trains are spotlessly clean and run on overhead light rail parallel to freeway. You get wonderful views. Air-conditioned walkways lead to malls or street exits. If I went again, I’d choose a hotel that had air-conditioned access to the metro.

Customer service in our hotel is astonishingly good. We were offered coffee from a golden pot and dates from a platter as we checked-in and absorbed the foyer with its glass lifts, plush chairs, low glass tables topped with bowls of fresh flowers.

Every worker we talked to (Leon befriends them all, gotta love him) is from a poor country, on low pay, away from family and living with colleagues. Our taxi driver shares a 1 bedroom apartment with 5 others where they sleep in shifts. He goes home for a month every six months and married in January but stayed with his new wife only briefly before returning here to work. The workers are young, mostly speak good English an sometimes one or two other languages, they are friendly and polite. So far we’ve met people from, Burma, Nepal, Kazakistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan. One we chat to says that no locals work because the government looks after them. I’m not sure about that but it’s true that the only locals we saw working were in customs and security at the airport.

The imported workers contribute to the economy but its hard not to have mixed feelings, is it an opportunity or exploitation?

We are told that the men we see in traditional Arab thawbs, crisp, white ankle-length tunics and women, clad in black burkas that allow only their eyes to be seen, are probably visitors from Kuwait or Saudis because local women are allowed to show their face. In the shopping malls there is a huge  variety in the clothes worn by people, from skimpy singlet tops and shorts  – which surprised me because I had read that modest dress covering shoulders and legs was required – to the full burka, and everything in between.

In the mall there are many family groups and the men seem as attentive to the children as the women but at the hotel, women and children gather together and the men are in separate groups.

The rooftop pool area also has food and non-alcoholic drinks service. We had contemplated eating there but apart from the heat, I was very uncomfortable being the only woman and though modestly dressed, felt disapproving looks from the men in bathers playing with their children in the water.

Ann’s blog #12