Dubai Trip Day #4 03Nov08

The clean & impeccable city life hides a reality behind its polished facades: a reality that reeks of exploitation! i would any day like India's unkempt streets with open hearts!

An interesting fact regarding the city is the sheer multiplicity of its nationalities! I personally found that sitting 2 hours in Mall of the Emirates, I could come across citizens of all the major countries. Although south Indians & Fillipinos rule the demographics, there is quite a varied mix.

Unfortunately, with this also comes the heirarchy of life. Indians & Fillipinos are treated like 2nd class citizens while others are shown the red carpet. This may be due to high percentage of labour class being from India & the Phillipines. But I don't understand why should a generalization happen!

While all westerners live in harmony, the culture is strictly Dubai isstyle. Arabs are treated like kings, westerners are the elites, and South Asians are the peasantry! This country is definitely still feudal!!!

While discrimination is not an official policy, a smirk on the face is sufficient to show the culture! maybe Raj Thackerey should visit here, to see what his policies may lead to! If a mixed pot like Dubai can be so racial, Muumbai will definitely be no better!

Here, economical disparity is artificially created by paying South Asians less than others. Raising the cost of living keeps the labour class on its hells, giving them no time to think or comprehend the situation. The first day i landed, i was awed by young people buying / flaunting cars, which are quite non-ordinary in India. But, after further discussion, I found that all of them will willingly forgo this lifestyle & return home if situation permits! All material benefits of the world are not enough to satisfy them, since daily struggle denies them any happiness!

Another way of shackling the middle class is via cheap loans. The expensive cars & homes are offered at 0% loans for upto 25 years & 90-100% of total amount! This means that the person is stuck in the country, paying it back (from his or her salary) for an entire lifetime! Money does not leave the country!!

Dubai Trip Day #4

I have finally got the time to type my diary from Dubai...here goes...

I feel completely in disarray. I had visited Emirates Hills, Jungly's construction site yesterday. The immense size of houses & accompanying wealth, with people playing golf at mid-day in the hot Dubai sun shocked me. After that, I went to the Mall of the Emirates. As at other malls, the place was over-flowing with high-fashion brands. 

Jungly heard some lady say:" I can't shop anymore!" in the sense that she was tired. People buying for the sake of it!!!

Dubai Marina nearby is home to hundreds of highrises where people pay unbelievable rents. What struck me was the complete absence of the middle class. There is either a labour class or the uber-rich class. It is not because the middle class doesn't exist, but their lifestyle does not permit them to be seen, literally so! They just keep running around! The poor are seen on the millions of construction sites, and the rich in recreation spaces. The middle class is stuck in the glass walled offices, slogging day & night. They hardly have time to make merry!

The labour class, whose life is pure toil, watches the uber-rich at play daily. This pushes many a labourers into perennial depression. 

The middle class can afford some luxuries, but doesn't have the time to indulge. Morover, unnessesary items build costs: travel time and distance, basic amenity costs, accomodation, etc.

Income tax is nil, but other costs like toll-ways add up to a substantial sum.

Distances are so large, that if one doesn't own a car, he / she has to use a taxi and end up emptying pockets at 1.5 AED / km (about Rs. 20 /km). The buses are good, but the service is largely disorganized and its coverage is highly restricted. There are hardly any tourist friendly buses in this tourist haven! Just because petrol is cheap, flyovers and longer-faster routes are preferred and encouraged!

The crucial difference lies in cost of human labour. It is not possible to employ housemaids for the middle class. While the affluent flaunt nannies & maids scurrying behind them in shopping malls, the middle class cannot afford the same. India, in contrast, provides such opportunities to even the lower middle class, since cost of human labour is low.

When one combines the above problem with a hectic lifestyle, wherein daily life is reduced to commute & office, one is bound to see unclean houses, messy kitchens, and packed food for dinners and breakfast. This, inspite of not having any time to sit down & relax! Over weekends, most time is spent on household chores, leaving precious little for anything else.

To conclude, the clean & impeccable high-lifestyle city hides a reality behind its polished facades: a reality that reeks of exploitation. I must mention that the crime rate is ZERO (almost). But I would credit it more to the strict laws and administration. However, corruption is quite rampant!

One very disgusting attitude is seen due to the exploitation of labour class. The labourers, mostly foreign citizens, have been living here for decades, without meeting their families. They are shuttled daily from construction sites to their CAMPS. On the way, they dont miss any opportunity to leer at even half-decent looking girls. The ladies are overwhelmed at first, and gradually learn to ignore them. But, I find this attitude highly offensive. How would you like to stand at a traffic signal & be visually stripped every single day, twice atleast! Even the strict administration cannot stop that! Its a social problem, showing the existance of multiple socities in the same location. I was disgusted when i saw it, but i could not come to conclude whose fault this was..

Dubai trip day #2 1 Nov 08

So many things happened so fast after landing here, that I have not yet found the time to jot those down. So, that i will add later.

Today, I came to the old city around 8 am, and wandered through its streets. I am dead tired of all the walking on day #2 itself! Its not that the lace is huge or distances large. On the contracry, the scale of the city is quite average.

But the heat, combined with the lack of seating and resting places, takes its toll. So that, by 11.30 I was hardly able to walk anymore! And I rather not walk in the afternoon. So i guess ill have to find a way to either go back to rest or find a place to do so in the afternoons.

The city is raveaged by roads, cars and endless construction. Even the heritages areas are awash with modern amenities and installations. The feeling of a heritage area is completely lost!

Every small detail is standardized in this city, and here i find the lack of humane touch defeating in purpose. Although every proportion is anthropometrially corrent in constrcution, the very appeal or quality of the end result is lost!

I found the people and tourists alike, going about their work and sightseeing mechanically. The zest for life is completely absent! Even the previldeged ones, who run amock over the sand dunes on their quad-bikes on weekends, are mechanical in their ramblings.

The enjoyment seems superficial only. Every person is lost in his or her world of problems, and the problems are visible on everyones faces.

The scales in this city are gigantic: from housing to roads and flyovers to electricity and infrastructure. But it seems that there is hardly any satisfacton for all the facilities available.

Also, this is a highly wasteful culture. Just because petrol is cheap, cars are left with their engines running for hours together. Air condition is everywhere, and water, which is so precious here, is used wastefully!

dubai trip day #1 31 oct 08

Nostalgic I am, as i remember what I had promised myself a year and a half ago: " I will go touring the world - backpacking or otherwise, after my landscape course."

And here i am today, leaving for my first destination: Dubai- a radical mix of western lifestyle and middle eastern culture, populated by south-asians & Philipinos.
Travelling is more than a hobby to me. I stive to be touched by various cultures and understand the world by myself. Mufaazaa gifted me PRIZE, a book about the oil economy. It couldn't have come bat a better time.

I have planned my tour so as not to be carried away by the usual sights and sounds, but to be able to go places which tourists are generally not interested in. So I will try to wander in the old city, traditional quarters, etc. and also to see / observe the mall culture and happenings there. I am not there to shop, but to observe, wander and gain knowlege.

Wishing for the best.