When I came here three years ago, I had never lived outside of Australia. He had no real idea of Arab culture or Islam and had a naive expectation that a country with incomprehensible wealth would have “bought” all his problems. I now realize that, contrary to my expectations, money creates its own problems here as elsewhere.
I had already experienced the problems of indigenous welfare dependency among Australians who are literally given “sit-down money” so they can sit on their black bottoms and do nothing. Why should she have expected it to be any different here?
The truth is, since they discovered vast oil wealth a few decades ago, most of the 830,000 Emiratis have spoiled to the point where they are now largely moribund. With a surplus of money, they have been able to hire others to do not just their dirty work, but everything else. This has led to a largely young population unmotivated to work, uneducated, spoiled by access to vast amounts of food (mostly high in fat and sugar), high-powered motor vehicles, state-of-the-art electronics and , subsequently, high death rates due to lifestyle. diseases (diabetes has reached epidemic proportions) and traffic incidents.
The UAE government, to its credit, is trying to address many of these ills. For example, it has an Emiratization program that aims to give Emiratis jobs. This is accompanied by free education at all levels, but it is largely a failure here for the same reason that the Indigenous Recruitment and Development Programs are a failure in Australia: putting people in jobs because they are one race or nationality in particular, does not provide a pool of people who are capable, motivated and ready to work. While government and semi-government agencies hire a handful (9%), the private sector (with just 1%) avoid Emiratis like the plague because they are, quite simply, a very low return on investment. When you can hire an Indian worker who will work 12 hours a day, six days a week and put their heart and soul into the job, why would you want a timid Emirati to work?
Additionally, some of the Islamic religious and cultural practices affect everything from road safety to the number of women in the workforce. Some drivers here have told me that wearing a seatbelt is an affront to Allah because it’s like saying you don’t have faith that He will protect you. Given the evidence of a rate of road deaths that is among the highest, if not the highest, in the world, it’s hard to justify that kind of logic, especially when many of those killed are Muslims.
Although the lifestyle here is idyllic for well-educated Western expats, there are millions upon thousands of exploited Asian and Indian workers for whom life must be hell. They are domestic workers, drivers, construction workers, and laborers who work long hours for very little pay and who are often mistreated. With a handful of white Westerners, they make up the vast majority of the 90% expatriate population.
So we expats keep the schools, power plants, water supplies, communications, hospitals and everything else running. This has the potential to be a big problem, for example, if a militant Islamic group decides to bomb some places where expats gather. Many expats would flee the country and it would literally stop.
As is the case with most societies that have been superseded by other supposedly more advanced cultures, maintaining a balance between the worst of the West and the best of Arab/Islamic culture is increasingly difficult. The levels of prostitution, drug use, alcohol and crime in cities as “progressive” as Dubai are slowly eroding the values of Islam and changing the culture, perhaps for the worse.
Dubai’s construction frenzy has turned it into a hostile mass of ever-changing, twisting and traffic-choked roads winding through the desert dust towards this or that shopping mall. It may one day become the destination of choice for the wealthy, but today it is an overcrowded and polluted city where hundreds of thousands of overpriced residences are being built for who knows who.
I thoroughly enjoyed my stay here and welcome the opportunity to experience this interesting society of largely friendly and welcoming people. However, I have great concern that the country is heading in the wrong direction. And every once in a while I wonder how much better it would be for everyone if some of this vast wealth were redirected to the millions of hungry people nearby instead of being wasted in another shopping mall or high tower in the world.
Copyright 2008 Robin Henry