Fear And Money In Dubai

Fear and Money in Dubai – Mike Davis

How very fascinating! My reaction to this article will come directly from the heart as a citizen of an oil producing third world African country whose 70% of population live in abject poverty - Nigeria. I just cannot help the way I feel and maybe that will explain much of my sympathetic or sentimental view of Dubai’s seemingly dodgy ways.

From the outset, the author confronts us with Dubai’s appetite for pretty much anything and everything extraordinary and gigantic under his docentship; man-made islands of the world, the pyramids sunken in the shallow waters, mega hotels, chrome forests of skyscrapers, seductive goods; Gucci, Cartier, gold etc. They are all there in quotidian abundance. One cannot help but notice though that within the second paragraph alone, Davis makes two comparisons with America provoking a thought that America is a yardstick by which Dubai should be measured or perhaps there is some sort of competition between those two countries. And this carries on throughout the literature.

I am not entirely sure if Davis’s intension is to make us astounded by Dubai’s spending, affluent ways and therefore convert us to frowning at them or he is genuinely concerned about; the planet and its waning resources, increasing global consumerism, capitalism etc. Much of his tone even in the early stages of the article carries a significant amount of bias; as if Dubai is committing some sort of crime exclusive to the place alone. For example he talks about; ‘Despite its blast furnace climate (on typical 120 ⁰ summer days, the swankier hotels refrigerate their swimming pools)...’ I find this an unfair remark to make given that the most accessible leisure centres here in the UK heat their pools in the winter.

He talks about conspicuous consumption? But is it not surprising that most of the products Dubai displays in dazzling fashion; island world, Burj Dubai, exclusive beaches, carnivorous dinosaurs etc are one way or the other connected to or patronised by people from the West and Europe? In my opinion, it takes two to tango and the laws of demand and supply will always be at work here. For as long as we want the comforts we have grown so used to and find difficult to let go of, Dubai, China or any other country of similar industrious ability or foresight can ask whatever price they deem fit. What I am trying to say is that we are just as guilty of the crimes Davis is parading as being committed by Dubai maybe just not at the same scale.

One might perceive something rather like what Dave Hickey describes in his A Home in the Neon chapter of Air Guitar. The world is a poor lens through which to view Dubai, while Dubai is an excellent lens through which to view the world.

Another issue I find particularly interesting and pertinent to my country is that of the “dialectic of uneven and combined development” that Davis touched on. It is true that if you went to Nigeria today, nearly everyone has an expensive mobile phone or two (and expensive cars!), even people from the remotest villages such as where my retired father now lives. But the country still does not have stable electricity and pipe borne water - I think those are the two most rudimentary of infrastructure. Then we may extrapolate to education, public transport; good roads, telecommunication, healthcare, security ad infinitum! What this creates then is a scenario where people have the near perfect finished products but no clue as to how they got there and ‘no framework of historical possibilities’. Huge chasms of unharnessed potential are glaringly obvious; when people have the latest apple iphone/ ipad but no wireless networks to use the internet and all the applications that rely on the internet to function. When people buy really expensive imported cars with no good roads to drive them on and so within 24 months the cars have to be replaced.

I am in concordance with Davis that fast-tracking is not an appropriate approach to development. In order to fester real development with desirable outcomes, one has to go through the arduous intermediate stages or at least try to understand them and provide a sustainable framework of developing on these. 

Nonetheless, I am sceptical about Davis’s position on Dubai. I have never been to the place myself and much of what I now know about it I have read from this article but there is a side to Dubai he wants us to see and react to it in a particular way too. One has to wonder if Davis has an agenda; if all of these things levelled against Dubai are just some of those, as Hickey puts it, unmarked doors through which the cognoscenti pass and outsiders are so attentive to? I do not think that ideas such as free-trade zones or other incentives are bad ideas if your intension is to encourage investors.

As far as working in Dubai goes, and all the exaggerated claims of diminutive or non-existent rights, I think there is something honourable in exercising ones’ free-will and dealing with the consequences of one’s’ actions. If the place is not favourable for work, I ask; why leave the comforts of your homeland hundreds of thousands of miles behind to work there? And Davis is so funny insinuating unfavourable working conditions saying; ‘...an army of poorly paid Pakistanis and Indians, the largest contingent form Kerala, working twelve-hour shifts, six and half days a week, in the asphalt melting desert heat’. Desert heat? Is it that much different to heat in Pakistan or India?

Maybe some deplorable conditions really do exist or maybe Davis just wants us to see what he wants us to see but I think the onus is on the people who subject themselves to these conditions. If there is nothing in it at all for them, why do it? If one is really not happy with how Dubai does business why aid and abet them? I doubt that these conditions are closely guarded secrets and if people are in the know, why sign up to go there?

Again, it might be a cultural thing innate in me but if one decides to go and work there, one should be prepared to swallow whatever bitter drink comes with that decision without moaning. Except the terms and conditions of the agreement between the two parties (employee and employer) is breached and I think pretty good results have been achieved in some cases.

For me, the rapid development in Dubai is an indication of what is achievable yet so conspicuously lacking in my country. I do however strongly oppose fast track development at this does not solve any problems in the long run. But with resources efficiently harnessed, applied in the right order of priorities and to the right areas of development, a country so rich, not only in oil but a number of other natural resources, may not find itself in such a sorry state.