Dubai, first impressions

You know the scene in the ‘Fifth Element’ when Milla Jovovich (the futuristic 'perfect' and hot orange-haired girl) gets out of the lab and suddenly finds herself in 25th century Manhattan, with the crazy skyscrapers, flying cars, the noises, the smells, and, taken aback, she takes a step back?
(yes, I've seen the film many times. Can you tell? :)

Well, that’s pretty much how I feel everytime I get out of my hotel to the streets of Dubai.

Dubai. Everything you’d expect - if you knew what to expect! Towers, malls, heat? That's it?

But there’s more to it than that. Or at least that’s what I hope to find out :)

Arrived saturday, after a long flight on Emirates -which is highly overrated and absolutely nothing special. And I didn’t even get an upgrade for my birthday!! We did have a delay long enough for me to finish the film I was watching though - the pursuit of happyness - so that was cool :).

Went for dinner with some friends from Cambridge. Today was the first day at work - for the Dubai Government’s Executive Council, where I shall be for the coming two months. Didn’t do much today, besides orientation (well, I did reply to my Facebook birthday wishes -- thank you guys!!! -- and look up some articles by Paul Collier that I’m probably never going to read :) but I got to enjoy the view and have some decent Lebanese food.

So, first impressions... well, it looks like a New York skyline - or even Kuala Lumpur - with all the huge new-age funnily-shaped buildings. Dubai has a frenzy for extremes - and it shows. It’s like they’re expanding upwards while forgetting the ground floors and the short buildings! And it’s pretty dusty, too. FYI, the average Emirati has the largest economic footprint in the world (so basically is the most polluting individual person). True, there are few people here but still, it’s worth noting!

And it’s pretty expensive here, but that was not unexpected with a GDP per capita of $24,000. Good shopping, I’m told, virtually every brand on the globe is represented here. The consumption society par excellence. Though it does produce as well - and it’s got what is one of the few efficient governments of the Middle East. Effective, to be more precise: I don’t think we can talk about efficiency when it seems that there is so much waste, that they can consciously afford to have - but for how long?

Okay, more on my work and on Dubai's development issues later.

(oh, and song of the day: Aqualung, 'Brighter than sunshine' --> Lyrics)


PS: Inji A.: your town is treating me right, thank you very much! Can't wait to see more than just my office, though! :)

PPS: Photos are views from my office. Nice, huh? almost beats Ana's view on Manhattan from the Chrysler building :-P Forgot my camera charger though (dammit!!) so i need to find one here before I'm able to take more photos.