Monday, February 13, 2006

What city is the Arab center of the modern world?

According to this article, it's none other than Dubai!

The whole article is worth the read, but here are some interesting (and debatable) quotes:

And yet it is not Saudi Arabia. Brokeback Mountain is soon to open in Dubai cinemas, which it never could in Saudi Arabia. There is no problem with bikinis and sunbathing on the beaches. And on a more substantial level, there is a determined effort to de-monopolise the economy, to make market competition the driver for this new model world.

......................

Vishal Khemani, a 26-year-old from Mumbai, who imports Indian and Japanese textiles for Dubai wholesalers, says he loves Dubai simply because it is "very disciplined, very neat, very clean. Everything is going to timetable. I have a good job, good food. It is a cheap country." And extremely safe. There has been no hint, so far, of any terrorist attack, although you would have thought it was due for one. A western businessman, surveying the most luxurious of the Jumeirah beach hotels, said simply to me: "Everything about this place smells of western women, right? It looks like an al-Qaida target to me." There are rumours in Dubai that a terror plot was foiled last year but the processes of government are so opaque that there is no confirming that. It may be that the levels of government control in Dubai are high enough to make any terrorist operations very difficult.

6 comments:

moryarti said...

DTCM PR at its best :)

nzm said...

That reporter definitely flew Emirates' First Class, stayed at the Burj Al Arab and was given a pair of rose-tinted glasses!

There's elements of truth in the article - they're just hard to find when cocooned in all the candyfloss!

grapeshisha said...

Although I agree with nzm, I think this is a somewhat fairer picture wth more weight allocated to what is really going on as opposed to some og the local press who just take sides and dont give all the facts.

Dubai Sunshine said...

Excuse my ignorance Moryarti, but what does DTCM stand for? Dubai Tourism and something something???

Dhow Cruise Dubai said...

Dubai is the place where you will find ultimate fun and every entertainment that you wish for...

Sitara said...

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