Dubai

During the sandpit trip we called in at Dubai for 12 hours of crew rest, I spent the time in the Hotel but I took these photos on the approach to the airport.

The above is part of "the world" the reclamation project where you can buy a "country" and build a house on it. this project was started at the height of the Dubai boom and whilst it is complete there are no houses on it. it is without doubt an amazing vanity project just like Dubai its self. There is some concern, which I share, about what it has done to the eco system on the seabed of the Gulf.

As we were flying directly over it, I cannot be certain which bit of “the world” I have photographed. I think we were flying “south” over “Africa” and the picture is of the “Far East” and “Australia”

Dubai still has a ship repair industry, but its not the sort of thing that Dubai is proud of as it does not represent their new image.

The QE2 now resides in Dubai, it was supposed to be the center piece of a new area of Dubai but the “bust” in the enviable boom and bust came before the area around the Queen could be developed, it appears to sit forlornly on its own I don’t know what if anything it is used for. I expect it may well just be rotting away slowly.

Yet another example of the “bust” there are large areas where the road infrastructure has been built and then abandoned, although I did not take a photograph the area round the hotel in the Silicon Oasis was littered with abandoned construction sites and tower cranes. At the height of the bust Dubai was cancelling 1500 work permits a day for South Asian construction workers. The “bust” in Dubai came quickly and there is evidence of this everywhere you look.

The National sport of the UAE is camel racing. The races take place on a Friday morning after prayers. The jockeys’ used to be children who were attached to the camels saddle by Velcro, there was a bit of an outcry about this a few years ago and they have now developed a radio controlled robot jockey that is controlled by trainer from a 4WD vehicle that runs alongside the track. The Camel “stables” are in the desert outside Dubai, this is the first time I have seen them.

Also out in the desert are the bits of Dubai they don’t talk about, This Picture is of some of the "labour camps" where the South Asians live. The labour is "imported" on contracts. Often the workers don’t get home for a year or more and are expected to work 6 day weeks of 12 hours or more a day with just the Friday off. They are bussed into and out of Dubai every day. South Asians flock to the Middle East where wages are tax free and much better than back home. The down side is that there are virtually no employment laws and no employee protection. If they can’t work or there is no work then their visa is cancelled and they are sent home.

And finally the bit of Dubai that they want you to see and everyone talks about, this is the downtown area which is quite impressive in a “Las Vegas” sort of way. Personally as you might have guessed I prefer the old fashioned Arabia which has a culture of it’s own. There is no need to try and mimic the west, the Middle East has so much of it’s own to offer. Dubai has destroyed its own history and having realised this has built a “Dubailand” theme park based on its own history. I kid you not!