Dubai Forums Dubai Discussions Dubai General Chat

i grew up in the UAE during the 1980s. i was born there. Most of my formative childhood memories are from there. i lived in most of the emirates - Ajman, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Al Ain.

Today, i live elsewhere but i go back for visits regularly [last time i was there was two years ago]. During one of my older, previous visits to the UAE, i noticed a lot of things that really struck me as a sad representation of the way things have changed in the UAE.

At a five-star hotel in Sharjah, i was walking through the front lobby towards the elevators. The front lobby obviously had chairs and tables for guests. At one of these tables, i saw a lady [maybe in her 30s/40s], sitting by herself. i didn't think anything of it, and made my way to my room. The next night, i saw her there, at the same table, virtually the same position. This repeated itself a couple times. This hotel has something like 20 floors, and no matter which floor your room is on, you can lean over the central railing and get a view of the front lobby. i was doing this the next day and i saw the lady once again, though this time some guy [wearing a dishdasha] was talking with her, seated at her table. Then they both went off somewhere together. i asked someone about this [someone who worked at the hotel], who informed me that the lady was a prostitute who worked there. i was shocked. Later, i was sad. Maybe it was naiive to believe such things didn't happen in the UAE; maybe i still wanted to hang on to whatever childhood images i had formed about the UAE as this serene Muslim country. Apparently [i don't know if this is accurate or not] a large number of Russian prostitutes are 'brought in'... they obviously have a clientele somewhere, otherwise this 'business' would not be as lucrative as it appears to be.

i'm not some old fuddy duddy, i'm not a fundo, i'm not anti-Westernization [whatever that is]. At the same time, from MY perspective, there are so many ways in which the UAE is changing and not all that change is positive. The country had something beautiful about its heritage [by the way i'm not Arab], there was something inherently gorgeous about the culture, about the values/customs/norms, about the hospitality of ordinary bedouins who would share their food with strangers... it's all disintegrating now. i know societies change, people change; change is inevitable... but it's sad to see these irreplaceable 'values' changing.... in the crazy rush to be cosmpolitan, to compete with New York and Paris, in the crazy addiction to have SUVs, cellphones and a blackberry, that [your?] society is losing something there... something that once lost, is irretrievable. This is not just about sheikhs who consort with prostitutes... it's about finding some balance between 'modernization' and retaining cultural identity. The beauty of the UAE, for me, was that it was unique: it was NOT the United States, it was not London, it was quite unique. Twenty years from now, i hope that there will still be some cultural uniqueness left between the UAE and other countries.

Well said.