I refer to the locals who don the chairs at Dubai immigration. They are pretty much your first contact you’d encounter with the locals of Dubai. These men and women don’t deserve to be sitting in those chairs as they are a terrible representation of their country. I am brown skinned well educated, well spoken and well dressed of decent appearance and it’s amazing and agonizing how every time I come face to face with the Dubai immigration officials they start speaking to me in Hindi/Urdu even though I have nothing to do with the language. They come across with utmost unprofessional attitude sitting in those chairs as if relaxing on a beach chair, chatting amongst themselves sipping tea/coffee and passing comments about visitors. This applies to both the Arab men and women who work there. English being the global business language they must first try and communicate in English and if the recipient doesn’t understand then resort to speaking another language but this is hardly the case. They behave as if they are doing a favour to the visitors by letting them in the country. They fail to understand that Tourism and visitors make up for a huge share of the money Dubai makes from non-oil sectors.
The worst being the way the Asian workforce when they first arrive is treated, As if they were slaves put on a plane and imported to do all the work and build amazing buildings and sites to which the rulers of Dubai will take credit for having being visionary and done a good job even though they wouldn’t have touched a brick or stepped out of their luxury cars in the scorching heat of the unforgiving climate that these slave like Asian workers have to toil for a measly sum.
I have lived in Dubai and have seen the city grow over a period of 5 years and then moved on and have been a regular visitor to the Emirate and have been disappointed on every occasion that I have returned back. I’ve come to hate the city for the unethical practices of conducting business, for the hypocritical attitude towards issues concerning human rights. For Dubai police behaving like they are gods on earth. For no kind of rent regulation and the authorities not doing anything about the appalling conditions in which expatriates except from the western world are living in matchboxes sharing their flats with 15 other people and families with children living in ing conditions due to the negligence of the authorities to tackle the residential accommodation issues the city faces and has no rent regulatory authority taking a stand on the issue of conniving landlords charging a fortune for a sh*thole for an apartment.
I’ve come to hate the city for the dubious standards of living. ‘Oh! Dubai is tax-free but we charge you through your nose for every small little thing’. Be it the exorbitant taxi charges not to mention the shortage of them. Or the ever increasing cost of living in shanty accommodation, the not so attractive salaries, the degrading shopping experience given the fact that almost everything is imported from south-east Asia. The cheating banks and financial institutions who have hundreds of thousands unsuspecting expats tied on to their credit card and loan schemes till they are neck deep in debt and cant leave this hyped up city owing to debt and trying to keep up the next repayment towards their expensive glamorous credit card life-styles. The expensive and in-efficient healthcare system with poor quality personnel working there who can’t even make a decent diagnosis but the diagnosis when it comes to charging is spot-on. The overtly ridiculous childcare system which is a luxury only the rich can afford is not extended, available or affordable to the poor low/middle income earning husband and wife couple who both have to work to merely sustain and meet urgent financial commitments. Where’s the life? It’s only a big dream.
On one hand they proclaim to the outside world that Dubai is the next best thing a property and tax haven, but on the other hand it actually is corrupt and is building on weak foundations of racism, autocracy and malice practices.
The best of all is everyone plays hand in glove so majority of the crime goes unreported. Everyone gets on with daily business as if everything is hunky dory whereas the fact is that every single person in Dubai is stressed and shitting their pants with the poor quality of life it offers for the amount of extended hours and working weekends you put in just to survive in this fantasy man made land. No one is guaranteed a safe and secure future even those that have lived in the emirates for over 25 years. Have spent most of their lives working in and for the city of gold, those who have cut off all ties with their motherland hoping to make a life in Dubai but what do they mean to the government and to the locals? Nothing! they are a mere number who is present in their country to aid in the progress and growth of this scrupulous city whose claim to fame is the vast dessert, money made from depleting oil reserves, luxury hotels and man made islands built by slave like Asian construction workers.
The icing on the cake has to be that there is no formal system to make complaints and to voice your grievances and even if there is it is governed by red tape. The first law being ‘The local’ is always right. If in an argument with a local never expect to win. If cops are involved your chances get even dimmer. Support for ones own is another thing but injustice towards expats and bias towards arrogant, mostly lazy, illiterate and ill mannered fellow local countrymen is the limit. The jungle rule ‘Might is right’ is prevalent and it’s a known fact that locals are placed on a pedestal when compared to the hardworking expats who have been extremely instrumental in putting Dubai on the world map where it is today.
So shame on you Dubai and especially the locals. Show some respect to others and have some self-respect and give up your Bedouin ways and embrace the 21st century as a world citizen not as herdsmen.