Dubai City is located in the Emirate of Dubai, within The United Arab Emirates (UAE), a wealthy oil producing nation bordering Saudi Arabia and Oman with excellent relations with the west. The mega wired city is the planet’s biggest construction site, yielding the world’s largest per capita concentration of cranes and Caterpillar’s biggest customer. Its landmarks include the Burj Al Arab, the worlds first seven star hotel. Dubai hosts over 50 major projects, all with sub projects that each dwarf almost anything we can conceive: a Manhattan-sized palm tree shaped peninsula visible from space, 300 man made islands in the shape of the Earth, the world’s tallest tower, tallest residential tower, largest airport and a dozen cities within a city, each with tax free treatment, infrastructure and special benefits for international corporations. The desert magnet has attracted Microsoft, Cisco, Sun, Reuters, Virgin Airways, Donald Trump and Martha Stewart. Not just business brings people to Dubai; in a word the place is fun. Supreme restaurants, golf courses, hotels, malls and nightclubs pepper the beachfront skyline.
Dubai’s diversity rivals the zenith of New York’s immigration boom. At the hotel, women in Abayah’s, the traditional head to toe black dress, sit poolside next to bikini clad Europeans. At mega malls, men in traditional robes push strollers carrying babies with Superman caps past trendy students, Asian businessmen and stores that sell everything from Mont Blanc pens to Persian rugs to Chinese pottery and the latest Sony laptops. What Dubai has achieved is a peaceful and universal melting pot of the world- a land where hundreds of dialects are unified by the international languages of business, hospitality and entertainment.
Crown Prince Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, known locally as Sheik Mohammed. Ever since 1776 when we fought King George III for independence. Sheik Mohammed has accomplished enough to not only truly deserve our deepest respect but to ensure his place in world history. Perhaps, even with great natural talent and intelligence, only one born with such opportunity would be able to dream so large. One cannot help but admire Sheik Mohammed when asking “What kind of man looks at a small desert town and decides to create the greatest city on earth? What kind of man looks at the ocean and resolves to create miles of islands in the shape of the earth and palm trees?”
Dubai is truly international, representing over 160 nationalities in all income and job categories. Most noticeable to me is the lack of Americans. Others in town simply lump us together with the British, of which there are plenty. Of the few Americans that are here, most are engineers almost none are tourists. To the American mindset, the Middle East just isn’t a place where one considers a vacation with the family. Even American companies here are typically staffed by Londoners or Middle Easterners.
Dubai is not only a center of a new global economy but also center of the region we understand least. Islam being the primary religion of the UAE and the area causes even further misunderstanding or outright false perceptions. For example, many Americans do not realize that Islam condemns terrorism, many Americans do not know that Arab and Muslim are two different terms with two different meanings. A religion larger than Catholicism has been condemned by many Americans based on the actions of two dozen fanatics. Few realize that there are peaceful nations in the region with standards of living and per capita wealth near our own levels. Dubai’s safety ranks with Tokyo or London and a good deal safer than Washington D.C. Crime is almost non-existent in this ultra modern city.
One key to the success of Dubai is its strategic location: equidistant between London and Beijing, nearby India and at the center of the Gulf region. Dubai is home to the region’s largest port where reselling goods is surpassed only by oil and tourism in revenue. Dubai is blessed with oil wealth but less of it than some of its neighbors, sparking the desire to work hard to diversify revenue. A singularly focused and pro business government with ample funding and offerings of huge infrastructure and tax benefits combines well with the can-do attitude of the area. “In Dubai, we make things work.” And working it is; the speed of this development has left even some who follow the story in the dust: by the time we speculate if it will work, it already is working. Yesterday’s concepts are up and running today. In half the time we have plodded along with major projects, this city has completed two dozen equal or larger scale undertakings. The world’s skepticism at this nation’s ability to build a world financial and economic center is already obsolete and outpaced by the speed of Dubai.
A colossal metamorphosis is indeed occurring in the Middle East and here the change is not from bombs or guns but from handshakes and construction crews. A new global economic center has been born. Welcome to the world’s big leagues Dubai, it’s a pleasure to meet you.
