Blocked in Dubai!

My third day in writing and I’m already suffering from a writer’s block! Ok, maybe I am not a writer (yet), but I am definitely blocked! I am so blocked that I do not know where to start. But then, maybe I should start with where I am.

I remember when I was doing my high school in London, UK, people always regretted asking me where I come from. Originally from Yemen but living the UAE, sounded as if they should have paid more attention in their geography classes to even figure out which continent I’m talking about. I always had to explain that they are both neighboring countries of Saudi Arabia. Thank god they knew what (not where) that is!
It was the same case in Montreal, Canada, where I went to university. Of course I do not have to mention that during my various trips to the US, I never bothered to mention the Middle East. It was hard enough to explain where Montreal is!
But during my last year in Montreal, I found that it was easier just to say Dubai than UAE. It seemed that everyone knows of Dubai. It was amazing really. But then, you can't open a business or travel magazine without seeing some mention of Dubai. Dubai is making headlines all around the world especially if it is a trumpeting for a new real estate project (who came up with the idea of the World Islands!), a new shopping mall or some fashion-centric hotel - such as the Palazzo Versace Dubai resort that no other than Donatella Versace is opening in 2008. I could imagine how tacky that will be!! URGH!

In just more than a decade, Dubai has transformed from a desert with few landmarks (The World Trade Center, that marks the beginning of Sheikh Zayed’s Road, the main highway, and the Hard Rock Café, that marks the end of that road) to something that looks like the illegitimate offspring of a one night stand between Las Vegas, New York and Florida!!! Dubai is where you can hear the money made by the never ending hum of cranes and rumble of cement mixers. Some says it sounds better than the slot machines!

I have to be fair though. It is true that Dubai’s center (which is shifting daily) is basically a multilane highway with an ever increasing skyscrapers on each side, with mall after mall after mall, stretching across the desert as far as the eye can see, (if you really want to look in the direction of the sun of course). Dubai, however, and in my humble opinion, is the best city to live in. Dubai has excellent job opportunities, has a great night life, has many outdoor activities from golf, to sand skiing to all water sports, and it has the best shops in the world. For people like me who travel abroad for the shopping, they no longer have to. We can save on the ticket and get a Louis Vuitton bag instead!

However, not everyone can survive Dubai. Friends are not easily made here, not the real long lasting ones anyway. Most people who live in Dubai have their childhood or school friends somewhere else around the world. With the fast pace of life, this could put additional stress on some. On the other hand, Dubai’s population is a diverse mixture of people from literally around the world. Where else in the Middle East will you find a South African waiteress in a Lebanese restaurant, pronouncing the Arabic names of the dishes with a Lebanese accent! Dubai has an amazing ethic tolerance. What is more amazing, is that the people feel completely safe to the extent that they really believe that Dubai is crime free. So crimes are not reported as they are in the West, and Yes, the crimes that happen are kept hush hush, that when a robbery happen it takes a first page spread, BUT… Dubai is really safe. Any woman, child, or man, can walk anywhere in Dubai, any time of the day or night, and alone, without the fear of getting robbed, kidnapped or raped. I’m sure these things happen. They just don’t happen every 30 second as in the West, but maybe every 30 days (only if you are really daft to wear a bikini, walk in a workers camp, at 1 am!). The only dangerous part about Dubai is the stares a woman has to endure from the men, especially from some certain deprived nationalities! And yet we women could survive anything. We have survived living with the male species for ever now, haven’t we?