Visiting Dubai and Muscat

So I went to Dubai after all! This was for the 4th biennial GSA Conference last month. I had previously expressed some misgivings about the organisers` choice of this UAE state as the venue, based on my understanding of its institutionalised inequalities in terms of gender, race and nationality. I then changed my mind, rationalising that these issues were common to many other societies and that in any case one had to visit the country to see it for oneself.

I am glad that I did so, because the reality proved to be quite different, and while we do hear and read about exploitative treatment of Indian and other foreign workers at the bottom end of the economy, it affects a relatively small number of people and involves a complex interplay of external and internal factors. These poor folk remain largely invisible. On the plus side, Dubai is a cosmopolitan phenomenon, where people of all races, colours and cultural and religious backgrounds intermingle and run the country`s economy and institutions at all levels with a super-efficient service ethos.

So what does Dubai have to offer? It is a booming place. What strikes the first-time visitor is its ultra-modern infrastructure – in terms of roads, buildings, public transport and utilities, communication systems, hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, entertainment complexes, leisure and tourism facilities. Add to this the sunny climate, the beaches and open spaces, the easy navigability of movement across the vast urban spread of the city and its surrounding countryside. All this adds up to a veritable paradise on earth! Well, that is the overwhelming impression. But then Dubai is like so many other centres of passing fancy across Asia - Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok – transit cities where thousands of tourists stop over for 3 or 4 days en route somewhere else, because these are basically Eastern versions of cities of the West where one gets the best of everything at affordable prices and more importantly without having to negotiate `third world` like poverty, squalor and overcrowding. Like its other Asian counterparts, Dubai is also of course a centre of international business and investment, even though it too has suffered from unfulfilled excessive expectations and even diminishing returns in recent years.

This then is the appeal of Dubai, both to westerners and those from Asia, Africa and other parts of the Middle East. More particularly, it is the modern day metaphorical mecca for Muslims from Pakistan and other parts of the Islamic world - because it has everything that America and the west in general can offer, even more. It means they do not have to travel to faraway America or Europe where they often face humiliating treatment, are subjected to discrimination and suspicion and generally made to feel unwelcome, when they can enjoy the same or even better standards of material comforts and shopping for high quality goods and merchandise in internationally well- known chains and stores in their own backyard?

And as for eating out, Dubai has an infinite variety of fast and gourmet food outlets in clean and classy restaurants, cafés and international food-court areas of malls where service with a smile by obliging waiters and other staff is the norm. So why go to America or Europe if they can enjoy the feel - the glitz and glamour – of those places and the benefits of western technology and engineering at a much lesser cost and on their own terms as to comfort and convenience? On the cultural front too Dubai can boast of art galleries, museums, theatres and cinemas of an international orientation.

I was there for only two nights and three full days and, away from the busy conference schedule, was fortunate to be taken around, in the company of a dear friend and her daughter who were also attending the conference, by an acquaintance of theirs from London who, with her husband, has made Dubai into a home away from home while they are engaged in business there. So we were able to look at many tourist sites at close quarters. We even managed a ride on the metro and to get up to the top of the famous Burj Khalifa Tower, the tallest building on earth, with a magnificent 360 degree night view of the city from the observation deck.

Of course one cannot but be struck by the fact that the place is run by foreigners. Taxi drivers, hotel and restaurant staff, shop assistants, security personnel – these are the visible faces but behind the scene, the vital levers of the economy too are in the hands of people of many different nationalities, South Asian, Phillipino, African as well as European. For me, it was a pleasure to spot several from East Africa – hotel receptionists, airport ground-staff – with a few words of greetings in Swahili.

But what about the interaction between the difference segments of the population? They obviously seem to have an unwritten code of behaviour and status that ensures that non-Arabs do not encroach upon the preserve and privileges of the locals, who in turn tolerate, even respect, the presence of the foreigners so long as they know their place. The reality of who owns the freehold is in not in contention. Within these well- defined parameters, they get along fine. There are no restrictions on what women or men, for that matter, can wear and so they can be seen in a whole global range of attire, from western to middle-eastern to Indian to oriental, with or without head-coverings of any sort. In that respect, Dubai is no different from Paris, New York, London, Mumbai or Nairobi. Alcohol too is freely available and consumed in public.

Then on to Muscat, the capital of Oman, for a couple of days. Oman of course has a long historical connection with both India and the coast of East Africa - Zanzibar in particular. It is also different from Dubai. It does not have the outward affluence of Dubai, or its none-too-disguised westernised life-style and ambience. It is also less dominated by foreigners in the public domain, even though they perform a valuable role in the country` s economy and service spheres.

What was so noticeable was that the women, though dressed in traditional style, exuded a high degree of self-confidence and agility. Very few were completely covered from head to foot; most had open faces and were not shy to look at men. I was told that this was due to Zanzibari influence that came in with the tide of refugees from Zanzibar after the revolution of 1964 there. There is also a higher degree of literacy among the women than probably elsewhere in the Gulf region. More particularly, the Sultan is an enlightened, liberal ruler who is quietly engaged in modernising Omani society without upsetting the status quo. So again, while a significant part of business enterprise is controlled by foreigners (Indian and Western) the social fabric of the country remains distinctly Omani.

Another noticeable feature of the public face of Muscat is the pristine whiteness of its buildings. Local bye-laws ensure that all properties have to be properly maintained in terms of external appearance. There were no buildings with peeling paint or other signs of dis-repair. The Sultan`s palace is a modest affair, approachable without any undue obstructive security.

The foreigners have their own communal centres, clubs, mosques, temples, churches and schools. As in Dubai, so in Muscat, the different sections of the population mix and mingle, or not, as they wish. The open question is what will happen after the present Sultan goes, but that is still a distant prospect.

And so, I feel a little more enlightened and educated about Dubai and Muscat, less inclined to write them off, than before. I am glad I went there.

RAMNIK SHAH
(c) 2012
Surrey England