I’ve always had an unjustifiable dislike of Dubai. I’ve hated it from afar and, like an ignorant westerner, poured scorn on it whenever I could for no other reason than hating what it stood for: a utopia of peacockery for the world’s rich. My building’s bigger than yours; my skyscraper’s air-conditioning uses enough electricity to power a small African city. Or even a large one.
I hated the falseness, the needless displays of wealth, of man-made islands in the shape of a starfish. I hated the companies who moved there to ease tax burdens. I hated hearing of friends-of-friends raving about 50c heat and their taxless incomes yet would cluster together in small ex-pat communities with their marmite and ketchup and insistence that Britain’s gone to the dogs. As it has done in nearly every decade since Christendom, apparently. Why anyone would want to move to a desert and live in a plastic air-conditioned hell is utterly beyond me, probably in the same way they might balk at me walking along a British coast path in January. Each to their own, I suppose.
Except, no – they’re wrong, because they’re living in a fantasy world. Say Dubai quickly and it sounds exactly like “D’ya buy?” See? Money, money, money. Profit, buy, sell. When my mate told me a few years ago he was “going skiing in Dubai”, I actually felt sorry for him. Is it an admirable display of man-versus-nature, and man beating nature, that you can build an indoor ski centre with “real” snow in one of the world’s hottest climates? Of course it is. But it’s also entirely, depressingly pointless when you look at all the hundreds of thousands of places around the world which could have benefited from such flagrant displays of flashing cash.
Another friend went there for work this year and her birthday coincided. Her hosts – one local, one English – put on a lavish display for her at the drop of a hat, without batting an eyelid. The evening’s cost was well into the thousands of pounds. Nothing wrong with that. Damn good of them to do that. But it reflected this awful society of money ruling all; whoever has the most noughts is the biggest winner.
And now it’s all catching up with them. What would Sir Thomas More have to say about this utopia, hmm?
Say what you like about Dubai, but at least they have ambition, a vision for their city, and the drive to make it happen. You’ve got to admire them for saying they want a skyscraper or an island built, and then just going ahead and doing it. It’s a far cry from, say, Perth, when before any development you’ve got to wait ages for the EPA to clear it, then wait ages again for the Federal Government to clear it, and even after that happens, you have to put up with lazy militant unionists and people whinging that the money could be put to better use.
Did you know that Perth was supposed to have a brand new sports complex featuring a new oval ground for AFL and a new rectangular ground for Rugby and Soccer? They had a task force set up to determine the best location, and this task force dilly-dallies and eventually came to the astounding decision of building just one stadium right next to an existing stadium- and they dilly-dallied for so long that they decided they couldn’t even afford to build that!
I once read an interview with Kevin Pietersen in which he reported that Dubai is his favourite place to be in the world, and that he could see himself retiring there.
The great thing about this fact is that if you ever meet someone who knows nothing about Dubai, but a great deal about Kevin Pietersen, it instantly tells them everything they need to know. And vice versa.
Reaping what they sew. Greedy, hedonistic scheisters don’t induce tears in this parish. The only surprise is that the king of the GHS’s, Giles Clarke hadn’t moved the ECB to Dubai. Missed opporunity…..
You say you have ‘an unjustifiable dislike of Dubai’ & then you try & justify your dislike of Dubai.
Point is,
the arabs were lucky to have all that oil there.They don’t have much skill,brain or enthusiasm.What they have is called self-respect.It gets you a long way in life.
But now-oil’s not well.
Will Davies,
why the problem with poor KP?
Is it because in an English team filled with hydrophobic wimps,he’s the only guy-
1)remotely interested in personal hygiene
2)who’s heterosexual
3)with any amount of natural talent
4)ever willing to ignore english domestic cricket & play in the IPL.
5)with an yearly income comparable to Tendulkar.
Sunny – KP may wish for many things – more money, more tattoos, a heavier bat – but one thing he doesn’t need is our sympathy.
1) are you suggesting that the England cricket team has a problem with body odour? Could you be more specific? If it’s Ryan Sidebottom you’re talking about, then fair enough. But I can’t imagine Alastair Cooke having hygiene issues.
2) are you suggesting that the England cricket team is mostly homosexual? At least please consider that a few of them might be bisexual. I know many of them have wives and children.
3) Fair cop.
4) Flintoff and various other Englishmen have played in the IPL
5) Good point. Maybe this provides a new way of ranking cricket teams – in terms of how many ‘Tendulkars’ a team earns per year.
Will Davies-Now the barmy army has a problem with tattoos?……sad.
1)That’s exactly what I’m suggesting.Bad Breath too.’Atherton’,the greatest hydrophobe of all-time must be an idol for a lot of them.
Cook might have other issues you know-chronic under-confidence for one.
2)Yeah I am.Their ‘wives’ would have by now,at least once,come back home to find them humping the pizza delivery guy.
3)Of course.
4)They aren’t as shameless about loving playing in it.
5)Interesting point you make there.LOL.
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