Dubai, Dubai - The Scandal and The Vice

[NGONGE]

by William G. Ridgeway

 

 

Dubai is a boomtown. It has also become a major centre for prostitution. "Dubai is the place where Arabs come to sin - the Bangkok of the Middle East". Vice, directly and indirectly, may account for over 30% of Dubai's economy. Yet this licence exists in a part of the world where the austere Saudi cult of Wahhabism is influential. William G. Ridgeway reports on the strange, uncomfortable meeting of Wahhabism and vice.

 

Dubai is the New York cum Las Vegas of Arabia, a dazzling conflagration of architectural absurdities and neon lights. It hums, buzzes, in much the same way a Manhattan street does – it is not just the noise, the constant roar of car horns, trucks and cries from the minarets, but the emotional throb of industry, business, fun. It is a young, happening place.

 

The city's architect is the Crown Prince of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, a man individually rich beyond the dreams or comprehension of your average Arab. Imagine checking your balance at an ATM. Now imagine that for each pound you have on your balance slip, Sheikh Mohammed has ten million – you get the idea.

 

Dubai was never oil rich like the capital, Abu Dhabi, and had to rely on handouts to fund what started off as modest development. This economic dependency on Abu Dhabi was bad enough, but it undermined the autonomy of the spirited, cosmopolitan port - an unhappy arrangement, for Dubai anyway. The Dubai royal family thus hatched a radical plan to reduce economic and political dependency on their rich but staid cousins. The Big Idea was to make Dubai the regional hub for transport, communications, information, and above all, leisure. Dubai was to become New York cum Las Vegas.

 

Some plan. After two decades of hair-raising development, however, some argue that they have pulled it off. Huge projects such as Media City and Internet City, along with tax breaks for multinationals and massive construction projects, have meant that Dubai is now a sizeable economy in its own right. On the leisure front, the Maktoums subsidized the building of hundreds of hotels, many of them at the very top end of five star luxury. Sheikh Mohammed founded Godolphin, effectively a horseracing multinational company, which bought up the best bloodstock in the world, and brought Dubai to the attention of Europeans and Americans. In 1996 he founded the Dubai World Cup, the richest race in the world, held annually at Nad al Sheba. The high point of this particular project from a PR and sporting perspective was when his favourite horse, the Godolphin-owned Dubai Millennium triumphed in 2000. The symbolism of this was not lost on observers around the world.

 

They founded Emirates airlines, a high quality line which has Dubai as its hub, and repeatedly wins awards for the world's best airline. Everybody wants to fly Emirates, if they can, and if they do, they will probably spend time and money in Dubai, if only in the famous Dubai Duty Free.

 

Recently, and controversially, Sheik Mohammed did something unthinkable in Arabia. He allowed foreigners to buy freehold property. This led to a huge property boom in the city. Realising that second-home buyers liked beaches, Mohammed thought big, and parted the sea itself with the construction of huge beach lined jetties and islands, notably The Palm, and more recently, The World. One can now buy a luxury four bedroom villa with access to one's own private beach in Iceland, Peru or Antarctica – all a mile off the coast of Dubai.

 

Many thought that 9/11 would be the end of Dubai; however, the city benefited hugely from it. Understandably, in the wake of their crimes, the Saudis pulled much of their huge investments out of a hostile America, but then faced the problem of where to put their money in an increasingly suspicious world. Saudi money thus poured into Dubai. As fast as they could build, the Saudis were buying. Every local IPO was massively oversubscribed, and shot through the roof after release onto the market. Middle Eastern troubles certainly caused a temporary dip in tourism, but they inadvertently pressed the overdrive on an already speeding Lamborghini.

 

Dubai is now at full speed – all the time. The streets are packed, businesses are booming. You have to book in advance for restaurants. Still the building continues, and still people are buying. Planes unload thousands of tourists a day, who squint in the sunshine and plan to visit the Burj al Arab, the world's tallest and most visionary hotel. They visit estate agents and wow at the prospect of living six months a year in this, the world's most dazzling, dynamic city. To top it all off, Sheikh Mohammed recently announced that he was building not merely outwards, but upwards, in the form of the world's highest building. The development of Dubai resembles the internet boom on amphetamines – but really it is like nothing else on earth.

 

Anything goes here. I mean anything. Dubai is the place where Arabs come to sin – the Bangkok of the Middle East. Sometimes unfrocking, sometimes not, Saudis, Kuwaitis, Bahrainis, Egyptians, fly in daily like a plague of locusts, buzzing into the bars and discotheques of the city. To meet the huge demand for sex, in come planes from other directions, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, packed to the rafters with gum chewing women, anxious to profit from rich Arab punters. Emirates airlines recently opened a new route to Accra, Ghana. It now does good business ferrying African prostitutes back and forth to Dubai. The city thus profits from the transport of its own service workers. Here is a business model that works.

 

An economist recently informed me that vice, directly and indirectly, accounts for over 30% of Dubai's money-go-round. It is big business, and there in every bar in town. Naïve tourists are often amazed to see Saudis, pint in hand, whirling around makeshift dancefloors with Chinese prostitutes. Here on the sacred soils of Arabia, are Muslims, drinking, drugging and womanizing.

 

And here is the problem. Just next to Dubai, almost within hearing distance of the constant boom, boom, boom, lies Sharjah – a place that is relatively poor, pious and alcohol free. Here there is growing, ground level support for the austere Saudi cult of Wahhabism, which bans womanizing and urges the death penalty for women involved in it. (Women are routinely stoned, drowned or walled up in Saudi Arabia). Wahhabism bans alcohol and music. It does not like foreigners – infidel – on the sacred land of Arabia. For many Arabians - those not roistering in the Bangkok of the Middle East - Dubai is Sin City, and something has to be done about it.

 

Here lies the risk for Sheikh Mohammed. Had Dubai been a modest success, like say, Muscat, then it would not have mattered. People could have cast a blind eye to the bars in hotels. If only it had been more modest as a vice centre, like Manama in Bahrain, which due to its proximity to Saudi Arabia, was the more discreet Sin City for Saudis to get serviced, before it was usurped by Dubai. But Dubai now shines too brightly. Its effects on local culture are too pervasive. Wherever, Wahhabis turn, Dubai is in their face, challenging them, tempting them with secularism, success and sex.

 

There is thus a real risk that Dubai is indeed the new New York, and like New York – itself a symbol of brash materialism and licence - it too will be targeted by those in its shadow. The bubble shows little sign of bursting yet, though burst it might – literally – if Wahhabi extremists decide to do something evil and spectacular.

 

Walking around the streets of Dubai at night, or gazing down on the city from the cocktail lounge in Emirates Towers, one can't help think, however, that Sheikh Mohammed's project has reached the point beyond which it would survive adversity, as New York has done. Just like New York, it is a melting pot, a point on the globe where people meet, work hard and play hard. It has a soul, not altogether a spotlessly clean one, but a soul nevertheless. All it needs now is a bespectacled, immigrant from Iraq telling self-deprecating jokes about sex, and survival is guaranteed.

 

 

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Start bashing.

 

Source

[STOIC]

Ngonge, booms always comes to an end.Remember the Gold-rush sites in California that turned in to a ghost town when mining stopped.What about the gold and silver from the new world which made Spain rich in the sixteenth century and later distorted and weakened in the end!.My point is that booms do always come to an end they neither bring sustain economic growth nor cultural improvement.Booms will always bring unrealistic expecattion and envy.The problem with the Arab world is their reliance on foreign labor and expertise.

PS: forgive if i come out as a Arab bashing bed wetting Somali!

[xiinfaniin]

There is thus a real risk that

Dubai is indeed the new New York, and like New York – itself a symbol of brash materialism and licence - it too will be targeted by those in its shadow.

The bubble shows little sign of bursting yet, though burst it might – literally – if

Wahhabi extremists decide to do something evil and spectacular.

 

Walking around the streets of Dubai at night, or gazing down on the city from the cocktail lounge in Emirates Towers, one can't help think, however, that Sheikh Mohammed's project has reached the point beyond which it would survive adversity, as New York has done. Just like New York, it is a melting pot, a point on the globe where people meet, work hard and play hard. It has a soul, not altogether a spotlessly clean one, but a soul nevertheless. All it needs now is a bespectacled, immigrant from Iraq telling self-deprecating jokes about sex, and survival is guaranteed.

This is indeed a false analogy that has no legs. This author should know that terror is precisely the price of hegemony. It’s the weapon of the week. To my knowledge Wahabism is not a week ideology in the Gulf. And there’s no dominating power emanating from these week emirates.

[wind.talker]

"Dubai is the place where Arabs come to sin - the Bangkok of the Middle East". Vice, directly and indirectly, may account for over 30% of Dubai's economy.

LOL @ start bashing. But prostitution accounting for 30% of the economy? Isn't this GAAL exxagerating a bit? The article seems one-sided and the intentions of the author are questionable. I'm always astounded that its mostly Caucasians who want to write pieces about the cultures and economies of others. What happened to the natives of Dubai? In city that developed, I'm sure they could find plenty of writers who'll deliver a different angle on the story of Dubai. All stories have two sides. And I have a real hard time believing the 30% thing.

[Mutakalim]

ههنا تواد الطهارة بكرا

ههنا يغصب العÙا٠ويرجم

ههنا يصبح الهناء Ùقيدا

ههنا تبدل البشاسة بالهم

ههنا المال والجمال Ùبع

Ù†Ùسك ان تبتغيهما وتقدم

ههنا يرتدي البطل ثوب حق

ههنا الحق عاريا يستبهم

وبكاس الايمان تنهل ÙƒÙرا

وبعين اليقين لاتتوسم

ههنا الحب ان تشا غير عذري

Ùذقه احلاه يا صاح علقم

وعلى مذبح اللذاذات ينسى

شرع موسى وشرع عيسى بن مريم

هذه كعبة يحج اليها

كل يوم وليس Ùيها محرم

ان اصبت النجاح كادلك الغير

وان خبت لم تجد من يرحم

لا تنى عاملا زمانك حتى

تصل الليل بالنهار وتسام

وتمر السنون ÙÙŠ طلب الثروة

والجسم دونها يتهدم

والهوابيل والقوابيل Ùيها

كم اخ ذابح اخاه لدرهم

والعذارى يمسين غير عذارى

والايامى يجهلن عÙØ© مريم

بطر العلم والغنى والتملي

من ملذات قادر يتنعم

وحديد على حديد يكوم

وبذوب القلوب يحمى ويلحم

انت عبد وكم لدينا عبيد

قدموا طائعين من طر٠اليم

 

In his famous poem about New York (وجه نيويورك), the author of this piece describes the nature of this city. I think he,نسيب عريضة , would apply this poem to Dubai as well. Be that as it may, I am relocating to Sharjah (الشارقة) this summer for good. I plan to spend many days, nay, months in Dubai.

[Lois Lane]

^ can we stick to Somali or english please at least a language the majority can understand or at least translate for the rest of us. Last time i checked this was SOMALIAonline

[rudy-Diiriye]

Name that city HO TOWN!!....! carab muxuu illaay dhibey!! YAA gawaad!! kulal khara!! :mad:

[NGONGE]

Originally posted by wind.talker:

quote: "Dubai is the place where Arabs come to sin - the Bangkok of the Middle East". Vice, directly and indirectly, may account for over 30% of Dubai's economy.

LOL @ start bashing. But prostitution accounting for 30% of the economy? Isn't this GAAL exxagerating a bit? The article seems one-sided and the intentions of the author are questionable. I'm always astounded that its mostly Caucasians who want to write pieces about the cultures and economies of others. What happened to the natives of Dubai? In city that developed, I'm sure they could find plenty of writers who'll deliver a different angle on the story of Dubai. All stories have two sides. And I have a real hard time believing the 30% thing.

I can’t speak of percentages and figures, saaxib. However, Dubai does have a very big and, possibly, lucrative vice trade. Dubai has always been a city built along British lines. This might make me sound real old, but I still remember the speeches Mohammed Bin Rashed used to give seventeen years ago. He used to talk about his dream of turning Dubai into an economic and cultural centre in Asia! He used to express his wish of turning Dubai into another Hong Kong, and in due time, take over the place of that famous Asian economic powerhouse. When one looks at how Dubai changed in the past ten years or so, one can’t but grudgingly accept that this sheik’s vision is almost taking shape.

 

The problem, as the author of this piece rightly states, is that with an economic boom come expansions of many other (not all desirable) natures. The city is overcrowded, traffic is a real problem and crime, though unheard of in that part of the world and is still almost nonexistent, is bound to flourish in such a chaotic place.

 

I was in Dubai ten days ago. I was very impressed with the architecture, the impressive and daring projects and the various business opportunities. That city has everything you would find in a western capital (though much condensed and within reach). It also has many of the characteristics one would expect from an Islamic city; there are mosques within a few yards of each other, in fact, there are as many mosques in that place as there are restaurants.

 

The citizens of the Untied Arab Emirates are not that many. They’re dwarfed by the number of resident foreigners (that’s before one starts counting all the tourists, illegal residents and part time visitors). The rulers of Dubai have finally realised that in order to sustain this economic boom, they’ll need to relax the rules a little. Where in the past, non-citizens were not allowed to buy or sell property, now many could. Where in the past most rules were favouring nationals, and still do, they’ve been marginally relaxed.

 

What’s holding Dubai and many other Arab cities (states) down is the Palestinian problem. Judging by the “positive†overtures many Arab states (including the UAE: Dubai) have been directing at Israel lately, it’s obvious that many Arab countries (particularly those in the Gulf) would love to have the option of nationalising some of their longer term “non-local†residents. However, to do that now (and it’s possible that they might) would mean the loss of one of the main demands of the Arab league regarding the issue of Palestine. Israel has always argued against the “right of return†of Palestinians. The Israelis, in their convoluted and inward-looking logic, have always wondered at the need for the return of these refugees. Their argument has always been that Palestinians are Arabs, therefore all those that lost their houses and lands as a result of Israeli occupation, should be absorbed by Arab countries and given citizenships there; there is only one Jewish state, there are over twenty Arab countries, “where is the fairness?†is their argument.

 

 

With the death of Mr Arafat, the new phenomenon of terror, the change in American foreign policy and the increasing rumpus of “progressive†voices in Arab lands, many Arab governments find themselves cornered! Many others, like the state of Qatar, have decided to put their own interests above anything else and are putting all their eggs in the American basket! A city like Dubai finds itself also having to deal with all these regional and international changes and is speeding ahead with its own reforms and self-interested agenda. An agenda that sooner or later will require the increase of its native population! Will they attract fellow citizens from the rest of the emirates (the poorer cities), will they extend citizenships to the many Arabs, Asians and others that helped build that city? Time will tell. But, in the meantime, the population growth rate is lagging behind the economic and cultural change.

 

 

Now back to the vice trade! Men who enjoy the company of ladies of the night will not be disappointed in Dubai. There are blondes, brunettes, blacks, whites and Arabs. There are cute looking Russians, dazzling south Asians and voluptuous Africans (including many Somalis, surprisingly enough). Apart from the hotels, private apartments and fake massage parlours; there is an actual and real Red Light District! Women of different nationalities, wearing provocative short skirts and tube tops parade those streets and haggle with curb crawlers! The sum total of all these prostitutes might not be 30%, but the fact that such a thing could openly take place in a Muslim and traditionally conservative Arab country is probably what makes it seem that much.

 

Sharjah is only 15 minutes away from Dubai. This short distance makes it feel like part of the city. Sharjah is the practically the suburb to the city centre that is Dubai. It’s a world away from the noise, vice and madness of Dubai. Sharjah is a sleepy town ruled by a religious sheikh. A sheikh so strict and religious that he banned all shiisha coffee shops from that city (the youth go to Dubai and Ajman for that pastime)!

 

 

Recently, Sharjah suffered a problem with a nighttime stalker! This person would hide in a particular area and wait for a lone woman to walk past. He would then stab her in the backside (allegedly) and run away. In a sleepy city such as Sharjah this was a nightmare. Rumours started circulating around the city that the “Butcher†only targets “semi-naked†women! Within a matter of days, many women that did not wear the hijab in the past were seen walking around with a full jilbab on! Yours truly has personally had a quite chat with a pretty Egyptian girl who was covered from head to toe and had full makeup on. The story of the “Butcher†was on all the national papers and was the topic of discussion in Sharjah for a whole month. Of course, when the police finally caught him (in a random traffic check), he turned out to be a respectable computer programmer from the Indian subcontinent. Still, the fact that such wild rumours found their way to every house, gives one a glimpse of the feeling of the people of that city when it comes to religion and decency! Judging by such reactions, one gets the sense that the people of Sharjah (and the UAE in general) would not be duly shocked should a terrorist bomb explode in Dubai!

[wind.talker]

Their argument has always been that Palestinians are Arabs, therefore all those that lost their houses and lands as a result of Israeli occupation, should be absorbed by Arab countries and given citizenships there; there is only one Jewish state, there are over twenty Arab countries, “where is the fairness?†is their argument.

Only a Jew would find logic in that argument!

 

Now back to the vice trade! Men who enjoy the company of ladies of the night will not be disappointed in Dubai. There are blondes, brunettes, blacks, whites and Arabs. There are cute looking Russians, dazzling south Asians and voluptuous Africans (including many Somalis, surprisingly enough). Apart from the hotels, private apartments and fake massage parlours; there is an actual and real Red Light District! Women of different nationalities, wearing provocative short skirts and tube tops parade those streets and haggle with curb crawlers! The sum total of all these prostitutes might not be 30%, but the fact that such a thing could openly take place in a Muslim and traditionally conservative Arab country is probably what makes it seem that much.

What is it with Arab men and blondes? From time to time, I'll find an attractive blonde. But, I've seen way too many Arab homies drool at the sight of a blonde - the same way we would drool at the sight of a coke bottle-shaped, light-skin mami. Anyways, sad to see the state of affairs in Dubai - a Muslim city. I suppose people think of all this as 'progress', huh? Its true that with rapid urbanization and industrialization comes all the vices of the world. But the challenge is to find that perfect balance: achieve economic boom while limiting a revolution of sin! Regardless, the latter piece was much more detailed and meaningful.

[Sky]

mo money mo problems!

 

lets be real guys, this sodom n gomorra issue of dubai is not a disease that can be cured. as ngonge said prostitution accounts for more than 1/3 of dubais economy, so its more of a limb than a tumor. even tho its illegal, its tolerated becuz dubais economy is based on trade n tourism. so prostitution is complementary to support dubais hospitality industry. youll be shocked to know that it would be mission impossible for so many unmarried young foreign women pouring into dubai without being invited, sponsored or just directly hired by local arabs to do business. most girls come from russia, ethiopia, uganda, phillipines, india n pakistan, morrocans and british. but no somali and for sure there prolly are but not many like ngonge claims. of course the police will raid those spots where these girls hang around from time to time, but they are kept in jail for just a few hours and the customers are only given "The Look" :rolleyes: . even tho im disgusted of a sin city on muslim soil, but you can see this ugly part of dubai as the bacteria that balances your health. a city like dubai needs to look the other way with these aspects if it wants to be taken serious as an international business centre. the sheikhs of dubai are so fixated with their goals, that they wont argue too much with their american advisors whom practically build dubai to what it is.

 

 

bit sad but what can you do, another countrys problems for goodness sake and luxury problems too, so lets move on.