More on Dubai (United Arab Emerates)

Dubai is part of the United Arab Emerates (UAE). There are about 7 separate Emerates (they call them “cities”) in the UAE. Each has their own ruler (Sheik). The seven got together to increase their political clout, and they agree on some issue where they have to (or choose to), but they can differ on some issues, such as the role of particular Islamic ideals into their political rules.

The UAE is NOT a democracy. They are a Federation. The Sheik has a lot of personal discretion, and the brothers and sons have a line of succession laid out.

Given all this, the natives—called Emeratees (sp?)—get a lot of benefits. Health care for them is free. If they want to go to college anywhere in the world, the government pays. The government loves to have their citizens get a great education in the US or UK, then return to the UAE.

Given this, the rules on who is an Emeratee is strict. If you have an Emeratee father and mother, then you are an Emeratee. If your father is Emeratee and your mom not, then you are. If you mother is and your dad not, then you are not. There are editorials in the papers saying this is not fair, but that is the rule. Clearly the government does not want to have any unfair explosion in the numbers of natives given how well they intent to treat this group.

Noncitizens also do okay in some ways, but not in other ways. There are zero taxes. Sounds great, but housing costs are so huge it cancels some of this out. Here is the rub. If a construction worker’s job ends, the visa is pulled and they have to immediately leave the country.

There is zero tolerance for crime. The crime rate is almost nonexistant. If you commit a crime, you are in deep trouble. An Emeratee would be stupid to do a crime. Why give up the benefits? If you are a guest worker and create a crime, then you are put in jail, deported, and denied any future visa. If you try to get around this by getting a new passport, it will not work. They take an iris scan. Last year they caught 3000 people who tried to get back in to the country based upon an iris scan. Interesting system…some might get upset on the human rights (?) side of this, but do you want to keep out people who have qualified to be kept out?

Our guide thought that the future big city will be Abu Dhabi. They have more oil reserves than Dubai…like 100 years worth vs 10. Abu Dhabi has been focusing on the arts: museums, opera, arts, etc. They guide felt that on a 10-20 year horizon, Abu Dhabi will surpass Dubai in spectacular and opulence.
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I had hoped to see us sail through the Straits of Hormuz. This is the neck east of Dubai as we exit the Persian Gulf. (We were told that you should not call this the Persian Gulf, but instead the Arabian Sea, with anyone local…they say there are more Arabs around the body of water than Persians). Something like 40% of the world’s oil passes through this constricted water neck, with Iran on one side of it. I would have liked to see the ship density, and gotten some feel for how big a deal this is.