{"id":4276,"date":"2011-02-24T14:50:07","date_gmt":"2011-02-24T10:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=4276"},"modified":"2011-07-16T12:07:46","modified_gmt":"2011-07-16T08:07:46","slug":"in-the-game-of-regional-turmoil-the-winner-is-always%e2%80%a6dubai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/showcase\/in-the-game-of-regional-turmoil-the-winner-is-always%e2%80%a6dubai\/","title":{"rendered":"Dubai the Winner in a ‘Game’ of Regional Turmoil"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dubai: Still the Middle East city of opportunity<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/strong>It\u2019s Cairo, 1996.\u00a0 A young man with a college degree is standing behind a cart selling melons.\u00a0 The future looks bleak. Lacking the \u2018wasta\u2019 (connections) to land a poorly paid but secure job he knows he must move abroad.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t, though, have enough money to try for the U.S or U.K.\u00a0\u00a0 Dubai, then.<\/em><\/p>\n

He arrives, works hard, secures a job with a major multinational, is promoted, gets hold of that Canadian passport.\u00a0 He moves to Canada with his family, lives comfortably in a five-bedroom house in the suburbs and visits his family in Egypt regularly. He buys land near his old family home and is building an impressive house<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This is the true story of a friend of mine.\u00a0 It\u2019s a story that has been repeated thousands of times over the last decade and a half.\u00a0 If the measure of life is material achievement then he\u2019s done extremely well.\u00a0\u00a0 The most telling point, however, was when I asked him some years ago what he thought of Dubai looking back. His reply was simple: \u2018It was the place where I started breathing.\u2019<\/p>\n

It was a sentiment with which I identified completely but in a different context.\u00a0 Leaving the economic disaster that was Ireland in the late 1980s I arrived in London.\u00a0 This was where I started breathing.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a game. The next time you read a news story which talks about \u2018turmoil\u2019 in a particular Middle Eastern country wait until you see a phrase along the lines \u2018Dubai to benefit from said turmoil\u2019.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s happened a couple of times in the last month. First we had a report from CITI Investment Research and Analysis announcing that the tourist industry in Dubai was set to receive an unexpected boost from the arrival of people who had been looking to do a spot of scuba diving in Sharm el Sheikh or take one of those bizarre, slightly scary horse rides round the Pyramids.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 More recently analysis of the impact of the troubles in Bahrain has focused on the possible re-direction of foreign direct investment, particularly in the finance sector, from wobbly Bahrain to stable Dubai.<\/p>\n

This is not, however, a recent phenomenon.\u00a0 If you trace the various calamaties that have affected the region over the past 20 years you\u2019ll see a strong correlation between regional turbulence and a strengthened Dubai.\u00a0 The first Gulf War proved to be a launching pad for the Jebel Ali port which up to that point had struggled to establish itself as the regional hub it has since become.<\/p>\n

While the invasion of Iraq sent millions of refugees into neighbouring states, stretching their resources to bursting point Dubai could cherry-pick the best and brightest of Iraq\u2019s professional talent and offer them a safe, secure home.\u00a0 And that\u2019s its principal strength \u2013 in a region that seethes with religious, political and tribal factionalism Dubai offers a haven.<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s been Indian businessmen fleeing the protectionism of Nehru\u2019s administration in the 50s,\u00a0 Lebanese families seeking shelter from a vicious civil war in the 80s or Afghanis looking for a safe haven from the Taliban, Dubai has taken them in.<\/p>\n

I can remember, in the early days of the most recent boom, sitting in on an interview between a prominent Dubai businessman and a reporter from CBS Television.\u00a0 In an off-the-camera discussion the reporter made the pertinent point that whenever you wake up in Dubai and look round the neighbouring countries all you see is trouble.\u00a0 How is it possible for little Dubai to go on?<\/p>\n

The businessman talked about the Communist insurgency of the 1970s that had begun in Yemen and threatened to engulf the Arabian Peninsula.\u00a0 I can remember his words verbatim:\u00a0 \u2018I can\u2019t remember a time when there hasn\u2019t been some threat or other but there\u2019s one precious commodity that we offer \u2013 openness.\u00a0 If you come here, are looking to create a good life for you and your family and work hard, you will always be welcome.\u00a0 But if you come to change the way we live and do business you will not.\u2019<\/p>\n

Nirvana on Earth?\u00a0 No, of course not and Dubai\u2019s issues \u2013 labour rights, human trafficking, money laundering, for instance \u2013 have been well catalogued.\u00a0 The authorities have taken steps to deal with all of these but everyone agrees there\u2019s still a long way to go.\u00a0 There have been many victims of the recent economic turmoil who will have less than positive views of the city.\u00a0 But this is true for any city on the planet.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure there are employees of Lehman Brothers who have rather less fond memories of Manhattan now than they had five years ago.<\/p>\n

According to the predictions of many commentators in the West two years ago, wallowing in that most unattractive balm called Schadenfreude, there should be tumbleweed blowing down Jumeirah Beach Road by now. Instead you\u2019re more likely to find a young man, recently arrived from a place of turmoil, driving his first car, with the window open, breathing in the cool winter air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JAMES MULLAN: The city of Dubai remains an island of opportunity for many in the Arab world, and troubles elsewhere only strengthen perceived virtues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[136,64,120,56,187],"tags":[2491,18303,378,2497,197,18300,18321,2681,4908,4905,630,191,1374,18316,18302,18313],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4276"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}