Dubai is not the "Las Vegas" of the Middle East

I tutored two Muhammeds  (Muhammed Essmat and Muhammed Athilbini) in the GMAT tonight.  M. Althilbini underwent back surgery, so I had to teach at his house.  Essmat drove me there, and during our drive I happened to mention the prevailing US belief that Dubai was the Las Vegas of the middle east.  Essmat laughed and said: "Dubai is not Las, and it has no Vegas."  That sums it up.  Both Muhammeds work in the financial sector of Dubai, and know that it is an empty city.  A wonderful infrastructure, but that infrastructure is only supporting sand.  As in, literal sand.

There are so many bricks that don't fit here, you can actually see the sand underneath them.  And the sand is voracious.


When I arrived, I was greeted by a Lon Chaney type...only more Arabic and less talkative.

 

His name is Sharif, and after a twenty minute ride (in complete silence), he pulled in front of Falcon Towers, next to Al Maktoum Road.  We stepped into the elevator (meanwhile, I'm sweating like my body no longer cared about water...and every instinct of mine said "Now's the time...run...run") and then it opened onto the 16th floor.  He unlocked the door, threw a key at me, and said "3 tomorrow."  I had no idea what he meant.  When I scoped out the joint, this is what I saw:

Downtown Dubai, from a vantage point rarely seen.  On the left is the tallest building in the world, Burj Dubai.  On the right is where the "soon to be" tallest building in the world will be.   Dubai is fighting itself.  Las Vegas would never do that (unless you watched "The Cooler").

Sharif meant that I had an appointment at the office at 3pm.  But he wasn't really that good with English, and I wasn't that good at understanding his accent.  My appointment was essentially an introduction to Ramadan:  Don't drink water in public; don't eat in public; stop wearing shorts...for god's sake, don't you have better clothes?

No, Sir, I don't have better clothes.