Tribute to Dubai, The Dreamer

My mother-in-law once said to me before I left my home country to work in Dubai. She said, "Hujan emas di negeri orang, tapi tak akan sama di negeri sendiri". I am not sure whether I quote her right but it sounds something like that. I was so pre-occupied with the prospect of leaving my home country for new opportunities, still, I understood her message. She tried to remind me of who I am and where I really belong. A wise and conservative woman, she is.

I am always uneasy with my father-in-law. That man is full of hot air and I have to limit my time around him so that I don't reach to the point that I get pissed off with his cowboy's mentality. In my numbered and very brief conversation that I had with him, I recalled him saying, "Di situ bumi dipijak, di situlah langit dijunjung". I did not really pay much attention of what he was babbling about back then. But I only realized months later when I was already working in Dubai that he was tipping me off something valueable about living abroad. It is about an expatriate's obligation to respect the host country, the people and their way of life.

It is so convenient to condemn and criticize the things one sees in Dubai which can be perceived as politically and ethically inappropriate compared to how things are in other places around the world. I have many expatriate friends who complained about this and that. Hearing too much of the complaining and bad-mouthing, it seems to me these people are so unhappy but I wonder why they are still here. I thought of what my father-in-law had said and decided that I should make the best of my stay here and channel my energy positively by being appreciative and focussing on opportunities so that I have limited time to complain.

At this writing, it is reported globally, that Dubai is crumbling down after it has sought for a standstill in paying the debts of its major players until May next year. There are people reacting in a clumsy way, pushing the unnecessary panic buttons. There are critical people criticizing the inappropriate and untimely manner of how the communication of such financial distress was done. Well, I say Dubai is no ordinary dreamer. Unlike its big brother, Abu Dhabi, which is richer and more conservative, Dubai has less natural resources but is very ambitious and adventurous. It has made big plans and pushed the limit to make them happen. For such a fast-pacer, trend-setter and risk taker, there is a price to pay. The fact that Dubai has stumbled and faced financial difficulty, does not mean that Dubai is sinking like the mythical Atlantis, though ironically, Dubai has built one at the tip of Palm Jumeira. These hardships are like any other life issues that one has to overcome. It is like hiccups that require some time to recover after gulping a glass of desalinated water. But to say that Dubai is collapsing or crumbling down is sensationally driven, pre-mature and unfair. I have lived almost 2 years here to tell that there are  many willful and extraordinary people in Dubai, who love and very much attached to this place, and who would do wonder to turn things around.

In the mean time, life is business as usual for many of us. We are having the double celebrations, the Eid al-Adha and 38th UAE National Day on the 2nd December. The cinemas are visited by the New Moon fanatics, the parks are packed with families, the beaches are littered with half-naked people and the mosques are patronized by believers.