What I learned in Dubai

Marie and I went to a couple of different places for our honeymoon.  Dubai was one of them.

I didn’t know much about Dubai.  I couldn’t point to it on a map, didn’t know if women needed to cover their faces, or if it was really safe.  I had heard some good things like it was rich and growing and had the tallest building in the world.

After my visit I felt like it was the flowering of humanity.  5000 years of human progress suddenly mushrooming out of the earth.  Complete wonder.

I’m in awe.  Even after seeing it and asking a lot of questions, I still don’t quite get it.  I’ll talk about the parts I think I do understand.

There’s more than I can say in one post, so I’ll split it up into parts.  How many parts?  We’ll see!

In this part I’ll give you the rough basics.  (I’m not a precise historian, and don;t have time to be, so don’t get caught up in my approximations)

 In the early part of the last century, Dubai was a city-state along the northwest corner of the Indian Ocean between the Middle East and Asia and the main industry was pearl diving.  (Mikimoto developed cultured pearls in Japan and wiped out the pearl diving industry in Dubai in 1929.)  It was poor and dusty and struggling.  It was a British colony so along with so many other languages from nearby, people spoke English. (I met one guy who speaks 12 languages).

The Sheik who ruled asked Britain for permission to build an airport and they told him no, they didn’t need one. (Heathrow airport in London was the busiest airport in the world at the time.)  He persisted and eventually they gave him permission, with the first runway opening in 1965.

Britain eventually gave up Dubai and left.  

Here’s where things get interesting.  There were other city states bordering Dubai, such as Abu Dhabi, 85 miles southwest along the gulf of the Persian Gulf.  They had their own leaders.  Instead of competing or fighting with these other territories, they decided to join together and formed the United Arab Emirates, now comprised of 7 states.  

Usually when this is considered they fight over who will be the leader and where will be the capital and it doesn;t work.  But the leaders put their egos aside and realized there were far more benefits for the people to be gained. To me, this was big. Abu Dhabi became the capital.

They had little resources but began working to make a plan.  

I thought Dubai was all oil money – and yes, there was oil in Dubai for 10-12 years, but they ran out.  Abu Dhabi has lots of oil and gas, but it’s the only state to have it.

Dubai decided to make itself a tourist destination so they had a future as the old ran out.  And they went big.

Real big.  

The biggest ever.

To be continued…