Dubai, the Rise and...

30 years ago I landed in this place and I literally grew with it. Everyone who spent as much time here as I have would tell you that Dubai was growing a bit better off in certain areas and getting slightly worse off in others year by year.

Nothing strikes as more astounding though as the change of the last 4 years. With the hyper buildings, rapid change of leadership and policies, Dubai marched on with areas a lot better off and in some people's opinions got a lot worse off in others.

The last 6 months cannot be called anything but "confusion".

Rules and regulations in this unregulated supposedly free haven sprang weekly if not daily, all disconnected and unorganized that chaos was certainly the name of the game. Standards of living took a nose-dive in restaurants, government service agencies, banks, hotels, taxis, the works. Everything was worse delivered and much more expensive, and crowded. Very few could focus on the better off now, as most are shell shocked by the sheer velocity of changes, most of which are widely perceived as negative. The dubai lifestyle for one thing was beaten to a pulp. Crowd rules are in play.

Those of you who lived here a mere 10 years ago will actually have so much to talk about regarding "the good old days". My favourite was cruising down the beach road and wondering why would they charge 5000 dirhams a year for a beach club membership when the best beaches are all over and free? When a dubai police car stopped you, you were either messing about and possibly drunk, or they just wanted to chat about your car's performance figures and maybe give you a couple of tips about a good garage.

Remember when the watchman, otherwise called "Natoor", was actually a residential building's version of an office lad? Guard the place, wash the car, clean up the whole building daily, mind the swimming pool and gym facilities, and maybe pick up some light shopping from the grocery next door that has a tab open with your name and apartment number, one that you'ld settle without hassle nor delay at the beginning of each month.

Such things always made it possible to have plenty of time for the beach (as long as we were away from the 5 months of hell). Sometimes it would be a month and the beach gear wouldn't even leave the car for a cleanup. You never fought for a place, as a matter of fact you sought company, and in Dubai company was good, sharing drinks, barbe, and stories.

Most of all, everybody was working around 5 comfortable days a week, and were making good money.

So what exactly got into the dishdasha's thick heads in power, that things needed to change?!

*shrug*