Posted on 02/27/2006 10:16:08 AM PST by bayourant
http://www.indepundit.com/archive2/2006/02/donat_dump_on_d.html# Don’t Dump on DubaiDECEMBER 1997 – I’m not quite halfway through my second deployment to the Middle East, when the ship pulls into port for some hard-earned liberty. It’s a chance for us to unwind after several weeks on patrol in the Gulf, and maybe get some Christmas shopping done.
My buddy Eric and I catch a shuttle bus into town from the port, then take hire a cab to take us to the gold souq. When we arrive, we find ourselves blasted by blinding yellow light, reflected off the 21 karat gold chains hanging in the shop windows. We browse for a while, rubbing elbows with businessmen and sheiks buying trinkets for their wives. But most of the wares are way out of our price range.
We wander out the back end of the gold souq, into the labyrinthine passages of the spice souq. This is what most people imagine an Arab city looks like – narrow, zigzagging passageways, lined with stalls and shops selling exotic foods and spices. Eric picks up some saffron for his wife; I buy a bag of pistachios. Eventually we find our way back to one of the main streets.
“That was fun,” I tell Eric, “But I still need to get some gifts to send home to my family.”
“Yeah, me too.” Eric replies. “Let’s go to the mall.”
We hail a cab, and tell the driver to take us to Deira City Centre. A few minutes later, we arrive. It’s a mega mall, much like you’d find in any major city in America. Arabs, Europeans, Africans, and Asians form a mass of humanity that pulses in and out of hundreds of shops, laden with bags of freshly-purchased treasure. Oddly, the mall is decorated for Christmas. There’s no Santa Claus or nativity scene, but red and green trim, twinkling lights, and artificial evergreen trees (complete with fake snow) abound. You’d never guess that this was an Arab city, just a few weeks before the Islamic Holy Month of Ramadan.
I find a few knick-knacks to send home to the family: a small bronze vase, a tea kettle, a brass oil lamp. Then I wander into a music store. I pick out a CD for my wife: Alanis Morisette’s Jagged Little Pill, complete with a sticker warning of “explicit lyrics.”
I meet back up with Eric outside a carpet shop. He’s found an advertisement for a restaurant that boasts, of all things, “the best Texas-style barbeque in the Gulf.” We have to check it out.
We catch a cab back downtown, and make our way to the address listed on the advertisement. The restaurant is on the top floor of a hotel. Unfortunately, it doesn’t open for another half hour. We stand outside the closed doors, debating whether we should wait here, or come back later.
“Oh, hey guys,” a man says in a California accent. “Do you want some beers?”
“Huh?”
“The restaurant opens at six,” our new friend tells us, “But I’ll open the bar early for you guys. I’m Brian, the manager. You guys Navy?”
“Uh, yeah.” I reply, still somewhat confused. “Did you say you’re the manager?”
“Yup.” He unlocks the door and shows us to the bar. We sit down, and he pushes a basket of peanuts our way. We start munching on the peanuts as he pours a couple of tall, cold beers for us. “Just throw the shells on the floor,” he tells us. “Adds to the atmosphere.”
We gulp down the beers as Brian tells us his story. He had been a professional DJ in California, when he got an offer to do an international tour. The money was too good to pass up. He ended up in Dubai, where he hooked up with a lovely English ex-pat, and never looked back. They married, and he got a job as the afternoon DJ on a pop radio station, and later a second gig managing a couple of restaurants.
“I know this sounds crazy,” he tells us, “But I love it here. We live like royalty. This is a truly cosmopolitan city. There’s so much to do. Did you know,” he asks, “That the PGA Tour comes here every year? We also get a lot of big-name concerts. People come from all over the Middle East to catch shows here, and spend money. We also get a lot of tourists from Europe during the winter. There’s almost no street crime. I feel safer walking down the street here than in any major city in America.”
“How long you been here?” I ask.
“Almost five years. I usually go back to the States once a year, during the summer. Just to visit friends, and get away from the monsoon.” He explains. “We get a lot of Navy guys in this joint. Only place in Dubai you can get ribs.”
“Pork ribs?”
“Yup.”
“Is that legal?”
“Sure. I have to put up a sign on the door, in Arabic and English, warning that we serve pork products. But they’ve never given me any grief about it.” He lowers his voice to a whisper. “In fact, some of my Arab friends have even dropped by to sample the wares.”
“Really?”
“Really. This is a very different kind of place than Saudi.”
“I kind of gathered that,” I reply, “from the Christmas decorations in the mall. We’ve also seen that there’s a lot of bars and restaurants that cater to western clientele. But what happens during Ramadan? Don’t they make you shut down?”
“No, they just tell us to keep the music down.”
“So you can still serve beer? And pork?”
“That’s right.”
“Amazing.”
But that’s Dubai. This tiny city state at the southern end of the Persian Gulf, one of seven that make up the United Arab Emirates, is without a doubt one of the most free-wheeling, westernized cities in the Islamic world. Dubai is all about money: making it, banking it, and spending it. Unlike most Arab states, Dubai gets less than 10 percent of its gross income from oil revenue. Instead, this emirate has established itself as a center of banking, investment, tourism, commerce, and trade. In this sense, Dubai more closely resembles Zurich, Hong Kong, or Singapore than Riyadh, Damasus, or Cairo Most of the trade in the emirate passes through either the port of Bur Dubai, or the much larger man-made port in the Jebel Ali Free Trade Zone. It is also a frequent port of call for U.S. Navy ships, from the smallest frigates to the gargantuan nuclear aircraft carriers.
Am I concerned about Dubai Ports World taking over the franchise to operate certain ports in America? Not at all. And neither should you be. The same union employees will still be running the cranes and forklifts, and the same Coast Guard and Customs officials will still be running the port security.
I’ve been there eight times. The Dubai ports are clean, safe, and efficiently run. The U.S. Navy runs its own port security operation when our ships are in port, in cooperation with the UAE military. I’ve worked port security in high-threat environments, most notably for eight months in Kuwait during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Port operations has very little to do with port security. They do talk to each other, but mostly about shipping schedules. Port operations are about operating cranes and forklifts. Port security is about patrolling the land and water, and inspecting cargo. The difference is not trivial.
I am concerned, however, by the knee-jerk, anti-Arab reaction of certain pundits and politicians on both the Right and the Left. You know who you are. I’m sure you’re not racists, but then again, I didn’t hear any of you complaining when the British were running those same ports.
Regardless of how you might feel about the ports deal, please don’t dump on Dubai. They are our friends – and when you treat our friends this way, you only end up helping our enemies. If Americans can’t learn the difference between Dubai and Damascus, we don’t stand a snowball’s chance in the desert of defeating Islamic terrorism.
I wouldn't call anyone who votes agasint us 95% of the time at the UN our "friends".
Like he says if we cant tell the difference between Damacus and Dubai we dont stand a chance of winning the WOT. They have done alot more than alot of our so called NATO allies have done for all their grand talk
I wish I was back in Dubai. Thanks for posting this. Hope the kill-all-the-Ayrabs people don't show up.
"I wouldn't call anyone who votes agasint us 95% of the time at the UN our "friends"."
hi, do you have a listing of these votes?
And Dubai is one heck of a lot of fun.
The truth will prevail.
Oh, you know they will.
And they've obviously never been to Dubai. ;-)
Trying to find something other then silly cartoons now?
I am sure they will. Its quite tragic to see a mentality among Americans thats about as limited as the extremist muslims we see on TV. About every posting I have seen from a freeper or from bloggers that have lived there have come to the conclusion that this anti UAE nonsense is wrong and might hurt us in the end. But in the end it means nothing for some reason. I didnt know till yesterday that the UAE had forces in Afghanistan helping us for goodness sake.
LOL. You took that troll post for your tagline. LOL.
So what, this guy had a nice time on leave and now everything's kewl? What a joke. This dude is basing his opinion on the outward face that Dubai shows. Whether or not they are a reliable ally should never be based on how many TGI Fridays that they have in country. Geeze...
Countries I've been to.
The kneejerk politicos and pundits are already back-peddling on this.
The whole way it was written (AND the response) just really got my funny bone.
LOL
I jhave heard it was fun. I had a close friend that lived their he was from India but had lived their all his life. He loved it.
I completely agree with this guy. I have been to Dubai twice with two different MEU's. The security was better there than Singapore, Hong Kong, and Perth Austrailia. Dubai is a beautiful city, we were treated great, and never had any problems. During one of our port visits, it happened to be Rahmadan, On the pier that we were tied to we had a Carl's Junior, Pizza Hut, Beer tent, and an Arab who sold what we called Ahmed tacos. We had to stay on the pier untill sunset, then we could go into Dubai. I enjoyed both visits.
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