Dubai is an interesting place. There are many, many foreigners there. This includes lots of women that go clubbing every night, European women, usually in small groups. They are what I call “kept women”. They are there at the behest of their Arab sugar-daddies, that pay for them to be around when it’s desirable to have a beautiful young woman on their arm. They don’t want to marry them, or live with them, they just want them around. Obviously these men have a lot of money.
That hotel in the picture is supposedly the world’s only six-star hotel. It’s head-and-shoulders above everything else, anywhere. I hear they have a great brunch, and though it costs way over a hundred bucks to visit the hotel for brunch it’s worth it.
The roads are all dusty with a very fine dust from the desert. There are lots of fancy cars and fabulous apartments. The labor force is almost all foreigners. The local men dress in white robes with black headbands; a “Dishdashah”.
http://www.traderscity.com/abcg/pic1.htm
Dubai is a big playground for Europeans — lots of vacationers there from the EU. Lots of clubs, all with alcohol of all kinds. Many clubs are frequented by foreign prostitutes, and alcohol is available in all of them.
Despite all this it doesn’t surprise me that they have such a low tolerance for drugs. The locals are hypocrites of the highest order. They also have a very different view of women, and women tourists should always travel in groups to avoid being assaulted and raped by local men who think their western dress means they are fair game for anything, including kidnapping and rape.
The article does suprise me in the sense that the evidence is so flimsy — makes me think these people were selected for extra screening for some reason — maybe they suspected they were Jewish (no that’s not a joke). The customs there is not any different than most places, at least to the extent I have seen.
I know a graduate TA at my university who’s been to Dubai and all over the Middle East. She says the people in the UAE, Dubai especially, loved Americans.