divineguitar

Thinking about the city of Dubai tonight, and how a few days in that city will probably change my life forever.  I’m looking at splurging for a downtown 5 star hotel, The Palace – The Old Town, which is situated right between the biggest mall in the city and the Burj Khalifa, the tallest thing ever built by man.

Why the significance?, I think – heavens, This place represents hope, excess, the great divide in the haves and have nots, the disparities in genders, and the effects of oil. 

The old adage of PJ O’Roarke, my wealth has no implications on your poverty may ring true — so.  When the developed world buys oil in excess for 50 or so years, you have 5,000 or so sheiks with Range Rovers controlling the wealth, building all sorts of crazy things, all the while the investment seldom reaches the populous.

I hear stories of the places that are ‘friendly’ to men, The Cyclone or The York, which offers escorts by Russians or Ethiopians respectively.  Or, I hear stories of how the global recession has hit the transient working class — both workers and escorts, all coming to Dubai on ‘work visas’ to have their passports taken from them and sold into indebtedness and slavery, while the government turns a blind eye.  It truly is a sad tale of human evolution.

While I’m sitting at the posh hotel, what’s going to be going on in my head is, how does this place get so contemporary and progressive while such inconsistency exists — and then I answer my own question, throw enough money at something and it morphs into whatever you want.

My goal in life is trying to understand how disparities like this form and why they exist.