Keeping it Real

Only 70 years ago, Dubai was a sleepy pearl fishing village. A few huts on the edge of the water and that was about it. It was a time when the Bedouin way of life was predominant. Tribal rule, camels, sand - a little bit like Lawrence of Arabia, but less exciting (surely).

Today, ask anyone with a healthy TV habit and they will be able to tell you that Dubai is the "Las Vegas of the Middle East". Bright lights, fast cars and lots 'o the money.

Walking around the central business district in April reminds me of doing the same in Houston, Texas in July - minus the oak trees.
It's got that same "we got rich quick on some oil" feel to it.
And like in Texas, (or Louisiana) there is a very conscious effort to retain some of the authentic cultural heritage that makes the locals, well, localish. Texas has rodeos and "Cowboy City"; Louisiana has the Acadian Village and the Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Dubai has it's own Heritage Village and, among other things, shopping malls. Yes, they put heritage up anywhere they can.
This past Ramadan, there was a heritage show scattered among the retail outlets of the new Dubai Festival City shopping mall.

It featured the kinds of reconstitutions that you can see in some American Indian reservation museums, and displays like the ones at Acadian Village in Lafayette, La. Lifesized, mechanized effigies of horses, camels and their riders inhabited papier maché houses, and sold their wares in front of cardboard storefronts. But the culture and heritage was infused with modernity.

Shoppers could take a break to catch up on email in the hot spot in front of the Arabian Horse/Falcon display. Or you could sip your Starbuck's while examining the intricate creek life exhibit in the central plaza/food court.

These displays showed men in impeccable dish dashes (traditional white robes) and women in elaborate abayas and shelas (black robes and head scarves) in these "old-fashioned" living quarters and market places. Today, Dubai houses are sparkling mansions and markets are state-of-the-art malls with indoor ski-slopes, but the dish dashes and abayas are still the same.

The contrast between the old and the new is still palpable. The camel farmers live 20 minutes outside of the city. You frequently see a camel in the back of a truck with a colorful hand knitted muzzle on its nose, streaking down the highway between the skyscrapers.

The fishermen still repair nets on the beach. They sit in front of elaborate waterfront palaces, strings held between their toes as they examine the knots in their nets and scrutinize the bikinis strolling by along the edge of the water.

After watching the Discovery Channel extreme engineering report on how the Burj Al Arab was built on a man made island and was designed to resemble a sail boat, many people feel that everything built in Dubai is fake, a mere reconstitution of culture (or a ski slope). But that very reconstitution of the old among the new is the REAL Dubai. That's what Dubai is, for real.