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Aneirin -> RE: Dubai wakeup call? (4/7/2009 7:03:56 PM)
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I have lived in Dubai, and have seen the places the immigrant workers live, it is certainly not those magnificent and daring buildings everyone marvels at, but as another said, it is the same everywhere. Take any city that prospers and offers an attraction to the wealthy, who is it that keeps everything moving, nought but the low paid workers who often work hard and receive more money despite the conditions than they would in their homeland. These people work damn hard, perhaps so hard given the conditions, that it would put many westerners to shame. But what is the alternative for the poorer countries, try and scratch out a living which is little more than basic survival in an over populated poor country with nothing to offer the foreigner's wealth, or go and work beneath the shining lights of places like Dubai and earn more than they could otherwise think of and send that money home to their family, or even attempt to rise from the gutter themselves by working hard in a place were they can get a job and improve their prospects.
Once in Dubai, I went to the fish suq, as we fancied fish, lovely fresh red snapper and a hefty bag of king prawns from the mornings catch and at a silly price too, almost a throw away price. Anyways, in the suq there in the centre was the fish cleaners, independant trades people who for a few dirhams would gut and clean the fish, shell the prawns and make everything ready to use. There he sat cross legged, a Bangladeshi, sitting there with the tools of his trade, the razor sharp fish cleaning knives between the toes of his feet, the toes making a superb if bizarre knife rack. Well, he got to work and in super fast time, he had expertly cleaned the fish, he spoke pretty good English, a language he had picked up through his employment, he asked us, if we wanted the heads leaving on, to which we replied no, so he removed the heads and put them in a basket at his side, but the entrails and stuff went down a hole in the ground, the hole being a hygenic way of diposing of waste, the Dubai new fish suq had machinery in place to ensure hygene and believe me, they are shit hot on hygiene in Dubai. Ok, so noticing this basket, we asked him why the heads had not gone down the sluice, at that point he looked all apologetic and said he would put them down the hole if we wanted that, we enquired further and it was that he kept the heads as a perk of the job, that, is what he ate, fish heads and other salvageable fish parts. Fancy that, fish heads for dinner, now that is scratching the bottom of the barrel. I asked him where he was from, and he said Bangladesh, where he had a family with five dependants, whom he saw once a year, when he could afford to travel home to see his family and that was not flying, but paying a passage on one of the rickety old sambuks that trade around the region, many are lost with no one to know, out there, it is a cruel world. Did he like his job, he loved it, he was on big money in Dubai, more than he could think to earn in his homeland, the more money he had, the bigger family he could have, and family is wealth. So, this guy, who sat cross legged, his calloused and cracked feet clutching razor sharp blades got approximately UK £0.04 per customer and had the perk of fish heads to eat, and he believed he was wealthy by comparison to most in his homeland, just shows what a rich life we lead, all of us, are we right to condemn the places like Dubai when to the poorer parts of the world, Dubai is a labour heaven and a means to escape extreme poverty, where the option to working in Dubay is possible starvation ?
But as far as the UAE nationals are concerned, all I have to say, is what a gracious , friendly and hospitable people they are, all of them, even the ones far away from the bright lights, the ak47 toting camel farmers out in the desert. Oh, there is nothing like warm frothy milk complete with hairs served in not so clean glasses straight from the camel. In fact I can honestly say, I never came across anyone who differed from the gracious, friendly national whilst I was out there. The rule is simple, treat others how you would be like to be treated yourself and everything will be rosy. Being a guest in anothers country, it always helps to abide by that country's code of conduct and customs, doing that, is showing respect, and you will be thanked for it, abuse their standards, then the abusers will only mess it up for future travellers And there we always see what happens to westerners who mess up, something which taints oppinion to a country never seen.
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