Seems to do us much good in the end.
I've got a cracked engine block, both of us do.
-The Mountain Goats, "Fault Lines"
During my recent visit to Dubai, I kept coming back to this song by the Mountain Goats. Dubai has everything and is a beacon of prosperity, but feels very empty. At the end of my first day there (last Friday), I was disgusted by what I saw. With all the money in the world, the shaykhs in Dubai had chosen to develop in the least-sustainable way possible. They have chosen a path which extinguishes any remnant of local culture, replacing it with grandiose hotels, giant air-conditioned malls, and a permanent underclass of Indians, Pakistanis, and Filipinos. I know that we Westerners can fetishize "local culture" and "authentic life" to an unrealistic degree, but I got no sense of history or connection with this land from what I saw in Dubai. The city was not built upon a unique place with a unique history and culture. A theme park of malls, hotels, and a monorail were thrown onto the place, covering anything that was there previously up. I wish I could've visited the area in 1930 or 1950, before DUBAI™ happened, because it was probably once a sight to behold.
I'm not a strict ideological environmentalist, but I do think a connection to one's environment is important, as is minimizing the damage one does to it. What's the opposite of minimizing damage and building a connection to the environment? In Dubai, you can pick from a few choices:
1. Air conditioned bus stops, kept at a cool 60 degrees:
2. A ski slope inside of a mall:
3. Air-conditioning set at 60 degrees everywhere
4. An underwater hotel
5. Building islands in the shape of things - palm trees, the world, and the universe. All destroying the natural coastline.
Something in Dubai is deeply wrong.
A few weeks ago, while taking a day trip to Ajloun in the north of Jordan, I told a friend that it didn't really matter if the bus actually got anywhere, because just driving around the beautiful green hills with the wind blowing was pretty much perfect. Dubai is the opposite of that. It's a city of attractions - the tallest tower, the biggest mall, the only 7-star hotel...It's everything I don't care about and don't want. The United Arab Emirates redeemed themselves slightly during our second day when we rented a car and drove into the mountains to the Indian Ocean, but ultimately I don't ever want to go back.
Yeah, the house, the jewels, the Italian race cars,
They don't make us feel better about who we are.
I got termites in the framework, so do you.
-The Mountain Goats, "Fault Lines"
Perhaps a better ending is the message I received from a friend who just arrived in Abu Dhabi, the emirate neighboring Dubai:
If the temperature and number of malls are any indicator… I think I may be in Hell.
Hahahahhaa.... holy guacamole.
ReplyDeleteThis is going to be a long month.
Great, passionate post.
Well, that was what wealth was spent on ten to twenty years ago, when environmental concerns were spoken by a minority. Now it seems that environmental concerns are spoken by the majority, so hopefully, change will come, especially in the places that have enough money to do it easily without affecting comfort level.
ReplyDeleteThey're still building extravagant and stupid things even in this recession and gas is still like 50 cents a gallon, so I'm not sure lessons are being learned. There is a new metro, but that can't offset the philosophy of consumption that the city embodies.
ReplyDeleteHow you have eyes wide open! This was great insight, especially knowing how my dear one is now 'seeing' the realities you are speaking of.
ReplyDeleteWhy do we not realize in our haste to modernize our world we ruin our futures.
We as Americans have done some of this surely, but some of us try to keep our eyes wide open.
You surely do!