No matter what the hacks say, Dubai is far from finished, writes Aijaz Zaka Syed* I landed in Dubai on a sunny February morning in 2002. By October 2003 I had bought my first car, a bright burgundy Toyota that still keeps me going. Buying that car, after countless incredibly frustrating driving tests meant realising the dream of a lifetime. I grew up with the dream of driving my own car since as long as I can remember -- from those teeny-weeny toy cars to cardboard models put together by an enterprising older cousin. I am not sure how long I would have waited back home in India to see that dream come true. Dubai fleshed it out within a year, or as soon as I got the licence to drive. Mine is not a rare story of an average Joe. This is the shared experience of faceless multitudes in this incredible city. This is the city of everyone's dreams. And it's full of people whose lives are a living tribute to their impossible ambitions. Of course, all great cities are full of dreamers with myriad tales of implausible achievements. But what makes Dubai stand out is its ability to fulfil the dreams of just about everyone. No matter where you come from and what you do, Dubai has a place and slice for you. After all, this city itself is the outcome of an ostensibly hopeless dream, a vision that has wowed the world and awed friends and foes alike. Today, that dream finds itself once again under attack -- attacks that get more vicious and virulent by the day. The knives are back. But the knives had always been there; hidden behind backs as sceptics waited for Dubai to falter. During the emirate's mindboggling construction boom that started with the new millennium, whenever you travelled around the world people would ask with a smirk, 'So how long is it gonna last?' When one indignantly protested that Dubai's boom was not a passing, accidental phenomenon, they would shake their heads, warning of the imminent bust ahead. And since the world woke up to the Wall Street meltdown, thanks to long years of bankrupt economic policies in Washington and its crazy and extravagant wars around the world, just about every pundit has been telling us that it's the end of the road for Dubai too. Dubai World's announcement last week seeking more time to restructure its $59 billion debt proved the proverbial straw on the camel's back. Western news networks and journalists are circling and attacking Dubai and the United Arab Emirates as hungry vultures would target a dying animal. Look at some of these Schadenfreude headlines. The Times of London once again led the attack by screaming: "Bling Central Loses Sparkle!" Rod Liddle, its star columnist, declared: "Dubai is wrecked but, like an old tart with a kiss-and-tell contract from the red-tops, threatens to drag the rest of us down with it." Elsewhere the paper posits: "Dubai is a monument to the excesses that gave us this global financial crisis." And we all thought the global crisis was sparked by the sub- prime circus in the United States! In another report, the paper vents its frustration over the poise and dignity of the emirate's leaders amid all this talk of gloom and doom: "Dubai keeps its head in the sand." The Times is not alone. The Observer declares: "Dubai's property bonanza just wasn't built to last." Another Observer report asks: "As Dubai crashes from wonder to blunder, who'll go down with it?" I can think of only one answer to all this endless and mindless bitching and carping about Dubai: Shut Up! Just shut up! That was the answer offered by the man who has been the architect of this miracle in the desert. For it's not just unfair but downright silly to suggest Dubai is finished just because one of its many companies has requested a rescheduling of its loan payments. This happens all the time in business. And one company doesn't make or mar Dubai. Have we forgotten how many mighty banks and legendary financial institutions in the United States, the UK and elsewhere have been savaged by the global meltdown? From Lehman Brothers, AIG to Citigroup in the US, and from the Northern Rock to Bear Stearns in the UK, many a giant has fallen from its hallowed perch. The United States and governments across Europe and Asia had to step in with massive stimulus packages to support their crisis-struck institutions. While the US pumped in a whopping $787 billion to rescue its financial institutions, the bailout for British banks hit �850 billion. Does this mean those countries are finished? This is a global crisis and Dubai and UAE are doing what governments elsewhere have done to deal with it. This is not a crisis of our making and is not special to Dubai or the UAE. One fleeting setback cannot undo all that the emirate has built over the years. This reality is not lost on our friends in the Western media. Only they choose to see what they want to see. They just can't stomach the fact that an Arab and Muslim country has demolished historical stereotypes to beat them at their own game. Ironically, the first among those rushing to pronounce Dubai dead are those who have benefited the most from the Arabian paradise. Overpaid Western expats, especially British, who have all these years enjoyed a secure, tax-free existence in their cocooned, luxury beach villas with their SUVs while Asian maids take care of their brood have been the first to carp and snigger about the end of the party. No sense of loyalty there whatsoever, even after decades spent enjoying the good life and sun and sand in Jumeirah. On the other hand, the South Asian Diaspora -- the people Johann Hari of The Independent calls "slaves in a sinister mirage" -- and Arabs and Africans are springing to Dubai's defence. They have reasons to get angry. After all, unlike their European counterparts, they have literally built the country. This has been home away from home. As long as the emirates are blessed with such hard-working, well-meaning people, I would like to believe there's hope for Dubai. A banker friend from Nepal wrote in this week: "The downgrade by the 'poor' Standards & Poor notwithstanding, Dubai stands as a beacon of Asian enterprise and chutzpah. If it folds up, it will be decades before our part of the globe will again be able to stand up to the West." While Madhukar's concern is appreciated, I believe Dubai will not just sail through this pocket of rough seas smoothly; it will emerge even stronger. The idea of Dubai will continue to bloom long after the wagging tongues of its detractors have fallen silent. Because the never-say-die spirit that gave birth to the phenomenon called Dubai and the UAE is as alive and vibrant as ever. The can-do spirit that started a revolution in a sleepy, desolate region once known for nothing else but the Empty Quarter is far from beaten and vanquished. Let Dubai's critics not forget that it has already accomplished in a span of just four decades what mighty nations with infinite resources at their disposal took centuries to build. Besides creating a peaceful and vibrant, multicultural society in a troubled region and its fabled property market, Dubai has established itself as the Middle East's commercial and financial hub and one of the top 20 such centres in the world. It is the third largest re-export hub in the world. Its airport is the fifth busiest in the world and its duty free is the largest and best airport retail operator. Its container port is the fourth largest port operator in the world, managing close to 50 ports in every part of the globe. These are just some of the things that come to mind. And remember, Dubai created all this out of thin air, without the riches of oil to back its sky-high ambitions. If you need to get an idea of the emirate's true contribution, just look around and see how many Dubai's have come up all over the Middle East and across the globe. They are a living, thriving tribute to this great city and its enterprising spirit. And they are the answer to its critics. Envy, jealousy and pure venom cannot kill an idea like Dubai. It will outlive its bitchy critics. * The writer is opinion editor of Khaleej Times .
