Started in Dubai...ended in Qatar. A Feminine Analogy.

-Brother, look at those two females…

-Which ones are you referring to?

Right there, standing adjacent to one another, the blonde one and the dark haired one... that woman behind the window curtain is standing at their back sides, can you view them clearly?

-Oh yes, yes, I see them clearly. What’s the issue with that female behind the curtains?

-I don’t know man, I can’t see her face but I think her male companion is standing next to her so f’ that. Seriously dude, the blonde and the brunette, those girls are the talk of the town and we need to check them out, are you up for it?

-Yah, I guess so…let’s find out who they are first, my brother, Amir, knows everybody at this party!

-Dude, are we going to have to listen to him talk about his trip to Dubai and Qatar again?

-Yah dude, he will probably talk about his travels for a bit, just to let us know he is all worldly, then he will introduce us to the females, don’t worry.

Amir: Ok guys, Dubai has two things worth talking about. Well, maybe there are more than two haha but I was only there for three days and I was so messed up the entire time I don’t remember much haha, you feel me. Dubai is awesome.

            Gentlemen, let me tell you about Dubai Mall. Dubai Mall is the biggest mall in the world, the f’ing biggest! It has the biggest indoor fish tank in the world and has the most department stores under one roof than any other mall ever! Anywhere!  I saw stores for every brand you can think of, Gucci, Prada, Armani, Zara, you name it. If it’s famous and expensive and screams opulence with ear piercing astuteness, this mall most positively allows for its spontaneous consumption. I spent so much money in this place it’s not even funny. Seriously, I’m not laughing.

            The stores are great, the variety is amazing, but the real treat is the eye candy. Western women strut around flaunting their skin like it’s a fashion show designed by Hannibal Lector. I’m talking lower backs, upper thighs, chests and much more. It’s all on display for the dollar in Dubai Mall. You just have to look fly and look expensive and you’ll make Dubai happen. Ok so after you get pimped out at the mall, hit up the Gold Souk.

            The Gold Souk. Miles of shiny glass windows protecting shiny gold trinkets and jewels all sparkling and shimmering with extravagance. This isn’t your standard jewelry store, brothers. And in Dubai, nothing seems to be standard, that’s just the rule. Further down the street in the Creek Area of Dubai is the rest of the souk. Vendors on top of vendors. Shops on shops. Shoulder to shoulder bustle and hustle. Fake Rolex, fake designer bags, cheap clothes, anything you can think of that should be expensive and hard to find is here. Even sex. Yah, just walk around for a bit, you’ll get asked to visit with some ladies if you know what I mean.

           

            Qatar is different than Dubai. The city is calmer and didn’t seem to be as crazy. But like Dubai, they’re loaded. Oil money to spare and then some. I’ll start with Education City. Qatar has brought in a couple of big name American Universities to service its young aspiring minds. They pour huge amounts of black gold profits into this palace like compound of the liberal arts and needless to say the facilities are decedent. The Qatar Foundation utilizes its enormous pocketbook to bring in academic personas from around the globe. Cutting edge debates often occur and BBC World often televises them. It’s really invigorating. The souk in Doha is also pretty cultured. The shops tend to carry historically significant items like Kanjars and Abayas. They even sell falcons! You can get traditional shwarma right off the street or you can live it up some designer restaurants, right in the souk! The souk itself looks really old and exactly what I pictured an Arabian souk to look like. It’s so clean and well organized too! Doha has had some real genius’ help with their city planning. Obviously some body has been thinking about sustainability in this place!

           

-       That’s all great Amir. You’re such a worldly guy and you’ve been to some great places. But I was wondering if you could tell Fareed and me about those two girls standing over there by the curtains. Do you know them?

Uhhh, ya, wow, I do. That’s Debra and Quaniqua. What do you want with those two?

-       They seem really cool; we just want to know about them, can you help us?

Yes. I dated both of them last year. They’re sisters. Seemingly different on the outside, but in reality, quite similar. I’ll start with Debra. You know that type of girl…  the one everybody talks about like she is some rare goddess of beauty.  Her allure always precedes her presence. Everybody says how posh and en-vogue her style is, and how alluring her body is. Her golden blonde hair just shimmers on a beautiful day, her clothes are perfectly tailored as they compliment her every curve. Man, I could just trace her lines with my eyes all day and never even have to say a word. Really, a stunning woman, a true work of art, nothing else like her. But I know first hand, she’s easy. Easily understood and easily taken advantage of. She just doesn’t have much in the way of a personality or any self-confidence for that matter. That’s why we broke up. She slept with some guy who drove a Ferrari and owned his own trading company. Way out of my league. Man, what I wouldn’t give for just one more weekend alone with her.

            Now Quaniqua, she’s a force to be reckoned with. Still a decent looking girl but she has other priorities to be considered. Both these girls get a lot of money from daddy and he pretty much pays all their bills. But, Quaniqua, is a little older and she’s not only gainfully employed, but she’s got a couple college degrees in her resume. This girl is all about educating herself at foreign universities and setting a concrete foundation for her future. In fact, she’s so concerned with getting degrees from abroad and accruing international academic merits that I’m pretty sure she lost her innate sense of self a long time ago. She isn’t all that concerned with looking lavish and opulent but she does ok. All I know is I couldn’t keep up with all the time she spent studying and hanging out with her family, they have a click that just didn’t welcome me no matter how much time we spent together, I just wasn’t good enough. I felt like an outsider in her own little world.

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             Dubai and Qatar are like two teenage sisters who have grown up in the same house, the Gulf region of the Middle East, and with the same ability to fall back on and utilize natural wealth as a means of achieving their respective visions.

            Dubai’s reputation precedes a visit there just like the reputation of a stunningly beautiful woman in a small community often precedes and intimidates a conversation with her. Brand Dubai is presented to the entire world as place where anything is achievable and all are welcome to their wildest dreams. When in reality most things are achievable and only for the steepest prices. In Dubai as with shallow beautiful women, money opens the door and has the potential to break the ice, or cultural barriers. Essentially, money in Dubai trumps nationality as well as intentionality. Massive daunting structures of the most cutting edge architectural design punctuate the Dubai skyline and give merit to a seemingly divine cityscape, but there’s nothing inside these behemoth mountains of steel and glass. ‘For rent’ and ‘open space available’ signs dot the largest and most extravagant buildings all over the city. Just like a beautiful woman can capture a man’s eye and set him on a whimsical journey through the cavernous bowels of his desirous mind, so too can Dubai’s physical landscape serve as a masterpiece for creating unsatisfied yearning at the expense of those who are monetarily less endowed. Empty marvels of architectural flawlessness display soulless charisma and allude to the lackluster personality of a woman in search of the bigger and better deal as a means of gaining widespread attention. Dubai has used its vast oil wealth to garner a vision as the Middle East’s trading center. They have been successful, but at some cost. Culture and genuine personality are hard to find in Dubai, as the almighty dollar seems to have cast a cloak of steel makeup over any semblance of historical grounding. Why is Dubai like this? How did these buildings get here? Who cares, it looks enthralling and pumps money from the ground into the sky! This kind of woman is enticing and if you have the right moves and the right riches to keep her satisfied anything is possible. However, just like anyplace or anyone with whom money has the ability to push the limits, poverty has the ability to set the lowest bar. And in Dubai, the disparity between the opulence you see in the clouds and what really exists behind the walls of places like the Gold Souk is greatly disappointing for a region of the world with so much potential.

            There is no brand Qatar. Like a well-educated and self-respecting woman, Qatar does not feel the need to make itself into a gimmick consisting of wild fantasies in order to sell itself to the entire world as a playground for the rich and lustful. Qatar’s self-confidence is evident in its ability to promote its worth based on hard earned academic and investment accreditation rather than empty physical characteristics. There are a few skyscrapers modeling across Doha’s skyline and they are not by any stretch of the imagination, behemoth. In twenty-seven years, Qatar’s ability to garner international investment in Doha will be sufficient to sustain the country without the existence of oil wealth. Qatar has clearly worked hard to ensure a sustainable future for its self.

            Education City is just one example of this foresight. However, Qatar’s vision to be the educational cornerstone of the world has also come at some cost. Rather, they have become somewhat of a steppingstone for universities like Georgetown and Carnegie Melon to utilize their abroad campuses as an international service hub for a more ‘wordly’ perception of themselves. The question of whom these American universities abroad really serve is still up in their air.

            When it comes to the academically paranoid, one of two scenarios exists. We can feel the need to take shortcuts and risk originality for the sake of efficiency, or the decision to forgo time-consuming life experiences is accepted in an effort to get work done. Qatar has done a little of both in its laborious attempt to fulfill its vision. I’m not saying that Qatar has cheated in the same sense that plagiarism is cheating, but they have taken some shortcuts and retarded some natural development. Education systems have the ability to determine the national identity of a nations youth. By importing higher education, Qatar has not allowed its own style of cultivating young minds to develop organically.  Just as the girl who educates herself abroad will inevitably take on the sensibilities of the places in which she studies, so to will Qatari students educated at Georgetown adopt an American centric view of their home and the world.

            There are roughly 200,000 Qatari citizens who receive benefits such as utilities payments, healthcare, automobile insurance and education from the government’s pocketbook. This is compared to the roughly 2,000,000 people living in Doha and the surrounding desert. This larger population is made up of mostly imported Indian laborers who build and run the gritty day to day in Qatar. Just as it is not entirely within a man’s control if his girlfriend’s family accepts him as their own, gaining access to this elite minority of benefited Qataris is relatively impossible. 

            Qatar is not Dubai’s sister. If anything, the two countries are like cousins whose parents derive their wealth from the same trust fund, oil. The biggest difference is in how the two sates have utilized oil wealth to carve a niche in the world. Dubai has used its wealth to create a sex appeal that attracts gaudy trade wealth and consumer insecurities. The need to spend and buy in Dubai is parallel with sightseeing. Qatar is doing a better job of creating a sustainable future, but it is still having some trouble finding its innate sense of self. For both places, some serious soul searching is definitely in order.