Amazing Susan
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Perfect Metaphor for Love-To-Hate-Dubai Debate

The Love-to-Hate-Dubai Debate rages on with yesterday’s excellent article by Linda Heard in Arab News entitled “Dubai-bashing becomes anart form” and a piece in the Gulf News reporting that:

The British government has distanced itself from the slanderous stories carried by some British newspapers that target Dubai in relation to the effects of the global financial crisis. British Foreign Office Spokesman John Wilkes described the criticism waged by the British press as “over exaggerated”.

“Dubai is not the only place that is affected by the global recession. The whole world is suffering,” Wilkes said in a press conference organised by the British Embassy and Dubai Press Club in Dubai on Tuesday.

Hey! What do you know? That’s the same thing I said three days ago (LOL!), and on which I exapanded yesterday.

Maybe I have a future with the British Foreign Service… I wonder if it matters that I’m Canadian… We are part of the Commonwealth, that should count for something. Hmmmm. Commonwealth? Hmmmm. Maybe it should be called the Commonwoe these days, what with the worldwide recession and all.

Coincidentally, AWR community member Wanda Sommerfeld from Calgary sent me some AMAZING (and obviously amateur photographs, so therefore highly unlikely to be doctored), this morning. They’re all of the Burj Dubai in the midst of a nighttime thunderstorm (or storms), possibly taken last week during which we experienced several such events.

PERFECT Metaphor

It struck me immediately (pun most definitely intended) that these images are a PERFECT visual metaphor for this whole Love-to-Hate-Dubai debate.

Here’s the world’s tallest building (which personally doesn’t do much for me, but never mind…), here it is, reaching into the heavens, in the midst of a violent thunderstorm. Of course it’s going to attract lightening. Of course it’s going to be hit. It dwarfs the sea of skyscrapers that surround it. It dares to reach for the stars.

Like the Burj in  thunderstorm, Dubai is bound to attract worldwide attention AND attacks. That’s part of the game. It’s what happens when you dare to do something different. Someone is invariably waiting in the wings, hoping you will crash and burn.

Why? perhaps out of jealousy or envy, perhaps because they themselves are too afraid to dare. Fear makes people bitter, twisted, small minded and prone to unbridled criticism and sensationalism, often thinly disguised as “objective” journalism. For a particularly inflammatory example of such in the Independent, click here.

As I sit here and type this, I’m looking at the Burj Dubai a kilometer or two away across Sheikh Zayed Road. A bank of clouds obscures its midsection; its spire still points heavenwards.

Maybe the lightening inflicted some damage, but I can’t see it from here. No doubt those who conceived and built this Burj made sure it’s sufficiently grounded, and therefore able to weather even the most violent storms.

A bit like Dubai really…. burj_lightening_2.jpeg

Posted by AmazingSusan