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Aaaj (today) 10th September 2007 (Sha'ban 28, 1428)
I wrote the below words a long time ago, possible in January 2006. I reproduce them here. They are Dubai-centric, reflecting the six year long association I had with Dubai as well as my current fascination with its culture (and / or lack of it!!!)
Bit # 1
There is a rule in Dubai (or should I should use the past tense here?) that men who molested women had their photographs published in the newspaper. This gradually came to an end and now that I think of it, I cannot recall seeing such a photograph for a very long time! Have men stopped molesting women? I plan to write to Gulf News (Letter To The Editor) re this. Let's see what happens. (Prakash's note: in the good old days, when bad guys molested women, the women shouted "haraam". The men were duly arrested and to prevent a recurrence as well as to shame the guy into becoming a good lad, the authorities used to publish the offender's photograph prominently in the newspapers. One day that suddenly stopped for reasons unknown. Soon Dubai's streets were crawling with whores of all dimensions and colours. Maybe the good guys are now pawing the bad women?)
Bit # 2
There he was, cruising in his pickup truck at the unearthly hour of 3 am one Friday. It was a very foggy night. What speed he was driving at is not known. Maybe he didn't notice that traffic had come to a halt in front of him. His truck slammed into the vehicle in front and he died on the spot. He was Balaji Kamble of Gulf News. He was transporting the day's Gulf News to Abu Dhabi. Blood and newspapers lay strewn on the road.
What is very strange is that the next day, after he had been well and truly dead for nearly nineteen hours, and his body was still lying in the morgue, someone at 10 pm local time, used his ATM card and withdrew his life's savings!!
The police investigated. They didn't get very far because the bank sheepishly admitted that its security camera was not working.
Has mankind become so callous that money has become the prime mover in society?
Bit # 3
They poured oil on the roads and then performed stunts with their cars which slithered hither and thither. When the police arrived, these young lads (most of them UAE nationals) threw stones at the police car. The cops (though armed with guns) calmly noted down the registration numbers of the cars (all the while being pelted with stones). The next day eight of the youth were arrested and thrown into jail. They were collectively fined a little over Dh.1000 for damaging the police car.
This is a first for Dubai. It has never happened before. Or, alternatively, it has happened before but the papers just never got to write about it. In any case, it is a new dimension in the city.
Bit # 4
The Guinness Book Of Records states (or used to state when I blogged this) that the country with the largest shortage of women in the world is the UAE. And the Gulf News of 2nd April tells us that the divorce rate may be a staggering 80% with UAE men divorcing UAE women and then remarrying expat non-national women.
Someone wrote to Gulf News (Letters To The Editor) that "the laws in the UAE make it easy for a person to get a divorce. In particular, a man can walk into a court and file for a divorce and get it without his spouse even knowing about it"!!!
Shortage of women and surplus of divorces. Just don't go hand in hand, do they? Clearly there's something is wrong somewhere. Which hole should we look into to investigate the answer?
Bit # 5
Many year ago there was this Italian con man who would go around Dubai in a Fiat Punto. He would claim that he was broke and that he had no money to return to Italy and would then offer, at a throw away price, a designer suit that was lying in back seat. The person who purchased the suit at "a throw away price" would soon realize that he had been had and the suit was a cheap imitation. This Italian became notorious and there were sightings of him everywhere. The police tried to nab him but in vain. Then one day this scam suddenly stopped. Possibly the Italian had made his million dollars or dirhams or lire or whatever and had retired to the French Riviera. Who knows? (And who says that crime doesn't pay?)
Bit # 5
A novel scam that did the rounds of Dubai some time ago: (reproduced from Gulf News)
" Recently, a driver stepped out of his car and asked me the location to a building. During our conversation, he pointed to a Dh. 500 note lying on the road and asked me whether it belonged to me. When I replied in the negative he took the money and told me we could share it, Dh. 300 for him and Dh. 200 for me. He wanted me to take the Dh. 500 note and give him Dh. 300. I believe it was a counterfeit note. Beware of such tricks."
Or maybe it wasn't a counterfeit note! In today's "ANDY CAPP" cartoon, Andy asks his wife for a loan. "A loan? Whatever happened to the tenner I gave you this morning?" asks his wife. "There was this guy collecting for charity on High Street. I must have dropped it, running up the alley to avoid him" Andy replies.
The trends in Dubai are disturbing, my friends. Human nature is disturbing.
Stay tuned!
