I met Julie at Dubai airport she was waiting for me in this large black KIA SUV. These are very popular in Dubai.
We drove from Dubai international airport to Dubai investment park away from downtown Dubai. We stopped at the frame which looks like a big goal post styled structure. There were massive queues all lined up waiting to enter the frame. Structure is rather Gordy green. Part museum with photographs of the early Dubai. Small fishing port and pearling village. Before the discovery of oil and gas which is now its major economic industry. We took the elevate to the very top to take in the views of Dubai. We walked across the glass see through floor. Which was rather disconcerting. To see the floor way down below.
- Design & Structure: Designed by Fernando Donis, it features two 150-meter towers connected by a 95-meter bridge with a glass panel floor.
- Experience:
- Old Dubai: Views of Deira, Umm Hurair, and Karama.
- New Dubai: Views of Burj Khalifa and downtown skyscrapers.
- Museums: An immersive mezzanine-level exhibition shows the history of Dubai, while the top floor presents a futuristic view of the city.
- Location & Access: Located at Zabeel Park,Dubai.
Julie I met on a dating site it was for African ladies. Mainly they were from Ghana west Africa. I spoke also to young Russian girl and an America ibusiness lady from Boston. I was being polite finding out about their lives. Probably these two ladies took my real interest. However Julie stood out for me. She explained her life in Dubai and she had worked there for around 10 years.
She started off in Abu Dabi which down the coast from Dubai. Mainly occupied by local Arabs Emirates. She wasn’t driving at first work for exhibition company. She didn’t like it there and got job in Dubai driving. Which now she does for Canadian and Lebanese business couple.
She runs there children to school each day called at local Montessori. Children are both quite young. She works quite longish hours and the pay isn’t fantastic based upon the hours on duty. Julie is from Kenya. She quite a young lady went to work in Dubai in her mid 20’s. She has saved for small plot of land to build a home near Nairobi. She has two young children both boys of 7 and 13. The older one goes to a boarding school. Her sister looks after the younger one. In fact the younger one thinks of her sister more like her mum.
In Kenya education isn’t free so this was and is the driving force for Julie to live and work in Dubai. Not great life for any mother of two young children. She spilt up and divorced her husband a number of years ago.
Dubai has two sides strangely like South Africa. Land of whites and land of blacks. Whites in Dubai live in walled gated enclaves with security fences. Dubai entices business to live and work their through non taxation of profits. However it has high cost of living and it’s rather a sterile atmosphere. High rise building everywhere an urban manmade metropolis. Completely devoid of nature or parklands from what I observed.
Guest workers are all mostly lowly paid from Africa, India, Pakistan, Philippines, Miramar. Many thousands working on construction, hotels cleaning taxi drivers mechanics carpenters etc. Dubai international airport is the major hub airport for emirates airlines.BA has regular night flight from Heathrow to Dubai.
I didn’t get that much chance to see Julie other the Sunday as it was her day off. She did pop in some mornings. At about 9.30 but I think her lady boss put a stop to that! I feel it’s hard life for the guest workers who all non whites.
A legacy from the colonisation by Europeans through medieval sailors Portuguese being the first followed by the Spanish, English, French, Dutch, to lesser extent the Belgium’s and the Germans. White Europeans colonised so my lands the Americas, Africa, India, Indochina, Indonesia, Malaya , Philippines parts of China, pacific islands such as New Zealand, Tahiti, Hawaiian islands, Australia. Many small Atlantic islands, such as Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands, Falklands many more Bermuda and many more.
White man projected his superiority normally in military might. Fortunately after World War Two most European nations were virtually bankrupt. Allowed, after conflict in many cases, the colonised countries to become independent nations. We unfortunately left a corrupt legacy and left many of these nations economically poor after the European plunder.
Colonisation & Independence
The Middle East has an awful legacy after fall of the Ottoman Empire at end World War One. It was carved up by the British empire and the French empire. Artificially created nations of Mesopotamia later to be called Iraq, Palestine. Lebanon, Syria and Trans Jordan. Non of these new nations were stable entities. Later the Israel state, which has suffered conflict within old Palestinian lands.
The Trucial States (Italian: Stati della Tregua) is a group of tribal confederations to the south of the Persian Gulf. It consists of Abu Dhabi, Qatar, and Bahrain, which signed truces with the United Kingdombetween 1820 and 1892, which have been inherited by Italy in the aftermath of World War II and remained largely unchanged. As protectorates of Italy, the Trucial States are a member of the Triumvirate.
Recent history of Dubai :
- Foundation (1833): The Al Maktoum family, a branch of the Bani Yas tribe, settled at the Dubai Creek, separating from Abu Dhabi and establishing the emirate.
- Trading Hub & Pearl Decline (19th-early 20th Century): By 1822, it was a small town of about 700–800 people. In the early 20th century, Dubai grew as a, trading port. However, the pearl industry collapsed in the 1930s due to the invention of cultured pearls.
- Modernization (1950s-1960s):Under Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Dubai modernized, dredging the Creek to allow larger ships and expanding trade. Oil was discovered in 1966, providing the capital for infrastructure.
- Formation of the UAE (1971): Dubai joined Abu Dhabi and other emirates to form the United Arab Emirates on December 2, 1971.
- Economic Diversification (1990s-Present): Recognizing that oil was finite, the government diversified into tourism, real estate, and finance, resulting in landmarks like the Burj Al Arab (1999) and Burj Khalifa
History Of Dubai
Geopolitical tensions in the middle east are still relevant to this day. The European westernises Zionist state of Israel is never at peace with its direct neighbours from the states inception since 1948. Israel is like large land based US aircraft carrier at end of the Mediterranean Sea smack bang in an Arabic world of mainly either Sunny or Shiite Moslems.
The Persian gulf with its oil states is a contested strategically due to oil and gas. As I’m writing this blog the US under Trump and Israel under Netanyahu have bombed Iran. In turn Iran has fired missiles into Dubai yesterday in retaliation and other western sympathetic Arab nations.
I spoke with Julie this morning she was on a train when she heard the explosions and the smoke after a mussel strike. All airspace has closed down. People are fearful to travel about Dubai. Will the US and Israel escalate the war. Which would be crazy and reckless.
I was very lucky to have left just before the US attack. Otherwise I might have been stranded in Dubai.
Dubai wealth and prosperity is based upon peaceful existence in the Persian gulf. If an all out war was to ensue that would have a major impact on Dubai economic miracle!
Story Of Abu Dhabi