Friday, February 02, 2007

Dubai: Part I of III

In my blog I haven’t yet written about the Middle East and today I want to share one of my stories about this region.

Dubai is one of the most fascinating places in the world I have been to. And I am usually most amazed by the ability of certain countries to grow from nearly nothing to incredible heights (and for that matter the inability of others in the region to do the same). The rise of South Korea or Mauritius (about which I already wrote in my blog) is very similar to the rise of Dubai though the latter took it a very much advanced level.

Even in the middle of the 20th century Dubai (which is a part of United Arab Emirates) was still a small fishing port which had 2 main possessions: the sands and the sea. How many small ports around the world can you name that have never developed into something as magnificent as Dubai? Probably dozens. But Dubai did. And its main secret is not oil: there is practically no oil in this part of UAE; the secret is the smart heads of the state that ruled this territory in the 20th century. They were able to see something that many other country rulers in the region still don’t see in the 21st century. They saw that freedom, international trade, good climate for investment and later tourism are key for the prosperity of the region. And just in about 40 years they achieved their dream!

Nowadays Dubai is one of the most modern cities I have ever seen. You drive to the outskirts of the city and there is only desert and… the best highway in the world. In the city itself the construction never stops, not even at night and Dubai is now constantly producing the architectural marvels never seen before: the most luxurious hotel in the world (the “Sail”), the Palm Island and the Burj Dubai that is currently built, which will become the highest building in the world. Dubai also has one of the fastest growing airports and international airlines that strive to be the best in global aviation industry and, frankly, they are not too far from their goal.
But most importantly this is one of the few states in the Middle East that gave equal rights to women. You will probably be surprised to know that the majority of students at UAE University and the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) are women. Besides the traditional fields of education and health, there are many women graduates working in various disciplines such as engineering, science, media and communications, computer technology, law, commerce, and the oil industry. There is even a women's corps within the Armed Forces.

If you want to learn more about this fascinating place, please, visit http://www.sheikhmohammed.co.ae/ and also wait for my 2nd post about Dubai where I will share particular interesting stories and impressions from my visit there. The post with photos will follow too.

1 comment:

DR recruiter said...

I would like to hear your experiences as well as the experiences of your blog readers about something memorable that occurred while you were traveling.

Visit and tell me and everyone about it