Dubai 2022

Telling Dubai after just four days of visiting is not easy. Though one fact blatantly appears…here everything goes divided by two groups: the workers and the enjoyers. If the former includes foreign males (Pakistanis, Indians, Afghans, Sri Lankans, etc.) living about 8 people all together in one small room; the latter would see a wealthy class (either from abroad or from UAE itself) owning or renting luxury apartments nestled into the Dubai skyline.

If the day means for the workers being collected and sent to construction sites or raiding a taxi; the enjoyers rest from the past night waiting for the next one. Nightlife in Dubai works as an economic special zone: foreigners are invited to drink alcohol and trade love in a hidden way, inside hotels and clubs; while the workers are forced to clean up the dance floor meanwhile people still dance on. The entire social system in Dubai seems pointing at one main aim: profit. If the 1960s oil discoveries cannot assure wealth on the long term; real estate development and tourism of pleasure have gradually become the main UAE’s economic sectors. At the same time and since 2015, the UAE is the main partner of the Saudi-led coalition (the Saudis are the 6th country by military expediture worldwide) intervening in Yemen against the Houthi Rebels. Out of a 30 million population, 20 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance and 14.5 million suffer lack of food. Yemen’s crisis has been referred by analysts as the worst current humanitarian disaster globally and simultaneously forgotten by the public.