11/24/2008

Dubai a personal view

Business_Bay_&_Burj_Dubai Its been 10 years I have been travelling back and the forth to Dubai. It seems that the country has managed to over engineer itself to the point its gotten plain ugly and lost its identity in the process. I have nothing against progress and technology, however not to the extent that the city looks like Gotham City. A concrete jungle, with toll points and laser cameras with infrared community, I has an eerie feeling of Big Brother watching you or worse yet  in Guantanamo Bay as CCD cameras are all over the place. In the past 3 days during my stay I enjoyed Dibba, but the day and a half in Dubai was a nightmare which made me think of Beirut traffic as paradise in comparison. Real Estate prices are beyond ridiculous and are already taking a tumble, talks of government budget deficits and a bid from Abu Dhabi to buy Dubai is on the table. Lots of companies are shutting down and moving to neighboring Bahrain and Egypt. The economical crunch is beginning to be felt as realtors are dropping prices, landlords are dropping rents, but no customers in sight.

Will this mean the end of construction and beginning of the financial destruction? Will Dubai end up a ghost town?

1 comment:

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