By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
There are times when you watch TV programs that memories come back flowing in. Some are good, some are better off being locked in a vault or forgotten altogetner.
I, myself, always levitate generally to the positive side of memories. Be it good or not so good at the time of the experience. The memories rekindled in me when I saw the KMJS episode last Sunday, Sept. 1 is one of the fun type. That episode dealt lengthily on Dubai, one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates.
In the Philippines, I think we are more familiar with the name Dubai than it’s mother country, the UAE. It’s like Baguio City being more well-known than the province of Benguet where it geographically belongs, that some ignorantly ask, “Is Benguet a part of Baguio?
UAE is a fairly new country, being established only in 1971 after gaining independence from the United Kingdom. It has 7 emirates, Dubai among them. The country grew so fast that in only 5 decades, it is now considered a first world country with a per capita income of close to the equivalent of PhP3 million pesos/year. Compare that to the less than PhP100,000/yr per capita income of Filipinos!
Dubai is now always described in superlatives. Everything is big-time. KMJS mentioned it as a city of gold, and land of dreams in only 5 decades
Currently it has the tallest man-made structure in the world, the Burj Kalifa. It proudly displays the biggest and heaviest gold ring in the world, and built the biggest ferris wheel in the universe, fondly called Dubai Eye.
The show also made viewers gasped in awe of a 1-kg golden belt, topped by a 12-kg dress made of gold. Lavish man-made islands were developed; mainly for tourism purposes. They were designed to entice the high-heeled, worldly people. It has too, a gold market called Gold Souq where there are at least 400 stalls, all selling mostly high grade, 24-carat gold jewelries at almost “bargain prices”
The city prides itself of having Burj Al Arab, the only 7-star hotel in the world, according to KMJS
The city provided every reason for it to be able to attract the rich and the famous world celebrities. And they flocked in droves to the new, ultramodern city. Thus, Dubai earned the accolade of being the playground of the rich and the famous.
Now, my memories. I visited Dubai for a week, 12 years ago as a consultant of a private company. Many of the ones mentioned above were already in place, but many more sprung up after my visit.
I can recall the wide boulevards, but lesser number of high rise buildings were visible. In fact, the highway between Dubai and Abu Dhabi (the emirate that is even more important to the country) was so broad, its vertical roads were similarly broad but less edifices were standing; they were still to rise. Instead, the well-laid roads were lined with thousands of date palms.
The Dubai that I saw already has the mentioned 7-star hotel, traffic was smooth, there were no traffic policemen on site, but traffic cameras were already everywhere. Violators were apprehended thru such cameras. I had the luxury to walk around the city center. Shops, just like in the Dubai international airport shops, were manned mostly by Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshies and Filipinos. If you use only your auditory nerves, you will think that you are somewhere in Manila or in India judging from the animated conversations mostly in Tagalog, or Indian languages
The city was clean and orderly. Foreigners from countries worldwide already outnumbered the locals in the city. It was more tolerant to the presence of other races unlike in many other Arab countries. You can just imagine the effect of this on the local Arabs, for instance, in the way they dress or use their cultural apparels, and the manner they carry themselves in public places like malls
It was even then, considered as a free port like Hongkong, that’s why the prices of gold, for instance, were really a bargain.
With a very limited budget, I bought a $300.00 worth of jewelry for my wife. When I returned home, I had it appraised in a local pawnshop. I was told that its value was more than four times the acquisition price. So, it was really a bargain. I did not buy it in Dubai though but in another emirate called Sharjah. It is there where you have the Gold Souq. At night, you can easily identify the gold market because it is shining so brightly even at a distance of more than one km away.
We have to be proud of the development and progress of Dubai. Why? One of the original planners of the city when it was still practically all desert was a Filipino and an Ilocano, the famous Architect Felino Palafox Jr. He was the only one from Asia to be a part of the team. I was told of this already when I was on travel there. It was a proud feeling.
The hardwork of the team was the springboard of the city’s emergence and progress. Now, there are an estimated 500,000 OFWs there. Incidentally, Arch Palafox had submitted his recommendations/suggestions to every president of the Philippines after 1986 re urban development projects, including flood control ones, but received very little appreciation.
Just a few incidental remarks here.
The Burj Al Arab is actually not the only 7-star hotel in the world. (I almost visited this if a high official of the Dubai ministry of agriculture made good on his promise to take us there with my companion). There are at least 8 internationally-recognized “7-star hotels” in the world found in places such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi (both in United Arab Emirates), Turkey, India and even Fiji island, among others. But according to an international hotel association, there is no 7-star hotel classification; the highest class at the moment being 5- star
The 7-star classification is just probably a loose but an honest appreciation by clients based on amenities available in the hotel, and of course the sky-high cost of staying there. Oh yes, there is no “6-star”. Can an average upper middle class Filipino so willing to overnight in a hotel room costing the equivalent of about PhP 1.6million/night ? That’s the approximate cost in “7-star hotel” Burj Al Arab.
Dubai is very popular but Abu Dhabi is the capital of UAE, thus it is more important politically, and financially to the country than the former.
I actually first visited Abu Dhabi for 3 days before I proceeded to Dubai during my trip there. I did not even know that it was part of a country called UAE, so during my application for a visa, I wrote Abu Dhabi inside the box, Country, instead of United Arab Emirates. Well…
While Dubai’s development was not funded by oil revenue as it does not have that black gold, Abu Dhabi was blessed with it. The capital’s development was even better than Dubai’s because of this.
The emirate holds 95% of all oil in UAE, equivalent to 9% of the world’s total oil deposits. It has also 92% of all gas deposits in that country which is about 5% of the world’s total. Huge.
The Philippines is just starting to roll its Sovereign Wealth Fund. Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is well ahead of us. It has $875B at its disposal. This is one reason at present why it is a recipient of more than a trillion dollar investments from around the world for its projects.
Maybe the Philippines can take a page or two from their experience as sustainable model? And why not consider the numerous suggestions of Architect Palafox to build or improve our cities, even Baguio for that matter?**
