On an airplane last year I saw a 10 minute news segment on Dubai where the interviewer was ogling at Sheikh Mohammed's splendid city in the middle of one of the driest places on earth. He let the man talk about the wonders and opportunities that he was bringing to his people who have lived as simple nomads on the land until 30 years ago. The interviewer tried to ask some hard questions, but nothing that would bring any disrespect, like maybe asking why the hell they have an indoor ski slope? of doesn't it bother you that you are living we'll beyond your financial and ecological means? The little challenge he did present was met with a furrowed brow plead to make us somehow feel that what he was doing was simply trying to survive and make a living for their people. I was left smelling the reek of that city, but without hard facts. It just simply didn't seem like a good thing to build artificial islands, and a city full of high end shopping malls, a municipal water supply entirely fed by desalination plants, all on speculation from a relatively small amount of the one resource they have; oil.
Yesterday I found some of those facts that not only re-affirmed my gut wrench about that place, but painted lots more detail into my worldview. This Independent article about Dubai is long, but worth every minute reading it. I will never look at another 'Come to the United (they leave out the Arab part) Emirates' billboards that I see on the 101, the same again!