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Things are Different Here The demographic situation in the U.A.E. is fascinating. The country has a total population of about eight million people, roughly the same as in Virginia or Washington state. But the native Emirati population is very small, far less than a million. Therefore the government imports large numbers of foreigners, mostly single men from Asian countries, to do much of the work here. About 90% of the population are foreigners and they do most of the menial labor, such as construction and service work. Due to the large number of imported workers, men in the U.A.E. outnumber women by more than 2 to 1, the largest gender disparity of any country in the world.
As I learned, there's a distinct stratification (or "pecking order") here, with Emiratis at the top of the pile. They're followed by Caucasians, many of whom are consultants or contractors from Europe, and mostly from England. There's a much stronger British influence here than American influence, as I learned, and largely due to the country's colonial history. Westerners are followed by Indians (from India, not Native Americans), who often have technical knowledge, and then Pakistanis and then Nepalese and so on down the line. I've never liked class boundaries, so this very obvious stratification made me uncomfortable and I never got used to it.
The class system was apparent both on the streets and in the office. A few times during the week, I saw a senior engineer at Otak, a British Caucasian, publicly berate a co-worker who was younger and from India, something that would never happen in the U.S. One morning, I met with my client, an Arab woman dressed in a long, black robe, in a large and well-appointed conference room, when a young fellow wearing a white shirt entered the room. I stood up, introduced myself to him and extended my hand – then I realized that he was a servant offering me refreshments. I sat down sheepishly, but being an American, I'm not used to being served by anyone except waiters in restaurants. Offices in the U.S. don't have servants, which apparently is a holdover from the British colonial era.
I was often treated with deference and respect simply because I was white, something I never got used to during the week I spent in Abu Dhabi. But on the other hand, my American egalitarian attitude also ingratiated me with the foreigners, most of whom weren't used to being treated as equals. As I approached the entrance to an office building one morning, I noticed how foreigners walking behind me rushed forwards to open the door for me – but instead I opened the door for them. They looked at me quizzically and then smiled with appreciation, apparently not used to having a Caucasian open doors for them or treat them with respect.
Each night after work I walked alone around Abu Dhabi in the steamy heat with my camera amidst the throngs of Indians, Iraqis, Afghanis, Palestinians, and Filipinos. Many of them looked at me with curiosity and shyness, apparently not used to seeing a Caucasian alone on the street at night taking pictures. When, in broken English, they asked me what I did for a living, I first said, "Planner." But they didn't understand so, since I'd been taking pictures with my camera draped over my neck, I simply said, "Journalist" and they smiled and gave me a thumbs up.
The U.A.E. is a rich country and there's definitely a sense of snootiness and arrogance among some of the Emiratis I dealt with, given their extravagant oil wealth and the associated perks (for Emiratis, at least), which include guaranteed jobs, free education, free housing, and no taxes. Because of that, I felt much more comfortable among the working class foreigners than among the elite Emiratis.
Abu Dhabi is an extremely safe city. I meandered each night through the streets and back alleys with my camera while taking pictures, but I never once felt unsafe, because personal crime in the U.A.E. is virtually non-existent. That's partly because it's part of the Muslim culture but also because foreigners know that if they commit a crime, they'll be expelled from the country. Many of them work in the U.A.E. to support their families back home in India, Nepal or the Philippines, so being expelled would be a catastrophe.
There's a common myth that everyone in the U.A.E., or any other Gulf country, makes a lot of money. Let me correct that misconception by saying that most people here make more than they could in their home country, whether that be Nepal, Pakistan or the U.S. That's why they decided to come here. But the salaries in the Gulf countries (U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain) run a huge gamut and more than perhaps anywhere else in the world. On the low end, construction workers and taxi drivers here make only a few hundred dollars a month. That doesn't sound like much to an American but it's a lot more than they could probably make back in their homeland. Likewise, salaries for Westerners are typically 30 to 60 percent higher than they would make in their home countries. And when you add in the tax-free status of salaries here, that difference can be significant.
But an American with few skills can't just fly to the Middle East and start earning lots of money. First of all, you have to be invited (or "sponsored") by a company here that hires you and brings you over. You can't just show up at the airport and expect to find a job. Secondly, if you don't have the particular skills that are needed, the company will likely hire someone from India or Pakistan instead of bringing over an American, because workers from those countries are probably much cheaper. Why hire a maid or nanny or clerical person from the U.S., who would charge a few thousand dollars a month, when they can hire someone from Iraq who charges only a few hundred?
Another interesting thing about this country is the political framework. In the U.A.E. and in many Arab countries, political power is based on family relationships or someone's heritage or tribe, not a political party. The leader of the U.A.E. is Sheikh Khalifa (pronounced "Shake Ha-LEEF-a)" and his likeness is seen everywhere. It's a largely benevolent leadership relative to other countries in the Middle East, and most locals I talked to thought favorably of the sheikh.
But what the sheikh wants, the sheikh gets. My friend, Michelle, who was formerly a colleague of mine at Otak in Portland but who now lives and works in Abu Dhabi, told me a story that made me laugh. The sheikh's limousine, with him inside, pulled into a petrol (gas) station one day and waited to fuel up. The sheikh asked, "Why are we waiting?" and the driver told him that several cars were ahead of them, also waiting for petrol. So the sheikh said, "Well then, let's build more petrol stations." So that's what they did – they started building more petrol stations. You don't want to make the sheikh wait.
As you can probably guess, there aren't a lot of environmental regulations in the U.A.E. to limit development, like there are in the U.S. If someone here wants to build something (like more gas stations) and they have political power, they just build it.
But that being said, the government of Abu Dhabi is also striving to become a world-class city and a role model for the rest of the world, especially the Arab world. They're well-aware that the country's oil reserves will dry up someday, so they're diversifying their economy, away from oil, in anticipation of that day. They're also taking steps, like developing mass transit, creating sustainable systems and developing a detailed comprehensive land-use plan, to create for themselves a city unlike any other in the world, and they apparently have the will to make it happen. And that's exactly why I was here.
Above left: My Turkish buddy, Bee, in the Otak office. Above right: The "Happy Chicken" restaurant in Abu Dhabi – though I'm guessing that after he was sliced up and fried in oil, he wasn't quite so happy.
Above left: This park along the waterfront is one of the few places in Abu Dhabi where I saw actual grass. Above right: Relax, everything will come out fine.
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