You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Arabia
Dubai natives protect identity in fast-changing land
2006-06-16
h/t 'Or Does it Explode' Originally published in YahooNews 5/31, but we missed it.
DUBAI (AFP) - You see them at government offices, together in malls and cafes, or glimpse their silhouettes behind dark-tinted car windows on Dubai roads, but otherwise the city's natives keep to themselves.

Amid the massive construction and development drive under way in Dubai that is bringing in each year tens of thousands of expatriates and Asian labourers and aims to attract 15 million tourists by 2010, a large number of the small native population have resettled on the city's fringes to preserve cherished tribal and family values.

Many are proud of Dubai's achievements, but an increasingly vocal few speak of alienation, question the social and political cost of fast modernisation and even say they should have been consulted.
Posted by:Steve White

00:00