Adventures with Julia

July 30, 2016  Part 2

Sitting in the airport lounge is affording me time to share with you some of what we learned form our guide, hotel staff and people we met in Dubai.  The 7 emirates that compose the United Arab Emirates became confederated in 1071. Prior to that they were individual countries each run by its own Sheik. There are still seven royal families with individual tribal Sheiks, but under the confederation there is one President, who is the Sheik in the Abu Dhabi Emirate and one Prime Minister, who is Sheik Mohammed, the Sheik of Dubai, which is the most economically superior of the 7. The population of the confederation is 10.2 million, with Dubai at about 4 million. 20% of the population are local citizens who receive all the benefits the government provides including free health care, education and housing and no taxes. The other 80% are foreigners: 40% Indian, 20% Pakistani and 20% British and others who pay a high cost to live here.

Just 55 years ago the whole area was desert and the total population of the emirates was 65,000. Then oil was discovered and desalination and recycling provided the water needed to irrigate the landscape. The British controlled the area until 1969 when the Sheiks refused to pay the high taxes the Brits imposed. Eventually an agreement was reached that the Brits would leave and the Emirates would repay the money the English had invested in the area. With the oil income, that debt has long since been repaid. As it happens, the oil is in the Abu Dhabi Emirate and none is in Dubai. So Dubai has had to diversify into tourism, banking, Real Estate investment and more.

I found it interesting to learn that there are no homeless people here and no poverty. If you are a citizen, you are taken care of by the government. If you are a foreigner you must renew your visa every 2-3 years depending on what work you do. If you have no job, you must leave the country after 30 days of not working. You are required to leave when you turn 65, unless you have purchased a home or own a business here. There are no taxes, but there are fees, which amounts to the same thing. Nothing is free including health care, education and housing. If you buy a house you actually buy a 99 year lease. Sheik Mohammad owns all the land and collects fees from every expatriate in one way or another. Everyone we talked to said it is expensive to live here, but they stay because it is better here than wherever they came from. They all, to a person, want to make enough money to enable them to return home and create a better life for themselves and their families. We talked to people from India, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and the Philippines just in one day.

To stimulate the local citizens to work, the government gives only 8,000 Dirham (3.56 Dirham to the Dollar at the moment) if you are unemployed. To stimulate locals to marry locals, the government give each couple 75,000 Dirhams when they get married. If a local earns 25,000 or more Derham, he is allowed to buy a house with government support and zero financing.

There is very little crime because there is no alcohol and no drugs allowed among the Sunni Muslim population, which includes the local citizens, Pakistani’s and Indians, about 80% of the population.