The Gilded City Made with Blood

The Gilded City Made with Blood





By: Brian Li


Dubai: the golden standard of a dream destination for both tourists and millionaires, or both at the same time. The saying is literal and metaphorical, as the city made its first pot of gold by supplying the new growing demand of gold by the emerging middle class in India back in 1968. And since then, Dubai has only grown in both popularity and capital. Ranking as THE most popular or sought-after destination globally in 2022 by CNN and receiving approximately over 5 million tourists in the first ten months of 2021. "Dubai is an ultramodern city that has it all: golden beaches, world-class dining, and gorgeous hotels." Its social and economic status only gets taken to an even higher stage when you see all of the celebrities and models who post their photos on top of luxurious high rises overlooking its notorious and awe-inspiring man-made island with a second one in its constructions. And for the college-seeking students out there, there is even an NYU campus built on the outskirts of the central city. You might read up to this point and think to yourself, "Wow, what an amazing city!" You might fantasize about the wealth of people going about their daily lives within the city. You may look to Dubai as a symbol of light, of hope of the future, one of the possibilities of tomorrow. But if this is indeed the future, we are on board for an awfully dark, dystopian world.

Now, you may be wondering why I would go about praising Dubai for the last paragraph just to call it a dark possibility? That's because what's often seen on the surface is not its authentic appearance. This is similar to the idea to "not judge your book by its cover." Or, in this case, we borrow a phrase from a famous American author: Mark Twain. Dubai is what he would have called the manifestation of the Gilded Age. Now, for those who don't know, the Gilded Age refers to a period in American history from 1870 to 1900 where the country experienced vast economic growth, where millionaires appeared by the second, yet a large percentage of the people were still in abject poverty and starving, the country was a mess and barely functioning but somehow it was still looking good. The name stems from the phrase "gilded," which means covering something with golden paint, or in this case, Mark Twain meant to say that America was an absolute disgusting disaster but was covered with gold to look suitable for those outside. How does this relate to Dubai?

Much like the Gilded Age of the late 19th century, Dubai is only good at keeping up with appearances. One of the biggest red flags that hints at the dark nature of Dubai is the fact that about 40% of Dubai's national GDP comes from a thing known as "Free Trade Zones." Though innocent enough, if you dig deeper, you will find out that a centralized government does not rule over these trade zones. In other words, each zone has its own manager that makes its own rules. What's even more interesting is that many of these zones often ignore suspicious activities like weapons, drugs, and human smuggling. On paper, it is called "laissez-faire," but in practice, anyone with any sense of morality will know that this is more than messed up. Some of the world's most dangerous men have carried out some of the world's most dangerous activities in Dubai. Viktor Bout, Dawood Ibrahim, A.Q.Khan, these are just some of the names that have operated based in Dubai, and these names are just to name a few. The former is a notorious weapons dealer in Russia, Dawood Ibrahim is the most wanted man in India and A.Q.For those who don't know, Khan is the man who created the Pakistan nuclear program. All of them had long-time connections to Dubai and had funded their illicit activities through unknown means in Dubai, but I think we can all guess the level of cruelty these men are capable of committing.

And that's not even the elephant in the room. Dubai is perhaps more known in the international community as a money-laundering place. Because of its loose business practices and deliberately confusing yet lax regulations. Businesses in Dubai can seemingly pop out of nowhere and pop back into the abyss. Before anyone has even a single clue, it's already gone about making millions of dirty money into usable cash. Remember the skyscrapers aforementioned? Well, most of them are so luxurious to drive the price up simply, and so when the corporations are done laundering money, they can conveniently go down the block and use their new "clean money" to purchase the buildings as a way of banking.

I also want to talk about the man-made island off the coast of Dubai. Sure, it is a technical marvel; it is genuinely awe-inspiring to look at, and I meant it when I said that. It is a reminder of humanity's progress and achievements that we may rise against even the forces of nature itself. However, much like its environment, it is just there for show. It doesn't serve any purpose. Sure, Giga mansions are built atop of it. But it does not bring any social or environmental values to anyone aside from the millionaires and billionaires who buy houses on it just to satisfy their ego. To put it simply, the islands themselves are actually way too weak to build anything else on, and it costs millions of dollars just to create them. Yet, it still eats away at money as of this moment just to maintain itself. At that point, I just couldn't help but wonder what's the point of keeping it up, let alone building another one.

Lastly, as we all know, luxury is the fruit of the labor that stems from the masses. All of these luxuries could not have been possible without a strong workforce. The bands of immigrants from other nations who practically sold themselves into slavery because they needed the money to make a living. These laborers work long hours for little pay. They are crammed into small living quarters and feed ration worse than even the dog foods that the managers would pay for their pets. Many of them experience physical and psychological trauma way worse than any of us could imagine. And when they die, their burials are harsh and quick, and that's if they get burials. The only way for their families to know that their son has just passed is when the cash stops getting sent their way…

In the end, I'd like to say that Dubai is a problem. But by fixing the problems in Dubai, we would only end up wrecking it further. Issues are all that the nation has, and when we take away the problems, nothing will be left. 40% of their GDP is made this way, and so it would be a moral gray area to say what action is correct - not that any one person or country can just fix it on the fly. The Dubai population exists, and if we ignore the citizens caught in the crossfire, can we really get back on our moral high horses? The country will stay afloat, but it's not nearly as brilliant as you'd initially thought. It's just a gilded city made with blood.





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Works Cited


Khaleej Times:

https://www.khaleejtimes.com/travel/dubai-among-most-popular-vacation-destinations-for-us-tourists


CNN: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/tripadvisor-travelers-choice-awards-2022/index.html


Carnegie Endowment:

https://carnegieendowment.org/2020/07/07/dubai-free-trade-or-free-for-all-pub-82183