Dubai troubles…

There’s been a lot of jokes recently about ‘Dubai troubles’… You know the kind of thing we Dubaians find to be a huge issue, which, really, in the rest of the world is… ummm… life! Things like ‘oh no the maid is sick, who’ll make my tea?!!?’ or ‘my son wants his birthday party at the Burj Al Arab but the ballroom is bigger at the Emirates Palace’ or, or, or… ‘what do I do in the 5 minutes it takes for the guy to fill my tank and wash my windscreen… can’t even use my phone, damnit!’. People in Dubai have been mocked for their rich people problems quite consistently, because lets face it, a. its funny and, b. it is a bit close to the bone isn’t it?

Believe me, I’ve seen (and had ;)) my share of these troubles. I’ve met people who whine non-stop about taxi drivers and service staff not getting it (these are the people paid tiny salaries in glamsville, and trying to make it). Here’s what happened with my next door neighbor the day we moved into our current place… the windows hadn’t been fixed yet after the renovation on moving day, so we had workmen from the landlord, and moving guys and delivery people all over while I just tried to stay out of the way. Now one of the guys fixing the window decided it would be a good idea to go get the neighbour’s outdoor table and use it to cut the glass for the window. Not smart (or maybe very smart; he’s using resources available to get the job done :p). The neighbor, whom we’ve since established is mildly grouchy, storms into our open house, finds the first workman, takes him to the table and asks ‘What is this? Is this your table? Tell me, is this your table!?’ Seriously dude? This poor guy was from the depths of Bangladesh somewhere, he doesn’t get your snide remarks. He just wants to do his job well and go home. Just tell him not to use the table and move on! But you see, here, this sort of thing is quite common. Guess it happens when there are a huge number of people, from different parts of the world and different rungs on the ‘ladder’, being thrown together. In fairness though for every one of those there are atleast a few here who do loads for workers to improve their conditions of living, overpay their help out of guilt, tip everyone in the hope of making their life a tiny bit better, give huge amounts to charity, and really, think overall that spontaneous kindness is a way of life.

Now for the ‘had’ part… yes, yes, I’ll confess! This is me this week, ‘Oh no, the pram is in the other car, how will I take my daughter for a walk?’. And ‘Crap, the grocery delivery store (across the road) wont pick up the phone, and I need milk!’.

I’ll admit, under the right circumstances, life here can be pretty darn charmed. And why not, we work like hell to get what we have - well my husband does :P; what??? I did too until recently! (Don’t know a lot of people here who switch off after 5.) And we play hard. We do our bit to ease conscience when guilt strikes, and we can laugh along when you lot poke fun at us! That can’t be bad. And, things aren’t always as easy as they look, right? So maybe put that into the context of the jokes the next time you hear one :).