The Culture of Dubai

So I didn’t go to the beach party two weekends ago because my friend and I were sleeping and missed our ride. I was tired so I didn’t mind. I wasn’t in the mood for staying up all night. Have you noticed I haven’t done anything on my “things to do” list? Last Thursday we were supposed go to iFly, but it wasn’t properly planned, so we ended up going to Chili’s. This weekend we are supposed to do a desert safari. I hope it works out.

Friday I was supposed to go jet skiing in Sharjah, but my friend’s car broke down when we were almost there so I just said we’ll go another day. They wanted to rent a car, but the rental places are closed on Friday. Sunday I had a paper due and today I have an exam. Even though my earliest class is at 3pm, I’m beginning to feel overwhelmed.

I’m trying to plan a trip during Eid al Adha, with my 1^st Cali friend. We’re off Nov 3^rd to the 10^th, and my birthday is the 8^th. We are trying to get a hotel deal on Groupon or Cobone. We’ll see. We need to book our flight very soon.

Hosts of the Women's Cultural Exchange

Last night my 1^st Cali friend and my New Jersey friend held a women’s cultural exchange in the girl’s dorm. It was at 6 pm, and I have class at six (boy I hate that class), so I caught the tail end of it. I thought it was going to be about every culture there but it really about Middle East, vs America. Nevertheless, we had a good conversation.

I brought up racism, which is taboo here. I was warned about before I got here by previous study abroad students, so it wasn’t a surprise.  The surprising part is that it’s completely out in the open. It’ s not hidden like it is in America. There is a class system here. First they judge you by where you’re from. Then they judge you by skin color. (Check out Holly's post on racism)

For example, a Filipino or Pakistani person will make less than an American or British person who will make less than a local. If you don’t believe me go to dubizzle.com and look at their job ads. Salaries are posted on the adds, and jobs that are for Filipino are around 3000 AED/month (800USD).

I think that since I’m light skinned and have an American accent, I will not be as singled out as other blacks here that I know. I am the only African American study abroad student, and there is only one other African American student here.  People can tell that I’m American by my accent and, once people see that I’m American, I am automatically in their favor. I do not like this at all.  I believe in equality, no matter where you’re from or what you do.

A lot of people here emulate American styles. It’s as if they wish they were American. After the discussion yesterday, a friend of mine said there is no culture here. I said, how is there no culture here? I am still blinded by the black abayas even though they are worn with Louis Vutton bags and four-inch stilettos. My friend brought up the fact that many people here are just temporary workers, and even the people that are born here, and grew up here, still feel like they don’t belong because they’ll never get citizenship. Also, it seems that many of the people that do have citizenship here wish they had citizenship of another country (America).  It now makes sense to me why someone would say Dubai has no culture.

When I first got here, I noticed that people identify where they are from by their heritage, and not by where they grew up/were born. For example, I know someone that’s from Saudi Arabia, but says he’s from Jordan because that’s where his parents are from. In America, if you ask someone where they're from, they will say where they grew up, unless they’re an immigrant. It’s the total opposite here. So when people ask me where I’m from I say America, then they say where are you from originally, I say Africa somewhere….But that is another discussion that is perhaps not meant for this blog…