Picture of the Day: Redundant in Dubai
[i-Redundant in Dubai]
This picture symbolizes the current economic downturn in Dubai more than anything else. A 'made redundant' Porsche owner uses his sports car to advertise for a job.
I discovered this post via Seabee at Life in Dubai one of the blogs I follow. He describes daily life in the Emirate as experienced by an expat. Sharp and funny.
The Daily Telegraph picked up on his post and interviewed the Poor Porsche Owner...
More Pictures of the Day, more on Dubai on The Road.
Dubai: Now and Then
A previous post reminded me of my time in Dubai.
How it was in 1991, the "Trade Center strip":
[i-dubai before]
This is how the "Trade Center strip" looked like when I arrived for the first time in Dubai in 2001:
[i-Dubai2003]
Most of the built-up area concentrates around the same area:
being built[i-being built]
You recognize the Trade Center strip on the top right corner. The whole area below that, the Business Bay area, is newly built up. Up to 2003 there was little more than sand. Actually, we built our offices there in January 2004 (see this short story)
I suggest you also have a look at this photo essay from the Boston Globe.
Pictures courtesy The Skyscraper blog, Dubai Architecture and most.com
The Dubai Bubble: burst, melt or expand?
[i-dubai above the trouble or head in the clouds...]
Dubai expects its economy to expand by just under 2.5 percent in 2009 as real estate, construction and exports come under pressure. This growth figure comes in sharp contrast with the usual 8-9% yearly growth. (Full)
The hardest hit is, of course, the real estate market. A local rumour says that Emirates Airlines is still doing well, simply because it is flying so many expat workers back home.
Rumour or not, construction firms in the UAE confirm they are sending some 20,000 Indian workers back home next month. (Full).
Fact also is that almost 60 percent of real estate projects in Dubai, worth a total of $75 billion, are being either delayed or cancelled according to a new report by HSBC. (Full)
It is not just Dubai. Also the Emirate of Abu Dhabi takes serious hits: the leading real estate developers note drops in profit of up to 94% in the last quarter of 2008. Full)
And we have not reached bottom yet. While some property prices have fallen 50%, the prediction is the bottom will only be reached by the 2nd half of 2009. (Full)
Guess Emirates Airlines will continue to be busy repatriating expats for quite a while.
[Loband: Object Removed -]
Who would have thought selling cheap home loans in some US back quarters would have this ripple effect across the globe, hey?
Update: See also:
- Dubai Economy in Free Fall
- List of cancelled projects in Dubai
- Driven down by debt, Dubai expats give new meaning to long-stay car park
More posts on The Road about Dubai
Video discovered via MootBox. Picture courtesy Daveandmairi via A Picture's Worth
Dubai: End of "sex on the beach" saga.
sex on the beach couple[i-sex on the beach couple]
How a three days trip to a holiday resort turned into a five month's involuntary stay in Dubai:
On July 5th, two Brits, Vince Acors and Michelle Palmer got accused of having sex on the beach in Dubai.
Mr Acors was on a three days business trip, and Ms Palmer worked in Dubai. She got fired by her employer in a matter of days after their arrest. (Full)
Several months legal battling hit the international press as the "Sex on the Beach"-trial. Both were initially given a three-month jail term for unmarried sex and public indecency. The court also them 1,000 dirhams (US$367). But the sentence was suspended on appeal. Finally, both were pardoned before being deported.
Last week, five months after the beach adventure, Mr Acors was re-arrested at the Dubai airport, as he prepared to board his UK-bound flight, due to a hold-up in the deportation process. He spent the weekend in jail. (Full)
Mr Acors finally made it to the UK on Christmas Eve and gave a press conference about how his three-day business trip turned out to be a five months involuntary stay in Dubai.
Ms Palmer also returned from Dubai in December. (Full)
More posts on The Road about Dubai
News: Dubai builds the world's tallest tower (again)
The world's tallest tower in Dubai[i-The world's tallest tower in Dubai]
The world's tallest tower in Dubai[i-The world's tallest tower in Dubai]
Currently, the world's tallest structure is the soon to be finished the Burj Dubai, which is rumoured to stand at 818 meters. Today, Dubai revealed its successor, the Nakheel Tower, to be "over one kilometre" high and have more than 200 floors.
The world's tallest tower in Dubai[i-The world's tallest tower in Dubai]
The new superstructure is part of a US$38.12 billion project that includes the world’s first inner city harbour.
The Nakheel Tower will have more than 150 lifts and house 19,000 apartments with 10,000 parking spaces. The complex will provide homes and offices for 100,000 people.
If all the reinforcing bars were laid end to end they would stretch from Dubai to New York -- one quarter of the way round the world. 30,000 workers will be involved in construction
The world's tallest tower in Dubai[i-The world's tallest tower in Dubai]
The new tower will be so tall it will have five different micro-climates. The temperature in the atmosphere at the top of the building could be as much as 10 degrees cooler than at the bottom. (Full)
Pictures courtesy Nakheel.
More posts on The Road about Dubai
News: Dunkin' Donuts, a scarf and extremism.
link[i-link]Only in America... On May 7, Dunkin’ Donuts began running an ad, featuring local celebrity chef Rachael Ray wearing a black-and-white fringed scarf.
The ad has now been revoked due to protest that Ms. Ray’s scarf resembled "to the type typically worn by Muslim extremists". (Full)
Apart from thinking "Only in America!", the whole story truly saddens me. Even if the scarf was a keffiyeh, the traditional scarf of Arab men, then why does this have to be automatically associated with extremism, or seen as a symbol of support to terrorism? Is this a sign of the depth of the world's polarization into Arab and non-Arab, Muslim and non-Muslim?
I have lived in Dubai for five years. I don't think I ever lived in a more tolerant society with respect for other cultures, religions and opinions. Far more tolerant than back home in Belgium, and certainly far more than the US. Sometimes I am ashamed on behalf of us, Westerners.
Picture courtesy boston.com
News: Cutting agricultural aid research or how to dig your own grave...
food handout bangladesh[i-food handout bangladesh]
Giving people fish or teaching them to fish?
A few years back, I had a meeting with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Ruler of Dubai, Prime Minister and Vice President of the UAE.
I told him of the humanitarian work we did. He listened attentively, and kept a silence after my explanation. Then he said candidly: "You know, you are giving people fish, instead of teaching them how to fish. Give a person a fish and he will eat for a day, teach him how to fish and he will have food for the rest of his life!"
food aid[i-food aid]I was quick to respond: "Your Highness, when people are starving, they are not interested in being taught how to fish. If we give them fishlings for their pond, they will eat it, rather using them for breeding. Our organisation gives people the fish, so they are not starving anymore, and have the energy to be taught how to fish, and to fish themselves. Other organisations we work closely with, teach them how to fish, how to breed fishlings. After that, others come in and teach them not to overfish their pond, or even to market their excess harvest, set up funding mechanisms to sell their harvest beyond their own village. We all work hand in hand, each of us has its own role."
How true are we to our aid commitments?
This was then. But at this moment, there is a growing concern and dissatisfaction in the aid world. How well have we done in the past decades. Have we really followed our own reasonings and explanations..? Or were they mere justifications for our own existence?
The global food crisis hitting the poorest people first, is an objective proof we - the international aid community - have not done well enough. Have we - all of us - not concentrated too much on giving people fish, rather than teaching them how to be independent from foreign aid? How much of it could have been avoided? How can we learn from our lessons?
While the international focus is on the global food crisis, it is the right time to highlight the importance of not only concentrating on short term solutions. Short term solutions for hunger are like drops of water on a hot plate. Let's give people fish, but also concentrate on "teaching them how to fish".
In the context of the global food crisis, this means concentrating not only on emergency food aid, but also on achieving sustainable food security and reducing poverty in developing countries through non-for-profit and transparent scientific research in the fields of agriculture, forestry, fisheries, policy, and environment.
I explicitly exclude the agricultural research done by the likes of Monsanto and Cargill, international commercial giants who only aim at increasing their profit margin, often to the detriment of the farmers in poorer countries.
Let's rather have a look at the benevolent work of organisations like the CGIAR, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research.
Agricultural aid research, a proven success.
The CGIAR has a proven success track record (Source):
food aid[i-food aid]- Successful biological control of the cassava mealybug and green mite, both devastating pests of a root crop that is vital for food security in sub-Saharan Africa. The economic benefits of this work are estimated at more than $4 billion.
- Increasing smallholder dairy production in Kenya improving childhood nutrition while generating jobs. This award-winning project with smallholder dairies has contributed up to 80 percent of the milk products sold in the country.
food aid[i-food aid]- New rice varieties for Africa, which combine the high yields of Asian rice with African rice’s resistance to local pests and diseases. Currently sown on 200,000 hectares in upland areas, they are helping reduce national rice import bills and generating higher incomes in rural communities.
- An agroforestry system called “fertilizer tree fallows,” which renews soil fertility in Southern Africa, adopted by than 66,000 farmers in Zambia.
- Widespread adoption of resource-conserving “zero-till” technology in the vital rice-wheat systems of South Asia. Employed by close to a half million farmers on more than 3.2 million hectares, this technology has generated benefits estimated at US$147 million through higher crop yields, lower production costs and savings in water and energy.
food aid[i-food aid]- A flood-tolerant version of a rice variety grown on six million hectares in Bangladesh. The new variety enables farmers to obtain yields two to three times those of the non-tolerant version under prolonged submergence of rice crops, a situation that will become more common as a result of climate change.
- A new method for detecting and reducing by 100% aflatoxin, a deadly poison that infects crops, making them unfit for local consumption or export benefiting farmers throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
- More than 50 varieties of recently developed drought-tolerant maize varieties being grown on a total of about one million hectares across eastern and southern Africa
- A simple methodology for integrating agriculture with aquaculture to bolster income and food supplies in areas of southern Africa where the agricultural labor force has been devastated by HIV/AIDS, doubling the income of 1,200 households in Malawi.
- Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera....
Digging our own grave.
All good news. Except that the focus on emergency food aid seems to have drawn worldwide attention - and funding - away from long term agricultural research. Proof of the matter is that while U.S. President George W. Bush recently ordered up $200 million in emergency food aid, with a follow-up of another $755 million, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is cutting as much as 75% of their funding to the CGIAR (See Science Magazine). USAID's support to the CGIAR in 2006 was $56 million or about 12% of the CGIAR’s core budget.
And USAID is not the only one to blame. Look at this graph illustrating the worldwide trend of foreign aid (which excludes relief aid - as the graph would then look even worse!) going up, versus the downward trend of in agricultural aid.
Here is another interesting graph, comparing the annual budget of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), one of the CGIAR's research centers, and the global rice stock pile volume, using the latter as a measure for consumption versus demand on rice. Now is there not a strange correlation to be noticed? This can not be coincidence.
rice research versus stockpiling[i-rice research versus stockpiling]
How a small bug illustrates a worldwide problem
Talking about the IRRI, here is an example of how, by cutting back transparent and not-for-profit agricultural research is as bad as digging one's own grave:
food aid[i-food aid]The brown plant hopper, an insect no bigger than a gnat, is multiplying by the billions and chewing through rice paddies in East Asia, threatening the diets of many poor people. China, the world’s biggest rice producer, announced on May 7 that it was struggling to control the rapid spread of the insects there. A plant hopper outbreak can destroy 20 percent of a harvest.
The damage to rice crops, occurring at a time of scarcity and high prices, could have been prevented. Researchers at the International Rice Research Institute say that they know how to create rice varieties resistant to the insects but that budget cuts have prevented them from doing so. (Full)
Learning from the past
In the 1960s, population growth was far outrunning food production, threatening famine in many poor countries. Wealthier nations joined forces with the poor countries to improve crop yields. Yields soared, and by the 1980s, the threat of starvation had receded in most of the world. With Europe and the United States offering their farmers heavy subsidies that encouraged production, grain became abundant worldwide, and prices fell.
Many poor countries, instead of developing their own agriculture, turned to the world market to buy cheap rice and wheat. In 1986, Agriculture Secretary John Block called the idea of developing countries feeding themselves “an anachronism from a bygone era,” saying they should "just buy American". (Full)
And this attitude got the world into the mess it is in today: a demand (the world population) outgrowing the supply (food production)... The below graph clearly illustrates this trend (the food production - in purple- is represented by the total production of grain in the world).
Population-Food-Energy[i-Population-Food-Energy]
Bottomline. And how you can help.
We need to push the international community for long-term agricultural research aiming solely at making developing countries food self-sufficient, without any commercial interests at heart, if we want to resolve this food crisis and avoid it from ever happening again.
Here is one way how you can help: sign the petition urging USAID to maintain its support for the CGIAR's food research centers.
Maybe, just maybe, we will be in time to turn this food crisis, into an opportunity, and really teach people how to fish, rather than just giving them fish to eat. Maybe, just maybe queues for food hand-outs in developing countries could be a thing of a past.
rice queues philippines[i-rice queues philippines]
More articles on The Road about the global food crisis
With thanks to "the other E" for the inspiration!
Graphs courtesy New York Times and planettoughts.org.
Pictures courtesy Luis Liwanag (The New York Times), EPA (Al Jazeera), Crispin Hughes (WFP), CGIAR and Pavel Rahman (AP Photo)
Read the full post...
News: Earth Hour switches Dubai's lights off.
Earth Hour in Dubai: Burj Al Arab in darkness[i-Earth Hour in Dubai: Burj Al Arab in darkness]
Dubai was the first Arab city to declare its public support for Earth Hour, a worldwide environmental movement backed by the World Wildlife Fund.
Millions of people around the world participated yesterday by switching off non-essential lights as a signal they care about global warming.
In Dubai, the Burj Al Arab, said to be the world's only six-star hotel, switched off its external lighting, as residents held a walkathon on Jumeirah Road. (Full)
Picture courtesy Atiq-Ur-Rehman (Gulf News)
News: Explosion in Dubai's industrial area
When I worked in Dubai, traffic accidents were the things I was the most scared off. Fire was next on the hazards list.
We knew that with the drought, heat, an almost constant wind and fire rescue services often taking a long time to shuffle through the traffic jams, there would be little chance of saving our houses or offices if a fire would break out.
Two days ago a fire works factory exploded in the Al Quoz industrial area, and 83 warehouses were gutted in the blaze. This was the area we used to have our offices. (Full report)
Here is a video of the actual blast:
[Loband: Object Removed -]
The fire spread to neighbouring warehouses.
[Loband: Object Removed -]
News: Dubai builds world's largest water reservoirs
US technology is not used in the Middle East[i-US technology is not used in the Middle East]Dubai began constructing the world's largest pre-stressed concrete drinking water reservoirs.
The three giant rectangular reservoirs, each with a capacity of 60 million imperial gallons (roughly about 240 million litres), are being constructed in the Mushrif area of Dubai and will cost US$168.6m. The aim to cope with the increased demand for water boosted by multi-billion dollar property projects in the emirate.
The three giant Mushrif reservoirs will:
• Cover a total area of approximately 165,000 square metres
• Measure 372 metres x 169 metres and will be 5.6 metres deep
• Consume 270,000 cubic metres of concrete
• Use 27,000 tonnes of reinforcing steel
The Earl Thomas Reservoir serving San Diego in California currently holds the record as the world's largest pre-stressed concrete drinking water reservoir with a capacity of 35 million gallons.(More)
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) consumes more water per capita than any other country in the world with the exception of the United States and Canada. Lacking natural water sources to meet the demand, the Emirates use desalination. Dubai alone has an installed desalination capacity of 188 million gallons per day (MIGD). (More)
To cope with the energy demanded its these massive desalination plant, the UAE has recently decided to switch to nuclear energy. (More)
More Dubai related posts.
This post was written as follow-up to "World Water Day: One billion people without clean water".
Picture courtesy venturea.com (as I did find pictures of the UAE reservoirs!)
News source: The Road Daily
News: Dubai the Biggest. Also in Road Accidents.
dubai crash 1[i-dubai crash 1]
dubai crash 2[i-dubai crash 2]
dubai crash 3[i-dubai crash 3]
Three people were killed and 277 injured in the United Arab Emirates yesterday when a total of 227 cars and 12 buses collided. The police blamed reckless driving and a thick fog to cause what is now said to be the world's largest traffic pile-up. The accident happened during peak rush hour on the main Dubai-Abu Dhabi road. (full)
Recent figures released by the Ministry of Interior show that there were 6,813 accidents on UAE roads in 2007, resulting in 10,526 injuries (about one per hour) and 1,050 deaths (almost three a day). The 2007 casualties went up by 18% compared to 2006. (full)
The UAE is said to have the world's highest fatal accident rate. I lived in Dubai for five years. Two of my friends died in car accidents during that period. Due to reckless driving of someone else. I never had an accident, but dozens of near misses.
More posts on Dubai.
Update: The World Health Organisation says every year 1,2-million people die in road accidents, making it the seventh-biggest killer in the world, ahead of diabetes and malaria. (Full)
Pictures courtesy AP and Reuters
News: Dubai Crane Truck Blooper
I told you before there is a lot of construction going on around our office in Dubai. Martin sent me a picture of a crane truck with a small problem, close to our office entrance, this morning:
Dubai crane truck accident[i-Dubai crane truck accident]
Dubai crane truck accident[i-Dubai crane truck accident]
Pictures courtesy Martin Kristensson
News: Dubai Builds World's Longest Arched Bridge
Talking about bridges:
If you ask anyone living in Dubai "What is the biggest challenge for you?", most probably they will answer: "Traffic is a bitch!". A big part of the problem is the crossing of the creek, separating the 'old' from the 'new' Dubai, which bottlenecks all traffic shuttling between both parts of town, and between Sharjah and the port area of Jebel Ali. When I went back to Dubai in December, 18 months after I changed my duty station in the UAE for Rome, I saw two new bridges over the creek had been built "while I was away".
link[i-link]Two weeks ago they announced the construction of a sixth creek crossing, designed as a new landmark for Dubai with a price tag of US$681: A 1.6 km long bridge, 64 metres wide and 15 metres above the water level. It will have 12 lanes for road traffic and a track for the Dubai Metro. It will be able to handle 20,000 vehicles an hour. Once finished in 2012, it will hold the record of "The World's Longest Arched Bridge".
Dubai: the world's longest arched bridge[i-Dubai: the world's longest arched bridge]
Dubai: the world's longest arched bridge[i-Dubai: the world's longest arched bridge]
Dubai: the world's longest arched bridge[i-Dubai: the world's longest arched bridge]
The project also includes 12 kilometres of new roads and 22 intersections. And oh, it will also provide access to a new island in the creek, which the local developer plans to build an opera house on. But that is a detail :-)
Check out the other posts about Dubai on "The Road to the Horizon".
Sources: Meed and Dubai Expat Diaries
News: Record Rain Causes Flooding in Dubai
Talking about the weather in the Middle East, and "what people do not know about the Gulf": It DOES rain here. Sometimes it really pours for a long period, specifically around this time of the year.
Below some pictures Mats sent me from the flooding in Dubai after the heavy rains the last days. The main roads were blocked, with cars floating around, some of them even with people inside, like the white car in the middle picture. (see also this news article).
[i-link][i-link][i-link]
Rumble: Lost Connection
Dubai airport at night[i-Dubai airport at night]
Arriving at Dubai airport last week, reminded me of a story I had in my mind. I wrote it as soon as I got to the hotel, at 3 a.m.. It is called "Lost Connection". An extract:
I step out of the plane and look at my watch. 10 pm. Two hours to shop in the Dubai Tax Free before boarding my connecting flight to Islamabad, Pakistan.I follow the stream of arriving passengers moving along on the first floor of the airport, overlooking the shopping area. I look at the vast crowd below. A dense mix of every possible nationality, religion and ethnicity in the world, expressed through a myriad of dress codes. From formal western suites, the traditional Arab dishdashahs, women in mini skirts mixed with those fully veiled. Rough Afghani chupans, expensive Indian silk sari’s, Berber djellabas, Australian safari shorts, Sudanese turbans, American baseball caps and Arab hijabs. This crowd seems to represent the world within one space. But the crowd is not strolling along from one shop to another in its usual way. The people are talking in groups, some with raised voices and expressive hand gestures, and others whisper. There is no laughing, nor joy but a nervousness makes the tension in the air so thick one could cut it with a knife. You do not have to be a clairvoyant to feel something is wrong.
What was happening? Ah, for that, you'll have to read the full story!
Rumble: Burj Dubai, the World's Tallest
Burj Dubai - click for full resolution[i-Burj Dubai - click for full resolution]
It really dwarfs the "other world's tallest buildings"!
Burj Dubai in comparison with the other buildings - Click for full resolution[i-Burj Dubai in comparison with the other buildings - Click for full resolution]
Have a look at this video:
Part 1:
[Loband: Embedded Object Removed - http://www.youtube.com/v/FiQzEzKrWns]
Part 2:
[Loband: Embedded Object Removed - http://www.youtube.com/v/oJMK6YwDoWw]
Video courtesy uae@uae.net, picture courtesy wikipedia.
Rumble: On The Move
This is how my last 24 hours looked like:
- 17:00 (Dubai time): wrapped up the workshop in Dubai. 90 minutes of traffic from the office to the hotel. Forgot it was Thursday evening. Weekend traffic! Blah! [i-The workshop participants]
- 19:00 (Dubai time): waited for 30 minutes until I got a taxi to go to Mageed's house. In the end, a private car offered to drive me for 40 Dirham. I gave him 50.[i-Dubai's Sheikh Zayyed Road at the World Trade Center]
- 01:00 (Dubai time): Tarek drove me back from Mageed's house to the hotel. Picked up my Email in the room, and crashed in bed.
- 05:00 (Dubai time): Got up, showered, packed my bag and took a cab to the airport. Hotel reception had a problem with the credit card machine. Could not use a card with a pin.
- 07:30 (Dubai time): Boarded the flight to Rome. Met Achilles at the boarding gate. He was on his way back from Bangladesh (Cyclone Sidr!). Tried to convince the flight attendant not to let him on the plane. haha.
- 11:30 (Rome time, 14:30 Dubai time): Got out of Fiumicino airport Rome, took a cab to work, picked up my car, drove to my home in Fregene, repaired the boiler so I could get a warm shower.
- 14:00 (Rome time): Got up after a two hour nap, packed my carry-on bag (including a present for Tine and the girls), drove to Fiumicino airport.
- boarding at Fiumicino airport. Raining... Yak.[i-boarding at Fiumicino airport. Raining... Yak.]16:00 (Rome time): having a panino con prosciutto and a caffe latte doppio at the airport. Writing this blog via a wireless connection.
- At 18:30 tonight (Brussels time), I will arrive home and hug my girls.
On Sunday night I fly back to Rome. Hopefully I will not have to repair my boiler again when I get into my home there. Will be midnight.
Dubai picture, courtesy mirage studio 7
Rumble: Back in Dubai
Burj Dubai[i-Burj Dubai]I am back in Dubai for the first time since I left one and half year ago. In a way, it feels like I never left, and on the other hand, so much has changed in this city where roads are modified overnight and mega skyscrapers are built in record time.
So would I want to live here again? Mmmm. Don't think so. But is great to be back! Read the full post...
News: Dubai Raises US$1 billion During a Public Fund Raiser
link[i-link]"Dubai Cares", a public fund raising rally collected close to $500 million USD from the public in just eight weeks. Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum matched that an equal donation. That makes close to $1 billion USD.
Based on a long-term strategy of investing in community-based, education programmes, "Dubai Cares" will use the donations to build and renovate schools, train teachers, promote gender equality in education, provide teaching materials, offer scholarships, organize school feeding programmes and establish annual medical check- ups for students in some of the poorest countries in the world.
“I now ask the United Nations to follow Dubai's model of charity work. We are leading the march for human welfare,” said Sheikh Mohammed, who had launched the fundraising drive on September 19 with the aim of helping the United Nations reach its goal of providing primary education to every child by 2015. (full article)
Picture courtesy 7days. Thanks to E. for the link
For updated humanitarian news, check out The Other World News
Lost Connection
Dubai airport at night[i-Dubai airport at night]
I step out of the plane and look at my watch. 10 pm. Two hours to shop in the Dubai Tax Free before boarding my connecting flight to Islamabad, Pakistan.
I follow the stream of arriving passengers moving along on the first floor of the airport, overlooking the shopping area. I look at the vast crowd below. A dense mix of every possible Dubai Duty free shopping are[i-Dubai Duty free shopping are]nationality, religion and ethnicity in the world, expressed through a myriad of dress codes. From formal western suites, the traditional Arab dishdashahs, women in mini skirts mixed with those fully veiled. Rough Afghani chupans, expensive Indian silk sari’s, Berber djellabas, Australian safari shorts, Sudanese turbans, American baseball caps and Arab hijabs. This crowd seems to represent the world within one space. But the crowd is not strolling along from one shop to another in its usual way. The people are talking in groups, some with raised voices and expressive hand gestures, and others whisper. There is no laughing, nor joy but a nervousness makes the tension in the air so thick one could cut it with a knife. You do not have to be a clairvoyant to feel something is wrong.
Hundreds of people are lining up at the transit counters, below large displays listing numerous cancelled and delayed flights. The atmosphere is grim. Utter grim. I grab hold of someone in an Emirates Airlines uniform and ask her what is going on. She answers: “Have you not heard? The US started bombing Afghanistan a few hours ago. They closed the airspace above Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and all Gulf countries. No civil plane will be flying anymore for a while!”.
For a moment, I feel like the ground is pulled away from beneath my feet. “The US started bombing Afghanistan… This, we have feared since 9/11, a month ago. Retaliation. The beginning of the turmoil in the region, which will last for years. What will happen with Pakistan? How will the government react, how will the people react?”, thoughts flash through my mind as the lady explains the airline has booked hotel rooms, and buses are waiting outside.
I act like a robot: I walk through immigration, pick up my bags, and walk outside. The heat, humidity and mere mass of people crowded at the airport exit cuts off my breath. I get onto the bus and let myself fall into a free seat. I look at the crowd, the stuck traffic,…
- “Not flying tonight, are you?”, a voice says. I wake up from my reverie and look at the guy next to me. American accent.
- “No, apparently not!”, I mumble.
- “Harry”, he says as he holds out his hand.
- “Peter”, I answer, “where were you supposed to fly to?”
- “Oh, I was supposed to fly to Uganda”, he says, “my wife works there.”
- “Oh, really”, I answer, “I worked there too, left two years ago”. I try to make conversation, killing the time waiting for the bus to leave..
- “Really? You work for the UN?”
- “Yes, I do, for WFP”.
- “Oh, my wife works in the same building.. Cathy Ashcroft, maybe you know her!”. It turns out Harry is the husband of Cathy I know since years, the same Cathy I helped setting up the OCHA office in Kampala. We engage into a vivid conversation of Kampala, life in Africa, relief work and of course come back to the subject of the US bombing campaign.
After checking into the hotel, Harry and I walk to the night club, the only place we can still get a drink. In the mean time, it is already 1 am. A few men and a couple form the meagre audience, spread over a dozen tables. A small live band is playing without much enthusiasm. We take a seat in the back, and order a drink. I really really need a drink.
US bombing campaign[i-US bombing campaign]I tell Harry about how we feared for the retaliation, how we feared how the whole region was going to react. No matter how much everyone hated the Taliban, it was still an attack on a sovereign country. A Muslim country. Would countries in the region now choose sides? Be forced to choose sides? Above all, it would mean that masses of people would be killed. Tens, if not hundreds of thousands would start moving within the country, trying to find refuge. It could possibly cause an exodus into all countries around Afghanistan: Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran,... Working for a front-line humanitarian organisation, I know what this would mean for us: we would go and provide aid, close to the line of fire. I think of all our national staff who is still in Afghanistan.
All of a sudden the band changes beat and a belly dancer starts her act. There is something wrong with this picture… A war has started tonight. A big one. And here we are in a dark bar, watching a belly dancer…
Tomahawk missile launched from a war ship[i-Tomahawk missile launched from a war ship]I find no joy, pay for the drinks, say good-bye to Harry, and walk outside. Sitting on a bench near the hotel entrance, I lit a cigarette. I close my eyes, and imagine the infernos of fire, explosions, shrapnel in the black night around Kabul, Jalalabad and Kandahar. All places I have visited in Afghanistan. I can see families trying to seek refuge in their homes. I can see their fear not knowing what is going on, how long it would last, and what this would mean for them, and their livelihood. I can smell their fear even where I was sitting.
I look up. The night sky is clear. I imagine the Tomahawks launched from war ships close by. I imagine war planes rushing overhead, ten miles up in the sky. The pilots looking down at Dubai, this city of light and splendour, as they bank left and turn the direction of Afghanistan.
Postscript.
I was blocked in Dubai for three days. Spent the whole time in my hotel room, on email and telephone, coordinating with my team in Islamabad and with my counter parts in Rome. After three days, the air space was re-opened. I got onto the first plane that flew from Dubai to Islamabad. People were so anxious to get back home, they started a fight while boarding.
One month later, I landed in Kabul. As the Taliban retreated, they suffered quite some losses. People took the turbans from the bodies and threw them up in the trees. The turbans unruffled and for months long strips of shiny turban cloth were weaved in between the branches, floating in the wind.
It made me think of the start of the war and the belly dancer. The same contrast I found in dead bodies and their turbans floating in the wind, dangling from a tree. There is nothing poetic about the horrors of war. I understood what Marlon Brando meant in “Apocalypse Now”.
Pictures courtesy theme.cc (bombing), CNN (Tomahawk), umami.co.nz (Duty free zone)
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