Let's talk about institutionalized racism today, kids!

Apparently Dubai is supposed to be the most tolerant (and by tolerant I mean racially tolerant) society in the Middle East - and I have no doubt in my mind that is certainly the case. What is still a little striking to me after having lived here for three weeks is the sharp contrast, still, between the UAE (well, more like just Dubai, actually)'s position on racism and that of back home, in New York (and other parts of America too), where racism is something to be largely kept under wraps from the public eye and discrimination based upon race and racial divisons are officially denied when allegations arise. Dubai's society seems to be largely based upon divisions of race and uses these divisions to 'better' itself and survive. Yes, Dubai is a very very racist society. I use "racist" in this context as 'a distinct division based upon race' not necessarily implying discrimination - you can glean and conclude whatever you want from what I write about Dubai's society and I encourage you to see it for yourself if you have the chance. It grows and thrives leveraging its racism and evidently Sheik Saeed's plan is at least, from an economic standpoint, wildly successful.

What brought this on was a chat I had with a couple of models from the photo shoot I'm working on right now. Irfan, a Pakistani national (yes, holding the green passport) was cast as an Arab in today's shoot, which he can pull off quite readily. He looks like a "local" (Arabs of all kinds are referred to as "local" regardless of which Emirate or which country they reside in). He seems well educated, intelligent and he is fluent in Arabic and English - more than comfortably fluent, dare I say perfectly in both. He, however, confessed he was a model because he had to supplement his income. He was a Pakistani national and was thus paid less than 10 thousand Dirhams (about three thousand USD) per week less than a British national and six thousand less than a locally born Arab - he makes the equivalent of 330USD/week currently. His situation is not unusual, in fact, he informed me, there is thought of racial "salary caps" being implemented for specific types of jobs. Still, in spite of this tiered salary system, he has stayed in Dubai for over 7 years now and has no plans to leave any time soon. And still, Pakistani workers flood into Dubai to fill jobs in both free-zone (foreign owned) and local companies.

Ghassan is a Dubai native. He is considered "local." He is thinking of moving to the US to work and earn his PhD. He is a microbiologist working in a government office - the ministry of transportation, perhaps? Something entirely unrelated to his field of microbiology. It's not possible for him to do PhD work in Dubai or in the UAE because the universities are not research institutions and therefore can only grant Bachelor's degrees. Furthermore, he cannot find work in his desired field because there simply isn't much of a demand for microbiology in the UAE (for whatever reason). Still, he is considered by some to be lucky. As a UAE national, he is entitled to work in government offices and government ministries. The work is not difficult, and though it doesn't pay particularly outrageously well, he is at least guaranteed a job in an air conditioned office. When he marries, he will be given a government allowance to do so and should he choose to have children, he will also be given a government allowance for each of them. Still, he admits that he is getting by but unable to save money due to the ever-skyrocketing cost of living in Dubai.

I am adding a short little bit on the "less fortunate" (unskilled) laborers in Dubai, the ones who man construction sites and are signed by companies owned by their own countrymen, and are brought to Dubai, to live in slavery (yes, literally slavery), creating the newest parts of the landscape. They are largely Indian and Pakistani. These laborers work twelve hours a day in either the sun or the darkness of night (construction occurs 24 hours a day here) in the blistering sun for no pay and are trucked back to labor camps far into the desert so escape is both impractical and virtually impossible. What is striking is that they are all of one race, and they are deliberately picked to be so. There are no Indonesian or Bangladeshi workers in Dubai (none in the labor camps at least), leading me to think there must be a relatively convenient official avenue for Indian and Pakistani organized crime to win contracts for building...

Also interesting is that when people want workers of a certain "nationality," they freely advertise in the newspaper for exactly who they want: 'Arab engineer wanted,' 'Philipino office administrator desired.' Everywhere else in the world, this practice would be met with protest but here it is the norm. There is a definite intention to slot people of certain race into a given, predetermined income bracket.

Makes you think about where you live yourself.

"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. It owes you nothing. It was here first"
-Mark Twain