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Published: March 13th 2008
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Dubai
at Madinat Jumeirah I’m sitting in an extremely comfortable leather chair in the lobby of our hotel in Dubai. There are some men in the traditional long white robes and head covering, and men in stylish jeans and button down shirts. Some women in the long black abaya and black head covering, and some in tight jeans, strapless shirts, and high heels. Quite a strange place.
Our few days here were great! Dubai is such a sparkly, modern, wealthy city. Most of it is under construction, with dozens upon dozens of skyscrapers and high rise condo complexes popping up everywhere. They are also building a metro that runs mostly above the highway. It’s like the Sheikh of Dubai said, “Let’s build a city!” and up it sprung. One taxi driver told me that 3 years ago there was hardly anything here. Now they have the world’s only man-made island, an indoor ski slope, and they’re building the world’s tallest building. It’s like Dubai wants to be the biggest and best in everything. Not sure what they have to prove, but they are working hard to prove it, and Dubai is becoming a hot destination place for people who like beaches, fancy restaurants, night
Dubai
a city of sky scrapers clubs, and lots of high end shopping. Cheap labor to build this place is shipped in from everywhere—Pakistan, India, Nepal, Africa—the men do the construction, women work in the restaurants and hotels, and they house all the workers in camps/apartments outside of the city.
I arrived late Sunday night and checked into our 5-start hotel—Towers Rotana. Monday morning the conference—Women as Global Leaders—was held at Madinat Jumeirah, which is a huge hotel/conference center/souk-style mall. The Minister of Education, who is also the president of Zayed University (and had paparazzi following him), opened the conference with a monotone speech about the importance of educating girls that was not inspiring at all. Then we heard Sarah Ferguson, Dutchess of York and Jane Fonda speak. Fonda was great—talking about women needing to lead as women, not trying to act like male leaders, and how it’s time for the world to accept that. Sarah Ferguson mostly talked about the timeline of her life and how sometimes there will be hard times but you get through it. Blah.
This was followed by the Incredible Boris—a Russian hypnotist who was pretty lousy and annoying with the way he kept saying, “You are falling deeper
Dubai
shopping for a sheesha set and deeper asleep,” in his Russian accent. And I’m still not sure what hypnosis had to do with a conference on women as leaders. Or the laser show that opened the thing. Maybe it’s a cultural thing, but this conference is way over the top with the level of extravagance and the pomp and circumstance and entertainment factor. Coming from Kathmandu, it was rather disgusting. Although I did enjoy the lunch, which was several Middle Eastern salads (hummus, tabouleh, baba ghanoush, etc.), lots of fish and chicken dishes, and amazing deserts.
I met up with Dre at the conference—her flight from JFK left late, so she got in the next morning rather than Sunday night. After lunch we waited around for a while for Helen Thomas to speak, but it was taking way too long to get started, so Dre we I went outside to take photos of the Burj Arab and shop in the modern souk.
That night we went back to the Mudinat Jumeriah for a gala event that was also a lot of pomp and circumstance. Although we had appetizers (more Middle Eastern salads), they did not serve the buffet dinner until 10:30 or so
Dubai
taking a break from dune bashing with our driver, Jan (and it was the same dishes as lunch). The students at Zayed University had written this 10 act production about the stages of life, and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and Choir played/sang, and a ballet group danced, and a video played on the screens with the music. Some people found it to be wonderful. I couldn’t wait for it to be over.
The whole conference annoyed me because it was obvious that several million dollars were spent on it. It had a good theme—“learning leadership” for women—but I couldn’t help but think the entire time how many women could be educated all over the world with the amount of money being spent for just this 3 day conference. But the more time I spend in the UAE, the more I realize that wealth and extravagance are just part of life. It’s like a mix between Hollywood and 5th Avenue and Paris with a Middle Eastern flair. For instance, you might see a woman wearing an abaya, but with Chanel sunglasses, carrying a Gucci purse, and wearing Manolo Blahnik shoes. Regardless if that’s the lifestyle here, it’s annoying, especially coming from one of the poorest countries in the world.
Dubai
dune bashing. what a crazy adventure! Tuesday we went back to the conference early because I had to give a talk about women’s leadership roles in improving sexual health of Nepali women. I ended up talking only to a room of about 15-20 people, but that was fine. I was in a panel with a U.S. nurse talking about some theory of nursing science (not sure what that had to do with leadership), a Pakistani doctor who spoke about encouraging women to become physicians, and a Sudanese woman who spoke about a training program she attended in Sudan on leadership.
After my talk we stood in a security line for about an hour to get xrayed to go into the presentation by the Sheika (I forget which one). She’s supposedly done a lot for Emirati women because she expanded the Dubai Women’s Club into not just a club for recreation, but a place where women could network and become entrepreneurs and local leaders. Her speech was in Arabic, but we had headsets for translation. Her speech was good, but short, and definitely not worth all the hoopla we had to go through just to get in there. They even took everyone’s camera and cell phones
Dubai
trying out the traditional dress for the event.
Dre and I then skipped out of the conference for good. We went back to the hotel and booked a reservation for a desert safari, which became the best part of the trip. First we were picked up at the hotel in a Toyota Landcruiser by a young Pakistani guy named Jan. We then drove to the outskirts of the city, picked up 2 people from Finland (who turned out to be no fun at all), and drove out into the desert.
Once we got out to where there was nothing but desert around, we met up with 2 other vehicles. Jan let air out of the tires and off we went—dune bashing! Dre and I had no idea what we were in for, but it was about an hour and a half of driving up and down dunes, sliding off the side of them until we thought the jeep would tip over (there were extra roll bars installed), peaking over the top of them and then tipping the jeep forward and flying down the other side at full speed. It was like being on a rollercoaster and one of the more exciting things I’ve done in my life. Absolutely cool! One woman in the other jeep kept getting car sick, and the one guy in the other jeep was training to drive and stopped because he was too scared to go on at some points. He later had a flat tire that needed to be changed, too.
We watched the sunset over the desert, and then they drove up to this camp out in the middle of nowhere. We rode camels (in a little circle, but still fun), got henna tattoos, watched a belly-dancing show, and ate chicken shwarma, kabobs, and more Middle Eastern salads. That part of the evening was a bit cheesy, but still fun. And then at the end, Dre and I took photos in traditional Arab dress. Jan thought it was hysterical that I wanted to put on the male’s costume.
More later…have to catch a flight to Bahrain, then back to Kathmandu.
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Dylan
non-member comment
all the hoopla
yeah, arabs always want to impress and amaze their guests, even if it isn't at their home. That's probably why there was so much effort put into the presentation as opposed to the actual content. It's just something i've grown used to. They are respected more by how good of a host they are rather than their insight.