Blogosphere, September 26, 2006

Gulf News web editor Adam Flinter plunges headlong into the blogosphere to find out what bloggers from the Middle East and beyond have on their minds.

All today's blogs react to the Gulf News article "Dubai: Culturally Integrated?" (Friday, September 15).

Start now
In today's Al Bayan newspaper, there was a column by Maisa Rashed Ghadayer about the cultural integration special report published by Gulf News a few days ago. I would like to share the last paragraph of this article with the fellow bloggers.

I tried to translate it word by word, but at the end I was confused, I am sure fellow bloggers would have felt even more confused than me after reading the translation ;-)

Well, the main theme of the last paragraph is that UAE nationals & expats of different nationalites have so far managed to live in harmony. But the need of the hour is that both nationals & expats of all nationalities should make serious effort to come closer to each other, to understand each other. She insisted that locals should make more effort than the expats in trying to bridge the gaps. People should interact more on social and cultural level instead of just the interaction just limited to money and work.

I hope people from both sides start making a serious effort to achieve the above mentioned goal. Friends, we have a very good excuse to make a start, Ramadan is almost here (at the time the blog was written), make the full use of it in knowing each other better and trying to remove misconceptions from each other's minds. Good luck & Ramadan Kareem :-)
http://dubaiguy78.blogspot.com/


Long way to go
Often Dubai is marketed particularly to the Western world as an "international city" where societies "integrate" and cultures assimilate. But how far Dubai has progressed on this front? Or does Dubai at all have the chance of truly assimilating various cultures? Does Dubai, or the UAE, offer enough opportunities and avenues to make it so?

Fusion spot

Despite my otherwise positive views on Dubai on numerous aspects, I tend to agree with this long interview based article in Gulf News today, that it is still a "Fusion Spot":
"Dubai is being perceived as a fusion city, where Middle Eastern values mix with those of the rest of the world."
I feel that progressing towards a melting pot will take a long time...
http://shansenta.blogspot.com/

Special thanks
In today's Gulf News there is an article regarding cultural integration in the UAE from the perspectives of a few Emiratis and expats. I am one of them.

A special thanks to Manal and Gulf News for giving me the opportunity to be interviewed for the article.
http://onebigconstructionsite.blogspot.com/
2006/09/cultural-integration.html

Close to home
This article in Gulf News this morning hit close to home. It looks at different perspectives on adjusting to living in Dubai and opinions about the level of tolerance for cultural diversity.
http://pearlofdubai.blogspot.com/2006/
09/stirring-melting-pot.html

English, please
There's been a lot of blogging about today's Gulf News article dealing with the state of cultural integration in the UAE. Growing up here the mix of cultures was never something that I particularly noticed although its influence is now clear; I've developed a knack of understanding and being understood by anybody in situations where neither of us speaks each others language and my cooking now literally constitutes a melting pot of different cultural influences.

Exposure

Pretty much everyone comes to this country to make money but I also feel that we should all use our time here to expose ourselves to something new, and to learn about cultural eccentricities you'd never read about in a book.

Circle of friends

The other day I was sitting around a table with a group of friends, between the ten people at the table there were ten nationalities and four religions represented. The variety of our experiences and backgrounds made conversation as diverse as our nationalities and rather than talking about the weather or an annoying boss we talked about religion and politics, laughed at jokes from each others country and taught each other a bit of our own language. It was an enriching experience for me and one that I think could only be experienced in the UAE.

Language barrier

However, when I am part of these big gatherings the fact that I don't speak Arabic and pretty much every conversation has to be in English so that I can understand makes me feel guilty; this may be integration but I can't help but feel it's a bit one sided. This seems to be a common trend with Westerners, we may be friends with people of other cultures but we kind of expect everything to be done in our language; as long as it's in English…than bring on the diversity.

After learning Arabic for ten years in school you'd think that I'd be able to do more in the language than direct the taxi driver to my building but I can't, and I cant help but feel that maybe I, in my own way, constitute a barrier to equal and proper integration.
http://auhblogger.blogspot.com/2006/
09/give-it-bit-of-stir.html

What privileges?
There's been a slew of articles over the past week in Gulf News and Al Bayan dealing with racism in the UAE. I won't argue with the general point that the UAE is racist, indeed, the racism is institutionalised at all levels, and there is a strong tendency towards ghettoisation. Today Gulf News published an English translation of two Al Bayan articles by Maya Rashid Ghadeer, a UAE national.

Culture at risk

The general gist is that nationals account for only 21% of the population and they feel that their culture and livelihood is at risk. I won't go into the pros and cons of that here, but I was struck by this comment: "Furthermore, if nationals were to complain against the expatriates, who have more privileges than they do, they would be branded as racist."

I would love to know in what sense expats have more privileges than locals ...
http://webmasterdubai.blogspot.com/