Ngonge, I'm dissappointed you posted this on your national day saxib.
Western media has had enough of good reports out of Dubai and the UAE it seems. Read the below piece by someone you know no doubt. I think he sums up the latest stabs at Dubai coming from western media.
‘Tournalists’ who catch the Dubai bashing syndrome
Sultan Al Qassemi
Last Updated: November 22. 2008 7:07PM UAE / November 22. 2008 3:07PM GMT Since Dubai has taken a front seat in the international limelight, we in the UAE have grown used to welcoming journalists from across the world. Recently, though, there has been a slew of reporters coming hoping to uncover a “dark side”. Thankfully, the UAE has largely ignored this negative campaign and has continued with its development, looking towards the future.
The truth is that so many visiting journalists have come looking for negative news that I have become apprehensive of their visits. In early November, the UAE won a great honour when Dubai hosted the World Economic Forum’s Summit on the Global Agenda, billed as an opportunity to gather 700 of the world’s most influential thinkers from academia, business, government and society to discuss and find solutions to “the most critical challenges facing humanity”.
Among the attendees were dozens of Nobel laureates and one of my own heroes from the financial world, Mohamed El-Erian the current CEO of Pimco, the world’s largest bond investor with $692 billion of assets under management as of 2007, who also used to manage Harvard University’s $35 billion endowment fund.
It was a gathering like no other. Naturally, a newspaper like the Los Angeles Times would want to cover the event and reflect on the discussions. That is what I initially thought when I started reading its report; but I was mistaken. Its reporter, Rosa Brooks, “spent a few days in Dubai” and came up with hurtful phrases like “for us normal human beings, it’s hard not to be revolted by Dubai”, and “Dubai is repulsive enough to make most ordinary mortals start rooting for the collapse of global capitalism”.
As a UAE national, the thing I found to be repulsive and revolting was her attitude. Did she bother writing about Dubai Cares? It only happens to be on an unprecedented billion-dollar, eight-week fundraising drive to help people around the world. Did she write that the UAE is one of the most generous countries in the world with regards to its aid as a ratio of GDP?
She is not the only one to act this way. There was a book published recently, The Vulnerability of Success – a title as ironic as, say, The Curse of the Multi-Millionaire – that was also full of errors. For instance, it has many references to a certain “Sultan Bin Sulayman”, who seems to be a juxtaposition of two respected but very different Dubai leaders, Dr Omar Bin Suleiman and Sultan Bin Sulayem.
As the book was being reviewed by the UAE’s National Media Council prior to its release, the author went public and accused the NMC of having a “kneejerk reaction” and banning it. In fact, the book was never banned but was simply being reviewed – in the same way that in the UK, the British Board of Film Classification reviews movies before screening them. Is that a kneejerk reaction? We in the UAE have our processes too.
There barely passes a week without another dying (circulation wise) newspaper from the West sending a reporter to the UAE to uncover our “dark side”. Sure, it’s not perfect here, but we’re trying our best. Do criticise us, but get your facts right.
When I spoke to a fellow Emirati columnist about the West’s Dubai bashing syndrome he told me: “It’s natural, they’re jealous.” He may be right. Stagnant economies (we’re still predicted to grow at 4.25 per cent in 2009 despite the economic crisis), ageing populations, weakening social welfare and scant natural resources aren’t really as exciting as reading about Princess Diana.
Part of this maybe because the UAE has suffered from a lack of representation not only in the international media but, unfortunately, locally too. Although the efforts of our expatriate journalists are admired and appreciated, it is important that the opinions of UAE and Gulf nationals appear in the local media. It is said that 98 per cent of journalists in the UAE hold a work visa, meaning that they are not citizens. Imagine if for three decades all you read in the British press had been written by Arabs or Americans: the news would not reflect local opinions. Sadly, this was the case here until The National arrived. It is an area in which our GCC neighbours are exceeding us. Even in the 1990s, it was not surprising to find reports and Op-Eds written by nationals in English language newspapers in Kuwait or Oman.
Yet few Emiratis have penned or translated their opinions into English. The rare cases include Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qassimi, Ruler of Sharjah, Mohammed Abdul Jalil al Fahim, and Essa Saleh al Gurg. These books give everyone a better picture of the people of this land. We need more of these enlightening windows into the culture and history of the UAE.
There have been other valuable contributions, such as My Vision – Challenges in the Race for Excellence by Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, that won the Sheikh Khalifa Emirati Book Prize, when it was published in Arabic in 2007. When the English version becomes available it will be a welcome addition to the libraries of those who want to learn about Dubai from the inside rather than from the biased opinions of tourist-journalists – who would perhaps be better called “tournalists”.
I hope the UAE continues with its wise open-door policy regardless of the negativity of some of those who write about us. I also hope that more Emiratis are represented in the national media. These policies are the best way to combat the Dubai Bashing Syndrome.
Sultan Al Qassemi is a Sharjah-based businessman and graduate of the American University of Paris. He is the founder of Barjeel Securities in Dubai
http://thenational.ae/article/20081123/OPINION/577 39765
