Monday, December 9, 2013

Kindly remember that you are a second class citizen

I am the kind of person that will defend Dubai to the hilt to those who criticise it. This is the kind of thing I will say to people who say it is a revolting capitalist plastic hell hole full of Porsche-driving idiots with empty lives:

"The climate is great from October to April, you can enjoy a good quality of life, yes there is the fair share of complete materialistic plonkers that you would expect in a rich country, but I have made great friends here. And, as a woman in Dubai, I have always been treated with respect, it does not have the unreconstructed attitudes you might think, and, I know that as long as I remember I am in an Islamic country and do not do anything silly like be horribly drunk in a public place and otherwise live within the law, I will be fine."

Unfortunately, this week, I was given a rather stark reminder, courtesy of my landlord's agent, that despite the fact that I am as educated as my husband, have just landed a job that is nearly as well paid as his, pay my share of the mortgage on our property back home etc etc etc, in the eyes of some, the fact that I am a woman means my opinion matters less and that I should not argue and listen respectfully when a man is talking.

To cut a long story short, the agent had originally agreed to fix our broken washing machine, even gave us the cash up front without seeing a quote, but went back on this when the technician who came to fix it told us it was going to be twice as expensive as originally thought.

When I tried to disagree with his argument that he would not fix our six-year-old machine because "the apartment had been delivered to us in good condition" (it really wasn't, but that is another long and boring story) his words were something like:

"This is Arab country, here a man can do something very bad to his wife if she speaks against him."

At this point, I thought there was little point trying to argue with someone who is going to disagree with me because he believes that his being a man means he has an automatic right to make the decision, and the fact that the fact that I am a woman means I have no right to disagree with him. So, I have had to go against every single one of my feminist instincts and ask him indoors to deal with him from now on.

I moved here with my eyes open, I knew such attitudes exist here, but I found it pretty shocking because it was the first time in nearly three years that I have come up against it. In many ways, the UAE is very forward thinking. The Minister of State and leader of Dubai's recent successful Expo bid is a woman, for example, and there is broad recognition that equality for women is vital.

And, I know I should not let this man upset me, but, I did find it pretty shocking, particularly as it is the first time I have experienced this kind of attitude head on, and, I think I had started to believe that such ignorance did not exist here. Silly me, it would seem it does not take much for certain people to resort to it if a woman is behaving in a way they do not like.

It caused me to do something I have never done before, and went running to the forum on ex-patwoman.com where I found some good advice about reporting him to the landlord regulator RERA. As is often the case, I am not sure I can be bothered with the bureaucracy. Perhaps I will, but in the mean time, the priority is to just get the flippin' washing machine fixed. I am aware of the somewhat pointed symbolism of a broken household appliance being at the root of my pondering of perceptions of gender roles in the UAE. Perhaps I should get back into the kitchen and get on with trying to get the bloomin' thing fixed rather than rambling away on my blog.


Sunday, December 8, 2013

Why everyone should see Champ of the Camp

For the first time this year, instead of talking about how nice it would be, we actually made it to a screening of a film at Dubai International Film Festival. Our chosen film was Champ of the Camp.


I have been reading about the film in the local press for some time, and had begun to doubt that it would ever be released, due to the fact that the treatment of the labourers who are basically responsible for making the enormous construction boom possible in Dubai, the UAE and the wider Gulf, is a fairly sore point as it has been the subject of such international criticism.

It is impressive that the director and producer managed to get it not only released, but screened at the the Emirate's film festival, and, at a 1,000 seat open air event right next to the Burj Khalifa, one of Dubai's best-known symbol of audacious wealth and determination to be the biggest and the best.


Please excuse the poor quality pic, I forgot to take my camera with me so it is from the Crackberry, but this gives a little sense of the atmosphere. Champ of the Camp tells the story of a singing contest that is held during the summer months at the labour camps where the construction workers live. The men audition to compete in a Bollywood singing game show, held in camps across the country, where singing ability and encyclopaedic memory of the thousands of songs written for the Indian film industry are key to being crowned Champ of the Camp. The winner in 2012 received a cash prize and an enormous flat screen TV. What is the true heart of the film, though, is the lives of the men and the solace the simple act of singing a romantic song from a Bollywood movie can bring to them, while they are thousands of miles from home, working long hours in searing heat for small salaries with often little prospect of seeing their loved ones for years at a stretch.

I can't remember ever before being so excited to see a film, or so pleased that it had actually been screened here. The screening itself reminded me of one of the central scenes in Cinema Paradiso, when the residents of the town gather in the square to watch the movie projected on to the wall because their beloved cinema is closed.

OK, it was a lot more official and high-tech than that, but the sound system was such that the singing of the men echoed from the speakers and the sound bounced off the Burj Khalifa, which one of the subjects of the film had been involved in building. The divisions between the lives of tourists and richer local and ex-pat residents in Dubai is such that he had never before been back to actually see the building as a visitor. A trip with the film makers was the first time he had ever got close up to simply stand back and look at it and watch the Dubai Fountain in the adjacent Burj Lake. It may have been a happy accident, but the point in the film when the fountain was shown was the exact point when the real life fountain behind it started to do its watery and flashing light stuff, another coup, even if it was not deliberate.

There are several scenes where the film makers simply train their cameras on individual workers standing in certain Dubai spots, beaches, building sites, near the Burj Al Arab, and they sing their hearts out. It is moving to see these songs, often ballads for lost or longed for loved ones, in such a different context, away from the glitz, the glamour and the frenetic dancing of Bollywood. I challenge anyone not to fill up at the sight of one contestant sobbing at the thought of being so far away from home and unable to be there in the event that something should happen to his aging parents. It is pretty sobering for a privileged ex-pat like me, who walks past hundreds of these workers on a daily basis, toiling away in 40+degrees, without really giving much thought to what their lives must be like.

There was only one slightly jarring moment in the film, that did not seem to quite fit, where two workers had a discussion about why one worker, from Pakistan, should happen to know songs from Bollywood, which felt as if it had been rather staged, and in my view, was completely unnecessary as there was plenty of other context to explain the use of Bollywood songs. Other than that, I cannot really begin to stress how impressive this film is, how fascinating an insight it is, the sheer quantity of work that must have gone on behind the scenes to navigate UAE bureaucracy to obtain permissions to film.

Much was made in media interviews with the director in the run up to the screening about how the media had previously only given a very small insight into the poor conditions inside the camps, the implication being that there is a much bigger pictures and it is not all bad. Well, his film showed conditions of eight men sleeping in bunks in one room, lack of air con in cooking facilities (no joke in the summer when it is 50degrees) and men disclosing that they receive a salary of Dhs1,000 per month (just over 166pounds). The fact that Mahmoud Kaabour was able to show this is pretty miraculous and I have already decided if I ever need to get something really very tricky done in Dubai, it is Mr Kaabour and producer Eva Sayre that I will be asking!

The winner of the contest, the film revealed, returned to his home country for a short while because his contract expired, and has since relocated to Saudi Arabia. Another, from Bangladesh, had actually been in the UAE illegally having overstayed his visa, but also managed to return home thanks to a visa amnesty last year. Another is back in Pakistan. Four of them attended the screening and each sang a song for the audience afterwards, their voices once again bouncing off the Burj Khalifa.

During a post screening interview, what really struck me was how one of them said that he never thought "people of such calibre" (ie rich and privileged people) would come to watch the film. Growing up in a society like the UK where one is taught that everyone is equal, no one is "better" than anyone else, whether or not their parents own land or have a lot of money or whether or not they have a brown or white skin, I always find such things upsetting to hear. Imagine, thinking the place where you were born or your parents' lack of money means you are not "of the same calibre" as others. I just can't, yet this is clearly how some of these men who are building the skyscrapers that are always springing up around us feel. Everyone should try to imagine what that feels like to appreciate what they have, and, that is why everyone should see Champ of the Camp. Now the real test will be to see whether the film will reach a wider audience and whether it will be the cause of any improvements in the lives of the men.

Belated happy "National Expo Day"

I am a little late to the party as the events in this post took place a week ago, but, what with all the jobhunting and foolishly running the Dubai Creek Striders Half Marathon, I have been somewhat preoccupied.

I am now recovered, much quicker than last time, and I can confirm that should you ever feel the urge to undertake such a thing in a desert climate, it is far easier to do so in 20-30degrees than 30-40degrees, so opt for a December half marathon rather than an October half marathon if you feel the need. Our next trick may well be the RAK Half in February.

Anyway. The business of this post is Dubai's winning bid of Expo 2020, which, has probably barely registered elsewhere in the world but has been pretty darned big news here.



The odds on the Emirate winning were so short that there was an inevitability about the proceedings of the day it was announced. Him indoors and I sat down to dinner, listening to a local radio station, and sure enough fireworks started to shoot out of the Burj Khalifa, which was also turned Expo blue for the occasion, the moment it was announced.


Say what you like about Dubai, when it comes to this sort of stuff, we know what we are doing. The fireworks started the instant the announcement was made and motorists in the streets around our building started going happily mental hooting their car horns. Meanwhile, him indoors and and I enjoyed the fireworks but slightly gloomily looked at each other and wondered what it would mean for the cost of living. There is already a school of thought that the Expo means the cost of living will simply rise too high to make it a sustainable economic choice for some ex-pats.

The cynical among you might point out that as I spotted workmen scaling the Burj to fix the fireworks in place days in advance, Dubai was something of a shoe-in and it's true, if you looked at betting websites in the run-up, you would have been daft to bet against it. But, it was actually also rather handy timing, as the announcement was just a few days before UAE National Day, another opportunity for the entire country to go completely pyrotechnic mental, so they could have simply delayed the blasts by 72 hours or so if necessary.

I was not in Dubai before the financial crisis of a few years ago, which resulted in ex-pats deserting the place for fear of being imprisoned for debt, but, I do wonder if the Expo win has brought something of the old swagger back to the Emirate. I spotted a rather boastful billboard on Sheikh Zayed Road, which ended up being featured in 7Days. So far there does not seem to be too much insanity or lunatic financial speculation off the back of the win, but I suppose only time will tell as to whether Expo means a return to what is referred to as "the good times" or "the crazy times", depending on your point of view.

National Day is a funny thing for a Brit as any sense of national pride and flag waving in the UK, apart from during the recent London Olympics, or during other brief moments in history when we demonstrate national sporting success, has rather unfortunate associations with right wing extremism, plus, there is the current debate over whether Scotland should go independent which means that our national identity is at best, "under maintenance" as we like to say in the UAE.


As a young country, the UAE at aged just 42 years, is in something of a honeymoon period and there are plenty of perfectly good reasons why. The standard of living is high for citizens and for many ex-pats, considerably better than they would experience in their home countries.


As is tradition, parades abounded, featuring floats from community groups and businesses and cars festooned with national flag decorations. The noise and festivity involved meant I simply could not ignore the one going on in Downtown and so I popped down to join the fun.


Perhaps because it was so hot on the heels of the Expo win, this year's celebrations did seem particularly festive. Dubai and the UAE have the tendency to get into the international news for the wrong reasons, but seeing the delight people have taken in being recognised with the successful bid, and, seeing a little of what it means for large sections of the population to be able to live here, gave me quite a lot to think about.


Typhoon Haiyan, which I believe has killed more than 6,000 people and counting in the Philippines, has been in the news a lot in the UAE thanks to the fact that there are around 750,000 Filipino nationals living here of a total population of 9.2million.

Although many Filipinos who live here are on low wages, you begin to see why they put up with that when the alternative could be living under threat of natural disasters. Us over-privileged Brits moan about Dubai and the usually quite trivial frustrations you can experience, but, and although I know this is a generalisation, for people from poorer countries, who grow up knowing they will need to move abroad to make a decent living, it is the place to be.


When I went into the Post Office prior to National Day, the Emirati national behind the counter was in an cheerful mood, and the interior of the building was festooned with flags. I wished him Happy National Day, and he replied: "And Expo" which made me think just how big of a deal this really is for the locals, particularly the older ones like that particular gentleman, who were in this country before it was even a country, and have seen it grow from sand to skyscrapers in the space of a few decades.


The visa requirements here are such that unless you are an Emirati national, if you don't have a job here or are married or related to someone who does, you cannot live here, so I suppose the result of that is that many who are here feel privileged to be so, particularly those for whom the alternatives are not at all attractive.


Life is by no means a bed of roses for everyone in Dubai, as links like this will show you, paying no tax means no free health service to speak of, so, if you get sick and your insurance does not cover you, you can run into problems pretty quickly. But it is times like National Day when you can see the genuine love and appreciation people have for the place.


Saying that, I would never ignore the flip side of those who have the experience of feeling privileged to be here, that is those who are here because they feel they have to be, driven here for the sake of  making a better life for the families, and, to an extent, are trapped because their salaries are so low that they can very rarely afford to fly home to see their loved ones. This section of UAE society is explored in Champ of the Camp, which premiered last night at Dubai International Film Festival.


I went to see the film at the open air screening of Burj Park, but it deserves its own post, so I will leave that for a different day. In the mean time, here is the Burj lit red, and then in UAE flag colours, to celebrate National Day.








Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Say cheese

It must be, ooh, at least a month since my last "product made with camel milk" post so here is my experience of UAE-made camel cheese.


The thing I like about this cheese is the effort that has gone into producing the packaging, a little Bedouin-style tent with imitation sand dunes. Bless. For 39Dhs, you get 200g of the cheese plus the fancy packaging. Readers in the UK will think I've gone mad if they've done the maths (that's about 6.50GBP) when I say it's fairly good value.....

Wait for it, wait for it....

There is logic.....


Camel milk is relatively low in fat compared to its bovine counterpart, and, I think it is for this reason that this cheese lasts a heck, and I mean a heck, of a long time. I am not going to tell you how long it survived in our fridge because you will be horrified that we still ate it, but, it is safe to say that him indoors and I do not really take much notice of sell-by-dates, we are more from the "if it does not have actual maggots or green fur, then it is still OK" school of thought, and, so far we are still alive.

You also do not need much per sitting. It is quite rich tasting, and its fancy packaging has some sort of psychological effect, you view it as a treat, therefore you eat a little bit at a time.


The other reason it seems relatively good value is that cheese of the non-processed variety is pretty darned pricey in the UAE in general. In the UK, we were used to buying house brick-sized blocks of mature cheddar on an almost weekly basis. You can get cheddar here, but the mature variety is not cheap and the house brick-sized blocks are not available in a bog standard supermarket, probably because it would be so expensive people would fall about laughing in the aisles. There is also a certain paranoia about food going off due to heat in the UAE, despite the fact that fridges etc have been widely available for a long time.

Obviously, most fresh cheese that is sold here has arrived from Europe or Australia in some kind of refrigerated vehicle which costs dosh, hence the high price to the consumer. There are all kinds of  processed tinned, carton and packaged cheeses available, but, I tried a cheap carton of feta from Denmark once and nearly cried, such was its inferior quality. I am aware exactly how ridiculously middle class that makes me sound, but, you know what, I am ok with that, if it means I will never have to eat the shrunken excuse for feta ever again.

Anyway, back to the camel cheese. As for the actual flavour, it is not particularly memorable. I would say it is a bit like feta but less salty, or one of those artisan goat cheeses that are coated in ash. But, it really is all down to the presentation. Packing it in a miniature tent appeals a lot to strange people like me who like miniature things, and I am pretty sure that thanks to this, it will join the assortment of "amusing presents to take home to the family" novelty items such as camel milk chocolate camels, dates, Arabian sweets and shisha pipes, given time.

As for a mass market, it is hampered by the same problems as camel milk itself, in that it is not exactly economical to produce if this story in The National is anything to go by. But there will always be a groundswell of support from those who want to find a way to make camels an economic resource other than for amusing tourists and camel racing in the UAE, as it is such a symbol of how life once was in this region.