Each city in the UAE is an oasis in the desert //Photo from the archive of “Zagranitsa”
They are locals
Skyward buildings of glass and concrete, highways clogged with cars, shopping mall displays, endless tower cranes and mosques seemingly built of sugar cubes... For those who have never been to New York, Dubai is a New York amidst the desert, a mirage city built on sand. “This is real communism, like the Bolsheviks once promised us. They created a fairy tale and made everyone believe in it,” says Sergey, a 54-year-old businessman from Moscow who has lived here for 12 years, speaking admiringly of Dubai, the main tourist city of the UAE.
The scale of construction in Dubai staggers any imagination – the tiny emirate accounts for 17% of all construction cranes in the world. According to estimates by the emirate's authorities, construction projects totaling $45 billion are currently underway here. The same amount is estimated for projects in the development stage. The country's total GDP today exceeds $132 billion, and only 10% of that comes from oil revenues. The lion's share of economic income comes from tourism and real estate. “They managed to turn their country into a brand that everyone knows. Even those who have never been here,” Sergey says.
Just a few decades ago, there was nothing at all. Photographs of sands churned by heavy Land Rover wheels and structures reminiscent of Soviet workers' settlements, published on the eve of the country's 35th anniversary in the local press, were all that existed on the site of today's sleek glass towers, airports, and golf courses. The current capital, Abu Dhabi, was a small settlement where “sea laborers” – pearl divers and fishermen – lived.
The “fairy tale” was conceived by Sheikh Zayed, the ruler of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the first president of the UAE, which was a British protectorate until 1971. The sheikh died only in November 2004. So everything the Emirates are today was built by one man. And he built something along the lines of tales from “One Thousand and One Nights.” The best living conditions in the Arab world have been created here. True, mainly for the Emiratis themselves, referred to in the local variant of English, which is the country's lingua franca, as “locals.”
“Locals,” mostly male Emiratis dressed in long white “kandura” shirts (women, by contrast, wear only black), speed along the highways in cars of the most prestigious brands and sit on the boards of major foreign companies. The foundation of sovereign democracy in the Emirati style is the law according to which 51% of the capital of any company in the UAE must belong to a local resident. This norm is precisely the basis of the local “communism” – there are many commercial firms in the Emirates, but few Emiratis who must be among their founders.
Such a pastime for “locals” is called “being a sponsor.” Their job, as a rule, consists of receiving substantial dividends from the company's operations, which is managed by foreign specialists. At the same time, the local resident uses not so much his business skills as his connections. In short, many “locals” exist according to the formula expressed in a song from a Soviet “perestroika” film: “We do not plow, we do not sow, we do not build. We are proud of the social system.”
Understandably, representatives of the upper echelons of the “titular” tribe of each of the seven emirates that make up the UAE end up in leadership positions. However, even ordinary fellow tribesmen get something from “communism.” The UAE pursues a policy of “Emiratization” of jobs. In practice, this means the introduction of quotas for holders of UAE passports. For example, in the banking sector, at least 4% of employees must be locals. The minimum wage for UAE citizens without secondary education is about $900 per month; with secondary education, over a thousand dollars; with higher education, from one and a half thousand dollars. Incidentally, education, including higher education, is free for UAE citizens. Healthcare services are also provided absolutely free of charge.
Such a modus vivendi has recently begun to irritate even the local authorities: according to a directive from the Ministry of Labor, UAE citizens will be denied registration of new companies if their previous business was found guilty of violating labor laws. Labor law in a country where trade unions are only planned to be allowed has recently become the subject of heated debate. As it turned out, behind phantasmagorical plans like the project to create artificial “Islands of the World,” they completely forgot about the creators of the Emirati miracle: the vast army of Indian and Pakistani workers. Most of them live in extreme poverty, five to seven people per room, and earn no more than $200 a month. For problems related to the situation of foreign workers, the UAE has often been criticized by international non-governmental organizations. But despite the harsh living conditions and low wages, thousands of Pakistanis, Indians, and residents of other Asian countries strive by hook or by crook to get into the UAE.
Democracy of sheikhs
There is reason to strive. Despite the fact that the Emirates are not far from Saudi Arabia, where several terrorist attacks involving Al-Qaeda have occurred, life here truly seems like continuous bliss. No political upheavals mar the local idyll. Therefore, for instance, it is quite amusing to read materials in Dubai newspapers criticizing “authoritarian tendencies in Russia” and Vladimir Putin personally. But you will never read there not only criticism but even a clear description of the political system of the Emirates themselves. Yet it is very peculiar. Now that is truly where sovereign democracy flourishes.
In Emirati politics, everything is not what it seems. The UAE is a federal state that adopted a constitution in 1971 and is headed by a president. In reality, it is an absolute hereditary monarchy, with power distributed among the sheikhs, the rulers of the seven emirates. The greatest power in the UAE is held by the heads of the richest and most influential emirates, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The current head of the emirate of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, son of the late founder of the Emirates, Sheikh Zayed, is the president of the country. The duties of vice president and prime minister are performed by the head of the emirate of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
According to the constitution, the president and vice president are elected for a five-year term by the UAE Supreme Council, consisting of representatives from all emirates. In reality, the presidency is inherited within the Al Nahyan clan, while the post of prime minister is inherited within the Al Maktoum clan.
However, just in time for the 35th anniversary of the founding of the state, the UAE authorities decided to take the first step toward normal democracy. The country's leaders gave the people (that is, the "locals") the right to elect half of the members of the Federal National Council, a sort of parliament consisting of 40 deputies. At the same time, such an exotic thing as political parties is unthinkable in the UAE. So who will nominate candidates for deputies? Naturally, the "leaders" of the seven emirates. But there is no talk of "growing authoritarian tendencies" - on the contrary, there is a liberalization of the regime.
Censorship exists in the Emirates, but it mostly concerns countering threats to Islamic morality. The work of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, "The Green Book," which local theologians consider a misinterpretation of Islam, is banned, but in open sale you can find, for example, "Mein Kampf" by Adolf Hitler. Images of nudity are also illegal (from the popular Russian-language publication "Speed-Info," nude images are carefully removed), while magazines and newspapers print models in underwear - an unthinkable liberty for neighboring Saudi Arabia or Iran. The UAE also has problems with access to telephone communications and the Internet. There is only one company in the country providing such services, and its service is not cheap. Recently, the authorities banned the use of the Internet phone "Skype," citing that they are not sure that conversations on this network are reliably protected from eavesdropping.
The Russians Are Coming
Alexander, a 38-year-old former physicist and now an entrepreneur in the fuel and energy sector, talks about his apartment in the prestigious Dubai Marina district as if it were a dacha in some suburban Malakhovka near Moscow. "I come here like to a dacha - hunting, fishing. The only problem here for a Russian is to drink vodka and quarrel with your own people," he smiles.
Alexander is one of several hundred Russian entrepreneurs who have purchased property in the most popular emirate of the country. And this is also a result of the liberalization of the regime. In 2002, a decree by the Sheikh of Dubai allowed foreigners to freely purchase real estate, and in March of this year, the emirate adopted a law on real estate registration, securing the right of foreign owners to buy housing.
Anghelika Shcheglova, head of the company Dacha Real Estate, hopes that the favorable and stable economic situation in the UAE will attract even more buyers from CIS countries: "Earlier, our people mostly bought for themselves, but now, realizing that the profit on the Dubai market is actually up to 30% per annum, they have begun to transfer funds from European markets to investment projects in the UAE." It is Russians, along with Kazakhs, who are the most active buyers of real estate in prestigious areas of Dubai, as well as on the famous man-made island "Palm." By the way, recently the middle class, which previously could only afford real estate in Krasnodar, has also been drawn to the UAE real estate market. Today, notes Dubai realtor Irina Kiseleva, there are more Russians with an income of up to $5,000 per month among property buyers.
Let us repeat: it is real estate and the associated tourism industry that form the basis of the UAE economy, not oil, as the uninitiated think. Sheikh Zayed and his heirs built their "Oriental fairy tale" not on energy resources, but on competent PR, advertising the UAE in the West as an island of stability in the unstable Middle East. Every armed conflict in the region is accompanied by a rise in prices for Emirati real estate. The Emirates themselves fundamentally do not participate in "showdowns," including the latest one in Iraq, thereby guaranteeing themselves against terrorist attacks.
By the way, this model is not original. It was successfully applied by Switzerland during the First and Second World Wars. The UAE is the Switzerland of the East. The only difference is that the peculiarities of the local political system force the Emiratis to spend heavily on PR. For example, the new football stadium in London is named "Emirates" and belongs to investors from the UAE. The name of the country has essentially been turned into a trademark, which costs so much that the West has to turn a blind eye to the peculiarities of Emirati sovereign democracy.