Dubai has an unwritten marketing slogan: ‘the best place to live and work for one thousand miles in any direction’. No official will say it, and you won’t read it on any marketing material, but most expats will know the truth of it. Access to capital, entertainment, education, and an entrepreneurial outlook – combined with Dubai’s relatively relaxed live-and-let-live attitude – make it a better bet than, say, Cairo, Riyadh and Amman.
Even the driving is rated better than its neighbors (have you ever been to Cairo, or driven on Riyadh’s potholed highways?). That might not be the case anymore, at least to foreigners looking in.
The 300-car pile-up on the Dubai-Abu Dhabi road has made the news in Europe, Australia and India. TV viewers will have seen pictures more typical of a disaster movie than a car crash. They will be scratching their heads wondering how anyone can drive at 120kmph when visibility is down to 5 meters. With the stopping distance at this speed being around 200 meters, maybe, they’ll think, this is some new kind of Middle East suicide plot.
For all its big plans for big buildings and big planes, it is other big incidents that may shape Dubai’s international reputation.
No comments:
Post a Comment