Head above the parapet...

It is winter in the sandlands, and weather is stunning. But I've been stuck inside trying to get to grips with whatever is going on with my darling adopted country, as they stick two fingers up to the international investment community, and shoot themselves in the foot where future funding from said community is concerned.

I feel like it has to have an impact on us local folk, but I can’t really work out what that will be. At the most selfish level, will I be taken seriously as a candidate when I leave this crazy town? On one level, my cv might be more interesting because of my exposure to a place on steroids. Or employers may see this period as so far removed from “reality” (whatever that may be) that my experience isn’t actually transferable back to the Western world. Not going anywhere any time soon, so I shall park worrying about that!

It is true that I’ve been pretty bloody negative about the sandlands since the announcement on Wed about the Govt not backing Dubai World’s debt. As the dust clears, I’m still a bit bruised, as if recovering from an hurtful and unexpected jibe from a long-term lover, but I am regaining some pride in this ridiculous adopted homeland of mine, and some objectivity that sits between the blinkered nonsense of the local media, and the doom & gloom pedalled by the UK media.

I’m afraid that it does seem to me that the invective unleashed by the UK and international media recently is something of a cathartic exercise for people who don't feel able to heap the same scathing scorn on their own governments when they feel betrayed and lost at home. Dubai is handy, in that regard, as it is a tiny country, unafraid to stick its head above the parapet and say "hey, world, look at us" ... which we all know is just-not-done in UK culture. Hence many of these puffed chested, soap box, told-you-so type editorials. But to me there is a real undercurrent of fear in many of these stories, a recognition that what happens in this tiny nation state in the middle of a region that confuses and frightens the western world, might actually impact the rest of the world, but cannot be controlled by them. There are no dictators here that can offer a robust excuse for western governments to storm in. Oceans of cash wash through from every corner of the world, good, bad, and ugly, but tell me that doesn't happen in Switzerland, London, or New York?

So the state of the world economy bothers you? Good. It bothers lots of us. But take a second to look at your own doorstep – UK debt for example. 400% of GDP, isn’t it? Dubai is just over 100, I think. No excuses, but a bit of realistic comparison would be useful instead of listing celebs who may or may not have been given free villas in some development complex that happens to be shaped like a palm tree.

In the UK, the government is bound to (albeit foggy) levels of transparency that make Sheikhs snort coffee through their noses at the very thought of releasing such information. I do still think that the “shut up” or “they know nothing” messaging has to stop, and at some point, someone at the top will have to go and get trained in the art of communications, come back, and teach their uncles/elders the art of sticking to messages, and working with, rather than against, the global media. Someone that they'll listen to. Like Fazza - the Crown Prince. Why not?

So what happens next? A much cleverer person than I said yesterday that the question should be – where are the questions? What are the questions? No one has the answers just yet – the meetings are starting to take place, and the restructuring staff have been appointed. So let’s start thinking of the questions that need answering.