Once upon a time I used to say nice things about Dubai and United Arab Emirates! You can see my comments in the article below (published in Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in March 2006) on the controversy surrounding Dubai's acquisition of six key ports in the United States. I no longer think of UAE-Dubai as a pleasant place. The financial crisis in 2008 and the Arab uprisings of 2011, which claimed some star dictators, have made the Gulf Arab states, in particular Saudi Arabia and UAE, paranoid. I have experienced their irrational behavior and foolish arrogance, before and after leaving the UAE. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette journalist Heather Wecsler was kind enough to email me her article - Shakir Husain)
Americans in Dubai react to flap
Fears over port deal baseless, Arkansan says
BY HEATHER WECSLER ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Like others in the United Arab Emirates interviewed by the Democrat-Gazette, former Arkansan Winfred L. Thompson sees no reason Americans should fear a deal that would allow a Dubai firm to take over operations at six U.S. ports.
U.S. policymakers’ criticism of the deal has baffled many who live in this Arab country that boasts Western-style resorts, gleaming skyscrapers and global business aspirations, Thompson said.
“Generally, there is shock and disappointment that an Emirati company is viewed with such suspicion,” the former Conway resident said by e-mail from Sharjah, an emirate — essentially another city-state — roughly the same driving distance as between Little Rock and Sherwood.
“Emiratis generally think of themselves as friends of the United States and cannot understand why the sentiment is not reciprocated.”
Last week, a federal panel opened a 45-day investigation into whether the deal with Dubai Ports World, a state-owned company in the United Arab Emirates, threatens national security. The firm offered to submit to the highly unusual review after U.S. lawmakers of both political parties threatened to block or postpone the entire transaction, which the Bush administration approved in January.
Under the deal, Dubai Ports World would assume control of shipping terminals in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Miami and New Orleans with the company’s $6.8 billion purchase of London-based Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. A British citizen will handle the company’s U.S. operations until the federal committee completes its review.
Just as it has been in the United States, the Washington debate over Dubai Ports World has been front-page news in the nation where the holding company is based. But there, it began mainly as a business story.
Dubai Ports World is one of the flagship corporate entities of the fast-growing emirate, touted in local media for its successful container terminal operations around the world from Australia to Venezuela to its own shores.
“People here never expected a straightforward business transaction to become so complicated, particularly since DP World is already in so many countries,” said Shakir Husain, a business reporter who has been covering the company’s most recent ports deal for the Gulf News. The 91,000-circulation publication, based in Dubai, is the largest English-language daily newspaper in the United Arab Emirates and indeed the Arab world.
Dubai is one of seven sheikdoms led by hereditary rulers that formed a federation after gaining independence from Great Britain in 1971.
A country where less than a fifth of the population are Emirati citizens and about half come from South Asia, the United Arab Emirates might not even be best described as Arab.
Mazen Hayek, a Lebanese citizen who has lived and worked in Dubai on and off since 1998, said he went to the country in part because the United Arab Emirates, unlike some of its Middle Eastern neighbors, has embraced First World business practices. For instance, he said, people are hired on the basis of merit rather than just family connections.
“You come to Dubai, and you have world-class professionals from every single nationality in the world, working here freely and having access to services,” said Hayek, who works in communications. “That’s the strength of the U.A.E.”
For more than 20 years, Dubai — the nation’s financial capital — has worked to diversify its economy. Today, only about 15 percent of Dubai’s revenue comes from oil, but the city is Middle East headquarters to more than 800 U.S. companies.
Dubai also attracts more than 5 million tourists a year, many of them from Europe, with such once improbable desert attractions as two water parks and Ski Dubai, a man-made snow park inside Dubai’s largest mall.
An American who has worked in public relations in Dubai for four and a half years likened the emirate to the Hong Kong or Singapore of the Middle East.
“If Americans knew what Dubai stood for ... then I don’t think the story would have had the sort of traction it has,” said the American, who asked that his name not be used. “It wouldn’t make sense, but because nobody knows what Dubai is, it’s easy to emphasize the Arab in United Arab Emirates.” Thompson, another American now living in the United Arab Emirates, said he detects some “blatant prejudice” in the discussion of the ports deal.
“Of course, the United States has a right to assure the safety of our ports, but the assumption that an Arab company is automatically suspect — while a British company is not — is appalling,” said Thompson, chancellor of the American University of Sharjah and the former president of the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.
“There has been much more terrorist activity in the United Kingdom than there has ever been in the Emirates.”
Specifically, he mentioned that three of those suspected in last summer’s suicide bombings of London’s transit system were native Britons, albeit of Pakistani descent. The fourth was Jamaican.
Husain, the Dubai reporter, said many of his readers see lawmakers’ objections to the transaction as politically motivated.
“People think it’s ignorance, politics and bias [against Arabs],” he said.
He said the U.S. government’s extra scrutiny of the ports deal has added to the suspicions of people in Dubai who already disagreed with U.S. policies toward the Middle East.
“In this climate of suspicion, when something like this happens, it just adds to the suspicion,” Husain said. “It’s damaged the position of the United States.”
Still, he said the negative reaction has hurt the United States' reputation mainly among local professionals who may choose not to invest in American businesses.
He and others in Dubai stressed that the United Arab Emirates, while overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim, is dominated by religious moderates.
Some local mosques had peaceful demonstrations against the Danish newspaper that published cartoons satirizing the Prophet Muhammad, and Zayed University fired a professor who showed the cartoons to her class. But the United Arab Emirates experienced none of the violent protests seen in Muslim countries such as Syria, Lebanon and Afghanistan.
“Although there has been a robust consumer boycott of Danish goods, Denmark and the U.A.E continue to enjoy normal diplomatic relations,” Husain said.
It’s more a land of busy merchants than fanatical mullahs.
Still, politically and culturally, the United Arab Emirates is not a Western democracy. While the country plans to hold elections later this year for some seats on the Federal National Council — the legislative branch — sheiks still dominate state affairs, according to the CIA's World Factbook. Foreign workers — who make up the vast majority of the population — have no political rights. In its 2005 Human Rights Overview, the Human Rights Watch said those workers are particularly vulnerable to nonpayment of wages and unsafe working conditions.
Critics of the Dubai Ports World deal also have noted that two of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers came from the United Arab Emirates and about half the money spent on the attacks was wired to al-Qaida terrorists from Dubai banks. Opponents also have contended that Dubai has been a transfer point for smuggled nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
But Hayek, the Lebanese Dubai resident, said he thinks Americans should seize any opportunity to work more closely with Dubai’s business professionals.
“We know the U.S. has embarked on efforts to win hearts and minds through several public relations initiatives in the Arab and the Muslim world,” Hayek said. “The best allies, the best people who are fit to be won in terms of hearts and minds, are the people of Dubai.”
If the United States fails to build a relationship with such moderates, Hayek fears Americans will be stuck dealing with Muslim radicals.
Thompson said his homeland and its Arab ally share more in common than just the first word of their names.
“The U.A.E. is a very cosmopolitan country which, like the United States, has business interests all over the world and, again like the U.S., is a haven for people all over the world,” he said. “I wish more Americans got a chance to visit and get a true picture what the place is like.”
