What once was?

So, I was having a conversation with a fellow New yorker the other day, who also lives in Dubai, about how the UAE is only 30-something years old (since their independence from Britain) and Dubai as it is thought of now is really only around 15 years old, so basically, a lot of the original culture is all but lost, and frankly, most of the Emiratis don't like foreigners.

Case in point, an Emirati woman who sits next to me in the office. She dislikes me to the point where, at first, she just didn't acknowledge my existence. Now, it's graduated to her specifically saying hello to the girl who sits on the other side of me when she walks in, but not to me. And she only speaks Arabic. Loudly. Across my desk. All the time.

When I'm walking in the mall, it's not like in New York where people have mastered the twists and turns to avoid heavily bumping into people. Emiratis don't get out of the way. You are expected to avoid hitting them let alone touch their perfectly ironed abayas and dishdashas. Also, they cut you off while driving like it's going out style. But you're expected to swoop and swerve to accommodate them because after all, they were here first. Sidenote, I'm extremely glad I'm not Indian or African or any other race that Arabs deem below them, because as annoyed and disrespected as I feel sometimes, the way that those from Africa, India, and South Asia are treated would make your jaw drop.

Basically, my work nightmare is an example of a lot but not ALL Emiratis, according to some of my other Arab friends. They just don't really like all the hoopla and the immigration and the focus on all this crazy stuff that's going on here (individually rotating building floors?).

I snapped the photo below driving through the Jumeirah neighborhood, which was one of the first neighborhoods in which expats lived when Dubai was first starting to expand across the desert. This is a gorgeous mosque, and one of hundreds in the Jumeirah neighborhood.

If you are not Muslim, you cannot enter a mosque. However, there is one mosque, called Jumeirah Mosque, that Sheikh Mohammed, the guy who runs Dubai, decided to build so that other cultures and religions could enter to try to better understand the Islamic faith. This is one of the few construction projects here that I think of as useful, smart, and strategic.