Our heroes at Dubai Municipality

"I have told you a hundred times.. ", the Dubai Municipality official said to my puzzled Egyptian friend, ".. no touching, no mingling, no kissing..this is UAE..not America. You being an Arab should know. Not approved".
If you ever visited the DM office for approval of an outdoor advertisement (which is by the way, mandatory for every public display in the Dubai), you are likely to have a similar experience, especially if the artwork has a picture of a western couple holding hands which they would liken to the 156th sexual position in the Kamasutra. (Now dont go around hunting for number 156, they know better). My friend has been there, heard that a hundred times, but this time around he didn't anticipate a problem with a normal couple holding hands in front of their beachfront property to be displayed in a drum truck, paraded around in the city(Not to Sharjah, mind you).
One short walk in Bur Dubai or Rigga Road will convince anyone where the Moral Police should be turning their attention to. But such a crackdown on prostitution looks to be a distant possibility considering that the Emirate might lose out to other sex-tourism destinations in terms of tourist arrivals.
Meanwhile our friend at the DM office reluctantly accepts my friends offer to put the couple separate; the guy on the extreme right and the girl on the extreme left without any possibility of violation 156. So when our DM superbrain drives home after a week, he might just find a drum truck with a couple holding hands in front of a beachfront property. Ofcourse, he did not realize that putting the couple on the two ends of a drum truck display means that they are going to be together when it is stuck on a circular display. Just like everything else that happens in Dubai.