I hate commercialism but love culture and value.
I hate copying in haste (like before an exam) but love organically grown traditions.
I hate change (when it is quick and rash) but love planned progress.
With that out of the way I'd like to propose a new Dubai. Well really it will be an old Dubai but as a re-incarnation. An ode to Dubai. I realised that I missed my old Dubai of the 1970s and 1980s (to some extent the 1990s) when Dubai was a land of culture, traditions and values. People used to actually care, and would often use the language of Arabic when greeting you. We used to be a proud and happy city, part of a happy young country called the UAE. When we greeted our guests we would greet them in English only to be asked by them to use Arabic and teach them Arabic too. Our guests would want to see the desert, the dunes, the nature, and above all the sea.
Today's Dubai has become an inverted mirror-image. We seek everything new. We forget our roots. We embrace things we don't understand just because others are. We are extremely competitive, especially when it doesn't matter. We don't care. We would rather die than be caught outdoors instead of in-malls.
I want this new Dubai to be a place where the values of the old matter, and where although it's not immediately evident but progress is important only if it's planned. I want people to feel they are at home. Et cetera.
I can go on for ages, but if you don't get the point by now you never will or you're probably falling asleep/closing your browser.
Who wants to create (or re-create) this Dubai with me?
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