Normally, the US government, which understands liberal capitalism as an order where gains are individual and damages are collective, should have bailed out Lehman Brothers the way it bailed out Citibank, but that did not happen. The reason for this was that Gulf countries had poured the most money into the firm. When the crisis first struck, Saudi Arabian King Abdullah called it a “conspiracy against Arabs.” Today, we can consider that the king’s comments were not meaningless.
Gulf countries have entered a critical period. Warning bells went off a long time ago for Dubai, if not for every country. The reports are dismal. The government-owned Dubai World, which has a critical share in the construction of the Dubai dream, has $59 million of debt. Dubai’s total debt stands around $80 billion. To be able to overcome its financial crisis, Dubai wants to suspend repayment of its debt until May. According to observers, if Abu Dhabi, from which the Dubai government has requested assistance, does not provide financial support, then Dubai will be destined to collapse. Dubai is desperate. It does not have any other source in its “own model.”
It is actually ironic to use the world “source” for Dubai because it is a model that is based on the dream of building a fake heaven in the middle of the desert. This model, which is not centered on production, industry, agriculture or services, simply presents fantasies that push the limits of human imagination and offers entertainment, vanity and irresponsible consumption. From the perspective of social scientists it is very difficult to describe this settlement area, which emerged from the accumulation of skyscrapers in the middle of the desert, as a “city state.” Historians of civilizations, city planners and philosophers maintain that city-states come from strong traditions and have strong seeds of civilization in their establishment and practices.
But in the desert’s skyscrapers there are no traces of tradition. Dubai has no particular tradition or civilization, and no religious or philosophic teaching. It is a new development; an innovation that mushroomed in the middle of the desert. It is an oasis of flashy display where artificial sites made with concrete, iron, asphalt, synthetics and plastic are rampant. In this oasis, people do not choose to rest in the desert’s steaming heat but instead build ice rinks that go against the grain and fritter away their money in extravagant seven-star hotels.
In addition to the global crisis, the real estate market has also experienced a major downturn in Dubai, where there are giant projects such as manmade islands that were constructed with the support of major foreign finance firms and companies. On the face of it, it may seem as though the crisis in Dubai stemmed from the crack in the financial and real estate markets.
But there is another dimension to the Dubai crisis that actually constitutes the most tragic part of it. After the crisis erupted, Dubai was left with billions of dollars worth of debt. Thousands of immigrants, mainly from South Asia, had rushed to Dubai to work in the construction of major investments. But now these workers are having trouble returning to their native lands. The crisis in Dubai, which was proud of its integration with the world economy, started a chain reaction, causing world markets to fall. While the system in Dubai recalls slavery in ages past, poor working Asians who are stuck in the worst part of the cycle have lost hope for a better future. Finding a job that pays between $75 and $125 a month was enough for these people to consider themselves lucky. Although they were only able to visit their families back home once or twice a year, they were happy because they were able to send remittances to them. But now they are contemplating how they can go back to their countries, never to return.
History books show that if extreme poverty and extreme wealth are intertwined in a place where Muslims dominate, then the social order, such as the spiritual hierarchy, begins to be disrupted. Dubai was the icon of a false heaven, a fake happiness, pirate entertainment and the ascendancy of the nouveau riche in the center of the desert. It was just a mirage, and the crisis has shown once again that there is a difference between mirages and reality.
Wise old men once said sometimes good fortune arises from misfortune. This tragic situation should be a lesson for those who want to compare a city like İstanbul, which has hosted Islamic civilization and imperial empires for 3,000 years, to Dubai.
