Dubai

An interstng aricle published on June 7, 2006. Asia Times

Dubai lives the post-oil Arab dream

By Pepe Escobar

DUBAI - Welcome to the ultimate sociopolitical model for the 21st century: a Blade Runner-esque melting pot of neo-liberalism and "subterranean" economy, Sunni Arab Islam and low taxes, souks and artificial islands, a giant warehouse and a tourist paradise, life in the fast lane and post-modern slavery. The model spells out an apolitical, consumer-mad, citizenship-free society. Dubai, population 700,000, is a self-described "door to a market of more than 1 billion consumers".

Its drive is to fashion itself not only as the first post-oil economy in the Persian Gulf but as one of the great postmodern world cities. Dubai represents the essence of globalization at work - globalization, of course, interpreted as the ineluctable triumph of Western laissez faire, where world trade.............read more

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