Over the last year there have been some infuriating “news” articles written about Dubai, mostly by British journalists (and I use that term loosely). I purposely did not mention them here, although I wanted to rant about them and set the record straight on the gross inaccuracies in the articles. I did not want to bring them any more attention than they already had. The articles went on about how Dubai was a ghost town hit hard by the economic crisis with the attitude that the “great” deserved to “fall” hard. The articles demonized the U.A.E. with twisted truths and flat out lies.
The truth is that the U.A.E., including Dubai, is positioned to weather the crisis better than most, if not, all other countries. Some construction projects have been put on hold, while others are proceeding. We were happy to see the progress in the metro/street construction accomplished while we were gone for the summer. Rent costs are going down and considering that they were inflated 25% each year for three years before the crisis, this is a very good thing. With regard to real estate, sanity is being re-established. This is a good thing for now and the future.
Just last week we had a chatty taxi driver who told us he had been in Dubai for 3 months. He is an Indian who previously was a massage therapist in Singapore and came here to drive taxi because of the economic crisis. When the crisis is over, he’ll probably go back to therapy. This is still the land of opportunity. Driving taxi may not be a promotion or upward career move, but it beats being unemployed.
Anyway, I say all this because, finally, there is an article that speaks with the voice of reason and I am glad to point you to it. http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2009/09/guest_post_by_j_12/
Living the Travel Channel 