City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism (54 page)

4.
Emiratis are given wide latitude to sponsor foreign workers as domestic servants. Their sponsorship quotas rise if they own businesses.

5.
Anwar Gargash, UAE minister of state for foreign affairs and anti-trafficking czar, author interview, October 23, 2008.

6.
Bassam Zaza, “Two Plead Innocent to Human Trafficking Charges,”
Gulf News
, July 6, 2007,
http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/07/07/06/10137176.html
.

7.
Simeon Kerr, “UAE in Rare Move Against Human Traffickers,”
Financial Times
, December 5, 2008,
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d5143706-c26e-11dd-a350-000077b07658.html
.

8.
Zahlan, The Origins of the United Arab Emirates, 153
.

1.
The 2006 Living Planet Report calculated the UAE’s carbon footprint at 11.9 global hectares per person, 25 percent higher than number two America’s 9.6 hectares and five times the global average of 2.2. The UAE figure dropped in 2008 because the WWF used more accurate population data.

2.
Statistics supplied by the Emirates Environmental Group show the following: UAE water availability is among the lowest in the world, at −0.91 thousand cubic meters/person in 2007; UAE electricity consumption is the world’s tenth highest, at 11,872 kilowatt-hours per capita; carbon emission are around 35 metric tons of carbon, per person, per year; Dubai’s solid waste output in 2008 was around 31,000 tons per day, of which 8,000 tons are domestic waste. Dubaians produce some 1,676 kilograms per capita of solid waste per year.

3.
Vesela Todorova, “Water Price Should Go Up, Says Scientist,”
The National
, October 14, 2008. Consumption figures were given in liters per day: UAE, 550; United States, 485; Canada, 425; Jordan, 85.

4.
David Aubrey (CEO, Woods Hole Group), author interview, September 17, 2008.

5.
Eckart Woertz, economist, Gulf Research Center, Dubai, author interview, September 8, 2008.

6.
Kevin Mitchell, “Constructing Fact, Fantasy and Fiction,”
Al Manakh: Dubai Guide
, 30–33.

7.
Sheikh Rashid’s 1979 World Trade Centre is one of the few Dubai towers with window shading, designed for the fierce sun.

8.
“Abu Dhabi Commits to 7 Percent Renewable Energy Target by 2020,” UAE state News Agency WAM, January 18, 2009.

9.
“Special Comment: Arabian Gulf Electricity Industry,” report by Moody’s Global Corporate Finance, October 2008.

10.
Oliver Klaus, “Dubai May Allow Foreign Investors into Power Industry,” Dow Jones Newswires, June 12, 2007,
https://www.xing.com/app/forum?op=showarticles;id=4546170
.

11.
“Ras Al-Khaimah Seeks More Gas from Iran,” Country Report: United Arab Emirates, Economist Intelligence Unit, March 2008, 16.

12.
Tamsin Carlisle, “Ajman to Build Gulf’s First Coal Plant,”
The National
, July 17, 2008,
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080717/BUSINESS/293642699/0/NATIONAL
.

13.
Rahulan named the company Pacific Controls because of his boyhood fascination with the Pacific Ocean, growing up in Australia. He founded the company in Dubai, nowhere near the Pacific.

14.
Dilip Rahulan, author interview, October 11, 2008.

15.
Nigel Mackenzie (chief technical officer, Pacific Controls), author interview, October 11, 2008.

16.
Loveday Morris, “Local Species Face Extinction,”
The National
, October 8, 2008,
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20081008/NATIONAL/89243272/0/FOREIGN
.

17.
Habiba al-Marashi was quoted in: Jim Krane, “Booming Development Driving away Persian Gulf Wildlife,” Associated Press, July 6, 2006.

18.
David Aubrey, author interview, September 17, 2008.

1.
Excerpt from the poem “The Dubai Driver,” by Paddy Briggs, from
Jumeirah Jane and Other Dubai Friends
(Dubai: Zodiac Publishing, 2001), 24. Used with permission.

2.
Ashfaq Ahmed, “RTA Plans to Clear Roads Faster after Minor Crashes,”
Gulf News
, October 14, 2007,
http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/07/10/15/10160413.html
.

3.
The UAE had 1,056 traffic deaths in 2007, a rate of 2.9 per day, according to police figures cited by Alia al-Theeb, Maryam al-Serkal, and Rayeesa Absal, “UAE Road Accidents Claim 21 Lives in 72 Hours,”
Gulf News
, April 7, 2008,
http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/08/04/07/10103720.html
.

4.
Abdulbari Bener and David Crundall, “Risk Taking Behavior in Road Traffic Accidents and Fatalities,” University of Nottingham research paper, 2003,
http://www.psychology.nottingham.ac.uk/IAAPdiv13/ICTTP2004papers2/Individual%20Differences/BenerB.pdf
.

5.
Jessica Hume, “Traffic-Related Deaths on the Increase,”
The National
, Abu Dhabi, November 20, 2008. The article quotes Dr. Adnan Abbas, director of the fatalities section at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City in Abu Dhabi, as saying Abu Dhabi suffers 37.5 road deaths per year, per 100,000 residents. In comparison, heart disease kills 29.8 per 100,000 and cancer 21.7.

6.
Economist Intelligence Unit, “Road Crash Highlights Weakness of Law Enforcement,” United Arab Emirates Country Report, April 2008.

7.
Hume, “Traffic-Related Deaths on the Increase.”

8.
Jonathan Somcio (Dubai Police EMT), author interview July 20, 2008.

9.
Abdulbari Bener, A. Ghaffar, Abu Azab, M. Sankaran-Kutty, F. Toth, and G. Lovasz, “The Impact of Four-Wheel Drives on Road Traffic Disability and Deaths Compared to Passenger Cars,” Journal of
College of Physicians & Surgeons Pakistan
, April 2006, Vol. 16: 257–60.

10.
Jim Krane, “Reckless Drivers Blamed for 3,000 Mideast Traffic Deaths Per Month,” Associated Press, December 13, 2005. Note that non-Arab countries in the Middle East also suffer from bad drivers. Israel reported 27 fatalities per 100,000 vehicles, versus 18 in the United States and 11 in Britain. Iran has one of the highest rates of road accidents in the world: 38 deaths per year per 100,000 people. One person is killed every 40 minutes in accidents in Iran, and one is injured every 7 minutes, according to the Iranian state news agency.

11.
“Driving in Dubai” page on Web site Dubai FAQs,
http://www.dubaifaqs.com/driving-in-dubai.php
(accessed July 19, 2008).

12.
Stephanie Vigier (Middle East Auto Analyst, Global Insight, Paris), author interview, June 24, 2008.

13.
From Al Tayer Motors Web site,
http://www.altayer-motors.com
(accessed July 20, 2008).

14.
Van der Meulen, “The Role of Tribal and Kinship Ties,” 192.

15.
Sada Hamad (General Motors spokeswoman), author interview, July 2, 2008.

16.
Stefania Bianchi, “Dubai Metro Project Running over Budget to Avoid Delay,” Dow Jones Newswires, October 15, 2008,
http://www.zawya.com/printstory.cfm?storyid=ZW20081015000157&l=135350081015
.

17.
Survey conducted by executive recruiters GulfTalent, released June 2007.

18.
Bianchi, “Dubai Metro Project Running over Budget to Avoid Delay.”

1.
U.S. Census Bureau news release, “Miami-Dade Leads Nation in Percentage of Foreign-Born,” September 3, 2003,
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/american_community_survey_acs/001311.html
(accessed July 9, 2008).

2.
These figures are estimated as follows: Dubai’s 1994 citizen population was reported by the government at 41,400 (cited by Van der Meulen); given a generous annual growth rate of 6.5 percent, the local population would have reached 100,000 by 2008. In late 2008, the Economist Intelligence Unit estimated Dubai’s 2008 population at 1.92 million.

3.
Other cities and states are dominated by foreigners, but not to the extent Dubai is. In Monaco, fewer than 16 percent of residents are citizens. In Abu Dhabi citizens make up 20 percent of that emirate’s population, and in Doha the figure is roughly 25 percent.

4.
Estimates from Economist Intelligence Unit; also, a study by the Federal National Council, an advisory body, reported that the number of UAE citizens had dwindled to just 15.4 percent of a population of 5.6 million by the end of 2006. That figure would put the Emirati population at more than 860,000. The 2005 Tedad census put UAE nationals at 825,000. The Dubai newspaper
Al Bayan
reported 875,617 UAE nationals on October 29, 2008, citing a “public figure” as its source. Emiratis formed 13.5 percent of the population; the largest group was Indians, with nearly 2.4 million.

5.
In 2008, the government required
bidoun
to register with the intention of figuring out their citizenship.

6.
The Economist Intelligence Unit estimates that there are 1.9 million Indians in the UAE, with 75,000 arriving per year, and 775,000 Pakistanis, with 57,000 arriving each year. The Sri Lankan community is the third largest, with 290,000, and Filipinos are fourth (230,000), followed by Egyptians (230,000).

7.
Anthony Richardson and Rasha Abu Baker, “Brunch Patrol Looks for Drink Offences,”
The National
, Abu Dhabi, July 7, 2008.

8.
“Women Jailed for Indecent Acts,”
7 Days
, August 31, 2008,
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=78224
.

9.
Source for this material is a government official who requested anonymity.

10.
Matthew Brown, “U.A.E.’s Drive for Emirati-Run Economy Is Thwarted by Handouts,” Bloomberg, October 4, 2007,
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=axmdijbZMi5k
; Brown cites sources that put unemployment at 17 percent. I’ve also heard 18 percent, and much higher for women.

11.
Ibid.

12.
The council’s nineteen members are all men.

1.
Jim Krane, “Voters in United Arab Emirates Set to Vote in Historic Elections Saturday,” Associated Press, December 15, 2006.

2.
Lawrence Wright,
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
(New York: Vintage Books, 2007), 280.

3.
Mustafa Alani (security and terrorism analyst, Gulf Research Center, Dubai), author interview, July 15, 2008.

4.
Davidson, Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success 297
.

5.
Commercial Airliner Bombings,
Aerospaceweb.org
,
http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/planes/q0283.shtml
.

6.
Davidson,
Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success
, 292; Davidson,
The United Arab Emirates
, 79. Davidson cites the
Economist
for the Hyatt Regency attack and an anonymous personal interview for the second. He gives few details on either incident. Emirati men in their white
kandouras
can still be seen drinking in bars. But one never sees a Muslim woman in a black
abaya
in a bar.

7.
Daniel McGrory, “UAE Seizes al-Qaeda’s Gulf Leader,”
Times
online, December 24, 2002,
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article805297.ece
(accessed July 15, 2008).

8.
Web site of the book
Ghost Plane
, by Stephen Grey, page titled “Timeline on the War on Terror as Traced by Alleged CIA Flights,”
http://ghostplane.net/timeline
.

9.
Carol Cratty, “Military to Seek Death Penalty for USS
Cole
Suspect,”
CNN.com
, June 30, 2008,
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/06/30/cole.charges/
(accessed July 15, 2008).

10.
Jim Krane, “Gulf Countries Beef Up Counter-Terror Defenses,” Associated Press, September 12, 2006.

11.
Mustafa Alani, author interview, July 15, 2008.

12.
“United Arab Emirates: Whereabouts of Men Arrested in Raids on Coastal Towns Must Be Revealed,” Amnesty International public statement, October 24, 2008,
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE25/007/2008/en
.

13.
International Religious Freedom Report 2007—United Arab Emirates; U.S.
Department of State,
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2007/90223.htm
(accessed July 19, 2008).

14.
Anthony Harris, author interview, May 21, 2008.

15.
Emirates news agency WAM reported on July 21, 2008, that Maj. Gen. Mohammed Ahmed al-Marri, director of the Dubai Naturalization and Residency Department, said those arrested through the iris scan system at Dubai International Airport reached 1,325 in 2006, then increased to 3,626 in 2007, and 4,382 in the first half of 2008.

16.
Van der Meulen, “The Role of Tribal and Kinship Ties,” 281.

17.
Economist Intelligence Unit, “UAE to Reopen Embassy in Iraq,” UAE Country Report, June 2008.

18.
Wright,
The Looming Tower
, 329–30.

19.
Good Harbor did not respond to e-mailed and telephoned interview requests.

20.
Robert Elliott, “Dubai: Terrorist Target?” Security Management, March 2007,
http://www.securitymanagement.com/article/dubai-terrorist-target
(accessed July 15, 2008).

21.
Krane, “Gulf Countries Beef Up Counter-Terror Defenses.”

22.
Peter Landesman, “Arms and the Man,”
New York Times Magazine
, August 17, 2003.

23.
Davidson, Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success, 281
.

24.
Douglas Farah, “Al-Qaeda Moved Gold to Sudan; Iran, U.A.E. Used as Transit Points,”
Washington Post
, September 3, 2001.