Dubai: The capital of globalism

By Aussiegirl

Remember Dubai? That model of a western, forward-looking modern Arab state? The country that was our bestest buddy when it came to port security? Welcome to the post-modern future and the reality that is Dubai.

Asia Times Online :: THE ROVING EYE Dubai: The capital of globalism

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

means economic rights trump political rights.