Goodbye, Dubai...

The Emirates Towers on a beautiful Dubai morning... my last day at the office.

The time for goodbyes in Dubai has already come and gone... I'm writing from my kitchen table at home in Canada as the snow swirls around the windows outside... a bit of a deja vu from a similar blog post two years ago after my return from Tanzania.

With Megan and Kelly at Dubai Rugby Sevens.

My last week and a half in Dubai went by in a whirlwind... complete with a weekend visit to the Dubai Rugby Sevens tournament, a handful of goodbye dinners, leaving parties, and one classic "Friday brunch". I witnessed my first sandstorm, which cut down visibility throughout the city for a full day. I finally got my finger x-rayed after Kelly insisted that I visit an orthopedic surgeon at the Trauma Centre and confirmed that I had broken my baby finger playing frisbee in early November (oops!)... thankfully, it's healing well on its own, albeit a little crookedly.

Team Kenya at Rugby Sevens.

The Flying Carpets ultimate frisbee team played in the championships during my final week in the city... we came in a respectable second place after a few intense playoff games. A very fun season and wonderful to be able to wrap up the end of it with the team.

The Flying Carpets... we're number 2!!

Thanks to a care package sent from home, I was able to celebrate Sinter Klaas (Dutch Christmas) with Margaret and Kelly... getting into the festive spirit!

Sinter Klaas treats!

I was thrilled to be able to present a master draft of our business plan to the client on the last day of my work term... such perfect timing. The report looked beautiful! Overall, I learned more than I thought I would during this internship. Working for a company with projects located all over the globe, I felt lucky to have been able to lead a Dubai-focused project during my time in Dubai (as opposed to doing work remotely for a distant project), allowing me to totally immerse myself in the local market and gain a strong understanding of the successes and challenges of healthcare provision in the Emirate. This role has prepared me very well for my next endeavour, working for Focus Business Consulting (http://www.thinkfbc.com/) at the DeGroote School of Business.

With the teachers at my goodbye Friday brunch.

The people who I met during my time in Dubai really made the experience extraordinary for me. I really appreciated the friendship and kindness they offered me, and the conversations and laughter we shared. A big thank you to all those who contributed to making Dubai a second home for me!!

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On my way back to Toronto, I extended my layover in Istanbul to do a bit of sightseeing. Kelly accompanied me on the trip, which was great... it's always more fun to travel with a friend! Istanbul is a wonderful city... so interesting to see how it has been shaped by its complicated history. Unfortunately, we didn't have the best weather over the weekend... luckily, I had prepared by purchasing a winter jacket while I was still in Dubai (I know, not a typical desert purchase). We slogged through driving rain and wind to see as much of the city as we could (pictures below) before my flight departed to Toronto, and enjoyed breaks from the elements next to open fires in tiny European cafes. Delicious!

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So this is the end of my big Middle Eastern adventure. Thanks to all for your support and kind words... they really kept me going. I look forward to sharing with you again, should I come across another opportunity to explore this big world we live in!

View of the Blue Mosque from the rooftop terrace of our hostel.


A charming little street at the entrance to the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.


I love these lanterns... warm lights at the Grand Bazaar.


Inside of the Hagia Sofia (once a church, now a mosque), in Istanbul.


With Kelly in front of the Blue Mosque on a rainy afternoon in Istanbul.

Dubai World Debt Debacle

Dubai has been all over the news this past week due to the Dubai World $60 billion debt debacle… thankfully, fears seem to have eased a bit after a report from Dubai World that it had begun ‘constructive’ discussions with its creditors.

A couple quick notes on the issue:

1) Contrary to popular belief, I did not ‘break’ my new city. I don’t think so, anyways.
2) I still have a job, and an office.
3) There hasn’t been a mass exodus of ex-pat workers as a result of this recent development. The exodus has already happened… while organizations may be extra-cautious over the next few months, any exodus would probably be more of a trickle over a period of several months.

For those interested, this is the best article I’ve come across… it’s a very easy read and gives good background information

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/crash-and-recovery/dubais-big-pyramid-scheme-grounded-by-debt-load/article1382011/

According to local reports, the city will rebound! Time will tell...

Eid long weekend in Jordan

Floating effortlessly in the Dead Sea.

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Kelly and I flew out of Dubai last Thursday morning to spend the Eid long weekend in Jordan. Jordan is sandwiched between Israel, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and is home to some of the kindest people I’ve ever met.

We flew into the capital city of Amman, and grabbed a taxi from the airport to drive us a couple hours south to Petra, with a scheduled stop at the Dead Sea. There’s no way to go to Jordan and not experience the Dead Sea... it’s very unique. We enjoyed a quick hour and a half floating in the salty water (nine times as salty as the ocean!), at the lowest point on earth... even managed to find some genuine Dead Sea mud and had a makeshift spa session on the beach.

Dead Sea 'spa'... it really worked!

From the Dead Sea, we drove through a beautiful mountain range on our way to Petra. Our taxi driver turned tour guide, telling us all about the history of the area, stopping to buy us fresh tomatoes on the side of the road (“there are too many tomatoes in this country” according to him), and pointing out the most ideal vantage points for photos. We arrived in Petra as the sun was setting over the hills, and got ready for a big day of hiking.

Even camels get thirsty sometimes...

On our way up to the High Place of Sacrifice in Petra.

Petra is an ancient city (some areas dating back to 7000 BC) carved into the rose-red mountains. To get to the city, visitors walk along a path which winds through the Siq, an incredible natural rift in the rock that is only three metres wide, at times. As you approach the end of the Siq, the morning sunlight glows off the Treasury, an incredible pillared monument that sets the stage for the rest of the day. We hiked all the way up to the High Place of Sacrifice, and scrambled back down along a narrow cliff-side path (terrifying for me at times, with my fear of heights). After taking lunch in a cave tomb, we hiked up again to visit the Monastery, which we thought was even more spectacular than the Treasury. We enjoyed tea with the Bedouins after being caught in a downpour, and soothed our aching muscles with traditional Jordanian food over dinner.

Another sweaty-palmed moment for me - reflecting over mountain ranges from the "end of the world" lookout.

The spectacular Monastery, right before the rain clouds opened up.

Looking out from inside a tomb in Petra.

Re-visiting the Treasury on our way home in the late afternoon sun.

The next morning, we left on an early bus travelling to Wadi Rum, the desert and mountain landscape in which “Lawrence of Arabia” was filmed. We had pre-arranged a Jeep tour through the park, and enjoyed the company of three other Canadians as we bumped through the desert with our Bedouin guide. Though the park is quite famous for having been a temporary home of T.E. Lawrence (a British army man who played a role in the Arab Revolt and wrote “The Seven Pillars of Wisdom”, chronicling his time in the area), our guide was quick to correct Lonely Planet’s ‘facts’ on the matter... rolling his eyes at the misprinted maps and ‘made-up’ names for various sites.

Kelly and I on the dunes in Wadi Rum.

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With very sore legs from our Petra hiking adventure, we were a bit cautious about what rock formations we’d climb up on... however, in the spirit of doing one thing a day that scares you, I couldn’t say no to a scramble up a nearly-vertical rock face (at least it felt that way) and a tip-toe out onto the 35 metre high Burdah rock bridge. Though that might sound very heroic, I have to be honest... there is no way I would have made it up (or down) without our lovely Bedouin guide, whose massive hand pulled me all the way up to the top and braced me on the way back down. My hands are getting sweaty even as I type this. It was high.

One of the scariest moments of my life. Perched on top of a VERY high natural rock bridge, knees knocking, nervous giggling, palms sweating. I'm third from the left, next to our Bedouin guide whose hand I probably broke by squeezing it on the way up and the way down.

The descent from the rock bridge, down a sheer boulder face. Thank goodness for the Bedouin guide, who kept insisting that I'd feel better if I stood up straight. I disagreed.

We spent the night in the desert at a Bedouin camp, where we were serenaded with traditional music in a smoke-filled tent, crowded around the fire for warmth. It gets COLD in the desert at night... and I did not pack well for cold weather!

After we woke up with the sun in Wadi Rum, Kelly and I high-tailed it north in a cab to Amman, via Aqaba (a resort-y town). We managed to dump our bags at a backpacker’s hostel for a couple hours to explore the city before boarding our plane back to Dubai. Overall, a wonderful weekend away!

On an unrelated note: some of you saw a comment about my broken finger... long story short, I banged it pretty hard in a Frisbee game at the beginning of November, and never had it looked at. A month later, Kelly insisted that it was broken and had me in to the Trauma Centre last night to have it treated. The x-ray confirmed the break, but apparently it’s healing well so it didn’t need to be reset. The deformity is just due to swelling, which should resolve itself soon! Thanks for your well wishes!

Breaking News

Another busy workweek… met with the nit-picky financial manager on the client side and spent nearly three hours reassuring him that we had exercised due diligence in our research and the development of our assumptions… spent two days at the Trauma Centre putting together submissions for awards of excellence in various aspects of clinical practice given out by Middle Eastern authorities… and officially cleared the 200 page mark of the big report. Still haven’t pressed print. My apologies for ‘skimming over’ my work-related life here in Dubai; however, I’m limited in what I can share because of client confidentiality issues. Just know that I’m keeping myself busy tip-tapping away on my computer, and am learning a lot.

Exterior view of the Jumeirah Mosque.

On Thursday evening, I met up with Nicole, a girlfriend from UWO who has been working all around the world for the last two years. We realized that we hadn’t seen each other for more than 10 minutes since before I left for Tanzania… needless to say, we had a lot to catch up on. We ended up celebrating the birthday of another UWO acquaintance who is living in Dubai… it really is a small world.

My colleague Betty took Margaret and I out on a Friday night excursion to Karama, a neighbourhood a short walk from our place. I have been bugging her to make time to take me before I leave, as Karama is THE destination for good ‘copies’ of designer accessories. Sure enough, we weren’t two steps into the market before being barraged by hawkers: “Ma’am, ma’am, Jimmy Choo, Hermes, Chloe, Louis Vuitton… bling bling watches, you like bling bling?”. Thankfully, Betty had a few ‘contacts’ in the area who quickly escorted us to the ‘offices’ located a few minutes walk away from the main shops. It was everything I imagine Canal St. in NYC would be… complete with secret wall panels that opened up to reveal massive caches of leathery goodness. I didn’t leave empty handed, but was quite indecisive after falling in love with the most expensive bag they had (a forest green Hermes Birken bag that was priced at $850 USD… still infinitely cheaper than the real deal, but not exactly in my price range with tuition due soon).

Our mosque tour group, all scarfed-up. Megan, Katie, Allison, Sharon, Anne-Marie and I.

I spent a very productive Saturday with the teachers. We woke up early and met at the Jumeirah Mosque, one of the city’s most photographed sites and the only mosque in Dubai which is open to non-Muslims. Tours occur three times a week, designed to heighten awareness of Islamic culture. The tour was run by two (Caucasian) British ladies who are Muslim and have been living in Dubai for over 20 years… they were great presenters and certainly gave an unique perspective on Islamic tradition.

Interior of the Jumeirah Mosque.

We followed the mosque with lunch and a trip to the beach (my first time since I arrived… shameful!), before heading back to the teachers’ accommodations to prepare for a proper American Thanksgiving celebration. With Eid coming up next weekend, the celebrations were a bit early but delicious nonetheless. After celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving with flat-crust pizza, a full turkey dinner was a welcome taste of home!

Beach view of the Burj Al Arab on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

Looking out the window from my desk today (Sunday afternoon), I casually commented that I hadn’t seen so many clouds since I arrived in September. The presence of a single cloud is actually quite a rare occurrence in this city. I ventured as far as to suggest that it might actually be raining out over the Gulf… suddenly, a local media alert appeared online:

No joke. This is the breaking news in the local paper as we wrapped up the workday on Sunday.

“Dubai: The season’s first light showers were experienced on the coastal parts of Dubai and Sharjah on Sunday and the Dubai Met office announced that “winter is here’ and warned of strong Westerly winds.

Light rain also fell in Jebel Ali, but the rest of the country was dry.

A marine warning will be issued starting on Monday for the offshore area as it will experience strong westerly winds of between 20 to 25 knots. “The seas will be rough,” said the duty forecaster, noting the warning will for the next 48 hours.“This is the first of the North Westerly cold draughts," he said. Temperature will drop to 27 degrees Celcius for the next three days. Nights will be cooler.”

That's right, my friends... winter has arrived in Dubai. Five minutes of light rain and a temperature drop down to a shivery 27 degrees Celsius. Get out your parkas! Looking forward to coming home to the 'real' winter in 3 weeks time... is it possible that sunny skies and the warm desert air have become too routine for this girl??

The Venice(s) of the Middle East

Why not go for a gondola ride through the mall? At the Villagio Mall in Doha, Qatar.

Between the day trip to Doha, a mid-week presentation of strategy and financials to the client, and a day of personnel/quality issues at the Trauma Centre, last week completely flew by. We were under the impression that the business case (now nearing 200 pages) was going to be wrapped up by the beginning of this week, but with additional stakeholders providing their input and recommendations, the final product is on hold again… fingers crossed that I can press “Print” before I board the plane to come home.

The Villagio Mall in Doha, Qatar... or in the streets of Italy, I'm not sure.

New Dubai, Old Dubai... view of the Burj Al Arab from a rooftop in the Madinat Jumeirah.

Kelly and I welcomed the weekend over dinner with friends at the Madinat Jumeirah on Thursday night. The Madinat Jumeirah is a hotel and entertainment complex designed to resemble an old Arabic village, and has been touted as “Dubai’s version of Venice”... complete with an expansive (and expensive) souk (market), man-made canals, and a bevy of hotels and restaurants. It’s an enchanting place! We enjoyed a canal-side meal and were pleasantly surprised to be introduced to the restaurant manager, who gifted us with invitations to a Monday-night reception with a celebrity chef. Admittedly, I had never heard of this chef before (a Brit named James Martin who apparently doesn’t get a lot of air time in Canada), but the idea of a quiet weeknight spent with good friends and good food sounded fine by me.

Glowing lights along the canal in the Madinat Jumeirah.

A very quiet weekend spent capitalizing on the weather – the oppressive desert heat has cooled down to a lovely/breezy warmth, so my weekend workload was completed poolside. My quiet retreat was interrupted by fighter jets pulling tricks in formation overhead in preparation for the Dubai Air Show, billed as the “most expensive show on earth”… surprise, surprise. The air show runs for four days and is centred around major aircraft sales. One Qatar Airways executive jet was profiled on the news last night… marketed as “the only way to travel for those who can’t afford their own jet”… outfitted luxuriously, all the way down to the 18K gold ashtrays. Maybe I should catch a ride on one of those en route back to Toronto…

Dinner with Kelly, Vicki, and Gavin at Shoo Fee Ma Fee in the Madinat Jumeirah.

Monday night arrived and I met the girls at the Mina A’Salam Hotel pool for our evening with the chef. After mistaking him for two or three other party attendants, we tracked him down and determined that he really looked nothing like his photo on the invitation. Never mind… we had the obligatory group photo taken, enjoyed a full-fledged fireworks display, and chit-chatted with Mr. James Martin for the better part of an hour. He regaled us with his adventurous trip to second place of the UK’s ‘Dancing with the Stars’ (who knew?), but couldn’t answer my question about the proper preparation of butternut squash… apparently he has people who take care of his veggies now that he’s graduated to celebrity status. Note to self: never get so far detached from the core of your work that you can’t answer questions about the basics.

Girls night out (Lara, Kelly, me, Vicki, Hillary, and Sharon)...

... with celebrity chef James Martin!

This time next week, I’ll be just about ready to depart for a long weekend in Jordan, visiting the Dead Sea, Petra, and having a proper ‘Bedouin experience’ at Wadi Rum… how exciting!

Fireworks display over the Gulf.

Thoughts on diversity in Dubai

I’ve been postponing this post for some time now as I attempted to get my head around the sociocultural eccentricities of this region, but a conversation with the Director of the Trauma Centre a few weeks ago helped me to complete some of my thoughts, to confirm a few of my suspicions, and to provide greater insight into the implications of these issues.

I was asked to share my initial impressions of Dubai with the Director. Side-stepping the obvious glitz, glamour, and generally over-the-top impression of the city that any tourist can get after a few hours on the ground here, I told him about the real issues that took me by surprise upon my arrival and have continued to shock me as the weeks go by.

An initial caveat: I’m new to this region of the world and acknowledge my naiveté … by no means am I trying to make sweeping accusations or generalizations about the ways of the world.

With that said, one of the things that I’ve struggled with the most during my residency here is the pervasiveness and intensity of racism in the region. In a city of expatriates (let me remind you that a recent healthcare provision report stated that over 90% of the city’s population is made up of expats), where much of the progress is driven/implemented/built up by immigrants, there is a very clear racial hierarchy that defines the way business is done and the way people are treated. At the top of the chain sit the Nationals (Emiratis)... in a country that is still ruled by tribal politics, the establishment of personal relationships and ‘wasta’ (read: one’s power of influence based on personal connections) is absolutely essential for personal success.

Next in line, I suppose, are the Western ex-pats. As described to me by a private hospital director in the city: “In the West, employees learn from the companies they work for. An employee of GE, for example, will benefit from exposure to the firm’s best practices and past successes. In Dubai, however, companies learn from their employees. Expat ‘experts’ are brought in to share their knowledge as a commodity, which the company collects and uses for future development.” Regardless of whether it is deserved, this mentality affords Westerners a certain amount of local authority and independence.

As we continue down the hierarchy, we hit the East Asian ex-pats – predominantly Filipinos – and then arrive at the ‘bottom rung’, occupied by the Indian labourers. I don’t mean to sound crude or disrespectful in my description of this system. I wish I could say that it’s just a conceptual hierarchy, but I realized quite quickly that this hierarchy defines how (many) people treat each other, with interactions often becoming increasingly nasty and discourteous as you travel down the line. This hierarchy also defines the roles people can fill here (i.e. taxi drivers and construction workers vs. receptionists and nurses vs. managers and CEOs) as well as the salary that workers receive... many HR departments I have been exposed to (often through conversation with others) seem to have completely different salary packages established for the workers they bring in from each country. This applies to Westerners as well, with Americans receiving better salaries than Canadians, Europeans, South Africans, Australians... etc.

I’m not new to the implications of globalization (though the hierarchy existed, it was definitely ‘simpler’ in Tanzania), nor am I trying to get up on a soapbox and preach that I have the solution to resolve the inequity in the region. I am only making observations and sharing my discomfort with the race-related way of life here. Some examples:

- The Indian workers who build the skyscrapers (and frequently fall from them, due to poor workplace safety standards, ending up in the Trauma Centre with spectacular injuries) are bussed into the city every day from labour camps. These labour camps frequently sleep 10-15 people to a room. Labourers wear blue or orange jumpsuits, giving their buses an unfortunate likeness to prison transportation. These guys work hard, they work in the heat, they work through the night. I have a lot of respect for them.

- Many Filipinos are allocated accommodation through work, but will be put up 2 to 4 to a bedroom as well, in apartments that would be singly occupied by one of their Western colleagues.

- Friends of mine went out to “Ladies Night” at a restaurant near their home (there are lots of Ladies Nights in town… males make up about 75% of the population here). Two Filipinas approached the door ahead of them, and were turned away because they weren’t escorted by a male. My two (Western) girlfriends were there alone, but the bouncer informed them at the door that he had already let their ‘husbands’ inside (not true, they’re not married), so they were free to enter. Blatant racism.

- I heard a story of an Indian nurse working at a hospital in the city who was approaching 30 years of service at the facility. Her pay grade had not changed once during her 30 year tenure, and I suspect that wasn’t because she was unqualified or undeserving.

I don’t deny that it is a choice for expats to be here in Dubai, nor do I deny that they make more here than they would in their home countries (and tax free!); however, this doesn’t excuse the marked inequality, especially regarding the way that different groups interact with each other. I find it to be especially disheartening when it becomes clear that the racism affects productivity, teamwork, and the confidence of employees. In a work environment where patient safety is of central importance (i.e. a hospital), this is especially worrying. I do hope that the negative impact of these behaviours begins to be understood and that progressive changes are made over the next few years to improve the acceptance of the diversity which characterizes the city of Dubai.

I’d like to believe that it’s especially difficult to adjust to these realities because of the tolerance and acceptance of diversity that I have grown up with in Canada; however, I know that I would be glossing over many similar issues that pervade Canadian society. My great hope is that this and other international experiences that I’ve had will make me increasingly sensitive and dissatisfied with the ‘status quo’ as I move forward with my career.

More Dubai, dunes, and Doha

The Emirates Towers, across from my office building on Sheikh Zayed Road in downtown Dubai.

Last week brought another fine example of globalization as a colleague and I took a break from our desks to represent the company at the Korean Investment road show, held at the Address Hotel. We heard pitches from a variety of government ministers about Korea’s resilience to the effects of the recession, and discussed opportunities for them to enter the Dubai market.

I returned to the Trauma Centre at the end of the week to sit in on a contract liaison meeting, where the hospital operator meets with the client to discuss progress and to ensure that any obstacles that may prevent the operator from fulfilling the terms of the management contract are resolved quickly. Hospital accreditation is a major focus of management here (as it is elsewhere in the world), and with a major re-accreditation scheduled for 2010, there are lots of internal-audit-like tasks to complete. The committee gladly accepted by offer to try and complete a project or two on some facet on hospital quality (related to accreditation goals) before I leave. I’m excited to get started on these projects, as they will give me good perspective on the unique challenges of the internal clinical environment.

Signing a contract to take home my leftovers from the Belgian Beer Cafe.

I met a girlfriend for dinner mid-week and had my weekly dose of cultural embarrassment as I had the apparent audacity to ask for our leftovers to be packed up... not a frequent request in a rich city like Dubai, apparently. In my defense, we were in a casual pub, more than half of our meals remained, and my cupboards were nearly bare. Excuses aside, it took the staff a good 15 minutes to find something suitable to pack up our food in... and they settled on a massive cake box that could have transported a multiple-tiered masterpiece. No chance on slinking out of the restaurant inconspicuously with my leftovers. I thought that was the end of the scene I was making, but no... 10 minutes later, the waiter approached with a full contract for me to complete in order to allow me to leave the premises with the food. Good god. Unfortunately, this practice apparently stemmed from the tragic food poisoning death of two children last year... lesson learned, next time I’ll finish my meal on site and leave it at that.

Outdoor artwork in front of The Address Hotel.

This weekend, I benefitted from the very good luck of my Canadian nurse friend Kelly, who is a self-professed ‘contest winner’. She has won an average of $6,000 annually in cash and prizes over the last few years, and seeks out every opportunity to put her name in new draws... the odds really seem to be stacked in her favour! While I was camping in the mountains of Fujairah, she was celebrating Halloween at a party in Dubai, where she won the prize for the best female costume. The prize package included (among other equally great items) a free desert safari for two... lucky for me, she took me as her ‘plus one’, and we found ourselves ‘dune bashing’ over a seemingly endless sea of red sand on Saturday.

Sliding sideways down a dune on our desert safari.

Total tourist kitsch, I admit, complete with a sandy photo shoot directed by our big burly driver, a beautiful sunset, camel rides (the poor camels... not the nicest life for them), dressing up in traditional garb (I felt decidedly anti-feminist as I heard myself asking the attendants to ensure that my face was properly covered for photos), and a barbeque dinner accompanied by a belly dancing show under the stars. Our burly driver evidently plays multiple roles in the safari organization, as we saw him moonlighting as a very necessary bouncer, protecting the lone belly dancer from throngs of Indian men who literally swarmed her after the performance... quite off-putting... not one drop of chivalry among them.

Spectacular... sunset in the desert, perched dune-top.

Already two days into a new workweek and I’ve managed to add another new stamp to my passport, as I was sent on an ‘errand’/visa renewal run to Doha, Qatar on Sunday. More or less a glorified FedEx run to drop off a package, but it gave me an opportunity to (briefly) see a new city in the Gulf Region and to meet a handful of former company employees who are working on the development of a massive teaching hospital/research facility under the guidance of the government.

I was really encouraged to hear that there is a different attitude to equality and continuing education in this facility than I have experienced in Dubai... they are making a big effort to build in policies for equal salaries for equal work – regardless of the nationality of the worker – and actively promote the ongoing education of their workers. While these concepts are the basic building blocks of HR at home, they sometimes seem to be a little lost in translation in the Gulf.

Holding on for dear life as our tall camel rights himself.