Letter from Dubai Michael JansenDubai is a fairytale city of pastel glass tower blocks rising on white sandy flats along the coast of the sparkling azure Arabian sea. As we hurry through mid- morning traffic to our appointment, I am reminded of the shimmering Emerald City in the film of the Wizard of Oz.
But here the buildings are not all green, they are also pink, gold and blue. We drive along the wall of a low-slung white palace and turn right to the developer's office on the sea front. The building, constructed of granite and glass in Moghul-modern style, sits in a lush garden where fountains softly play. Inside the display room are models of Palm Jumairah, Palm Jebel Ali, and the World, three off-shore island fantasy residence-resorts being built on reclaimed land.
Looking seawards through the plate glass windows we see lorries piled with earth crossing a broad earth bridge. The Palm Jumairah, the largest man-made island on earth and visible from space with the naked eye, is being raised in the sea before our very eyes.
Work goes on 24 hours a day, seven days a week. When completed it will cover 7.5 million square meters and stretch more than 6 kilometres into the sea. It takes the shape of a palm tree with a thick trunk and 17 fronds surrounded by a crescent breakwater. The trunk, connected to the mainland by a bridge, will house apartment blocks, shops, leisure facilities, hotels and restaurants. Villas and town houses in half a dozen suitable styles will adorn the fronds while the crescent will host five star hotels.
We bend over the model to admire the tiny palm trees, houses, sail boats and hotels, a developer's paradise: Peter Pan's Never-Never Land joined to the Emerald City of Oz.
Couples hover over the models and question the sales personnel. Sudha and I wonder if the young chap with crewcut and earring is a footballer.
He looks very young to have the kind of cash needed to buy a home on the Palm. Eleven members of the England team, including David Beckham and Michael Owen, bought "signature villas" at about £900,000 each as they were passing through Dubai en route to the World Cup. Although the footballers are said to have been given grand discounts, their media-hyped purchases boosted interest in Britain and elsewhere so that the Palm Jumairah was sold out in three weeks. Owners expect to move into their homes and flats at the end of 2005.
The Palm Jebel Ali, 20 minutes drive along the coast towards Abu Dhabi, is 40 per cent larger than the Palm Jumairah. Its properties are 70 per cent sold and should be ready for occupancy by 2007. A third project, the World, consisting of 250 separate islets in the shape of countries, is larger still. I ask our guide, "Would you sell Iraq to Saddam Hussein?" She shrugs and gives me a black look. No one mentions Saddam or war round here.
These are not the only ambitious development schemes transforming the face of Dubai.
Another developer is building a handsome community of high rises and villas along a man-made coastal waterway and residential neighbourhoods in the desert and around a rolling green golf course. Foreigners buying into these projects receive 99-year leases and the right to reside but not work in Dubai. They can also rent their properties and repatriate profits.
Since Dubai's oil resources are rapidly running out, Crown Prince Muhammad bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the man driving development, decided to transform the emirate into a business centre to rival Hong Kong and Singapore and a tourist destination to compete with Greece and Italy for upmarket trade. He spurred the launch of Emirates, Dubai's excellent and deservedly successful airline, and the creation of free trade zones and media and Internet cities, attracting television and news networks and IT firms. His aim is to increase Dubai's five million visitors a year to 10 million by 2007 and 40 million by 2015. To provide goods and services to rising numbers of temporary residents, Dubai, with a current population of one million, will have to recruit more and more expatriates to take up jobs the 200,000 native citizens cannot fill.
Unfortunately, there could be a environmental downside to Never-Never Land. The developers argue that studies have shown these massive off-shore projects will not harm the ecology of the area and point out that artificial reefs are being built to attract fish and coral. But environmentalists warn of a devastating impact on fish stocks, endangered marine animals and the sea-bed.
A local activist says studies were done only after excavations were under way and fears the projects could compound damage wreaked in the southern Persian Gulf by climate change.
Ignorant of ecology and bedazzled by the daring vision of the developers, prospective buyers from wet and chilly Europe dream of islands in the sun, of warm restful days and starry Arabian nights.