Nithin: Sultans and Censorship - The United Arab Emirates

Im 23 years old. That's 8395 days, give or take a few hundred. Of those days, 8391 were spent in Democratic nations, where freedom of speech, religion, and other rights were
guaranteed.

The last four days have been spend in the United Arab Emirates, where the freedoms I had
taken for granted my entire life do not exist.

The UAE consists of seven relatively autonomous Emirates, each ruled by a Sultan with absolute power. Sharjah, the Emirate I flew into and broke my Democratic monopoly in, is
considered the most conservative Emirate, where women and men who are not married are
forbidden from spending the night in the same room. Where you can be arrested for wearing
shorts, if you're a woman. Where during Ramadan, it is illegal to eat or drink in public. Want
to visit a website? Couchsurfing, Craigslist, numerous political and news sites, and all "adult"
sites. Censored and blocked.

Dubai, the most well known of the Emirates, is only slightly better. Rapid economic growth has changed Dubai's ethnic composition dramatically in the last 10 years. Now, only 20% of the population of the city is native Emirati, the remaining 80% being rich western expats, other Arabs, but mostly, low-wage laborers from South Asia. The construction boom that is endemic in Dubai is being built by workers with no rights, low wages, and shoddy transportation.

During my two days in Dubai, I rode the cities public transportation system, the antiquated system that takes workers from their shantytowns, far out of sight of the Emirati and ex-pat community, to the shopping malls and skyscrapers of the city. The buses run infrequently, are overcrowded, and can take hours to cross the city, which is not terribly large. Moreover, no one uses the buses but the migrant workers, the first sign of how, in a city so cosmopolitan, the various ethnicities rarely mix. Being Indian myself, I was able to blend in seamlessly, an Arab Emirati would have been terribly out of place. None of the laborers are citizens of the Emirates, and they will never be citizens. A large, but discreet, police presence keeps order in a country where the numbers just do not add up. How can the Emirates keep the vast majority of its population under wraps, to keep the Emirati minority wealthy and the rich westerners and Corporations happy?

Many of the South Asians that I spoke to are in the Emirates for only one reason - money.
Most plan to return to India, Pakistan, or Bangladesh someday. They don't see hope in
the Emirates, but also don't see the power to make a difference in themselves. Many
complained of wage discrimination, for example, how all business dealing required an Emirati partner, who would do nothing but cash in. Many spoke about how their work was taken for granted, and often were astounded that I, a “rich” foreigner, actually cared enough to ask them about their families and their well being.

Such remarks reminded me that, amidst all of our problems, we do have something great in America. We must work to preserve what we have, and not allow money and financial gain to allow us to treat other humans with inhumane disrespect.