This is an example of a city where leadership works.
After 25 years of transformation, attention of the whole world has shifted to Dubai.
The utopian character of Dubai, it must be emphasized, is no mirage. Even more than Singapore or Texas, the city-state really is an apotheosis of neo-liberal values.
On the one hand, it provides investors with a comfortable, Western-style, property-rights regime, including freehold ownership, that is unique in the region. Included with the package is a broad tolerance of booze, recreational drugs, halter tops, and other foreign vices formally proscribed by Islamic law. (When expats extol Dubai’s unique “openness,” it is this freedom to carouse — not to organize unions or publish critical opinions — that they are usually praising.)
On the other hand, Dubai, together with its emirate neighbors, has achieved the state of the art in the disenfranchisement of labor. Trade unions, strikes, and agitators are illegal, and 99% of the private-sector workforce are easily deportable non-citizens. Indeed, the deep thinkers at the American Enterprise and Cato institutes must salivate when they contemplate the system of classes and entitlements in Dubai.
Dubai in 1990
The same street in 2003
Dubai is said to currently have 15-25% of all the world’s cranes
The Dubai Waterfront. When completed it will become the largest waterfront development in the world
All of this was built in the last 5 years, including that island that looks like a palm tree.
The Burj al-Arab hotel in Dubai. The worlds tallest hotel. Considered the only ‘7 star’ hotel and the most luxurious hotel in the world. It stands on an artificial island in the sea.
Hydropolis, the world’s first underwater hotel. Entirely built in Germany and then assembled in Dubai.
The Al Burj’s construction was started in 2005 and took 6 years to complete.
Dubai in 2016
These are just some of the monumental changes that Dubai has undergone in 25 years. There are a lot more than we can publish in this piece. However, the question I would like Africans to answer is, can we achieve this kind of amazing transformation in Africa? I think the choice really is ours and we can get it done if we get our act together. What do you think?
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