Headlines in Dubai newspapers!

DUBAI CITY: I was in Dubai since last weekend for a conference and it seems that in just two months (I was here last Sept. 9th) the climate has greatly changed from an unbearable 46 degree heat where you had to run from your vehicle back inside your hotel lobby to a very comfortable 25 degrees. I was then with a group of Cebu travel agents on a fam tour, virtually hotel hopping to see what hotels are available for a price for our travel markets.

For this trip, we stayed at the Al Morooj Rotana, just across the spanking new Dubai Mall, which is across the Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world, although it is not yet official, as it is not yet finished. This is one part of Dubai that I haven’t yet seen and it was to say the least, fabulous. While the Burj Dubai is almost done, the man-made lake in front of it, connecting to the Dubai Mall and the Souk Al Bahar featured the Dubai Fountain, which they dubbed “The World’s most spectacular fountain.” This is a fountain where jets of water dances with the music which I first saw at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, which has become a main attraction there.

Since it was a cool November evening and the Dubai Mall closes late, many people just waited to see the spectacular Dubai Fountain dance the night away. We had dinner at a Lebanese Restaurant at the Souk Al Bar with a ringside view of the musical fountain, a beautiful experience. The Dubai Mall has a spectacular aquarium that is 11 meters deep or high if you’re looking from the ground floor, filled with 30,000 aquatic animals from a huge Napoleon fish, schools of tuna, Stingrays and sharks. This giant aquarium was centrally located in the Dubai Mall for all shoppers to see.

Incidentally last Tuesday, the major national newspapers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) carried that gruesome report of the political massacre in Maguindanao where supposedly 39 people were killed, some beheaded. The Gulf News came up with the banner headline, “Political Rivalry Linked to Philippine Massacre” while the Khaleej Times did not make this story its banner headlines, but still had a front-page item entitled, “Gunmen kill 21 in Philippine Political War.”

I was taking my breakfast in my hotel the Al Morooj Rotana when Jhen-Jen my Filipina friend who works in the hotel gave me the newspapers and asked, “What’s happening in our country?” This question echoed the same question that the late Vice-President Emmanuel Pelaez asked the police chief in Manila after his assassination attempt during the Marcos years! Yet the same thing gets repeated over and over and over again, whether it’s corruption or political killings!

What makes this incident so embarrassing for us Filipinos is that fact that we’ve always took pride in being called “Asia’s First Democracy”. But in the end, unscrupulous politicians that have ruled this country for so long in the name of democracy has only revealed its ugly head that, more often than not, election in this country is a choice between a ruling political family like the Ampatuan family in Maguindanao and their potential rivals like Mrs. Genalyn Tiamzon Mangudadatu who was among those killed.

I did talk to many Filipino workers in Dubai especially those in the hotel industry to find out about their situation. While they say that the pay is good, they definitely miss the family back home. They usually live in apartment complexes that the hotel provides for its workers, which include food. Fares to and from their place of work are also part and parcel of their job package. Most of those I interviewed have already worked in other foreign countries, but most have stayed longer in Dubai. I guess this is due to the fact that 75 percent of Dubai’s population is mostly expatriate.

If the world didn’t suffer the financial crisis, I’m sure that the Burj Dubai and the many other tall buildings around the Dubai Financial Center would have been done by now and thus hire more Filipinos to work here. While many tall towers are in various stages of completion, the work has stopped and the cranes have stood still. But those were mostly foreign investors to Dubai, while the Dubai owned projects have never stopped, as Dubai always wants to move forward to the future.

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It’s the 30th anniversary of the passing of my father Atty. Jesus “Lindong” Avila who had a stroke while on board a PAL flight from Hawaii back to Manila, just an hour before landing. He ended at the Makati Medical Hospital and passed away after three days in a coma. My dad was highly-respected in the theater Industry, counting amongst his friends, Remy and Mother Lily Monteverde, Ed Sazon and yes, our fellow STAR columnist Johnny Litton who used to run the Mever Films. I will never forget the happy days when our dad was still with us on this earth. Please pray for the repose of his soul.

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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected] or [email protected]. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.