… to teach people how to behave on the train. The sheer number of people who want to use the Metro, combined with the newness of the project, has meant chaos for the system.

Dubai’s metro rail opened (grandly - how else) today. Construction on the system will continue, but as of today residents and tourists can take the train along Sheikh Zayed road. Yale graduate student Tabitha Decker points out, rightly, that the metro’s significance as evidence of investment in public goods represents a slightly different Dubai than the seven-star-hotel image. Of course, the fact that you can choose to ride first class on the subway for a fare several times more expensive than the base cost offers a counterpoint, but that does not make it not a public good.

Another counterpoint, which the article points out, is that one crucial element of public transportation is the fact that people walk from their homes to the places where they board it. Dubai is not known for its pedestrian friendly environment - weatherwise or sidewalkwise. Perhaps investment in one public good will point out the importance of investing in others.

No matter your views - check out the photos.

Linda Hearst comments on the emergent trend among Western journalists of predicting Dubai’s imminent demise. Her response? Any city that can emerge from essentially nothing to become what Dubai is today is not going anywhere, financial crisis or no.

… is that not funny?

Johann Hari of the UK Independent has an investigative journalism piece at the Huffington Post (are those two things a contradiction in terms?) that points out the flaws in Dubai’s sustainability long-term (or even medium-term). It’s a little melodramatic in its language, but raises some important points, primarily about the civil rights for foreigners and the damage that building a major water-consuming center in the middle of the desert does to the surrounding environment.

Haed al Ghwell, professor at the Dubai School of Government, argues that the financial crisis should force Dubai toward greater transparency in governance and operations, ultimately situating it for greater success in the future. If the government of the cosmopolitan emirate chooses to heighten its secrecy and under-the-table atmosphere as a response to the tough times, then he would presumably predict a sluggish and incomplete recovery; alternatively, seizing this opportunity to implement a better governance system could end up a boon for Dubai.

The New York Times has another installment of their ‘Generation Faithful‘ series on youth in the Middle East. This edition focuses on Dubai, a city that “has everything money can buy, but it does not have a unifying culture or identity.” Dubai in its current form is a young city; the UAE came into being in 1971. Michael Slackman, the author, doesn't really discuss this.

All of the GenFaith pieces follow a format wherein they follow around a single young man, group of friends, or pair of people and from their draw conjectures about the youth of a country or race (Arab). This makes for good writing but probably weak cultural analysis. This one, “Young and Arab in a Land of Mosques and Bars,” stars Rami Galal, an Egyptian working construction in Dubai; its conclusion seems to be that while Mr. Galal has made sacrifices in coming to Dubai, he has ultimately gained social mobility, at least in theory. In Dubai, unlike Egypt, he can advance through his work; it is not glamorous but he has opportunity.

Moustafa Bayoumi, professor at Brooklyn College, published a book this year called How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being Young and Arab in America. It follows the stories of seven young Arab-Americans living in Brooklyn in the wake of 9/11 to illustrate their conflicted relationships with their country of residence. It was excerpted in New York Magazine last month; the story of Rasha and her family, jailed for three months on immigration charges, is upsetting at the very least. I haven't yet read the book, but it comes highly recommended. (Thanks to Ebtihal for that).

Bayoumi's explicit parallel between his work and W.E.B. Dubois’ The Souls of Black Folk has been a minor sensation, as books go - you can, for example, join the Facebook group. Clearly it has resonance for a group beyond its subjects; the consequences for America will likely be far-reaching as well. In an interview at Salon.com, Bayoumi points out the following:

The Gulf as a whole and Dubai in particular have an allure to this younger generation for many complicated reasons. One of which is there seems to be a growing hostility to all things Muslim in the United States. They think if they go to the Gulf they can escape a lot of that. Then there's the role of globalization. Dubai is now seen as a hot spot — it's where the action is. It's interesting to me because this earlier generation, his father's generation, believed that about the United States. They could come to the United States and fulfill all of their potential. Now, in a lot of ways, their children feel that way about a place like Dubai.

On this blog, I try to point out the cultural and business news coming out of the Gulf because it isn't just Arab-Americans that see the Gulf as an emerging cultural and business center. It's a fascinating area of growth that provides a sort of counter-point to other Middle East news about wars and terrorism. The combination of that growth and America's conflicted relationship with globalization and … other politics will have interesting consequences. It would be nice to hear a little more about these ideas from the Presidential candidates. Unfortunately, they are too busy quibbling over cliches.