This post started off as something, and became something else.... so i'll probably write something more coherent and meaningful on the topic sometime later.
Dubai was fantastic.
I haven't seen any place with so much money being spent everywhere. Its a city built for outsiders. Luxury hotels, all the big restaurant chains, bars, malls, all the big luxury, pret, haute couture, and auto brands, the tallest buildings in the world. Sure there are rich as hell locals, but the entire set-up in Dubai is built for outsiders. The outsiders who pour in their money. Which makes Dubai a bit of a whore. It caters to every whim, fancy and dirty fetish of the outsider, the customer.For their money. Maybe i'm being a little harsh. Maybe its better to describe Dubai as a bit of a service industry of its own. With its inhabitants and tourists as the customers. Our wish, is its command. And boy, can it deliver!!
So if you see each city as a service provider, Dubai would be one of the best (from my limited experience of travelling overseas). and Bombay and Chennai would be somewhere far far below on that list!
In Dubai, people don't pay income tax. but they pay charges like nowhere else. Sky high parking charges, road tolls, renewal of car registration every year.... and the list continues. They complain a little about these charges and are like "we payy so many charges that the "no taxes" benefit gets almost nullified. I still feel they get way more service for the costs they incur. I pay income tax every month and I get shitty roads, horrendous traffic, power cuts, water shortages, a poor joke for a public transportation system, (i love the bombay local trains and all... but seriously, the conditions we travel in are inhuman) politicians whose thugs and cops block roads and make traffic worse than it already is, and this list continues too! Dubai, while charging shitloads of tolls etc, actually use the money to provide services to the people. 12 lane roads, great water supply (in a country that is a desert island, mind u), repair work that gets done overnight, no powercuts, etc etc.
Infrastructure-wise Dubai is unbeatable. OK they may not have a great public transport system. Bombay beats them hollow there. But everything else, it seems like ur getting bang for your buck.
We could take a page out of their book and learn a few lessons. How long are we going to make excuses for every damn thing and when will we start delivering? When will people like me stop writing this shit on blogs and get off their asses and actually do something?
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