Sultans and Censorship in the United Arab Emirates

Im 23 years old. That's 8395 days, give or take a few hundred. Of those days, 8392 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 before don't exist.

The UAE consists of 7 relatively autonomous Emirates, each ruled by a Sultan with absolute power. Sharjah, the emirate I flew into and broke my dictatorship-virginity in, is considered the most conservative emirate, where women and men who are not married are not allowed to spend the night in the same room. Where you can be arrested for wearing shorts (if you're a woman). Want to visit a website? Couchsurfing, Craigslist, numerous political sites, all "adult" sites. Blocked.

Dubai, the most well known emirate, 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 Emirati, the remaining 80% being rich western expats, other Arabs, but mostly, low-wage laborers from South Asia. The construction that is endemic in Dubai is being built by workers with no rights, low wages, and shoddy transportations.

During my two days in Dubai, I rode the cities public transportation system, the system that takes workers from their shanytowns, far out of sight of the Emirati and ex-pat community, to the city. The buses run infrequently, are overcrowded, and takes hours to cross the city (which is not terribly large). Moreover, no one uses the buses but the low wage earners, the first sign of how, in a city so cosmopolitan and diverse, the various people rarely mix.

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 don't add up. How can the Emirates keep the vast majority of its population under wraps, to keep the Emiratis 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 wherever they came from. 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, how to do any business transaction they needed an Emirati who would just cash in, and how their work was taken for granted. Such comments reminded me that, amidst all its problems, we do have something great in America. We must work to preserve what we have, and not allow money to allow us to treat other humans with disrespect.