Burj Dubai

Dubai is the fastest growing city in the world. There are numerous statistics about Dubai that show just how impressive this is. There is something like 70 percent of the world’s cranes and 80 percent of the dirt-moving equipment that is currently being used in Dubai. One evening, we were leaving Ibn Battuta Mall and saw the 20+ story apartments going up adjacent to the mall. Down about 8 meters, dozens of men worked on the steel reinforcement for the foundation of this building. They were putting in one-meter thick steel bars that went out at least 10 meters from the building (and these were just to support the foundation!). I just cannot believe how such huge buildings are being built on sand. When I think of what happens when you even walk on sand, how it spreads out from either side of your foot, a skyscraper can be built on it. It just seems like the sand would slide out from under the building (especially with the rising risk and no planning for earthquakes…). An acquaintance working at an architecture firm described how they build by saying that if you continue to push down on sand hard enough it eventually provides adequate support for a building.

The second thing that continues to amaze me is how the work seems the be built for quantity not quality. We are living in an apartment that is not even a year old. There are already cracks in the walls, leaks in the drains, and a water heater fell from the ceiling in the bathroom onto a teacher last year. And this is a new building. When we have arrived, one the buildings that is going up just across the street was just starting the foundation. Now, they are working on the fourth floor. And it is only about six or seven men that are doing all of the work. The building, as with most buildings, is built with steel forms and cinderblocks for the walls. But they have gotten this far in only three months. Not only are the living accommodations built with cinderblocks but the Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world is also being built with cinderblocks, at about a rate of a floor per week. Cinderblocks! For a building that is nearly half a mile high on a sand foundation, it’s hard to believe. Also, it seems like there is minimal forethought behind lots of the development that is taking place. For instance, Dubai and Sharjah have no sewer system. All of the sewage is removed by trucks outside the city on a very frequent basis. Just one example although these types of scenarios seem to pop up frequently. Nevertheless, it is astonishing that the country does seem do develop so quickly, given its 37-year history, that is being celebrated today.

The last remarkable thing is the fact that there is a city here at all. For millions of millenia, virtually no people lived here. It is a desert. The land could not support more than small bands of Bedouins. Now there are 5.5 million people living in this land that could not support people outside of a global era. The country has even began to buy property in Sudan, Kenya, and Uganda to grow food for its residents. CNN recently described it as a new form of colonialism where they are using local land and labor to produce food to be shipped to the Middle East, leaving none for these frequently famine-ridden countries. Anyways, lots going in the UAE.

As for me, school just finished off yesterday for National Day and Eid Al Adha. We have almost two weeks off so Julie and I are heading to Prague for nine days. I'll be writing more when we get back.