Strange, strange UAE

Yesterday evening, Dominic and I were driving down the freeway into the city. There was suddenly a lot of traffic -- which isn't unusual. We could see a car pulled over onto the median on the left ahead...and then Dominic said "Oh...I think someone hit a Pakistani". The manual labor here is mostly performed by men from Pakistan who work for virtually nothing. You see them walking on the side of the freeway in the obscenely hot weather (its way over 100 degrees Fahrenheit with around 70 percent humidity), walking for miles. I haven't seen any pedestrian overpasses on the freeways here, so they jaywalk regularly. People here tend to speed a LOT in their fancy cars, so accidents are fairly common. Dominic says that in traffic accidents (and many other things), fault is generally assigned by nationality/social status. I.e., if a UAE national hit an American, the American would be at fault. At the bottom of the ladder are the Pakistani nationals. So, as we were inching along in traffic, we first saw a hat on the freeway. Then a bag that looked like a to-go container from a restaurant. Then the car, whose roof was dented and windshield smashed. Then the body, with a handful of men standing around, looking irritated. It was awful. They'd covered his body with a blanket, but not his head (???). Dominic said that the worst part is that there will be no repercussions for any of it. It happens frequently, but nothing changes.

Sorry if that was too graphic, but I was really disturbed by it (obviously). Dubai is so odd. I'm glad to be here and see it. I'm still trying to process it, so I'll probably have more to say in the next few days. I can't really decide if I like it here or not. But its interesting, which is definitely enough of a reason to see it. So far, Dubai reminds me quite a bit of Orange County on a grander scale: people showing off obscene wealth, so its luxurious and well, nice, but not necessarily tasteful. And it doesn't seem real, somehow. And I can only imagine, with the insanely rapid growth and lack of smart planning, how many construction defect lawsuits will crop up here in the next few decades!!