The Heat Factor

A major downside of life in Dubai is the heat factor. It gets so hot that it makes it impossible to do any outdoor activity between the months of May and September. As a result you are totally restricted to malls. And that’s why malls here are so big and offer so many activities. You can compare this with places where winters are extremely harsh like Chicago and Toronto. Outdoor activities pretty much come to a halt in those cities as well. It’s as hard to do things in -20C temperature as it is in +40C. If hot water comes from cold taps over here then water freezes in pipes over there.

Extreme is extreme, no matter which direction you go in.

In my opinion weather is not a good factor to judge a city, because you can’t control it, and there is no such thing as perfect weather.

A city, however, can be better judged by quality of life and ease of doing things, among other things. So if we look at Dubai from that perspective, I think Dubai rates pretty well as far as quality of life is concerned. Yes there is a huge contrast between low-paid labor class and extremely high-paid upper class, but you cannot blame Dubai for that contrast. If cheap labor is available in a country then it will be used. No one in their right mind will hire expensive labor when cheaper options are available. Because of huge different in currency values, labor from third world countries are willing to work in Dubai for extremely low wages and still do good compared to their home countries.

So if you can afford it Dubai offers arguably best quality of life in the region. You have the best housing, best shopping, best facilities, best vehicles, pretty much the best in every category, available in Dubai.

What else improves the quality of life is infrastructure. Currently Dubai is lacking solid infrastructure but the gap is quickly being filled up by major infrastructure projects, and Dubai Metro is one of them. I seriously believe Dubai Metro has the potential to change the way Dubai operates.

As far as art scene goes, it’s true that Dubai is not as artsy as one would like it to be, but that’s a side effect of the rapid growth Dubai underwent. Art is an evolutionary thing, not revolutionary, so it couldn’t catch up with the speed of Dubai. But, as things are starting to settle down, the artists are catching up. There was cirque de soleil here not too long ago. Top musicians come here regularly for concerts. Major sports tournaments are organized here (if you consider sports as a form of art). Film and theater industry is starting to flourish with film festivals and all. Who said there is no art in Dubai?

As far as ease of doing things is concerned, there is still a long way to go for processes involving government, but things are improving fast as the government is taking steps to use technology to make their operations more efficient under the e-government initiative. There are also regulations coming up in real estate and other sectors which will streamline the processes, some laws need to be revised, but once the infrastructure is in place then everything else will align itself accordingly.

I am sure in less than a decade Dubai will be comparable to Chicago and Toronto. It doesn’t matter how hot it gets.