On ‘Fear and money in Dubai’ by Mike Davis

I will compare Dubai with Russian dolls: it is bright, it is shiny, it gets larger in geometrical progression and no one knows how many more semi-similar skyscrapers it will hatch.

Literally, Dubai has ‘world-within-the-world’ (Island World) and consists of ‘cities-within-the-cities’. Technically, it operates as an independent economic entity with its own laws for one and lawlessness for the other. Dubai is ‘Russian doll world’, where the tiniest and hideously horrid figure, often missing an eye or a mouth, is hidden inside many layers of beautifully crafted shells. This multilayered world has its own creator (and co-owner), Sheikh Mohammed al-Mactoum and , naturally, it is own unprecedented religion… Religion of fear.

It, as a proper religion, drives all layers of society. Slave-like workers fear the absolute power of the employers; the employers fear to loose this absolute power, hence ignore labour regulations, substituting them with local Draconian laws.

‘Creator and Co’ being a trinity of oil producer, distributor and a middle man between West and Islamic militant groups, use fear as the most stable currency to fund the building site of the century.