Dubai has been getting a lot of attention recently ... A number of faultfinding articles written by architectural critics have popped up in the wake of it's recent financial decline ... While others have sought to give off the impression that the race is still on for it to be the number one economic & tourist destination in the MENA.
In a previous post I too shared my thoughts on this Emirate, with a specific focus on migrant labor exploitation in lieu of what I described as a "rapid, inorganic, contextless design" - something that many countries in the region have their fair share of.
At the same time I made a conscious effort to distance myself from the typical doomsayers by bringing up the fact that it has a unique ability to draw from cultures all over the world and create spaces where they can engage one another in fresh and exciting ways. One shining example of this is the extraordinary new initiative known as Tawasul - started by some very passionate diving instructors, environmentalists, & even a family member of mine.
As Ernst van der Poll explains in the video I've embedded above, it gives the young people of this ancient port city the opportunity to reengage the underwater world they are surrounded by in a more humble and inspiring way. Since pearl divers were some of the very first people to settle and make a living in Al-Wasl, this project literally brings Dubai back to its roots.
Tawasul‘s mission:
To cultivate environmental awareness and interest within the youth of the U.A.E in preserving the marine environment and its resources.
To deliver environmental education, sustainable lifestyle and responsible consumption workshops mobilising the diving community youth to participate in environmental conservation locally and internationally.
To promote corporate support for local schools thereby strengthening corporate commitment to the conservation of the marine environment.
To foster a collaborative spirit across cultures in raising awareness on the fragile nature of marine life and to set common conservation goals.
To apply techniques that preserve underwater life and cultural heritage.
To support research on environmentally sound approaches to interactions with the marine life on a recreational or commercial level.
"We are honored to partner with mokugift as part of the UNEP Billion Tree Campaign. Mokugift is taking creative approaches with its online gifting service and iPhone application to help the Billion Tree Campaign achieve a target of seven billion trees."
- Satinder Bindra, Director, UNEP
moku: district, island, islet, section, forest, grove
I was recently asked to participate in the Mokugift Artists & Athletes program. This unique initiative allows my friends/fans to join me, Mokugift, & UNEP in the fight againts global warming by planting trees in areas of our planet that need them the most.
Academic research by Dr Bala of Lawrence Livermore National Labratory shows that trees planted in tropical zones are the most beneficial to the fight against global warming. His study covered the effects of carbon dioxide absorption, reflection of solar radiation, and reflection of solar ration from increased cloudiness. He also accounted for the warming effect of heat held by absorbed sunlight. Therefore, Mokugift trees are planted in the following 12 tropical countries: Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Burundi, Senegal, Zambia, India, Philippines, and Haiti
Mokugift is proud to partner with two award-winning, tree-planting organizations to plant trees in twelve countries fighting deforestation and poverty: Trees For The Future (TFTF) and Sustainable Harvest International(SHI). TFTF and SHI educate local communities about planting techniques that enrich the land and empower them to overcome poverty. As each participating family proudly graduates from these programs with healthy farming knowledge and enriched lifestyles, they inspire other families to adopt the same techniques.
No one is hired to plant the trees. Farmers apply to be part of the programs. Mokugift partners educate local communities on farming techniques while also providing resources such as seeds, materials for nurseries and irrigation equipment. Local communities and farmers plant the trees because they want to enrich their land and community in a way that they will be proud to pass on to future generations.
"The main problem, he said, is that Damascus is never in a hurry, while Washington always is..."
A recent article in the BBC was full of classic quotes from different players in the Syrian-US Politcal theater ... Here are a few that I found amusing >>
"The Iranians could take 20 years to weave a carpet ... And the Syrians would say to them: Don't rush, we have plenty of time. But the Americans want to eat their hamburger in three minutes and move on."
An existential problem to say the least . . .
"George Bush's plan failed, Syria won and Syrians now feel that their policies were correct all along..."
What exactly did we win? A medal? A gift-certificate? A new car?
"I think beneath the bravado, Syria is in fact uncomfortable with Iran and that both President al-Assad and his people would prefer to look to the West," (the former US ambassador to Israel) says.
Compass references (East/West) are meaningless ... I mean technically, Iran is "look(ing) to the West" when it allies with Syria ... isn't it?
"Two years ago George Bush decided to ban me from entering America and to freeze my assets in the States. I laughed: I have nothing to lose in America."
I am tempted to say "ignorance is bliss" ... but i'm afraid that would be ... blissful ?
"People in the region understand that the US policy has been very fickle"
If by "fickle" he means - aggressive, one-sided, & misguided - say word.
"Obama's silence on Gaza was noted in the region ..."
Sad but true ... you all know how much I respect The Man ... but this was weak. Especially since his rationale was the whole "one president at a time" thing - while he went out of his way to condemn the attacks in Mumbai just months before ...
But when it comes to real changes no-one in the Middle East is holding their breath.
SyrianamericanA in a pistachio-nutshell my people ...
"It is music which feeds my creativity while I am lost in the world of colours in my studio for endless hours each day..."
- Madny Al Bakry
As a kid, I used to love visiting my Omani friend Layth's house ... Much of his family had grown up in East Africa (Tanzania / Kenya / Zanzibar) & this had a very strong influence on their traditions at home. They spoke Swahili, cooked East African food, & adorned the walls with vibrant Afro-Arab paintings by his maternal uncle Madny. The colors used to literally jump off the page & the best word I could use to describe them was "fresh" - both in the literal & hip-hop sense of the word ... He depicted everything from fisherman & sunsets, to spectacular calligraphy the likes of which I had never seen ...
I recently had the pleasure of reuniting with Layth after several years apart & he was quick to inform me that his uncle had put up a website to display his unique work. While it doesn't showcase any of his land/seascape paintings - it does display a number of his calligraphy pieces ... I was pleased to see that he decided to call them "Calligraffiti" as this only reaffirmed their freshness to me ...
So without further ado ladies & gentlemen, I present to you the fantastic work of Mr. Madny Al Bakry >> http://www.madny.net
I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised that "Omar Offendum's mother" sent him this joke today :
يروى أن صياداً عاد إلى زوجته وهو يحمل سمكة كبيرة طالباً منها أن تقليها في الزيت
فاعتذرت له الزوجة لأنها لا تملك زيتاً بسبب ارتفاع سعر الزيت
فطلب منها الصياد أن تشويها
فاعتذرت له بسبب ارتفاع سعر تعرفة الكهرباء فطلب منها أن تطبخها على البوتاغاز فاعتذرت له لأن أسطوانات الغازمفقودة في الأسواق فطلب منها أن تطهوها فوق المدفأة
فاعتذرت لأن المدفأة لا تعمل لأن المازوت شحيح و ثمنه مرتفع فقال لها تبليها بالصلصة ولنأكلها نيئة
فلما علم أن سعر كيلو البندورة قد وصل إلى أغلى أسعاره
أخذ السمكة وألقاها غاضباً في البحر مرة أخرى
وهنا هتفت السمكة وهي في الماء
تعييييييييييييييييش سوريا
(note - this AP photo of a Syrian man gazing at the Israeli-Occupied Golan Heights through what I would like to call an "omnocular" has absolutely nothing to do with the joke ... I just liked it)
The rapid, inorganic, contextless design of urban space in the 21st century - with complete disregard for the social, political, & environmental impacts of such hyper-growth.
Did u just build that 120-floor underwater skyscraper in 2 months? That's so Plastic-Fantastic!
I love(d) Dubai ... Since members of my immediate family moved there to set up shop in the earlier part of the decade, I was blown away by how different it looked every time I would visit ... I was just beginning to study Architecture at the University of Virginia when the global fascination with this shiny new Emirate started to form ... The PR Campaign was unparalleled, & all the "StArchitects" on planet earth were racing to get on it's royal radar with hopes of cashing in & building out ... It seemed as though anything was possible - 7 star hotels, indoor ski resorts, underwater palaces & air-conditioned beaches ... Not to mention the world's largest anything & tallest everything ... It was starting to become one of the world's most marvelous destinations - and a stroll through any of the countless shopping malls built on it's virgin sand could only serve to bolster this notion, as every single face I passed by seemingly represented a different ethnic background ... it was a fantastic sight to say the least.
Yet since the indigenous locals barely accounted for %15 of the population (& typically kept to themselves), I couldn't help but notice that the overwhelming majority of people who lived within the city were of South Asian descent (upwards of %60) ... Furthermore, most of these people were laborers - opening doors, driving cabs, cooking meals, & above all - constructing buildings ... As a student of built form, I couldn't help but look up - and the higher I looked (my neck started to hurt as the years went by) the more I would see dark faces in yellow construction hats & orange/blue/green jumpsuits ... Eerily similar to those worn by inmates in the United States & GITMO ... Sweating away at all hours of the day & night ... Providing the housing, office buildings, & retail/recreational space necessary to make this real-estate agent's dream a reality ...
At first I tried to justify it, convincing my conscience that their living conditions must be better than they were in their home countries - and that they now had the opportunity to send much needed income back to their impoverished families overseas ... After all, this was the rationale used throughout the Arabian Gulf region (& not just by "Khaleejis" mind you) over the past several decades to explain why it was OK to treat such immigrants as second class citizens - at the workplace on construction sites & factories, in schools as teachers & janitors, at home as live-in maids & cooks ... their fate was generally the same (and I am usually one to stray from making any generalizations) - they had tiny basement bedrooms they often shared with several other individuals, ate measly leftovers of lavish meals they cooked & served, braved the intolerable desert heat at its most extreme hours, & often suffered verbal/physical abuse with nobody to call on for help when it got out of hand ...
Besides, migrant labor was used all over the world (from time immemorial) to bring the dreams of the rich to fruition - Surely this wasn't any different?
This slippery slope seemed more & more ludicrous whenever I would try to vocalize it ... Leading to difficult discussions with many friends & family members whose livelihood depended on the success of the Dubai experiment & the employment of South/Southeast Asian migrant workers ... I was even told to be careful of who/what/how I criticized this particular aspect of society as it could get me into a lot of trouble with certain authoritative figures ...
Yet this wasn't some "jealous Westerner's quest to expose the ills of a successful Eastern city" - a notion I find very insulting on a number of levels ... It had a very personal effect on me, as the son of a Syrian Civil Engineer who made a living off of construction projects throughout the Eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula ... To this day my father's colleagues & employees speak highly of his moral character - and the care with which he dealt with every individual he interacted with on his construction sites ... Many of these individuals knew him longer than I did, & certainly had more professional experience with him - so their opinion of his work ethic & ethical standards is even more valid than mine on this matter.
For proof of this I didn't have to look any further than my own home ... During most of my childhood & teenage years, we too had a live-in housekeeper - a man from the Indian Subcontinent whose life story is nothing short of the American Dream ... He was a small, thin Desi teenager when he first met my father at a construction site in Al-Khobar - confessing to my dad with brutal honesty that he would be much better suited for household chores than heavy lifting ... and thus a couple of months after I was born, he moved in to our home ... He didn't read or write, but he could cook some delicious Indian food & had a wonderful sense of humor ... He helped my father as he tended the garden (& called him Baba), set the table as my mom prepared us dinner (& called her Mama), & listened to some hilarious Indian-Disco music as he did our laundry (& called us Brothers/Sisters) ... It wasn't long before he would move to the United States with our family in 1985, gradually sending thousands of US dollars back home to his parents/siblings overseas & eventually getting his American Citizenship with the rest of us ... He would later marry, father a child of his own, & move out of our house into an apartment with his new family ... When they outgrew the apartment & purchased a house in the upper-middle class suburbs of Northern Virginia, I found myself visiting him for a little taste of "home" - since most of my immediate family had moved back to the Middle East by then ... On one of these occasions I noticed he had rented out a room in his basement to a Kuwaiti college student - and that he somehow didn't even see the irony in this beautiful twist of fate ... He was simply proud of the fact that he was now in a position to provide shelter to an immigrant teenager the way our father had provided for him years ago ...
As I look back on this part of my family history (& I most certainly consider him to be a part of my family), and listen to the tales of Dubai's recent real-estate market collapse, I wonder if people can learn from his/our story. It is often stated that you are what you eat, & that if a chef is upset with you, your stomach will be too - well I would like to think the same applies for architecture. While the economic crisis hinged on many different external factors, one can't ignore the simple fact that if these real-estate developers were not in such a greedy rush to build bigger, better, faster - a process more akin to the temporal & unsustainable qualities of plastic than the everlasting nature of timeless architecture - the bubble would not have been so big & prone to such a disastrous burst.
Please do not misunderstand me - I am not at all happy about this ... Nor do I intend to impart an apocalyptic fate upon this glorious boom-town ... Again, the livelihood of many of my family members & closest friends depends on the success of the Dubai experiment ... I want nothing more than to see a flourishing "City of Life" where Al-Wasl used to humbly stand ... It is after all one of the few places in the region that has welcomed people from all walks of life - for better or worse ... One of the few places where one can enter a museum & see breathtaking works of art from all over the Muslim world, without them being censored based on which sect they belong to or language they speak ... It is Dubai's unique history of economic openness & diversity that made it so - and yet sadly was its achilles heel with respect to this current credit crunch ...
Perhaps this can be seen as an opportunity to bring about change ... not just that US presidential campaign buzzword type of change ... a true, lasting, positive change that can warrant Dubai's being the shining example of what similar cities in the region were/are striving for - not simply attempting to copy & paste ... speaking of copying/pasting - one Emirati writer recently posted this quote on his blog >>
A lot of us Emiratis feel this downturn is exactly what we have needed. The chance to finally slow down and see things as they are without the stink of greed distorting everything. To finally concentrate our efforts where it counts such as improving our schools and colleges, completing the metro, building a stable civil society, and a sustainable economy. (http://secretdubai.blogspot.com/)
The Prophet Muhammad Peace Be Upon Him once said: "Innama al-a3maalu bil-niyaat" (roughly translated as "actions are based/judged on intentions") ... After watching the al-Jazeera special I've embedded at the beginning of this post, what can one infer about the intentions of these developers / contractors / agents who exploit(ed) these human beings?
Well, I for one feel that they gave into the Plastic-Fantastic notion of "if you build it, they will ...buy" - but who am I to judge ... I'm just an Architect / Hip-Hop artist from SyrianamericanA ...
This is already the longest blog I have written to date, but honestly doesn't even scratch the surface as far as what would need to be covered were one to provide a wholistic assessment of this dynamic & rapidly-changing part of planet earth ... That said, for those of you waiting for Omar to shut up & Offendum to kick in, this one's for you >>
Plastic-Fantastic
City of Dreams
but everyday in Dubai
aint as pretty as it seems ...
dont believe me?
ask anybody behind the scenes
overworked & underpayed
yet they're keepin it clean ...
Plastic-Fantastic
City of Dreams
but everyday in Dubai
aint as pretty as it seems ...
dont believe me?
just ask anybody behind the scenes
they can tell you exactly what i mean ...
The HIGH-rises
somethin to scrape skies with
jump suit - orange & blue
slave disguises
85 to a nine room house
divided
8 bucks a day justified it
and thus provided
the man power needed to erect
the worlds biggest sand towers
leadin to a (w)reck-ord setting
half-a-million Desis getting
no credit for the day - sweating
it away betting
it'll say 50 on thermometers today
that's over 120 fahrenheit - but hey
ain't no Michael Moore here
they just like more here
bigger-better-faster-strong Kanye malls here
ski slopes in the desert
make you wonder how the hell we ever coped in the desert?
bedo soaked in the pleasure of a hopeless endeavor
It has recently been brought to my attention that some folks thought I was talking about cities in the United States when I referred to Syria, Damascus, etc ... Honest mistake given that these are in fact not too far from some of the places I grew up ... Here is a short list of these (ironically) American cities that confused some of you >>
I meant SYRIA - the nation/region in Southwest Asia bordering Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, & occupied Palestine ... the capital of which is of course the great city of DAMASCUS, one of the longest continuously-inhabited cities on planet earth ... so nice, they named it once ...
OMAR OFFENDUM is a Hip-Hop Artist hailing from the great Nation-State-of-Mind known as "SyrianamericanA" >
where everything is connected & everyone is welcome ... 3ish PEACE!
