Before I arrive in Dubai, I meet “Clare” on an expat Web site who insists I visit her at her home in the Meadows, a housing development in the city’s suburbs — “to give you an idea of how so many people get misled into thinking they are in [commuterland].” Half an hour in a taxi later, past the skyscrapers, and the construction sites, and the six-lane highways, and minibuses of Indian and Pakistani workers being shuttled from one project to another, I’m in a straight-out-of-a-David-Lynch-film picture-perfect suburban road lined with picture-perfect suburban villas.
And there’s Clare.
“That’s what I wanted you to see!” she said before I’m even out of the car. “Look at that.”
I’m looking at a wheelie bin and not really understanding her point.
“People see the wheelie bin and they think it’s all familiar, and normal, and therefore nothing bad can happen. Ha!” she said.
The Meadows is a gated enclave with a uniformed security guard and lush green landscaping, and Clare is a British expatriate wife whose husband is a contractor. To all intents, they’re living what looks very much like the good life: There’s a pool in the back garden, year-round sun and in the living room Sky satellite TV News is on.
“Oh yes, it looks good, doesn’t it? But we’ve all made a pact with the devil to be here. You get the tax-free salary, but in return you have to give up all your rights. There’s no accountability, no transparency, no rule of law. There’s no legislative body. Very few employment rights. It looks like a modern country, but it takes more than a few skyscrapers to create one of those. Scratch the surface and it’s a different story. And if you’re a silly young girlie who gets into trouble, then forget it,” she said.
There’s a particular silly young girlie Clare is referring to: Michelle Palmer, a 36-year-old advertising executive who in July was arrested for allegedly having sex on a beach with Vince Acors, a 34-year-old visiting company director from Kent, England.
It’s been a tabloid sensation. Palmer’s Bridget Jones lifestyle endlessly examined; at least a dozen conflicting versions of the story printed — they did have sex, they didn’t have sex, Palmer may or may not have waved her shoe and called the policeman “a fucking Muslim” — the case comes to court this week and the prosecution is said to have concrete DNA evidence to prove they didn’t have sex, but beyond that, almost nothing is certain other than the fact that, if convicted, they both face up to six years in jail.
And whatever the verdict, Palmer has already lost her job with the publishers ITP, which produces Time Out Dubai, but then there’s no such thing as unfair dismissal in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — and being mauled in the press. The London Daily Mail is in strict accordance with Shariah law on this point: It’s the woman’s shame.
In Dubai, the case has shocked the local population and split the expat community between those who feel sympathy and those who think she deserves nothing less than a stoning.
“What I can’t believe,” Clare said, “is the amount of venom directed towards her. The reaction here has been unbelievable. I think people are under such pressure. They know it’s not the dream. And they need a scapegoat. The fact is that if you can ascribe blame to someone else’s misfortune, then you are indemnifying yourself against it happening to you.”
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