Dubai invites United Nations to set up headquarters
The government of Dubai on Thursday announced that it is fully prepared to host the headquarters of the United Nations if its officials decide to move from New York where the organisation is currently located.
According to an official source in the Dubai government, the announcement was made in light of the UAE’s — and Dubai’s — appreciation of the vital role the United Nations plays in all areas, and in the protection of international peace and security and economic development in particular.
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Fitzgerald explains Dubai: Â Dubai, or Rodeo Drive on Stilts
Dubai is a place, and a symbol.
As a place, it has no claim on our attention. Voltaire once described French Canada as “quelques arpents de neige.” Dubai, like the rest of the Emirates, like Saudi Arabia, could with more justice be dismissed, as “quelques arpents de sable.” It also happens to be in a place, on the globe, convenient for airplanes travelling from Europe to Asia to set down, and perch, and rest and refuel, during their transcontinental trips. Other than that, Dubai has no significance.
But it became, over the past decade, a symbol of the rich Arab states, that is, those states that have acquired great wealth not from any entrepreneurial flair, or hard work, but rather from the fact of an accident of geology: they are the beneficiaries of the sale of oil (and in some cases natural gas). That oil and gas was discovered by, lifted by, transported by, distributed by, non-Muslims who have done everything, including writing those checks to those who happen to possess those oil and gas reserves. Those owners have received, as a consequence, more than twelve trillion dollars since 1973 alone. Dubai became a symbol. The ruler of Dubai, the people of Dubai, the investors in Dubai, the breathless commentators on the Wonder That Is Dubai, saw it as a symbol of all that was impressive, all that was so wonderful, all that bespoke of a Bright Future For The Gulf.
