Dubai Is Hiding the Bad News

Dubai has long fallen from grace. The tiny city-state built on credit and imprudent planning for all intents and purposes defaulted on billions of dollars of debt and is still shackled with tens of billions more. Shiekh Mo of Dubai no longer has a new project to announced every week - and countless projects have been canceled or delayed.

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Dubai is fresh out of money and is suffering great indignity after years of hype and extravagant promotion. Not only has the money dried up, but tourism is done, property princes have fallen, and hundreds of thousands of expatriates have left the country.

But if you were to read the Dubai press, you'd get the impression that all is nearly fine and that at worst the city-state is suffering more than the normal problems of a world recession.

That is because the press is highly regulated in Dubai, and the government mandates strict rules on reporting on the financial crises for purposes of shielding the ruling elite from domestic criticism:

Gulf News, a newspaper part-owned by a senior government minister in the United Arab Emirates, has told its journalists to avoid using the words "bailout" and "default" when writing about Dubai's debt crisis, according to an internal memo sent to staff and seen by Zawya Dow Jones. Reporters for the paper, the largest English-language daily in the U.A.E., were also urged to steer clear of the phrase "debt crisis" and asked to "ensure the following politically correct terminology is used" -- words such as "financial consolidation" and "fiscal support" -- when describing the sheikdom's economic problems and the assistance it has received from Abu Dhabi, according to the note sent Dec. 14.

Dubai's censorship is absurd in a globalized world. The people of Dubai are well-aware of the current problems - they have been reported on extensively in the Arab press - including, of course, al Jazeera - and in the world press much of which is available in the city-state.

The censorship only makes the ruling elite seem more impotent and incapable of dealing with a self-inflicted crises. It does not inspire confidence that given all of Dubai's troubles there hasn't been one official held accountable or one official who made a public statement detailing in honest language the crises and the government's intended response. Such secrecy may not bold well for a Duai post-debt that will aspire to inspire the world once again.

But substituting harsh words is once thing, seeking to block out any mention of the crisis as if it weren't there is another:

Abu Dhabi’s The National newspaper has refused to run an advertisement by the Doha Debates promoting a controversial session about Dubai, broadcast by BBC World News last Saturday and Sunday. A Doha Debates spokesman said the advertisement had featured a picture of two panellists against a Dubai skyline with the question: “Is Dubai a bad idea?” Sources close to the newspaper said its staff had been afraid of upsetting Dubai’s rulers, already sensitive over international coverage of their financial crisis. The National’s advertising manager Andy Tideswell told agents in Doha that “due to the content of the Doha Debates ad a late decision was taken to pull the ad from the January 8 issue."

Abu Dhabi has partially bailed out Dubai to the tune of tens of billions. The only thing is entirely odd - is the crisis and the subsequent bailout supposed to be made as if it is not there? - and reflects that despite the lavish architecture, the United Arab Emirates still has away to go in terms of building institutions that are accountability, honest and transparent. In other words: institutions that are the bedrock of any prosperous society.