Monday, April 07, 2008

The good side of Dubai

Strolling along the beach I was reminded of the good side of Dubai.

One thing was the combination of weather, beach, warm sea.

The other was something we should never take for granted, given the situation in much of the rest of the world.

Security. Lack of crime.

For example, there've been many reports from cities around the world of teenagers in particular being attacked and beaten up by gangs stealing their trainers.

Near Burj Al Arab a teacher had a bunch of schoolkids on the beach...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seabee, Yes it is nice. I started reading your page from the bottom up and the article about the wacky driving here made me question (as we all do sometimes) about why the hell we are here. But then when I saw the shoes I thought back to my childhood in Oz in the late 60's and realised even our home country isn't as safe as this place. (Apart from on the Roads).
All the Best.

Seabee said...

Yes Dave, even Oz. Home invasions, drunken brawls in city centres, city houses like prisons with bars across the windows because of the high buglary rate...and we're better off than many countries.

I do post the odd reality check - in fact I think I'll add that as a label so they can be bunched together.

Anonymous said...

I walked here earlier today. In the same place I saw a group of Indian women waiting with the clothes and stuff of their men while the men went swimming. What a different impression a couple hours can make.

I have enjoyed the low crime rate here, too, since moving here, so was shocked yesterday when the neighbor told us that during the night someone had come and stolen the gas canisters (sitting outside the kitchen walls) of several neighbors. She also said that they had come downstairs and found a strange man in their house.

LDU said...

Seabee, Australia is becoming really scary after dark nowadays. Perth's population has increased 9.1% over the previous twelve months, the most we've ever had, and this brings extra crime too.

I work till 9pm on friday's and the rowdy behaviour that goes on in town is now something normal. People just fight and argue over silly things, you have beer bottles being smashed for fun, innocent pedestrians are assaulted for no good reason and there is always a lack of cops.

It's a really frightening walk from work to the train.

Seabee said...

LDU, that's sad, I always thought Perth was one of our nicest cities.

There was a similar thing on the NSW Central Coast last week - after an argument with someone a drunk got into his car and deliberately drove it into six people standing on the footpath. Injuries but no deaths thankfully. And that's in a little seaside town, not a big overpopulated city.

Seabee said...

In the Sydney Morning Herald today: "The day began like any other at Merrylands High School. Students were milling in the playground for morning assembly. Suddenly, the chatter stopped as a gang of five teenagers brandishing baseball bats and machetes invaded the throng.

The five...went on a rampage that left a teacher and two students in hospital and 16 others injured, thousands of dollars worth of damage and a school community shaken."


LL yes it is changing, sadly but inevitably.
But the strange man in the house...in places like the US or S. Africa the chances are that he'd have shot the owners, in places like Australia he'd probably have attacked the owner. Relatively, we're still safe here.