Vegas in Arabia

If you ran a city/state, what would you aspire for it ?

Would it be a model of equality, or perhaps the greenest, or cleanest or world renown for...something.  Or would you go for biggest, loudest, and try to out-Vegas, Las Vegas..?

Dubai sadly has aimed for the latter and while it is certainly impressive it strikes you more as an exercise in excess, than a noble pursuit.  Sure having the world's biggest X is interesting, but really in a carnival sense more than a practical one. As impressive as it's engineering feats are, it's notable that the entire service industry seems to be manned by expat immigrant labour that while treated fairly, are not by any means equal to the local Emirati.

Perhaps aiming for world's most inclusive health care, (everyone's covered today, but via mandatory private scheme's), or the best educational system might be more in order.  It can't be the greenest as the cost of watering that piece of the Arabian desert would make your eyes hurt.  Water is more expensive than gas remarked one individual I met recently.

Now, I'm a realist and understand that while Dubai is perhaps the most renown of the UAE's seven different emirates, unlike it's sister states it does not have oil riches, so it needs to develop other industries. Tourism plays a significant role in that development with the emergence of the hometown airline as a global leader and the marketing of Dubai as a destination  in itself.  But I can't help but wonder what a desert paradise means having just spent a week there.  Real contrasts popped up everywhere, in almost any way that you looked at the place. Their investments of trying to be some version of 'best' might show more productive long term returns if placed in other areas.

Dubai is absolutely worth a visit to see this for yourself.  If your own budget does't allow for that, then grab a cheap flight to Las Vegas and imagine what it would be like it they added more bling and made it bigger.