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City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism

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From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. The modern city-state of Dubai exists largely because two men willed it so. Through a combination of prescient investment of resources, grandiose vision and the freedoms of absolute rule, the late Sheikh Rashid and his son (and current ruler) Sheikh Mohammed transformed the backwater village into a global powerhouse erupting onto the earth. Mohammed's ideas are so stamped on the landscape that two of his poems are being written on the sea as a group of [artificial] islands. Dubai-based journalist Krane does a superb job of conveying the near-manic atmosphere swirling around the creation of the world's tallest building (half a mile high), first indoor ski slope (in a mall) and—incidentally—the world's largest carbon footprint, revealing the creativity and tolerance that characterize a city where 95% of its residents are foreigners, as well as the inevitable costs of such lavish ambition. Environmental needs have been ignored (another island was built atop a coral reserve, and migrant laborers and sex workers face routine abuse and exploitation. A fascinating study of a small nation that has taken the ideas of modernization and capitalism to their outer limits. (Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Review

"“City of Gold” offers a vivid guide to how a Bedouin tribe turned a mud village on a scrap of desert into a glittering city state."--Bloomberg "This landmark work is recommended to those interested in the history, politics, and economics of the Middle East; an excellent choice for anyone who wishes to learn more about Dubai."--Library Journal "The modern city-state of Dubai exists largely because two men willed it so. Through a combination of prescient investment of resources, grandiose vision and the freedoms of absolute rule, the late Sheikh Rashid and his son (and current ruler) Sheikh Mohammed transformed the backwater village into a global powerhouse “erupting onto the earth.” Mohammed's “ideas are so stamped on the landscape that two of his poems are being written on the sea as a group of [artificial] islands.” Dubai-based journalist Krane does a superb job of conveying the near-manic atmosphere swirling around the creation of the world's tallest building (half a mile high), first indoor ski slope (in a mall) and—incidentally—the world's largest carbon footprint, revealing the creativity and tolerance that characterize a city where 95% of its residents are foreigners, as well as the inevitable costs of such lavish ambition. Environmental needs have been ignored (another island was built atop a coral reserve, and migrant laborers and sex workers face routine abuse and exploitation. A fascinating study of a small nation that has taken the ideas of modernization and capitalism to their outer limits."--Publishers Weekly, Starred Review "The author hits his stride when he assesses Dubai’s current ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. He proceeds to examine this small emirate with admirable even-handedness and good humour. But Krane also writes movingly of the conditions of the Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi workers who have built Dubai."--The Atlantic “The history of a little Emirate’s epic transformation, from an impoverished pearling enclave, to the shining city on the hill, is revealed in full detail. Jim Krane is a great reporter, whose journalistic credentials are brought to bear in this unique work that is infused with facts, ample history, emotion and stunning narratives.  He leads his audience into the nooks and crannies of the "unknown"  Dubai, to reveal the humanity and intrigue that pulsates beneath the surface. He shows how powerful persons with a global reach collaborated to build an economic gem out of the desert. This is a fast-moving Arabian tale, but very much a modern one; not only laden with facts, it is a guidebook and cautionary tale for other developing nations in their quest to rapidly achieve the Western dream.”-- Justin Dargin, Harvard University - author of Desert Dreams and The Dolphin Project: The Development of a Gulf Gas Initiative "Dubai is fortunate to have as skilled and passionate a chronicler as Jim Krane. The city leaps off these pages with panache, brassiness, splendor and suffering. There is no better book about Dubai, and there may never be." --Jon Alterman, Director of the Middle East Program at CSIS and author of The Vital Triangle: China, The United States and The Middle East  “How did one of the planet’s last unexplored wastelands, for millennia ignored by history, become in just a few short decades the playground of the unimaginably rich? In City of Gold, Jim Krane traces the fascinating and long overlooked history of Dubai, from pirate battles and eccentric British explorers to the glittering spires of a metropolis that emerged from nowhere, in prose as spare and enchanting as a desert fairy tale.”--James Hider, author of The Spiders of Allah: Travels of an Unbeliever on the Frontline of Holy War and Mideast correspondent The Times of London “A marvelous book. Beautifully written! Jim Krane has written a fascinating account of a Middle East we rarely get to hear about.  Jim Krane’s book on Dubai’s rise and fall -- in this era of global financial crisis -- is a cautionary tale for us all.”--Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, NPR Middle East Correspondent

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Product details

Hardcover: 368 pages

Publisher: St. Martin's Press (September 15, 2009)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0312535740

ASIN: B004A14WB8

Product Dimensions:

6.5 x 1.3 x 9.6 inches

Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds

Average Customer Review:

4.4 out of 5 stars

57 customer reviews

Amazon Best Sellers Rank:

#4,589,960 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

This is a well written, concise, very readable and fascinating portrait of Dubai and the United Arab Emirates. Although I understand that its sale has been banned in Dubai, it strikes me as a very complimentary/upbeat portrayal of what has been achieved in the desert. Krane does not ignore the social issues such as the poor treatment of labor and lack of political freedom. But the overall judgement is that the Al-Maktoum family has repeatedly taken huge, gutsy bets that have paid off big. We have them to thank for one of the world's most modern, efficient and livable cities -- certainly in this part of the world. This book really hits the mark.

American journalist and former Dubai resident Jim Krane has written perhaps the best introduction yet to Dubai. An overview of the UAE's brief recorded history is preamble to the larger story of how a fishing village that wasn't electrified until 1960 became the regional hub for transport, banking, media and tourism. Krane's near breathlessness in describing the planning and building of one seemingly impossible project after another is tempered in the second half by a more sober reflection on the exploitation of labor, abuse of the environment, and marginalization of the native population.Krane writes well and interviews widely but perhaps his greatest strength is his sensitivity to a textured narrative, of not being satisfied with a simple story, in presenting angles and opinions that are often contradictory. Not only does this make his story richer, but you're never quite sure how he thinks of any of this until the very end. The long-time resident finds himself seduced by Dubai, a city that developed so quickly that it's no longer in the modern age, but "somewhere out in the future."The unstated assumption among Dubai observers seems to be that of most economists, politicians and other social engineers - life is better when you have more money and more stuff. It is therefore the job of those in power to enable people to make and accumulate more. And since Dubai is doing that quite well, it must be a swell place. Thanks to the generosity of the Sheikhs, Emiratis have one of the highest per capita incomes on the planet. They have all the stuff they could ever want, including literacy and higher life expectancy. But where is the benefit of living longer when your life amounts to little more than shopping? When your work is largely meaningless, a government job that is often nothing but a welfare appointment, a title to justify paying you a wage? Where's the benefit in a house full of great stuff when you've lost your culture and identity? When you are a minority in your own country?Krane talks to a 39 year old mother who during her lifetime saw Dubai grow from a town in which boys and girls played together each afternoon in the creek, to a heaving metropolis in which you can't safely walk across the street because of the traffic. Children spend more time indoors in schools and in houses separated by wide roads. People work longer. "Before, life had a taste. Now nothing makes you happy. Before, you could buy one mobile phone and you are happy. Now you buy five mobiles in a year and you're not happy. There is nothing making people happy now."It's not just the Emiratis who are dissatisfied. The laborers building and maintaining the city live in crowded conditions, working long hours in often dangerous jobs for little money, the threat of deportation preventing them from organizing to improve their condition. There are of course many poor people in many countries across the world, and it is true that many laborers make better money in Dubai than they would at home. But what kind of "vision" of development ignores the suffering of so many of its residents? Before the 2009 market collapse Dubai had bank-loads of money, some of which could have been diverted from the latest vanity project to help those who make important contributions to the state and society. Where is the compassion? What kind of vision of the future is this?If Dubai means anything at all, it's a call to start questioning our assumptions. What's wrong with less stuff and a more measured pace of development? Won't compassion for the environment, an equitable division of benefits, and a meaningful personal stake in society and in one's own life make living richer than another hotel, shopping mall, or skyscraper? For a country that's actually trying to do something different, to break out of the present and into something possibly futuristic, look to Bhutan, a small developing country with few resources which measures progress in terms of GDH - Gross Domestic Happiness.#

I started reading this near the end of a trip to Dubai and I wish I had read it earlier. It is an excellent introduction to this city-state and will explain in advance many of the questions that will arise anyway in the course of your travels. For readers who do not plan to travel to Dubai, it provides a good historical and cultural introduction to an important part of the Arab world. Krane does not stint on his criticisms of the government or the royal family, but also acknowledges the progressive and visionary elements of the current leadership. I highly recommend this book if you are planning a trip to the UAE. If you weren't planning to go there, this book will certainly whet your curiosity.

When traveling to a new country for work for an extended period of time, I try to read a book or two that provides some historical and cultural context to the place. It's nice to get some grounding on the place I'm visiting, and I've found this contributes both to my enjoyment of the locale and also my understanding of the people I'm working and interacting with.For the first-timer to Dubai, I don't think you could do much better than this book. The author is clearly fascinated by his subject matter, and brings passion and deep expertise to his writing. Mr. Krane presents Dubai through the eyes of a reporter, providing first-hand interviews from the men and women behind the scenes in Dubai, and presenting several facets of the key aspects of the city. Rather than a puff piece or agenda-driven slash job, the author presents the positives and negatives of Dubai's breakneck development and allows the reader to form their own conclusions at the benefit of his research and commentary. While it's missing the details of Dubai's economic crash, it certainly gives one the grounding to make more sense of Dubai's chances for the future.Aside from a jab or two at former US President GW Bush, which seems a bit hackneyed and trite in 2012, the book was well-researched and unbiased, and managed the difficult task of remaining entertaining rather than reading like a graduate thesis. I was unable to set the book down, and found my evening walks through Dubai complemented by each chapter I read. The only flaw I found was several photographs are mentioned in the acknowledgments, but none appear in the Kindle edition of the book, although they would not have been missed unless one read the end notes.For the casual observer, it's tempting to dismiss Dubai as the "Las Vegas of the Middle East," but Mr. Krane provides a deeper, more nuanced view of this fascinating place. Beneath the shiny buildings there are subtle undercurrents, and I found each chapter of this book provided a welcome exposure to yet another facet of the City of Gold.

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