Life is a house of cards

Life is a house of cards

A threatened air con shut down in a major Nakheel development in Dubai serves as a reminder: our day-to-day lifestyle is delicate – the smallest breeze sends things tumbling down.

June 14, 2010 5:02 by shafeer

News reports this week said that Palm District Cooling, a unit of Palm Utilities, itself a unit of Dubai World, put up posters in Dubai’s Discovery Gardens announcing that the company intended to cut off the cold water supply.

“Due to the building owner’s continuing failure to enter into a legally binding contract with us, we have served on the building owner a ‘Notice of Disconnection’ of chilled water supply,” said the posters.

And who owns the building? Dubai World, as it turns out. Discovery Gardens is a Nakheel project, and Nakheel is the construction arm of Dubai World.

Kipp is not going to get into the details of some very public infighting between two Dubai World companies, except to say that, surely, that particular organization has bigger things to worry about?

What struck us was the impact such a move would have had on residents, who – through no fault of their own – would have been without air conditioning if the threat had come to pass. With Dubai’s summer on its way, temperatures are regularly crossing the 40 degree barrier; could the multi-national occupants of Discovery Gardens –many from cooler countries – have coped? Residents of Sharjah know how tough it can be.

A reminder, if one were needed, how fragile our day-to-day lifestyle can be. One small breeze – or in this case, lack of breeze – and things can look very shaky indeed.

But it’s not just the UAE, with its over-reliance on air conditioning, that has found this out recently. Look at the UK, where the coldest winter for decades brought half the country to a standstill – literally and figuratively. Or to wider Europe, where a volcano grounded flight connections both internally and to the rest of the world, causing havoc in the lives of millions.

Unfortunately, however, the fact is you can’t legislate against every possible problem, whether it’s caused by the forces of nature or a business disagreement between two companies who should know better.

The residents of Discovery Gardens could testify to that.