Painting a positive Dubai

Painting a positive Dubai

Negative stories about the city have begun to flood international media reports, making it difficult to find anything positive about the emirate in the press.

March 17, 2009 4:34 by Aarti Nagraj

Negative stories about the city have begun to flood international media reports, making it difficult to find anything positive about the emirate in the press.

International media outlets have been dishing out horror stories about Dubai, claiming the city has collapsed and that the party is over.

So we decided to challenge ourselves to find five (recent) positive stories about the city from any international website / publication. Press releases don’t count. It took a (long) while and lots of digging, but here’s what we found.

1. Dubai’s Youth: Small Children, Big Ideas

The article in ABC News, published on March 12, claims the financial crisis have not “squelched something else that’s big in Dubai- the spirit of its children.”

2. Moving To Dubai Opens Endless Possibilities for UK Entrepreneurs

The article on California-based news website bestsyndication.com, written on March 16, uses terms like “amazing progress and development” and “great place to go” to describe Dubai.

3. Dazzling Dubai
“In this Middle East metropolis, ancient Arab tradition and 21st-century Western-style modernity come together to impressive effect,” says an article in Singapore-based The Business Times, written on March 14.

4. A small country, Dubai thinks big
“Understated is not a word that one would use to describe Dubai,” says a travel writer on Kentucky.com. The article, published on March 8, goes on to list all the wonderful things to do in the city.

5. Do not believe reports of Dubai’s demise

“News of Dubai’s death has been greatly exaggerated. Its fundamentals as a regional hub of shipping, services, people, trade and capital have not changed,” reasons an article in The Financial Times, published on March 11.