Sharon and Jacques’ Excellent Blog

Talk about perfect timing! We have arrived in Dubai just at the beginning of the famous shopping festival. All hotel rooms are booked as people from all over the world converge on Dubai in search of the ever present bargain. And bargains you will find! Every store has 50% or more off all their goods. Extra gifts with purchase are thrown in. Designer shops with unbelievable merchandise, already duty free, have incredible sales. And we are not buying…

With our trip ahead and tight budget, and with neither of us working, we have no need for anything at the moment. However, that does not stop us from window shopping. Because of the close location to Asia, Dubai sees incredible electronics, so Jacques gets a glimpse of “bleeding edge” technology. For me, just wandering the incredible shopping malls is an adventure in true multiculturalism. As we walk around Ibn Buttata Mall, I see the various nationalities of the world, and wonder why there is war.

I think that if people would take a moment and look around in a shopping mall that is not in their country, they would think twice about bombing one another. I see men in their dish dashi’s walking around after work, picking up a suitcase in a luggage shop. I see women in their burqua’s wiping ice cream off a small child’s face and hands. I see Indian men walking arm in arm, chatting amicably. I see young girls in sari’s choosing makeup at the makeup counter, laughing as they mug a shade of lipstick for one another. I see young men sitting in Starbucks with iced coffees, taking photos of one another with their mobile phones. In other words, not much different from any mall in North America. People are people, living their lives the best way they know how. Sure, you will hear the call to prayer all over the city. It seems a good time for a quiet meditation for oneself. A chance to step away from the consumerism, or the rush of work, to sit and be grateful for where you are.

The level of tolerance here outstrips my expectations. People intermingle respectfully. In NA, there is always an undercurrent of seediness. One does not see young people here intermingling in gangs with both sexes. One does not see young women in tight low slung jeans, with tight short tops, bellies and cracks clearly visible. One does not see tattooed and pierced insolent young men looking for a weakness in the crowds.

It seems the Dubai shopping festival gives you much more than you bargain for.