Winds of Change

Chicago has always been known as “The Windy City”. Dubai takes 2nd place if not, in mind opinion, first place! At first I thought it might just be a short winter phenomenon but I am getting a little tired of picking up my laundry all over the balcony floor and often the neighbors’. Perhaps it may be a good idea to invest in clothes pins, I admit, but I usually hang it over the drying rack where, in the UK, it stayed until I collected it. Not so here in Dubai. And frankly, having lost two cushions from our outdoor furniture (my eagle eyes spotted one of them from the 19th floor, in the construction site sand pit next to our building and Aidan retrieved it for me – the other one is lost for good), I think we just better get use to the Shamals because it happens every spring.

Shamals result from strong northwest winds that are funneled into the Persian Gulf by the mountains of Turkey and Iraq to the northeast and the high plains of Saudi Arabia to the southwest. The winds are most commonly strongest in the spring to summer and hence the Shamal events are as well, although they can occur at any time of year. They bring heavy sandstorms which go from the desert around the city and directly into the suburbia. It can be dangerous to get out in the Dubai prevailing wind, because it blows directly into your face and if you try to get around the area you can’t see anything at all. I think I’m dealing well with the dust and sand….considering I am really OCD about cleaning.
Winds -of change- are around us in many other ways too. The government never gives us official numbers of the outflow of foreign workers and has generally played down the extent of the migration. But it is predicted that the population of Dubai will decline by 20% this year. Our local media report that up to 50 percent of airline tickets leaving the country are just one way.
We anticipate that once school ends in June, many families will exit and never return. They are just waiting for the kids to finish exams. September will show whether that is true. The boys tell us that many of their class mates have already told them they are leaving for good.

I’ve stopped reading the daily news papers because it’s either all doom or gloom or statements that the crisis is ending. Contradicting statements do nothing for us at all. We are living our life as best we can while observing the changes around us. It is, in a way, exciting and interesting to be in a place which is changing so rapidly while nobody knows where it will end up.