Dubai Guy's Diary

We are told that capitalism discovers wants that people did not realize they had and thus moves humanity forward. But it is truer to say that the market economy is sustained by the stimulation of greed and envy through advertising.

A widow, Zainab, who lived in one of the houses with her two teenage daughters, said she had kept some goats and sheep and earned her living selling their milk and meat.

"I have been living here for the past 30 years. I have no place to go. No money to rent another house. The power and water were switched off several days ago," she said.

She said they had received evacuation notices many times in the past, but had nowhere else to go. She said she approached the municipality several times asking for help but was ignored.

“Tonight, everyone will have meat and rice,” Muntazir Khan says, washing his hands, then pressing them against his beige kurta. “We will eat well.”

Thursday night was a busy night for Khan. His friends were looking forward to dinner, so when he got home from work he went straight into the kitchen.

Inside are all the essentials for a typical Pakistani meal: one shelf has a box of garam masala and a bag of basmati rice, jars of black pepper and lentils, Maggi chicken cubes, and a bag of onions. Another shelf is lined with plastic bowls, spoons, and a pot.

But Khan’s tidy kitchen sits in the middle of a small Mussafah junkyard that doubles as a labour camp for him and another 100 men. For Khan’s friends, his Thursday night dinner is one of their few pleasures – a good meal before their only day off.

These labourers come here to work out of need not want. Believe me, most of them would rather be back home with their families — it’s not like they hang out at Starbucks after they get off work anyway! And yes, obviously, their compensation here is substantially higher than they would receive in their home country, which is why they are here.

Yet you hear people saying: “They are so lucky they are here; it’s not like they are hungry or cold, and they will get their pay eventually.”

So let’s see if your average corporate executive would forgo his or her pay for a few months till their employer lands a major account — would they feel they were lucky to be fed and housed?