Category Archives: city of hype

new city of hype

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Mark Rossiter

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry: Dubai is back. After years of stalled cranes and worthy road projects inching forward under a burden of debt, we are back in the land of underwater hotels and ski slopes in … Continue reading →

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a toy with every transaction

Posted on March 27, 2005 by Mark Rossiter

One of the smart new housing developments in Dubai has an ad on the side of the buses: An Audi with every apartment, a Porsche with every Penthouse. When you have seemingly unlimited resources, who needs to be clever?

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old meaning new

Posted on March 20, 2005 by Mark Rossiter

Dubai’s newest development, Burj Dubai, will contain the tallest building in the world – briefly. Its developer Emaar’s chief competitor, Nakheel, has an even taller one planned for the causeway to one of the vast artificial islands it is constructing … Continue reading →

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120kg of gold

Posted on February 3, 2005 by Mark Rossiter

Win 120kg of gold! blares from billboards around Dubai. They don’t do excess by halves…

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designer wave

Posted on February 2, 2005 by Mark Rossiter

On the radio, two stations join forces for a tsunami fundraiser. Good on them. They do it in very Dubai style, too: the first item up for auction is a $550 Estee Lauder hamper…

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downstairs upstairs

Posted on February 1, 2005 by Mark Rossiter

A story in the paper about a 52-year-old guy from Kerala who drives a bakery truck and lives in a room in Sharjah with nine other working men: he won a luxury studio in one of the swank new apartment … Continue reading →

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twice the difference

Posted on January 21, 2005 by Mark Rossiter

Dubai Shopping Festival is under way. This, as far as I’m aware, seems to be the only instance of a society having its main yearly festival explicitly devoted to commerce, rather than at least paying lip service to something else, … Continue reading →

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