The other side of Dubai

In the Dubai Miracle Garden where the sight of flowers were a delight to behold stood Patricia, a Ghanaian in her 30s who was there in search of greener pastures and had a sad but very familiar story to tell.

She sold garlands and hats and just one look at her told me I had met my ‘countrywoman’. We got talking and she told me of how she had worked in Saudi Arabia for six years and managed to raise the equivalent of GHc40,000.

With sadness in her eyes, she narrated how she gave this money to a “connection man” who was supposed to send her to Germany, Two years after, she had neither set eyes on the man nor her money.

She was, however, able to raise more money to fund her trip to Dubai with the hope of making extra money to go to Germany where she believes her life would be made better.

I asked her why she didn’t use that GHc40,000 to start some business in Ghana in the first place and all I got as answer, was a “hmmmmmmm”.

Not too far away from Patricia stood a security man who said Akwaaba as soon as he made eye contact. He was also Ghanaian but we could not chat because he was at post.

During my six-day visit to Dubai recently, I had the opportunity to visit different tourist sites and attractions. The visit was sponsored by Emirates to enable a mother and a child traveller to experience some of these tourist attractions. One of the things I observed were the many foreigners working in Dubai. They are through hard work keeping the tourist destinations created by their host vibrant.

Dubai is one of the seven emirates which make the United Arab Emirates (UAE) .The UAE was founded in 1973 when all seven emirates came together and decided to merge themselves into a single country.

In the toilet of the Dubai Garden glow, another tourist attraction, was a Camerounian who kept the place clean. She said she missed home but was there to raise some capital to start a business back home.

She had done a year’s contract and couldn’t wait to finish her two-year contract so she could visit home. Asked about how much she was making, she said “ It is Ok”.

In order to save some money, some of these migrants have to stay in shared spaces where they partition rooms to make their homes. Accommodation does not come cheap in Dubai, they explained.

The cost of living in Dubai seems high as food and services were not cheap. Maybe it had to do with where I bought from. I bought a stuffed camel (toy) for the equivalent of 60 dollars only because my daughter would not leave the shop without it. Items for sale are positioned in such a way as to entice and the attitude of sales attendants made it even more difficult to resist. Also, salary scales may be far higher.

Excellent customer service seems to mean everything to workers as they would do everything to make a customer happy. Workers serve with a smile, engage you by making suggestions as to what places you could visit, what menus are available etc and this experience started right onboard Emirates, to the hotel and in the various eateries, shops and sites visited.

I heard interesting stories of how the Emeratis are given as much as the equivalent of 5000 dollars by the state once they got married with accommodation and other opportunities such as free education to improve their lives.

I was also told about the strict enforcement of laws in that country with a story which I could not fathom happening in Ghana.

That the mother of a two-year-old was fined the equivalent of 600 dollars for throwing litter out of the window of a moving vehicle! That may sound outrageous in Ghana but the argument of the police was that the mother had control over the windows, simple! If those who are driving our tourism have not already visited the place then I suggest they do so immediately for there are areas we could pick their brains to improve our tourism sector.

Writer’s E-mail: doreen.hammond@graphic.com.gh/aamakai@rocketmail.com