Dubai offered an alternative future

* username: rupertbu

In Dubai, last year’s annus horribilis which combined recession, debt and a bail-out by Abu Dhabi, is provoking some serious soul-searching.

“Never has so much damage been done to so many by so few,” opined one Emirati at the time, reflecting the widespread frustration of the reputational and financial impact wrought by the miscalculation of “25/11” . On November 25 last year, the government called for a delay in repaying $26bn owed by Dubai World, a state-owned conglomerate.

The outward response, driven by officials and some local media, has been to blame the foreign press for exaggerating the emirate’s downfall in an alleged orgy of prejudice and schadenfreude.