What a difference a year makes eh?
The Weasel has been lurking on Twitter lately, it is so much simpler to post 140 characters than try to think up a whole post.
Dubai feels a different place for sure, gone is the old brashness to be replaced by a slightly paranoid fear of persecution that is pushing all types of responses to real or perceived slights.
That it is the British press, previous fawning darlings of the place that have turned on their old benefactor is not at all surprising to anyone except Dubai, which seems a bit shell shocked by the whole affair. The amateur and indignant responses so far have only made the pursuing pack bay more, a vicious circle that can be hard to get out of.
Very different when the press were swooning over Dubai (and their real estate advertising) it was all jolly hockey-sticks of course, now wasn't there some proverb about those that lie with lions?
The way to kill all the rumours is of course to have freely available information that people can trust, unfortunately that so often does not seem an option to Dubai or Dubai businesses. And in a vacuum the clammer rush in to fill the space.
Not all doom and gloom, recently the Weasel wandered along to the wildly popular Marina Yacht Club for a beer only to be appalled by the 50 people queuing to get in, leaving in a hurry the only option.
So there is life but also telling that it is a local place with a generous happy hour that gets the business, lots of lessons to be gleaned by Dubai businesses from that.
Classic comment from local shop operative that left the Weasel spluttering with incredulity,
"Yes sir prices have gone up"
Why?
"Customers few sir, so need to charge more"
It is scary how the little some in the "City of Merchants" actually understand commerce.
