A few years ago a friend of mine was talking to some engineering contractors who finished a job consulting for drilling companies in the desert of the UAE and had told him of their lifestyle. Intrigued he asked about what drove them from their comfortable routines in the UK to the relatively unheard of country (this was back in the nineties. They spoke of the lucrative pay and living conditions in which they were able to maintain what was nothing short of a millionaire’s lifestyle doing what they has been doing in the UK for a more modest fee.
He told me this story and years later I was on my way to the Persian Gulf state looking to live that dream, but in the intervening years things had changed.
What was then a quiet backwater had boomed into one of the world greatest construction sites with money pouring in, not only from oil, when prices were expected to reach $200 a barrel, but from every corner of the worlds grey economy. Like most boom stories the fairytale facade had been built on the usual hard nose and semi-illegitimate reality of the free markets and freeloading in which politicians, magnates and opportunist had decided intuitively to en-mass use the country as a giant money launderette. The mosques may have called to prayer five times a day but the prosperity gospel had become the common creed. In 2007 property prices were rising so high even hardened brokers still talk about in hushed tones, one estate agent told me that un-built housing units were being bought in the morning and sold in the evening with profits exceeding 100% - for the best part of 2007.
Alas, it was not to last and like all bubbles in 2008 the green rivers dried up over night. The same clique of people who had started the boom, had, like a well disciplined telepathic army decided they had better abandon ship like a high roller calling quits. The effects for everyone else were devastating. The two state owned construction companies had leveraged and twisted the books promising to built sold apartments on future sales and spent current income paying for 20 odd ‘mega’ projects such as the world islands.
A period of shock and recrimination followed and as soon as tempers cooled down the recession was called off. The UAE now lives in a post economic reality hanging to the coattails of the financial wizards of Wall Street and the generous rules based international war machine.
Not a nightmare, the country has managed to keep its old school charm even if the putrefying stench of 2007 clone still lingers in the air.
