A boy is sodomized by three local men in a car after being tricked by one of them who was an acquaintance from his school, the sperm of all three of them are found inside him. What do you do? You try and get him jailed for homosexuality. Dubai's local criminal laws are still adapting to its modern image, and poor Alexandre Robert a fifteen year old expat found out the hardest way possible. Luckily, the efforts of his parents and embassy have born fruits, and Dubai after attempting to make the incident disappear, suddenly has started the wheels of justice to prevent a PR disaster (too late.)
The most sickening funny quote in the New York Times is:
“The legal and judicial system in the United Arab Emirates makes no distinction between nationals and non-nationals,” said Khalifa Rashid Bin Demas, head of the Dubai attorney general’s technical office, in an interview. “All residents are treated equally.”
Really? Really? It depends on your passport, the color of your skin and the color of your money. I have watched enough laws and lines (queues)part for the all powerful Emirati (natives) too many times to even attempt to make the effort to believe Mr. Demas.
There has been a stream of negative news about Dubai after the euphoric 2006 love affair with the emirate. One way to look at it, is that the emirate is a victim of its own runaway success. Suddenly the city which was a backwater village a few decades ago is being held up to international standards, and while in many ways is surpassing them, the increased focus is showing up all sorts of pimples and warts. What happened to Alex in Dubai probably happens everyday to thousands across the middle-east, and even when the victim is a foreigner, rarely this much of a ruckus is raised. Dubai is learning the hard way that incidents such as this blow up very quickly. It is also a testament to the will of Alex and his parents, that he has been so vocal about this, most people given the unique circumstances would want to brush it under the carpet.
Friday, November 2, 2007
Justice in the Sands - Dubai's growing PR disaster
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