Beyond Black And White: On Discrimination in Dubai.
Essay Two: The Help
Dubai’s poor are not exactly tucked away among goats in the desert. Even if you do not go out, they will make the trip to your doorstep, with servility, to deliver your sushi craving, or your latest impulse buy from Amazon. They are the ones who will do the jobs Emiratis depend on but do not want. You would never encounter an Emirati plumber, handyman, construction laborer, cleaner, driver or mechanic, but none of those service providers would be able to make a living in the United Arab Emirates if their residency visa was not sponsored by an Emirati “kafeel.”
In the UAE, even I, as a non-Emirat, get to enjoy the luxury of the mentioned service providers. Most of the time, however, I am sheltered from their living environment, but because I have had to make a trip to a car A/C mechanic this week, I got to experience a close encounter of the non-bling kind.
The warranty on my ten year old car has now expired and I am faced with having to look for a mechanic who will not extort me out of my non-existent income. The dealership quoted me an arm and a leg in car A/C terms (they would like me to approve a quotation for replacing both the compressor and the evaporator) and I wanted to get a second opinion.
I used to think that I did not need my car A/C, and had it set to 24 degrees Celcius, unless I was hosting less heat-tolerant passengers, but when the A/C started blowing hot air at the peak of the summer heat, I realized how dependent I still was on this “GCC spec” staple.
I would not have come across Abdulrahman if it were not for the Google Maps search I did, and I would not have trusted his opinion if it were not for the stellar Google reviews he received from satisfied customers. He is a Pakistani national who operates a small one-car makeshift outdoor garage space in Al Qouz, Dubai.
After Abdulrahman did his diagnosis on my car, his brother accidentally dropped the cap of one of the pressure valves inside the engine compartment and had to unscrew the bottom of the car to retrieve it, so there was an opportunity to chat. I learned that Abdulrahman has a two month old daughter back in Pakistan and that he was just video conferencing with his wife before I arrived. “We all want to live there,” he exclaimed as he showed me photos of Pakistan and the beautiful greenery Islamabad enjoys. We discussed how no Muslim in the UAE could protest what is happening in Palestine without risking deportation or jail time; how Imran Khan, a popular public figure among Pakistanis, won an election while in prison but how he is not a favorite of the United States; how the value of the Pakistani currency is worse than that of Egypt, and how as a result it was inexpensive at the moment to visit those countries; and how the current currency valuation made the repatriated income even more worthwhile.
As I was getting back into my car I noticed a plastic bag with bread hanging from the garage wall. Industrial areas like Al Qouz are not usually serviced by Uber Eats, Careem or Deliveroo; they are serviced by the more affordable Pakistani or Afghani bakeries, chaiwalas and cafeterias. There is no minimum wage in Dubai to ensure a less unequal quality of life among residents, and the reported 7 to 3 male to female ratio of the population is testament to the fact that a living wage, to support a non-Emirati family in Dubai, is lacking.
