Dubai is like the dazzling partner some people enjoy being seen with, but know deep down they would never marry. Style without substance. Attraction without culture. All the confidence but none of the charisma. A place associated with glitz and glamour, not class and intellect.

The carefully cultivated influencer-led depiction of Dubai as the best place in the world is falling apart

The carefully cultivated influencer-led depiction of Dubai as the best place in the world is falling apart

What attracted many Westerners to Dubai was the absence of income tax. In more recent years, as the quality of life in Britain has been declining, clean and safe streets have been pull factors for some Brits. But the Iranian regime’s drone attacks on the United Arab Emirates has shattered the illusion of Dubai as a safe haven. The carefully cultivated influencer-led depiction of Dubai as the best place in the world is falling apart like the ceiling of its international airport after another strike.

This hasn’t stopped the Emirati authorities from desperately trying to deny what is plain to see. A 60-year-old British man has been charged under cyber-crime laws after allegedly filming Iranian missiles over Dubai. For a place so popular with influencers, it’s ironic that the UAE has such strict laws around what is posted on social media. But it should hardly come as a surprise: it’s a stark reminder that the city is part of an authoritarian Islamic dictatorship run by families who ruled over little more than livestock, fig trees and sand until a few generations ago.

Enlightened thinking comes from centuries and millennia of richness of culture, ethnological depth and diversity and inter-ethnic tolerance and harmony. But these things don’t spring to mind when I think of Dubai. You are more likely to find easy money, fast cars and even faster relationships in the Persian Gulf.

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