Dubai is well known for its extravagance. Its visitors appreciate the opulent buildings and upscale restaurants. They've done an amazing job in creating a city in the middle of the dessert. It's an oasis of materialism, and capitalism at its finest.
When I went there last year, I wasn't impressed. It was too much in a world where people have too little. Now Dubai has, once again, wowed the world, and proved its ability to waste valuable material. In conjunction with Sedar, a textile company, they have created the biggest flag in the world. They are proud, and their commercials are all over TV.
I am angry.
The flag is about 250 million square meters. Now I don't know much about textile, and I don't know what the import/export market for textile is like. What i do know is that I am in Cairo right now and it is cold. I see homeless people all over the streets that are cold and in need of clothing or at least a blanket. How many blankets could that material make? How many people could it have kept from the cold? How many good uses could it have been put to?
I know that us Arabs have a desire, no a need to put ourselves on the map. Yet, what we have proven time and time again through our history is that our arrogance has oftentimes come in the way of doing what is right.
Creating a flag of that magnitude is nothing to be proud of. Making a difference in a world that is in dire need of social, economic and military assistance is. Putting your name in the Guinness Book of World Records won't get you remembered. It's just a name in a book that most people don't read. Sending blankets to those in need, whoever they may be, will put you in the history books. It will give the United Arab Emirates a name that not will not only be remembered but respected.
