Recently I had to visit a bank. While I was waiting my turn, I watched an advertisement on the in-house TV. Initially I thought I was watching an ad promoting tourism in Abu Dhabi; it took me some time to realise that it was actually an ad for the bank.
Written by: Alif Majeed
It was as if the makers were following a checklist of things that define Abu Dhabi. Smiling Arabs? Check. Desert and sand dunes? Check. High-rise buildings? Check. Falcons, camels, traditional Arab dance? It was all there.
Now, I have no idea what a camel has to do with a bank; but it definitely has a lot to do with the image of Abu Dhabi (or the Gulf in general). Anyone who hasn’t actually been here would probably list the same images too.
It would be fun to see Abu Dhabi depicted without the deserts and the falcons for a change (how many of us have seen a falcon here anyhow?) and go directly to the streets. But that would probably be asking for the impossible.
I am willing to bet a movie apparently based in Abu Dhabi but mostly shot in Morocco would follow more or less the same pattern, along with a lot of clichés and ‘fun’ with Arab traditions. The makers of the movie would probably feel that it couldn’t matter much – “how different can one Arab city be from another?”
Before I came here I heard a lot about this place – some good things, some bad, some exotic, and so on. I was also told a number of times that Abu Dhabi is a very intimidating place to live. In fact I have never felt that; I managed to adjust fairly easily, and I was surprised at how small this city actually is – maybe some of those warnings came from people who confuse Abu Dhabi with Dubai, something that seems to happen a lot.
A colleague who has been working here for a few years now puts it differently. According to him, it’s not about the image but about how much Abu Dhabi has changed over the years. Apparently the only thing that has remained constant is the price of fizzy drinks ...
He has also been here long enough to see deserts and sand dunes give way to the high-rise buildings and shopping malls that has come to characterise Abu Dhabi now. When I asked what Abu Dhabi means to him, he said “all the construction going on and all the pitfalls that comes with that – but never the deserts or sand dunes”.
So I would like to ask a question to any expat: was the Abu Dhabi you had in mind the same one you came to?
