This is perhaps one of the most hackneyed lines in English poetry. But as is usually the case with all clichés, Rudyard Kipling’s dictum, “East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,” may be rooted in reality. After all, as an Englishman who was born and spent most of his life in India, Kipling knew what he was talking about.
Although we all love his works like The Jungle Book and Kim, the man Orwell called the “prophet of British imperialism” had his fair share of warts and prejudice against “the natives”. But then all of us are all products of our environment. And Kipling, a gifted writer and poet that he undoubtedly was, too had been conditioned by his times. So even though the first English writer to get Nobel Prize in literature gave us such immortal characters as Kim and the absolutely lovable Mogli, he just couldn’t help occasional bouts of good, ol’ fashioned racism. The two Britons, who were caught doing it in July on Dubai’s Jumeirah beach, too were the product of their environment. Heavily inebriated and obviously oblivious to the rest of the world, they were caught by a cop while they were trying to devour each other. The couple was picked up when they abused and assaulted the cop for his effrontery to remind them that the beach was not their bedroom.
Michelle Palmer and Vince Acors, both in their 30s, had met at an all-you-can-drink champagne brunch before their romp on the beach, were arrested and later charged with “sex outside of marriage, public indecency and drunkenness.”
This week, a Dubai court gave them three months behind the bars. Frankly, many of us in Dubai expected a far more stringent retribution given the serious nature of the crime.
However, most people in Britain and the West would see it as a “harsh” punishment for what they think is a minor offense. In fact, many of them wouldn’t see it as an offense at all. For them, this is something that should be left to two consenting adults.
Predictably, the British tabloids, invariably loud and in-your-face, have gone to town screaming how two of “our perfectly innocent and civilized” people are being victimized by a “conservative society run according to Shariah law.”
Even news agency Reuters couldn’t help end its Dubai-datelined report on the sentencing of the beach sex couple without editorializing that Dubai is an emirate that is governed according to “conservative legal code based on Islamic laws and tribal rules.”
I wonder how many of the British commentators and reporters have actually been to Dubai or the UAE before coming up with such claptrap. As anyone who has lived and worked in the Middle East or even stopped over in Dubai for a couple of hours would know, this is easily the most liberal and friendliest place in the region.
Dubai and the UAE have worked hard to create this oasis of peace, prosperity and stability in a region that has been at the heart of most global conflicts over the past hundred years or so. Which is why you are welcomed with smiles wherever you go when you introduce yourself as a Dubai resident. Trust me, there are few more welcoming and genuinely friendly places in the Middle East — and the world.
However, there are some things that Dubai and the UAE have not been able to develop a taste for. I mean the kind of shameless and licentious behavior that our two British friends have demonstrated. Doubtless, Dubai is an incredibly tolerant emirate. But all said and done, UAE is an Arab and Muslim country. And everyone — residents and visitors — should respect its values and beliefs. In fact, why should we single out Dubai and UAE? I am sure this kind of slutty behavior wouldn’t be acceptable anywhere in the world. Not even in the liberal Western societies. The West may have made great progress in doing away with pretences like social decorum and moral values. But not even in the UK, Europe and Americas where no eyebrows are raised over kissing and other exchange of intimacies in public, the degeneracy of Michelle Palmer and Vince Acors would be acceptable.
And why is it so hard for visitors and Western expats to see that this is just not done here? Is this only a culture thing? I find it hard to believe the Britons were not aware of the serious nature of their shenanigans at one of the most popular and crowded holiday spots in Dubai. Truth is, they just don’t care. All they want is to have a “good time”. They don’t give two hoots about the cultural and religious sensitivities of the local people and how their actions would hurt them.
No wonder Britain is considered the most “liberated” and sexually active society in the whole of Europe. Binge drinking and lax social norms and mores are only fueling this sexual freedom. This permissiveness and sexualization of everything has resulted in broken families, unwanted children and a general state of decadence and strife in Western societies. TS Eliot’s epic “The Wasteland” was a powerful protest against this corruption. Personally, I don’t have any issues with this “freedom.” Who am I anyway? After all, as they say, it’s their life. Trouble arises only when they try to export this freedom model to countries like UAE that are not used to it. They abuse the generous hospitality of this magnificent country and its amazing people, bringing disgrace to their own country and all expatriates. So what happened on the Dubai beach was a classic encounter between the East and the West. Which is rather unfortunate. Because if there’s any place that challenges Kipling’s claim that the East and West can never come together, it’s Dubai. By adopting best practices from around the world and adapting them to its own peculiar needs, Dubai has demonstrated the twain can indeed meet. While it has embraced the best of everything from the West, it has not let go of its rich Islamic and Arab values and traditions. In fact, thanks to its unique geographical location, at the crossroads of great civilizations and cultures and the confluence of three continents, East and West indeed embrace each other in Dubai. Don’t let this degenerate into a carnal encounter on the beach.
