The world is changing. Where does this leave Dubai?

In the land of sand we may be feeling the tremors of change that are beginning to reverberate around the world after Barack Obama’s inaugaration, but what will soon be apparent is that the shift in the pysche of the America led western nations could well be seismic.

Obama is ushering in an era at the beginning of the 21st century that aims to offer something that is very different from what we have seen in the past 100 or more years.  The 20th century was  dominated by notions of size.  Vast skyscrapers, huge dominating banks, corporations as powerful as political parties.  Obama has become the symbol of bringing in an era that realises that in order for the world to survive socially and economically, it needs a completely new approach.  What is required is to be more nimble, more stealth like, more thoughtful and considerate as opposed to just simply big and powerful. 

Where on earth does this leave the c**k waving emirate?  A city that boasts having the biggest and tallest of almost everything that has ever existed.   All the huge malls, cloud touching skyscrapers, sprawling fun parks, vast aquariums feel distinctly last century.  I’m not going to be the one to tell him, but if you look at the shifting attitudes in Europe,  the US as well as other parts of the world,  Sheikh Mohammed would have to completely rethink the vision of the city,  if it is really going to be considered as a metropolis of the upcoming century.