Editorial
The East is not the West
The Karabus saga is over. But it has reminded us of the fact that we cannot look at the world only through Western perspectives.
Our bemusement as to why all the criticism and protest against the United Arab Emirate’s treatment of Prof Cyril Karabus seemed to have virtually no effect, may be explained partially by the fact that the region in which the UAE exists is not at all Western. Indeed, the mindset and belief system is radically different. It is simply not a democratic system.
The fact that Dubai is to Westerners a gigantic shopping mall where one can, among all the glitz and glamour, buy anything at all, does not make it Western. Behind the façade they don’t play by “our” rules.
In addition, they have so much money and so much oil that they feel they can simply behave as if they “don’t give a damn”. They can buy whatever they want, wherever they want. We can console ourselves by saying: “One day they will run out of oil”. For the time being, however, they are in the driving seat.
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