Gold Souque

The first country I ever visited was, interestingly enough, the United Arab Emirates. In the old days Champlain had a campus in Dubai and I was initially asked to travel there as part of a team site visit, mainly because no one else wanted to go. So, after getting my first passport, I made the trip and actually had a great time. Dubai itself doesn't hold a lot of charm for me, mainly, I think, because I'm a historian and there's not a lot of history left there. However, one of the places we visited, the Gold Souque, did provide some aspect of the traditional, along with jarring reminders of the creep of globalization. Now, I shouldn't have been surprised by this because at the time the first sign you saw when you landed at the gleeming Dubai Airport proclaimed, "Welcome to Dubai, Crossroads of the New Global Economy." Dubai is a real delicate balancing act between the shiny modern and the deeply conservative traditional world. On my first visit we drove past a huge billboard sign for a car dealership that featured a picture of a young Emirati man driving a convertable, kafiya blowing in the breeze, with the catch phrase, in English, "Live the Dream" - which was clearly not to be a good Muslim, but rather to have a sweet ride. At the same time, there are a lot of topics, most notably feminism, which are clearly off-limits in our Global Module discussions. Anyway, here are a few pictures from my first trip to the Gold Souque. I love the juxtaposition between the traditional garb and the European casual wear.