Reporter's Notebook: Dubai, Part 2

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, Feb. 9, 2005 — -- On any street in Dubai, you're likely to find men in long flowing dishdashes speaking on one of the latest GSM phones and getting into a Porsche Cayenne turbo, a BMW 7 Series or a more exotic car like a Ferrari or Lamborghini.

The streets aren't paved with gold here and these men aren't oil barons (less than 6 percent of Dubai's money comes from oil), but they are the wheelers and dealers of this boomtown. Whether you're wearing the traditional dishdash or an Italian suit, bring your money and leave your politics behind -- it's a simple idea that has created quite a unique society.

This is a country where the ruler, Crown Prince Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, drives himself around in a boxy white Mercedes SUV with just one bodyguard. He is said to jot down license plate numbers of people who are violating traffic laws and have their licenses yanked when he returns to his modest palace. He races in endurance horse rides and can be seen wandering downstairs to the Starbucks at his office building. Compared with the recent inauguration of President Bush, this sort of access to the leader of a country seems unimaginable. An ordinary Emirati can approach the sheik, unusual even for the Middle East.

The vision and plan for Dubai that the sheik has laid out and the projects that are already under way are just half the story. The way the people click with the systems in place is just as interesting.

Watch one of the latest channels on the airwaves in Dubai -- a fashion and lifestyle channel called INtv -- with shows ranging from clothes and cars to events and trends -- and you realize that Dubai is anything but a sleepy little Arab nation steeped in conservative religio-political ideology. Its conservative neighbors, including the other emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates, seem to turn a blind eye toward this young upstart because so many of the most interesting non-oil-based investment opportunities are centered at this emirate.

Watch INtv and you might learn how to tell a lot about the man in the dishdash across from you. For example, an Omani wears a different type of head wrap than a Kuwaiti, and an Emirati models his facial hair differently from a Saudi. Superficial distinctions aside, Dubai has become quite the salad bowl for people from the Middle East and beyond.