Thursday, March 09, 2006

Back in Boston

Just as I get back home, I read that the Dubai Ports Deal is dead. My hometown paper says differently however, suggesting that the deal will go ahead and threatening all sorts of direness in case it does not.
'It's American double standards. Do you think that businesses and governments here won't react and even retaliate?' said Wadah Al Taha of the National Bank of Abu Dhabi.

He said the issue was likely to feature prominently in trade talks later this month between the United States and the UAE, a federation of seven emirates that includes Dubai.

The Dubai Ports row has reinforced fears in the Middle East that investments in the United States have become politically risky for Arabs and Muslims. Some Arabs say the US opposition to the deal smacks of racism.
While the political furor over the deal in the US is paranoid, Dubai (at least on paper) seems to be in deep denial over the whole thing. US concerns over having an Arab state control its ports are as clear as they are muddy: Muslim Arab terrorism.

In the final analysis, Dubai's inability to acknowledge, let alone tackle, US concerns made it impossible for them to make their case. Reading through the article, all you get are threats ("we will retaliate") and insults ("the US is racist").

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