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April, one way and another, hasn't been the greatest month for the UAE in terms of PR. The attacks in the Western press, both in print and on television, on the perceived treatment of labourers here, particularly in Dubai, had the feeling of coordination about it.
In the same week that the Independent published an 8,000 word hatchet job on Dubai that was, maddeningly for Dubai's fans, as vituperative as it was readable, the BBC devoted an episode of its flagship Panorama documentary series to an undercover labour camp investigation. After that, the deluge. Other newspapers got onto the act, and other television stations in Europe and America, too.
The first thing to know about the story is that is far from new. Back in 1999, the Financial Times published a 3,000 word feature on the supposed plight of Dubai labourers.
The labourers were effectively slaves, the paper said, illustrating the piece with a cartoon of a sweating and emaciated Asian labourer straining to hold on his back an adipose, reclining Emirati, whose comfort was emphasised, if memory serves, by the fact he was smoking a fat cigar. Only last summer, Sky News was running a lengthy news story about labourers sleeping outside in 50 degree heat, every half an hour for an entire day.
There are two ways for the UAE establishment to view this unwelcome attention. One is to see it as an unmitigated PR disaster, a story that won't go away and counteracts the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on marketing the UAE as a wonderful place to visit.
The other is to be flattered by it; to understand that implied in the criticism is the acceptance that Dubai has arrived as an international financial centre, and that, consequently, now the world is demanding the same standards of ethical treatment of workers that it would in, say, New York, Berlin or London. In that respect, it is an opportunity.
Either way, it is time the UAE fought back - the story is clearly not going away of its own volition. PR is enormously important for any country hoping to make a tourism buck, but for one as young as the UAE, it is everything. And, anyway, how difficult a job can it be? If Dubai's rulers can make a city materialise out of the desert in a decade, then they can certainly address effectively the world's perception of the conditions in which those who built that city labour under.
The clash between Western sensibility and UAE pragmatism regarding construction is the heart of the problem. There is what marketing men call a ‘disconnect' occurring. And a big one at that. When recently Insight spoke informally to the head of a leading UAE construction firm, he was flabbergasted that the press found so much to be outraged about when it came to the labourers.
Likewise, correspondents to Insight from Britain are amazed by the seeming contrast in lifestyles led in the UAE by pampered Western expatriates and the workers they see on their television screens.
The Western press accuses the UAE of trying to make the labourers invisible, of hiding their camps away from public view. To counteract this, then, the UAE should be seen to be taking action, and to make this action extremely visible. Indeed, it should work in concert with the international press, particularly the sections that have been so critical. This, to a degree, is already happening.
Here are some measures that could be considered by whomever is tasked with addressing the criticisms: legal standards for labourers' accommodation and working conditions could not only be redrafted but made public. Inspections of labour camps and sites could be regularly conducted - with the press if needs be - and the findings could be published.
These inspections, too, could be orchestrated and acted upon by appointed external authorities. Timelines for improvements could be widely published, as could progress towards them. Health and Safety standards could be reviewed, as could worker life and health insurance schemes.
Most importantly, the practice of corrupt gang-masters on the sub-continent luring workers to the UAE on false promises while saddling them with enormous debts, should be stamped out as publicly as possible. Doing so would be a massive PR triumph.
The world's press loves nothing more than to uncover what it believes to be secrets and inequalities. This is precisely why it is so important the UAE fights back by taking action as publicly as possible. By being utterly transparent, and showing that the labourers who built the UAE are valued members of society, this story, which threatens to blight the UAE success story, will fade away. It is now vital the UAE shows the world it has nothing to hide. On this issue, change is not defeat. Change is progress. It should be embraced.
