Jetsetting in a Time of War and Conflict: My Dubai Experience

DUBAI - I was in the middle of a proper haggle, the kind where I'm trying to save at least 50 bucks. The vendor was holding up this gorgeous bedazzled top, turning it so the light hit every sequin, and we were going back and forth on the price.

Then every single phone in the market went off at the same time.

"Emergency Alert. Potential missile threats. Get inside a secure building, stay away from windows and open areas, wait for further instructions. From the Ministry of Interior."

I absolutely panicked. I screamed. Quietly, to myself, but I did. That sound hits different when you’re a visitor and not used to it. For a second everything narrowed and I just stood there, phone in one hand, the top still hanging between us, heart racing.

The vendor barely looked up.

He checked his screen, looked at mine, then went straight back to negotiating like the alert was just background noise. Around us people glanced at their phones, a few muttered something, and most of them just carried on. Nobody ran. Nobody joined me in the panic. It felt almost rude how calm everyone was while I was having my private little meltdown.

Read also

My son's wife never let anyone see the baby's feet – Then one sock fell off

That’s when it hit me that this is just… normal for them. The systems are practised. The phones all light up together, even my CellC sim card I was using was part of the system, which somehow made it feel even more organised. A short while later the second message came through:

Situation is currently safe, you can go back to normal activities, just stay cautious. Same Ministry of Interior.

And just like that, the market kept moving. We finished the deal. Life continued.

I was properly scared in the moment, I’m not going to lie. But the lasting feeling wasn’t the fear. It was how ready everything felt. The government clearly has this down to a system, and the people treat it like something they’ve done before.

What looks like scary headlines on Briefly News or CNN is, for a lot of people, just everyday life. The war is real. It is having a real impact on countries, on economies, on how people plan their days and raise their kids. But humanity has a way of adjusting. People learn the systems, they learn the alerts, they learn when to move and when to keep going. From the outside it looks dramatic and constant. On the ground, in a market in Dubai, it was just another alert, another quick adjustment, and then back to business. Sometimes it really is not as bad as it looks.

Read also

My mother-in-law kept calling my house her 'son's home' – So I finally proved her wrong

I left the market with a very different understanding of what “alert” actually looks like when a city is used to it.

And yes, I did get the top. How gorgeous is it?

UAE Sets Minimum Salary of R19K: What South African Workers Need to Know

In similar news, Briefly News previously reported that the UAE Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation announced a minimum monthly salary for workers in all nine of its officially recognised professional levels.

The classification system covers a wide range of roles, from legislators and executives down to entry-level and agricultural workers. The announcement has implications for South Africans working in the UAE or considering opportunities there.

Source: Briefly News