First Impressions, part 1: On the surface

We'll see if I get around to writing part 2.

Quoth Wikipedia:

Amusement park is the generic term for a collection of rides and other entertainment attractions assembled for the purpose of entertaining a fairly large group of people. An amusement park is more elaborate than a simple city park or playground, as an amusement park is meant to cater to adults, teenagers, and small children.

An amusement park may be permanent or temporary, usually periodic, such as a few days or weeks per year. The temporary (often annual) amusement park with mobile rides etc. is called a funfair or carnival.

Theme parks form a more narrowly defined category of an amusement park. They are permanent facilities that use architecture, signage, landscaping to help convey the feeling that people are in a different place or time. Often a theme park will have various 'lands' (sections) of the park devoted to telling a particular story. Alternatively, an amusement park often has rides with little in terms of theming or additional design elements. The main difference between a theme park and an amusement park is that in a theme park all the rides go all with the theme of the park, for example The Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World.

Dubai, by this definition, is a theme park. To be sure, it is large, elaborate and impressive for a theme park, but it is one just the same. Let us, for example, take a look at some of the neighborhoods in the city. Dubai has various 'lands', 'cities' and 'villages' devoted to telling a particular story (or a particular theme). In those sections, all the attractions go with the theme of the park, for example, 'Dubai Media City' where I am currently staying is home to CNN, Al Jazeera and a number of other media companies, and has a huge park/auditorium that will host both Roger Waters (from Pink Floyd) and Shakira in the next month (yes, I have tickets, and am going). 'Dubai Internet City' is home to Microsoft, Adobe, Cisco and other IT based companies. There is 'Sports City' with stadiums, a race track, golf courses and so forth, 'International City' which is an area apparently themed on various different countries in the world, and a "Knowledge Village", devoted to education and it's practical applications in society and business (does anybody find it a little worrying that so many others were "cities" or even "lands", while Knowledge and Healthcare only get to be a "village"? At least "Humanitarian City" gets the nod). My company is just outside Knowledge Village, which is fitting to those who say consultants are people who borrow your watch and then charge you to tell you what time it is (or in other words, parasites who suck up your knowledge and then tell you what you already know).

Then there are "the Silly Islands" - three huge man-made islands in the shape of palm trees that protrude from the shore, and a separate cluster of islands that make up a rough world map (known simply as "the World"), each representing a "country" (which must be reasonably marketable; there are certain noticeable absences, such as Israel). And I still haven't mentioned "Dubailand" itself, the collection of amusement parks that is rumored, once completed, to exceed the size of the city itself.

Anyway - my first and ongoing project here in Dubai is to find myself a place to live. What will it be? England or Italy in International City? The Golf Tower in Sports City? The Wave in the Marina? The search will go on for three more days before I take off to Ethiopia on holiday - I'll keep you posted.