Blocking Secret Dubai: Local Execution of a Universal Impulse

According to the New York Times,

“Last year,” Mr. Manjoo writes, “I praised the iPhone in something of the way Romeo once praised Juliet: The device, I said, is revolutionary — ‘it marks a new way of life. One day we’ll all have iPhones, or things that aim to do what this first one does, and your life will be better for it.’ ”

But because he mentioned that the phone was a bit pricey, “several readers alleged that I was an Apple-hater.” One wrote him to ask, “Does Salon actually pay you or are you being paid under the table by rival companies?”

Obviously, the Apple fanatics would like to see all of Mr. Manjoo's web-postings blocked, along with Mr. Manjoo. According to the New York Times article, this is all too common: large numbers of fanatics on the web want every site that disagrees with them totally obliterated. Only, in the West, fanatics have limited ability to block websites, a limitation that does not apply to fanatics in the Orient with what Arabs call wasta and Chinese call guanxi.

I am in the UAE because I think it is the best place to live, but that doesn't mean I think it's perfect, only better than any of my alternatives. Many Citizens think my faint praise justification for immediate deportation: anyone who doesn't think that the UAE is absolutely perfect should leave immediately to go find someplace else that is. (Even those of us who think that no place is perfect, but the UAE is the closest to perfection we can find this side of Paradise.)

I have heard Citizens condemn Secret Dubai, though I could not, for the life of me, understand their complaint. I don't know anyone, Citizen or ex-pat, who doesn't complain about Dubai traffic or the cost of living in the UAE. And six out of seven Emirates laugh at the stories that the RAK government PR department releases to the local newspapers, stories that Secret Dubai likes to post. But anyone who has checked out the UAE Community Blog knows that a TRA official considers this totally inappropriate on the part of Secret Dubai, and offensive to the customs and norms of the UAE.

So, Secret Dubai is blocked for now, except for infrequent periods when she is unblocked, as she was unblocked for St. Patrick's Day, for reasons that escape me.