Humans of Dubai

So, after only 3.5 days in Dubai, I've come up with a project for the rest of my time here, albeit not an original one. Courtesy of @ciaraschoe, I've discovered a project called Humans of New York, which profiles people throughout NYC. Just today, I've had some amazing interactions with some of the residents of this city, and have decided that from now on while I'm here I'm going to snap a photo of a person and include their story or a quote... let's see how long this lasts.

• In the Hallmark store at the Mall of the Emirates, I spoke to the cash register a bit after checking out. He was from Tibet, and hadn't been home in 5 years. He told me that his only hope is that he could return home at some point in the next few years to visit his family.
• Walking through the train station today, I inadvertently made eye contact with a woman wearing a full abaya, who immediately diverted her eyes. Not surprising, but still makes you think.
• At Trader Vics after work while having drinks with the TBWA staff, we spoke to a Lebanese man named Saad, who told us about his time growing up in that country.
• We spoke to a Palestinian coworker named Moe whose parents moved when they were 8 and 9 to Syria. He was born and raised in Damascus, and began telling us that he and the rest of the Arabic world wants Al Assad out of power, but that it is a long ways off if the Russians and Chinese remain allies of Syria. He said:

"Whether you're Israeli, European, or American, you're scared shitless of Islam. You think that we're out to take over the world. But thats simply ignorant."