Dubai

I am told by a friend with wisdom beyond his means that Dubai was intended as a safe haven in the event of an economic apocalypse where the world's richest could escape the rioting, dispossessed masses--in other words, you and me--and where they could wait out the anarchy comfortably in a secure environment. A penthouse in Manhattan wouldn't do, as some of us--and I include myself--would figure a way to get to them through the elevator shaft and express our indignation, as you might well imagine. The 'Jump you F%*kers' placards that people displayed on Wall Street during the early days of the financial meltdown were but the thin edge of the wedge, if you see what I mean and I think you do.

So it is appealing to my appreciation of irony that Dubai finds itself upside-down in advance of the full-blown chaos it was intended to avoid. If Dubai doesn't get itself right-side-up, the world's richest will have to do some fence-mending with the have-nots, a diplomacy that, no doubt, goes against all their instincts if not their DNA.