Certainly looks like it. Scratch the surface and the gloss reveals itself to be dangerously thin. The first problem that strikes one is the prevailing sense of lawlessness. The air is thick with smog. Cars and buses zigzag through roads with heart-lurching panache.
Buildings acquire new floors without adequate parking space below.
The sense of lawlessness pervades the streets. The police roadblocks that used to dot the roads have disappeared, but the city seems far from safe. At night entire neighbourhoods get locked in by massive gates. Women are freer than they were and yet, unless you own a car, you can't get very far. Public transport is still a nightmare and vast stretches of streets are deserted at any time through the day.