Education is free, and every citizen is promised a job. Locals do not pay income taxes, which might explain why so many foreigners try to get citizenship. In Abu Dhabi, I drove by row after row of palaces, each one more ornate than the next. The UAE is spending billions of dollars on desalinization plants. The gold souk, or market, looked as though Midas himself had paid a recent visit.
Management calls it the world's only seven-star hotel.
That was the daily prize given away by organizers of an annual monthlong shopping festival in Dubai. Many wonder if the UAE's oil dependence will spell the country's downfall when the price of this commodity ultimately heads south. But this nation has taken steps to diversify its economy. Abu Dhabi, with its relaxed tax status and countless banks, is fast becoming a Monaco of the Middle East. A new telecommunications network the first satellite was blasted into space this past October will offer service from Europe to the Indian subcontinent.